Early Review – The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim by Shane Peacock (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy/Horror
Length: 352 pages
Publisher: Tundra Books
Release Date: May 3, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-1770496989
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Edgar Brim is a sensitive orphan who, exposed to horror stories from his father as a young child, is afraid of almost everything and suffers from nightly terrors. His stern new guardian, Mr. Thorne, sends the boy to a gloomy school in Scotland where his dark demons only seem to worsen and he is bullied and ridiculed for his fears. But years later, when sixteen-year-old Edgar finds a journal belonging to his novelist father, he becomes determined to confront his nightmares and the bullies who taunt him.

After the horrific death of a schoolmate, Edgar becomes involved with an eccentric society at the urging of a mysterious professor who believes that monsters from famous works of literature are real and whose mandate is to find and destroy these creatures. With the aid of a rag-tag crew of friends, the fear-addled teen sets about on his dark mission, one that begins in the cemetery on the bleak Scottish moors and ends in a spine-chilling climax on the stage of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in London with Henry Irving, the infamous and magnetic actor, and his manager, Bram Stoker, the author of the most frightening and sensational novel of the day, Dracula. Can Edgar Brim truly face his terror and conquer his fears?”

This sounded like something I would absolutely love. However it ended up being hard to engage with and just poorly written at points. The story jumps around quite a bit and was a hard to follow. There were also some things happening in the story that just didn’t make sense. Edgar switches between his visions and what is real willy nilly and this makes it hard to actually follow the story at times.

This is one of those books that was just hard to read and I really struggled to stay focused on it and engaged in the story. It also got quite wordy at times and I would find myself skimming paragraphs, then force myself to go back a reread them more carefully only to find that not much had happened….which lead to more skimming.

The plot ended up being incredibly predictable despite all the twists and turns the author tried to put in; it was just a disappointing read overall.

Overall a disappointing read for me. The story was somewhat confusing and hard to follow and just plain boring at times. I had difficulty staying engaged and was disappointed in how predictable the whole thing was. Not recommended.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge