Everyone knows that it’s not wise to bring unfamiliar things from travels and keep them in the house. We all have seen in movies what usually happens when one does that. Margaret McConnell learns this truth the hard way. And it wasn’t she who brought home a mysterious thing that turned out to be the most horrible threat to her little son.
What I especially liked about “The Onyx Seed” by R.W. Harrison is how the story’s mood changed from chapter to chapter making my heart leap. The story begins with a scene of human cruelty and then, through some turbulence, lands into pure domestic bliss.
I’m not a fan of horror books or movies. I haven’t read anything in that department since, probably, William Peter Blatty’s “The Exorcist”, which I read in the times when those who discover their passion for reading grab anything they can get hold of. For the record, I liked that book and reread it quite a few times when I was a teenager.
In “The Onyx Seed” we get to see some of the ugliest sides of human character. Cruelty, greed, and the inability to control them. The book takes the reader on a rollercoaster of events making one’s hair stand on end. I won’t lie, at one point my mother’s heart, which is weak by definition where children’s safety is concerned, was pounding in my chest and I wasn’t reading a book – I was living through the story.
While reading the book, I tried to imagine what I would do if something strange would begin happening around me. I don’t blame Margaret who agrees to talk to a psychic. I’d say the best thing about this decision is that we get to meet Winston, the palm reader’s gorgeous cat.
The book introduces the sinister legend from the Philippines about a creature you wouldn’t want to meet even only in your nightmares. A shiver runs down my spine when I think about what will happen to those who’ll be unfortunate enough to encounter it in book two.
Eve's Book Diary 