cover image Stolen Away

Stolen Away

Kristin Dearborn. Raw Dog Screaming, $14.95 trade paper (218p) ISBN 978-1-935738-84-8

Lacking believability and passion, this limp fable evokes boredom rather than awe in a world void of values or empathetic characters. When single mother Trisha’s baby, Brayden, is kidnapped by “a monster” (according to his toddler sister), she enlists wishy-washy ex-boyfriend Joel Preston to find him—three days after the fact. Lost in self-pity, the decidedly unheroic (and unlikable) heroine Trisha reveals that Brayden’s father is a demon and he wants his son. Incredibly, Joel accepts this without much disbelief. Can Joel and Trisha save Brayden while fighting demons and fleeing from Barlow and Andretti, two weakly defined gangsters? Can Trisha surmount her selfish, drug-riddled existence to become a loving mother? Unfortunately, readers have little reason to care. A mocking tongue-in-cheek story, choppy style, and caricatures reacting flippantly to superhuman threats rob the meandering narrative of immediacy and suspense. Dearborn’s prosaic language further weakens this stagnant recycling of genre clichés, and a pedestrian plot demands but doesn’t support an immediate acceptance of supernatural events. (July)