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| Book Cover via Amazon.com |
Well, I don't know about you, but after watching and reading those tales almost every year for all of my life, I find them dull. I know them backward and forwards and frustrating.
That's why "Fate of The Watchman" is SO needed in this world. Trust me, my friends, you want to know more about this. Fix your dreadlocks, get a chai ready and buckle up. Here is my review for “Fate of The Watchman” by Chad Pettit.
Opinion
Full disclosure. Chad asked me to review his book, and good on my word, I do buy my books when I can and I picked this gem up for $2.99 off of Amazon. It’s not expensive, but it is worth every penny in my opinion.
I want to start this review with one of the most amazing detailed things I have ever read. Chad Pettit has prose so tight and so polished they could be diamonds. He wrote the most delicious, partially sensual, and alluring description of drinking a cup of slightly burned coffee that I have ever read. It's so good, I want to have the paragraph embroidered and put that on a pillow desperately, mostly because I'm a coffee addict.
And while I could sit here and say "That's all folks, it's a great coffee scene" I would not be doing any justice to a book that is perfect. Chad did Dickens better than Dickens ever could, because it's modern, it's real, and it's raw.
What do I mean by that? We have a tale of redemption, under the formula that Dickens set out back when Queen Victoria was still young. That was a long time ago, and we all know the story, but that's why this is so perfect. The familiar is used in a way that becomes more real.
What Christopher Noland did for Batman to make it realistic and bring the truth of the modern world to a story we are all familiar with, Chad Pettit did for this type of story, and made it so much better. The most impressive piece, this is not a holiday-inspired tale of turning your goodness on just for Christmas. No, this is a tale of turning away from the easy self-centeredness that can quickly befall any of us any day of the week, any time of the year.
We live in a world of self-turned devices and where if we disagree with something, we just hit mute or change the app, or we don’t watch that channel or whatever we can do to avoid it. This story rips that blindfold off and does it in a modern way. While Dickens story brought light to the crises of the poor and the workhouses of old, this one brings a light to what the world is suffering from now. I cried, I really did at some parts because I naturally am drawn to empathy, and I know things, and I’ve seen things in my own life. And yet, I also am FULLY aware there are things I’m avoiding and mostly on purpose so that I can just get onto the next rung of my life. That said, I did finish this story and plan out what I was going to do to change my own bad habits because this is a reminder of how far off the tracks I knew I’d gone.
The thing that is very good about this story, is it isn’t preachy in the sense that some books like this can be. Full disclosure, I am a spiritual person, and I love my religion, but I am also someone who is very aware that not everyone has that kind of belief system. If you do not follow a faith, or perhaps you do but you don’t really like someone preaching at you, that’s okay and reading this book should be fine for you.
“Fate of the Watchman” doesn’t go into the religious reasons for things, this goes into the just be a good human reason for things. I like that. I like that it just focuses on what we as people do or don’t do, and what we could or could not do to make the world what it is. Everyone has a different take on religion and faith, mine is probably very different from yours or anyone’s, and I think this book transcends that. It’s what makes it the best kind of book, something we as a people can get behind to make us better for just the sake of living.
Let’s get into some critiques here, there are just a couple. One, pacing. If you do not like your stories to have nonstop tension, this is not your book. It’s intense and the tension is not let up often until the very end. The buildup is nice, somewhat like eating spiced food where the spice builds at the back of the throat over time, not burning your lips or anything, just slow build. But when it gets there, when that tension is at its zenith, that’s not something you can step off of easily. This critique for me isn’t something I found bad, I liked it, but like spicy food I know, tension in books is an opinion based thing. If you don’t like that, be aware of it.
This book is well written, I found utterly no issues with any of the grammar or spelling. If there was something, it wasn’t a big deal that I noticed.
Pacing, it’s like the tension. It paces very well but it speeds in parts full throttle. While I don’t mind it, because I love reading at this pace, not everyone will. So be aware of that.
Now for some final thoughts about the story. It is written well, and this has a complete beginning, middle and ending. It’s a short story, not a novel in that sense, but it takes us through a feast of thoughts and discussion provoking imagery. There is an excerpt at the end of the book for Chad’s next novel, but I didn’t read it and I’m not reviewing that. Whenever his next book is released, I will review it at that time.
That’s it though guys, it’s basically one of the finest little stories I have read. And yes, it fits into the normal winter refrain to being good to one another, but it also is the perfect book for any day and any month. Just be a good human, pay attention to your surroundings, do those little things you can do to make life easier. You don’t know what someone is going through just by glancing past them, and while you may not want to know, the story suggests you should stop and figure out what you do want to know about your world.
Score
With all of that in mind, I’m giving this short story a 96/100. Seriously, it’s very close to perfect and it did something unique. This is a 5 star on Goodreads and Amazon. Pick this up if you want to do some self-examination of your own deeds and thoughts, or, just to see the most unique take on an old tale that is imaginable.
