Hush

Rating:
Summary: Reading Hush for the second time- very exciting!
Review: I read Hush about a year ago and was facinated from start to finish. Last month I picked it up again wondering if I would
be just as excited. Yes I was! I had forgotten how captivating the story and characters were. The feelings of fear and anger twards the characters were remembered. I found myself yelling advise and many times laughing out loud,
feeling guilty later about the dark humor that amused me.

I love this book. I recommend it to anyone who likes to be thrilled and wants to feel fear from the prespective of an
twisted killer.

The insight into Art Therapy as a means of uncovering child abuse was refreshing and original.

I can't wait to read Hush again nexr year. Unless of course there is a sequel!!

Rating:
Summary: Scary reading. Well written and terrifyingly realistic!
Review: I was lucky enough to have read a prepublished copy This book over-amped my adrenal glands.. This is one of those"too scared to turn the page but did anyway" thrillers. Nykanen has done his homework on the mind of a psychotic. Terrific reading!

Rating:
Summary: Riveting page turner! Excellent!
Review: I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to read this book before the actual release date. This is one of those stories that keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time. I was afraid to read it alone, but could not put it down! I highly recommend it and I can't wait until the next book by Mark Nykanen hits the market.

Rating:
Summary: Pyschologically Thrilling
Review: I'm a huge fan of psychological thrillers, but most books do not live up to their hype. This isn't the case with Mark Nykanen's debut book, Hush. I couldn't tear myself away and I was actually disappointed when I finished it. The art therapy aspect is so original and it's easy to fall in love with little Davy and Celia. As I read some of the more traumatic scenes, I found myself crying for what Davy went through. I had to continually remind myself that it's just a book... a work of fiction. I think this novel will amaze readers and I hope Mark Nykanen comes out with more work of this caliber!

Rating:
Summary: Boo!
Review: I'm really easy to please. I can relish a Big Mac with nearly as much pleasure as having the best cut of prime rib at one of Seattle's better restaurants. If the food is the highest quality each restaurant is capable of serving, then I feel I have gotten an honest meal and have not been cheated.

As for HUSH: Stereotyped characters. Totally predictable plot. Like a movie made for TV. I could visualize the fade-out and hear the suspense music at the end of chapters while the next mouthwash commercial was forced upon me. This is a book whose only purpose is to scare. The killer is your typical, run-of-the-mill, mass-produced psycho. We never learn anything about his past, what had caused him to be the monster he is, or if he pulled legs off of spiders as a kid, etc. Only one incident of psycho Chet's childhood is mentioned during a charming interlude when the man reminisces about his father beating him.

I found myself scanning at breakneck speed through the novel so that I could begin a new book - any book that was written for even moderately intelligent readers! I ended up mentally predicting the story with 95 percent accuracy, not because of any mysterious psychic abilities I may have suddenly acquired, but only because I was so familiar with the hackneyed plot and characters.

I paid $23.95 plus tax for HUSH. No, I did not get my money's worth. Yes, the book did have a lot of suspense and I'm a fanatic over good suspense and mystery novels. But this was generic terror - just a clone of a thousand others of its ilk.

I wish I had a Big Mac right now.

Rating:
Summary: Boo!
Review: I'm really easy to please. I can relish a Big Mac with nearly as much pleasure as having the best cut of prime rib at one of Seattle's better restaurants. If the food is the highest quality each restaurant is capable of serving, then I feel I have gotten an honest meal and have not been cheated.

As for HUSH: Stereotyped characters. Totally predictable plot. Like a movie made for TV. I could visualize the fade-out and hear the suspense music at the end of chapters while the next mouthwash commercial was forced upon me. This is a book whose only purpose is to scare. The killer is your typical, run-of-the-mill, mass-produced psycho. We never learn anything about his past, what had caused him to be the monster he is, or if he pulled legs off of spiders as a kid, etc. Only one incident of psycho Chet's childhood is mentioned during a charming interlude when the man reminisces about his father beating him.

I found myself scanning at breakneck speed through the novel so that I could begin a new book - any book that was written for even moderately intelligent readers! I ended up mentally predicting the story with 95 percent accuracy, not because of any mysterious psychic abilities I may have suddenly acquired, but only because I was so familiar with the hackneyed plot and characters.

I paid $23.95 plus tax for HUSH. No, I did not get my money's worth. Yes, the book did have a lot of suspense and I'm a fanatic over good suspense and mystery novels. But this was generic terror - just a clone of a thousand others of its ilk.

I wish I had a Big Mac right now.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant! Couldn't put it down
Review: In Bentman, Oregon, art therapist Celia Griswold watches her personal life collapse at a time when her biological clock is ticking forward. Her marriage to Jack, a womanizer, is crumbling even though she desperately wants a child of her own. Instead of Jack, Celia finds herself attracted to a married man, who also works at the Bentman Children Center. Her latest client is seven year old Davy Boyce, who was referred to the clinic by his father, Chet. Davy has become mute, bites people and things, and draws pictures of a horrendous scene. Celia begins to wonder if Davy has not witnessed a terrible crime and, through his drawings, is trying to tell everyone what he witnessed. Chet realizinng that his son might expose his heinous life, begins to stalk the art therapist to insure, like his own son, she remains silent.

Any reader who wants an action per page story line needs to skip HUSH. However, fans of deep rooted psychological drama that digs into the essence of the mind and even deeper than that, will find this the ideal book. HUSH is a unique, tremendous characterization study that dives into the guts of a psychopath and the fearful relationships he causes with the people he directly and indirectly effects. Though the villain's actions seem a bit stretched, Mark Nykanem delivers a first class character study that will be devoured by fans of the sub-genre, who don't need their novels to be an adrenaline pumping thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: This a stunningly dark thriller that redefines the genre.
Review: In this richly visual novel Nykanan deftly puts us into the mind of the preditor and the prey alike. He leads us down the path of despair and destruction then finally to salvation. The subtext ot the novel was equally facinating in it's development. The destruction of the forest forshadows the events to come and echos the destruction of the soul of the child. The antagonist is the personification of absolute evil yet amazingly Nykanan has given him 3 dimensional form. There are not cut-out characters here. This is real, it happens. Nykanans past work as a journalist serves him well. We want move works by this author.

Rating:
Summary: An intelligent, well-written, page-turner
Review: Many of us fantasize an escape from the rat-race, a simple life in the country, with the birds and the deer... and, oh yes, don't forget the wolves and the snakes! It can get real primitive out there, especially with demented creatures like Chet lurking in the shadows. "Deliverance" came to mind now and then. Celia -- an art therapist who uncovers a criminal act witnessed by Chet's (elective-mute) son -- has ventured out into the wild, just a little too far this time (literally and figuratively) -- and she won't be crawling back out of this jungle until Chet reduces their struggle to the only level he can truly understand - "survival of the fittest".

Rating:
Summary: This is the scariest book I've ever read!
Review: Mark Nykanen's style of writing is so clear that I could see and hear and feel to the point that I had to take a break once in a while just to shake loose and slow my heartrate. Everytime I turned a page, I was filled with fearful uncertainty. This book is terrific! Getting a broader education in the field of art therapy was an unexpected bonus. Obviously, well researched. I'll be waiting for his next book.