David Watkins ‘The Original’s Return’ Review

Posted on September 11, 2014 in Authors M-Z // 1 Comment

Written by: Kate Genet

It might be just me, but I love British writing. It’s not just the spelling, which of course looks right to me, being part of the Commonwealth (I’m a New Zealander) but the best British writers have a sort of understated quality to their writing. They’ll scare the living crap out of you, then calmly offer a cup of tea. Yes, I’m generalizing quite appallingly, but I still love British writing.

David Watkins has a clear writing style that immediately sucks you into the story, his is a confiding hand on your shoulder, that later becomes a vice-like grip that you can’t escape. Except for a sort of hit and miss relationship with commas (you need to put one before a name, David) the writing flows smooth and easy. He brings the setting to life, which is no mean feat, considering he’s chosen the most mundane of settings for his book – the ordinary life, the ordinary family, the ordinary town. It’s familiar straight away, which is one of the tried and true horror conventions – to show the ordinary world, the one we all live in, then to peel back the veneer to something dark and frightening, making us aware it could potentially happen to any of us. I think this is the strength of this book, besides the fact that it is a damn good read – that the characters and setting are so convincing. I’m very impressed.

The story itself is a bit of a rollicking adventure. An ordinary day takes a wrong turn – fast. An ordinary life goes wrong – big time. The characters are well written – from the first page they’re ‘real people’ made from words that all resemble flesh and blood. It’s very easy to get involved in this story, and while I didn’t find it at all scary, it was impossible not to want to be part of the action. For a werewolf story, it’s solid and amazingly believable. An excellent first book from David Watkins. I hope we’ll all be seeing more from him.

Order it here.

Rating: 4/5