Rating: 
Summary: Jim Moore is the most talented writer in the genre to date.
Review: Meisha Merlin is a publisher to keep your eyes on. Every bookthat I've received from them has been of the highest quality. Icannot find words enough to express my excitement at receiving ARCs of such obviously high standards. Though once I'd started reading, Under The Overtree, I wasn't positive that I would like it. It seemed to be a mediocre tale told often of a nerdy kid, new in town, and all the baloney that he endures. Upon further reading, it became ever so much more with complexity upon complexity. Though listed as a tale of dark fantasy it could be a horror story to chill your bones when your home is dark and you are not quite sure just what is making that noise under the bed. On the surface, but only on the surface, it is indeed the standard tale of a nerd who is new in town and all that normally accompanies such a story. Mark Howell, the nerd of which I speak, has endured much in his life. James Moore is perhaps the most talented writer of this genre to date.END
Rating:
Summary: Sleepless Nights
Review: Mr.Moore owes me for several nights sleep. First, for those when I couldn't put the book down while I was reading it. Then for those after I finished it and still couldn't stop thinking about it. If you ever experienced being the new kid in town this book will awaken old memories, many of which will make you cringe. The only difference is that you weren't capable of supernatural vengance, and for that you should be grateful. "Under the Overtree" takes the tired old adage about being careful what you wish for and gives it a couple of sharp twists. I strongly recommend this book to any horror fan who has a couple of nights sleep he or she doesn't mind losing.
Rating: 
Summary: Very good begining
Review: One of these days James A. Moore is going to be a big name in horror. Under the Overtree is a pretty good way to get a career started. Take one picked on teen: Mark, fat, unattractive to girls but not to bullies, and unhappy at home and add a supernatural power source and you've got an exciting story. My only gripe is the ending which seemed tacked on, predictable and rushed. The book would've been better served without the last few pages. Was this book worth the money? Yes. Should you rush out to get the next Moore book? Oh yes! Check it out.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves More, but...
Review: Reading the quotes acclaiming what a huge talent that has arrived in the horror genre put an unfair pressure on this novel before I even began reading it.
The tale(maccabre of course) of a small town in Colorado and the angst and pain of new citizen and high school student Mark Howell who at the beginning is slightly overweight to fit in is a creppy story well-told.
Moore foreshadows the psychological as well as physical changed being worked on Mark quite well. His supporting cast of characters while not fully flushed out are not 2 dimensional stereotypes or caractitures either. The bully grows with the narrative and Moore allows his character to evolve during the story, for which he deserves much credit.
In fact he did many things well in this novel, and there were echoes of King in the writing making the comparision not completely unsuitable. However his length and the fact that this novel could have been much scarier forced me to give it three stars in my humble review. An excellent effort with room to improve.
Rating:
Summary: PROMISING FUTURE
Review: The actual rating I give this book is 3 and 1/2 stars. This is my first experience with James Moore and after reading, "Under the Overtree", it won't be my last. Although the book is a little long, Moore somehow keeps things quite engaging with his detail of characters and his skill of quickly moving scenes. I found a lot of spelling errors throughout this book -- which unfortunately seems fairly common in Leisure's titles these days. Moore's writing is mostly smooth, but I found a few times where his sentence structure confused me and I had to re-read sections numerous times to figure out what was going on. Another issue I had with the book was the scare factor... there really wasn't any. James A. Moore is a solid writer, but his scenes of horror are still a little conservative. With all that aside, I had a lot of fun with this book and look forward to reading his newer novel "Fireworks" and "Possessions".
Rating:
Summary: PROMISING FUTURE
Review: The actual rating I give this book is 3 and 1/2 stars. This is my first experience with James Moore and after reading, "Under the Overtree", it won't be my last. Although the book is a little long, Moore somehow keeps things quite engaging with his detail of characters and his skill of quickly moving scenes. I found a lot of spelling errors throughout this book -- which unfortunately seems fairly common in Leisure's titles these days. Moore's writing is mostly smooth, but I found a few times where his sentence structure confused me and I had to re-read sections numerous times to figure out what was going on. Another issue I had with the book was the scare factor... there really wasn't any. James A. Moore is a solid writer, but his scenes of horror are still a little conservative. With all that aside, I had a lot of fun with this book and look forward to reading his newer novel "Fireworks" and "Possessions".
Rating:
Summary: PROMISING FUTURE
Review: The actual rating I give this book is 3 and 1/2 stars. This is my first experience with James Moore and after reading, "Under the Overtree", it won't be my last. Although the book is a little long, Moore somehow keeps things quite engaging with his detail of characters and his skill of quickly moving scenes. I found a lot of spelling errors throughout this book -- which unfortunately seems fairly common in Leisure's titles these days. Moore's writing is mostly smooth, but I found a few times where his sentence structure confused me and I had to re-read sections numerous times to figure out what was going on. Another issue I had with the book was the scare factor... there really wasn't any. James A. Moore is a solid writer, but his scenes of horror are still a little conservative. With all that aside, I had a lot of fun with this book and look forward to reading his newer novel "Fireworks" and "Possessions".
Rating:
Summary: ' well written- recommanded'
Review: This has it ALL! supernatural entity, ghost hunter, horror writer, small town, bad guy of small town, coroner, sharriff, ancient history,rituals. kind of a node to 'T E D Klien' 's 'Cerimonies'- Boy go to wood and the thing in wood. [ I bet even Mr. Moore did not have this in his mind when he wrote!.] And all this is combined neatly. What else you want in good horror book? Thanks to Lesuire for publishing it. Moore keep on writing.
Rating:
Summary: Under The Overtree
Review: This is the first of James A. Moore's books that I've read and it was very good. The plot was somewhat confusing at times, but came together well. The characters were so realistic! Moore knows how to write in the mind of a 16 year old. (I know from experience, I'm only 17) The book over all was high quality and very enjoyable. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: THE NOVEL DIDN'T FULFILL ITS POTENTIAL!!!
Review: UNDER THE OVERTREE by James A. Moore begins with an excerpt from P.J. Sanderson's unpublished autobiography and deals with how he and Alex Harris became the best of friends in high school during the late sixties in the community of Summitville, Colorado-a small town with a history of treating outsiders with distrust. The two boys discover an old book of magical spells in Sanderson's attic and decide to see if any of the spells work by going out to the woods near Overtree Lake with their girlfriends and performing an actual ritual on Halloween night. Though at first nothing appears to happen, the results of their endeavor will come back to haunt them and the town thirty-five years later when Mark Howell and his parents move to Summitville. Cut to the present day. As the new kid in town, fifteen-year-old Mark Howell is taunted, made fun of, and beat up by the bullies who lurk in the hallways of his high school. The only friend Mark has is Tyler Wilson-a school nerd who has the kind of mouth that's always getting both of them into trouble. One afternoon Mark is chased into the woods behind the school and beaten up by the four guys who hate him the most. He cuts his face on a mysterious stone rock during the fight and his blood seems to activate what can only be called the Folks (elves, gremlins?). They pick Mark as the Chosen One and quickly begin to change the young boy and to protect him against any harm, aiding his growth until the time comes when they'll use him for their own evil purpose. When I first started to read UNDER THE OVERTREE, I found myself hooked in the first couple of pages, but then around page eighty-five or so, I pulled back in disbelief when the Folks are brought into the picture. I simply couldn't accept them as being real, which is a dire necessity for the book to work. Plus, when the Folks start killing Mark's enemies, especially in front of witnesses, no one seems to be the least bit shocked or surprised by it. I did, however, manage to finish the novel. I can say that the author has a special gift in being able to depict teenagers in all their wonderful and horrible attributes. He captures the physical and emotional abuse that any outsider in a new school has to face with perfect clarity and understanding. That reminded me of vintage Stephen King. The coolest character in the novel is Jonathan Crowley-a demon hunter who arrives in Summitville to do battle with the Folks. Though it's never made clear whether Crowley is human or not, he's smart, mean, capable of extreme violence, trained heavily in the martial arts, a master of the occult, and is willing to do whatever it takes to rid Summitville of its major problem. He also has the best lines in the book. Finally, I kept hoping the novel would get scary at some point but it never did. That was disappointing because the potential was there. Though I didn't enjoy the book as much as most other readers apparently have, I do think that James A. Moore has talent, and I wouldn't say no to reading something else by him. I have a feeling this author is going to get progressively better with each future novel.
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