Review: Applewood by Brendan P. Myers

Title: Applewood
Author: Brendan P. Myers
Pages: 232
Publisher: By Light Unseen Media
Released: May 11th 2011
Source: From publisher for honest review.  Thank you By Light Unseen Media!
Rating: 4 stars
Summary: When a mutilated body is found in the woods near the central Massachusetts town of Grantham, Scott Dugan comes home for the first time in more than twenty years. He returns to the decaying house where he'd grown up, one of many derelict homes in the long-abandoned neighborhood of Applewood.More than two decades earlier, Dugan and his tightly bonded group of friends had been struggling with the same pains that plagued millions of teens like them--bullies in school, broken families, money problems, relationships. But the evil that revives to spread through Grantham confronts them with a far darker and more destructive adversary. In 1861, Grantham sent its own home town war hero, Colonel Alexander Pope, and a company of locals to fight for the Union cause in the Civil War. Marching through the isolated rural regions of Georgia, the Colonel and his soldiers discovered a horrible secret hidden behind the lovely facades of the plantation mansions. When the veterans of Grantham came home, they brought something else with them.Now that something else has awakened once more to grow and feed. Dugan and his friends are among the few who realize what's happening to their town. They band together to ferret out information about the history of the Colonel and to fight the threat. But victory, if it's even possible, will come at a terrible cost. Some, like Dugan, will never be the same. (from goodreads)

Going into Applewood, I knew the book was about vampires (no, not the sparkling kind...), but other than that, I didn't really know much.  I thought I knew more, but after actually reading the book, I was completely wrong with what I thought, which is a good thing!

Applewood starts off with a grown up Dugan heading back to Applewood.  (I don't want to tell you why because I think it might be a spoiler.)  Anyways, with the way the book started, I thought it was heading into way different territory than it really was.  The story did take a bit to get going, but leading up to that point, I still think it was extremely enjoyable.  It almost played out as a coming of age story for the part of the book, as we go back to see Dugan as a kid growing up, dealing with issues that every kid deals with sooner or later.  Applewood was a somewhat short read, but it was definitely hard to put down!  Like I said, it took a bit to get the story rolling, in my opinion, but the little things that happened leading up to the "big thing" were great.  If I have one complaint, it is that some of the time the things happening seemed a little too unbelievable to me, even for a fiction novel, and sometimes things got a little confusing, but I managed to overlook it because the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.

Usually I don't like the third person point of view when  reading.  Luckily, Applewood really worked with the third person writing style.  Being able to see many characters points of view really helped create more three dimensional characters that you grow attached too.  The writing kept you hooked, and I found myself flipping pages as fast as possible.  Applewood is definitely a quick read, mostly because a lot of the time you be sitting there like "OMG WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN."  But really though, this book is suspenseful and kinda freaky at times.  Certain parts of it gave me chills, and i am not one to scare easily.

The characters were very well developed.  As I said, i really loved the third person being used in this book.  Every character had their own voice in the story, and i could genuinely feel for all of them when.... um..... 'things'... happened to them.  And I really could relate to the main characters.  It was from the male perspective, so it was nice to read that for a change, since its not something I see a lot of.  There was also a lot of humor from every single character, and i found myself laughing a lot when reading this book (you know, when I wasn't shuddering of course).

SO, before this review gets too long, let me say this: Applewood is a page turner with plenty of humor and action to keep anyone entertained!  I say check it out, you won't regret it!  4 Stars!