For parents who are wondering what their kids have been up to since they hit the college scene, "Windows to the Soul" is bound to make for some sleepless nights.
According to the book's author, J.M. Barlog, college is nothing but an evil place filled with hardcore drugs, demonic sex and a pinch of rock 'n' roll (actually, just satanic chants).
"Windows to the Soul" is a horror novel set on a secluded Midwestern college campus. Ali Goodfellow is the school's beautiful track star, who turns up missing before the academic year begins. Her worried roommate, Trish Van Worten, searches for answers, leading her into a nightmarish web of horror and deception.
"Windows to the Soul" is a book geared toward people in the 17- to 24-year-old age group - in other words, those post-Christopher Pike young adults. The problem is that the book's publisher, BAK Books, assumes that all of us who grew up on Pike thrillers subconsciously desire the same junk we read back in junior high.
For that reason, "Windows" caters to those with short attention spans by dishing out concise chapters with "creative" names like "School Daze" or "Looking Everywhere," and each ends with lines intended to imply suspense. Big whoop.
With its scary cover and its promising synopsis, "Windows" has so much potential that sadly goes untouched.
Contradictory facts within the plot and the lack of likable characters bring this book down. Even the characters' motives and the novel's trivial details cause a great deal of confusion. Three weeks after her disappearance, why does Ali's roommate seem more concerned about her than do her parents? When did fraternity parties become places where the main activities are snorting cocaine and dropping acid? And what the hell is a Bleat, a term to which Barlog keeps referring? There are just too many questions that go unanswered.
Furthermore, a careful reader will be able to pick up numerous errors in punctuation and grammar, as if the publisher didn't care enough to edit this book. These annoyances can be quite distracting and often make this novel a difficult one to read.
On the other hand, somewhere around the last third of the text, the pace picks up and the book actually becomes exciting. When Trish and her boyfriend Duffy delve deeper into her roommate's mysterious disappearance, they are sucked into a bizarre world filled with perverted sex crimes, Colombian drug lords and devil worshipping. The suspense builds, and "Windows" becomes hard to put down.
Nevertheless, this novel could really use some improvement. The idea behind it isn't bad, but somehow Barlog doesn't do it justice. Though similar in substance (suspense intertwined with the supernatural) and structure, "Windows to the Soul" attempts to pick up where Christopher Pike books left off. Unfortunately, "Windows" fails.
As the chapter titled "Coming Out of the Closet" suggests, "Windows to the Soul" should ditch its disguise of pretending to be a quality page-turner. We would probably have better luck finding thrills in a Good Housekeeping magazine.
- Julia Shih
On Jan. 22, 1991, Tom Dent, a black poet and editor, began a road trip of epic proportions. Traveling the back roads of the South, Dent visited the sites of some of the most vicious civil rights struggles of the '50s and '60s. The author wanted to relive the early days of the civil rights movement, as well as gauge its present-day results.
To that end, Dent chose smaller towns more resistant to social change, such as Selma, Ala., Albany, Ga. and Greensboro, N.C. which he finds more representative of the "real South." In each city, he spoke with key civil rights leaders, past and present. The results of Dent's trip are recorded in his fine book, "Southern Journey: A Return To The Civil Rights Movement."
Tom Dent's personal insights are one of "Southern Journey"'s assets. A native of New Orleans, Dent gives the reader a real insider's view of the South. The book is enriched by the author's memories of his childhood and protest years. Dent has a real love of the South and its people; the reader certainly benefits from his affection.
He describes deserted roads and half-empty towns in nostalgic, elegant prose. Dent manages to imbue even common scenes with striking beauty: "... there were ... quite a few people milling about, apparently just off from work, intoxicated by the excitement of the glorious rising moon as if there was no more fascinating or wonderful place on earth at this moment in history."
Dent's love of the South makes his painful critiques all the more authoritative. The author draws on his movement experience to interpret the changes in Southern lifestyles since the '50s. More often than not, the communities he visits are worse off than in the days before the protests - drugs, poor school systems and a lack of economic opportunity serve as barriers to real equality.
Dent does more than describe the racial problems facing the South - "Southern Journey" is also a search for solutions to hard economic and social dilemmas. Dent is not afraid to ask hard questions about desegregation and its aftermath. He coolly evaluates the pros and cons of desegregated schools, businesses, and neighborhoods.
"Southern Journey" is a worthwhile read. Part oral history, part travelogue and part call to action, the book is insightful, balanced and beautifully written.
- Mary Trombley