The Uninvited by Liz JensenMy rating: 8 of 10 stars
First Impression:
I am thorn between my star rating... The book until the end is near perfect... But the ending...
What a hell Liz?? :\
Second Impression:
This tale follows two linked stories. Hesketh, a man with a Asperger syndrome is an investigator for an insurance company. He travels from place to place to investigate several sabotages on some companies. First he go to China, then Sweden, Dubai and then he travels back to England. Since this book was written on a first perspective we learn a lot about his mind and it's interesting to see a person's mind work. This particular mind is quite interesting because everytime something important is happening is mind drifts off. And in the midst of his conversations with other peoples, if they are female, he drifts off to his blouse and body. Its quite good because we behave like that. When someone is talking to us, our ears may be hearing it but part of our mind drifts off... to someone appearance or its surroundings. Its not usually a first person narrative to have this attention.
At the same time we have a mystery novel mixed with an apocalpytic scenario. It's quite interesting, because as the book advances we leave the mystery part to a apocalpytic survival scenario.
Hesketh, our main character, has lost his partner to someone else (a girl if you want to know) and at the same time he lost a boy... a boy he is not the father but he treats him as if. It's a theme not usually dwell upon. A man who joins a woman that has a boy he becomes his stepfather. As the relation grows so the role of step-father/step-son. But if they got separated what rights has a stepfather? None. It's a fulcral point to this novel this relation. I really enjoy the relation of Hesketh and the other characters and of himself. The reasons he isolated himself and the reasons he is what he is.
The horror, that supposedly it has - it's almost not-existent. There are a couple scenes that make you irk but afraid? I think it depends on the sensibility of a person.
It's quite interesting the children scenario. Why are they behaving like that, why are they killind persons and making man sabotage their works and kill themselves? What's the reason behind?
The step-son, freddy, is one of those children and sometimes he behaves rather normal and other times he behaves like is was a part of a big group. A new evolution of children. Why they are behaving like that? What's happening? It's reveal that it has something to do with CERN's experiments and time travel/multi paralel dimensions. But no explication is given. No real ending (either bad or good). Its just ends , and you get, so.... now what? There is a sequel? No??? So, what happens to the world? And the children? And mankind? Why didn't they kill all children to start again?
This book deals with father/son relation (in this stepfather/stepson), ex's relations, the Asperger situation, the relations between a Asperger and other people and probably the biggest picture of our World Economy. It's good to be able to buy products from Japan, Nordic countries or USA with a click of a button... but at the same time you are dependent from technology and companies that if they stop for a day or so, repurcutions would exist. What happens if a country that is fully dependable on oil had a problem with receiving it? Or wheat or meat? For better or worse, we are a techonological global village. We depenend on everyone.
Advisable?
Yes. Undoubtatly yes. It's a nice short story, with barely 300 pages, and we get a good setting, good characters and good plot. But be prepared to have a french ending for this book. It's not that kind of open ending that make you think and it feels nicely - it's a kind of ending that is so open that you feel cheated. It doesn't give you some short posibilities... it gives endless possibilities of endings.
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