Saturday, November 30, 2013

Nightmare City by Andrew Klavan

Tom Harding only wants the truth. But the truth is becoming more dangerous with every passing minute.

As a reporter for his high school newspaper, Tom Harding was tracking the best story of his life—when, suddenly, his life turned very, very weird. He woke up one morning to find his house empty . . . his street empty . . . his whole town empty . . . empty except for an eerie, creeping fog—and whatever creatures were slowly moving toward him through the fog.

Now Tom’s once-ordinary world has become something out of a horror movie. How did it happen? Is it real? Is he dreaming? Has there been a zombie apocalypse? Has he died and gone to hell?

Tom is a good reporter—he knows how to look for answers—but no one has ever covered a story like this before. With the fog closing in and the hungry creatures of the fog surrounding him, he has only a few hours to find out how he lost the world he knew. In this bizarre universe nothing is what it seems and everything—including Tom’s life—hangs in the balance.

My review:
   This book, along with all of the others Andrew Klavan has written for Thomas Nelson, is written for a teen audience. I wish books like his had been around when I was a teenager, but that doesn't stop me from reading them now. The reading level he writes at is one most adults can enjoy also.

  This book is totally different from his others. It is just as suspenseful, and maybe even more. The main character, Tom is dealing with all kinds of creepy events and creatures, and the reader figures something is going on, and that this isn't some bizarre fantasy book..... and as I figured, not all is as it seems. I did figure out what was going on before the author made it obvious, but I won't give that spoiler out.

  In addition to its great entertainment value, the book teaches a great lesson anyone should be able to catch: We should always tell the truth, even when its not popular and can make people angry. Its never OK to cover up wrong.

  This may be Klavan's best book for teens so far. Even though I caught on eventually as to what was going, the way he started the book and spun  the story was a masterpiece of writing. There is a lot of descriptive writing, and he easily pulled me into the story and kept me in it until I read it to the finish.

  Most of Klavan's books don't have much or any Christian content, but are totally clean and have what is called a Christian worldview. This book actually has more Christian content than most, along with the message of doing the right thing.

  I'm an adult and loved the book, but I also have the rave reviews of three teenage girls who read it and loved it. So there you have it. It is definitely worth reading.

About the author:


Andrew Klavan has been nominated for the Mystery Writer of America's Edgar award five times and won twice. He is the author of several bestselling novels, including Don't Say A Word, filmed starring Michael Douglas, True Crime, filmed by Clint Eastwood, and Empire of Lies. He is currently writing a series of thrillers for young adults called The Homelanders. The first two novels in the series are The Last Thing I Remember and The Long Way Home. Klavan is a contributing editor to City Journal and his essays have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among other places. His satiric video commentaries can be seen on PJTV.com.


Nightmare City is available from Thomas Nelson Publishing.

Thanks to Thomas Nelson for the review copy.

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