Review of Stonefly by Scott Holliday (Jacob Duke #1)
5 stars
An amazingly powerful and emotionally impacting novel, “Stonefly”
deserves more than 5 stars; 36 would be nice. I am so thankful that this is the
first in a series, and I can only “wish” (intentional reference) that #2 would
be available tomorrow. I virtually read
this in one sitting, over the course of several hours, and again, the world
around me dropped away as the novel totally absorbed me into its milieu. Jacob
is a protagonist unlike any I have ever encountered. His “curse” is seemingly
Supernatural in nature, although he insists it was a genetic legacy from his
unknown father (remember classical Greek mythology, in which Zeus and other
gods temporarily transformed into humans and animals to mate with desired human
females—so I guess it would be possible for someone practically a demigod to
also take human form, and produce a child). If Jacob hears anyone “wishing,” he
is bound to that wish, and must grant it within six days, or the wisher dies.
At age ten, he does so to save a girl in his fifth grade class; and the next
seven years, until his eighteenth birthday, are spent in Dover, a psychiatric
institution in mid-Michigan. On his eighteenth birthday Jacob is released, but
he is different; he has been deaf since age seventeen. From this point he tries
to live a “normal” as possible life, a small business owner, with a female
friend (not a relationship-friend), and occasional contact with his
career-driven mother and the police captain who loves her in vain. But of
course, when one possesses a “gift” or more properly a “curse” like this, “normal”
is a thing found only in stories.
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