by Blake Northcott
★★★★★
Available for 99¢ on Amazon Kindle
Vs. Reality is a quick and engaging read that will keep you pressing that [Next Page] button until there’s nothing left to read. The first volume is short, but creates an entertaining introduction to a series that promises longer future volumes. It’s an amazing debut from a first-time author, blogger Blake Northcott.
I bought Vs. Reality on the reputation that Northcott had already built up as one of my favorite bloggers and tweeters. The thing that impresses me most about her reviews is that Northcott seems to be one of the few people out there who understands that Entertainment Value is value.
So often we see fun movies, novels, and TV shows discarded because they aren’t artistic or deep enough or because they *gasp* have some kind of mass appeal. Rarely do we see anything involving super powers getting any kind of praise by the serious critics because they forget that not every movie has the same purpose as Black Swan. Northcott has never been one to shy away from praising the commercial action movies, so I knew that no matter what, Vs. Reality was going to be fun.
Vs. Reality tells the story of Donovan Cole, a fighter who is used to concussions and beat-downs. When a chance encounter with a mysterious girl drags Donovan into her serious drama, Cole takes a hit that triggers a glitch in reality and allows him to manifest super-human abilities based on his own self image.
Vs. Reality blends the aesthetic of a comic book movie with the mind-f#@& of a Chuck Palahniuk novel. There’s the suped-up action balanced well with gritty imagery. If there is one thing that I noticed straight from the start of Vs. Reality, it’s that Blake Northcott is amazing at writing uncomfortable imagery. At her best moments, her imagery gives you a shiver reminiscent of that nails on the chalkboard sound. At the very least it makes me think of some of the more cringe-worthy impressions from the Aeon Flux cartoons.
In the end, Vs. Reality is a lot of things. It’s an adrenaline rush. It’s a commentary on addiction. It’s the source material for a future summer Blockbuster.
Spend that 99¢ and get yourself a Kindle copy of Vs. Reality. Don’t have a Kindle? Read it on your iPhone, Mac, PC, Blackberry, etc… (see how).The 2nd Volume comes out in October, 2011
Notes:
- Since writing this post, Blake Northcott got a book deal and had to delay Relapse. Its date is now unknown.
- The dialogue may seem odd at first, but if you put it in the frame of reference of a comic book, it’s perfect.
Amy Leigh Strickland is a writer and teacher from Townsend, Massachusetts. She has a BFA from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Amy currently lives outside Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Kyle and their two dogs, Apollo and Linus.
