The Listeners

By Harrison Demchick

ISBN# 9781610880817

Author’s Website:  http://www.harrisondemchick.com

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Sammy

*Beware of possible Spoilers*

Synopsis:

Before the plague, and the quarantine, fourteen-year-old Daniel Raymond had only heard of the Listeners. They were a gang, or at least that’s what his best friend Katie’s police officer father had said. They were criminals, thieves, monsters–deadly men clearly identifiable by the removal of their right ears.

That’s what Daniel had heard. But he didn’t know.

He didn’t know much in those early days. He didn’t know how the plague began, but then, no one did. The doctors and emergency medical personnel said it was airborne, and highly contagious. They said those infected became distorted both inside and out, and very, very dangerous.

Then the helicopters came and took the doctors away, and no one said much of anything after that.

Except the police officers. They said they’d provide food and order, in exchange for guns and, ultimately, anything else they felt like taking.

Daniel’s mother went out for toilet paper. She never came back. He hasn’t heard from Katie since the phones went dead. And with his real family gone and surrogate family unreachable, Daniel, scared and alone, has nothing except the walls of his apartment, the window shattered, the poisonous air seeping in.

That’s when the Listeners arrive. Derek, the one-eared man with the big, soulful eyes, promises protection, and hope, and the choice not to sit alone and wait to die in some horrific way. He offers a brotherhood under the watch of their leader, the prophet Adam. He offers a place in the world to come.

A harrowing work of literary horror, The Listeners, Harrison Demchick’s electrifying debut, is a dark and terrifying journey into loneliness, desperation, and the devastating experience of one young boy in a world gone mad. (Goodreads)

Review:

I’m Not sure how to rate this book, the writing is wonderful, the story had so much potential and at times was very interesting, but I had a very difficult time following the story line. So, because of the wonderful way the writer had of expressing things I’m going to give the story 3 stars.

Here are a couple of quotes from the book, the author starts with these amazing poetic type expressions such as,

“His breath catches halfway through the exhale, like a thin shirt on a sharp twig.”

and he literally continues with this incredible writing style throughout the book. Here’s one from closer to to the end.

 “The water crashes you into bodies; it pushes you into a rip tide of offal; the putrid meat of death and decay swallow your face, and you can swim for the surface all you want, but you’re too far down to even know what that is.”

The way the author describes things you can see the blisters ready to pop, and smell the rotten bodies, feel the rain as it soaks the characters faces. Fantastic writing. 5 stars for his writing alone.

The story and ideas seemed wonderful on the surface, but so many things were repeated or not finished, half the time I couldn’t figure out if things were real or if the main character was having flash backs, imagining things or if they were just delirious.  Also, the story had many timeline issues. A very difficult story to follow. Saul had some very, ironic, funny lines in the story, but it doesn’t go anywhere, except the last part of the book where his saying is written on a wall, but we really don’t know what happened to him. There were so many things that just ended in a way that didn’t seem complete. Katie, was she sick, did she die, did she go with the Listeners???? It was unclear. As for the plague, I wish the author would have told us more about it, oh there were a few experiments but it didn’t go anywhere.

In the afterword, it explains that this book was a series of short stories that the author wrote and put together in one book, that’s what it felt like while reading. Several, really well written short stories thrown together trying to make one full length book. I was so glad I read that part because I was so confused while reading, especially after reading the 5 star reviews about what an awesome story it was. While I believe it could be an awesome story, for me I couldn’t catch the flow of this story and it was missing a cohesiveness that seemed to be beyond my grasp. I will be looking for more books by this author because even with the issues the story had, his ideas and writing were fascinating.

I recommend this story for mature young adults and adults who enjoy poetic writing, with interesting ideas, that their own imaginations can fill in.