A Kiss for the Catcher

You can view a free online evalution copy of issue 8 of the magazine – just click here.

Category:	Fiction
Author:	John Hole
Publisher:	Crowd Pullers Publishing
Price:	£8.99
ISBN:	9780955805905
Pages:	336
Reviewed in issue:	9

It’s good to see a young, well proportioned female in discreet, obviously athletic mode poised on a book cover; the title suggests she may leave her trapeze and suitably reward the person who breaks her fall.

Intrigued, as well one might be to discover the reality, it isn’t long before an element of disappointment sets in. Colourful character painting goes on from the start, but the characters have to explain themselves and are not all good at doing so; indeed, the opportunity to provide each persona with a unique identity is buried in the rough and – in the reviewer’s mind – unnecessary descent into generally crude vocabulary and drug taking.

We know it’s tough out there; the girl loses her job, her brother (we think but have to guess how) and reputation, but eventually struggles back to the surface in a vivid manner, with a remote father figure watching from the vague sidelines. An understandable and – to be fair – maybe readable tale of making good. How precisely readable depends on your ability to both skim over the excess background and change your viewpoint with each character – for no chapters here, just names of he/she who carries the tale along.

The layout isn’t ideal; there are slips in spelling and punctuation that irritate, so production quality could have been improved. Brash male characters, brash music, brazen young girl, bright lights, a bitter sweet ending. At least the pace keeps you going, though. Worth the cover price? Hmmm . . .

Go Back