Book Review: Jacob Leviathan

Hello everyone! First I would like to apologize for my absence here in the blogging world- I have been super busy! This summer I took 7 credits while working 35 hours a week, leaving me not much room to blog! So I am back today, and hopefully going to be posting every week.

Today I’m going to be reviewing some thing pretty special! I was approached a couple months ago by a lovely lady and awesome blogger named Dawn, from the blog dawn.liz.jones. Which I have linked: here! She asked me if I would be up for reviewing her husbands book, Jacob Leviathan, The Dogwood Legacy: Part One. Of course I was super excited, and flattered! I read the book within a week- but as I mentioned I’ve been a little (….a lot) off schedule with my blog posts! Moral of the story is- better late than never!

So, I’ll just start out with saying that I loved this book! It is truly different from anything I’ve read before, and it differs greatly from the type of books I usually pick for myself.

“And so it continues, one year much like another up in the hill country…” The book is set in a small rural community in the Ozark mountains, in the 1920’s. The story centers around a man named Jacob Leviathan. I pictured a long, lean, sinewy type of man with grey ruffled hair and a unkept beard. A weathered looking man. A resilient man, who appears to have survived many storms. He lives in a little shack like cottagey type of home, with his faithful dog and friend, Methuselah. Jacob has a heavy responsibility on his shoulders- he is the local jimplicute hunter. Yes, you read it right. Jimplicute. I know I was thinking “What on earth is a….” until I continued reading. I learned that they are fierce, terrifying monsters. While reading the book, I did a quick google search to find out more about jimplicutes, and if they were found elsewhere in literature. I could find very very minimal information about them. Jacob was trained to hunt these evil creatures by a very wise old man, and other than the old man, Jacob had lived a mostly solitary life. Until a young girl named Jessica wandered up to his home. She had been on the run from her abusive Uncle, and while running through the woods she had caught herself on a bush and was bleeding. Jacob instantly knew that the “bush” was actually a baby jimplicute, and he took care of Jessie right away. She then went to live with a sweet older woman named Posey. Jessie had a very happy childhood there, and was much better loved than she was at home. Another member of the small community is a man named Bart. Right away I got the feeling that Bart was not all there, and perhaps not to be trusted. We later find out he is involved with some type of dark magic, and he manages to involve another person in his nefarious ways. That person is a rather know-it-all-ish professor named Mordecai Brood. He arrives in their town under the guise of studying anthropology, but he treats the members of the community rudely and disrespectfully. I won’t spoil the end, but he certainly got what was coming for him. The plot only thickens as the story goes on, and the suspense builds. Jesse and Jacob have a bit of a falling out, in the midst of her being in grave danger. The baby jimplicute that once bit her in the woods is now all grown up, and has a taste for Jesse’s blood. The end of this story is a complete whirlwind, but I won’t spoil it for you. Besides, I don’t think I could do it justice. You’ll just have to go find out what happens yourself! You can find the book here! Its not a long read at all, only 179 pages. As I mentioned, it took me under a week to finish. Mostly because it was so fast paced and suspenseful!

Now I’m going to discuss some pro’s and con’s of the book!

Pros:

~The imagery~ There was amazing descriptions in the book, and the imagery was incredible. I had a very clear image in my minds eye about what everything looked like.

~The suspense~ I’ve said it multiple times now, this book had me on my toes! I couldn’t stop reading, and I never got bored because the story was fast paced.

~It surprised me~ This was not necessarily something I would pick for myself to read. Its a bit outside of my usual books, but I ended up loving it and expanding my horizons! Just a reminder to try new things.

Cons:

~Vagueness~ There were some parts of the story, particularly the action packed parts, that I felt were a bit vague and there was too much description and not enough detail about what was actually happening.

~Confusing spirituality~ I haven’t mentioned thus far into the review that this book has a strong element of spirituality to it! This is a bit of a pro and a con. I liked that it was involved, but I feel that the level of spirituality was unequal when looking at the beginning of the story vs. the end of the story. At the end, the spiritual side of things comes on quite strong. I am okay with this, and loved what it added to the book, however it felt slightly out of place just coming out of the blue at the end of the book.

Overall, I think this is a very worthwhile book with a lot of deeper meaning attached to it. I think it was beautifully written, and definitely surpassed my expectations for it!

Like I said, I would definitely recommend this book and the link is above. Also go check out Dawns blog and show her some love!

Until next time!

The Girl On An Adventure