Many thanks to the author for a review copy.
"Where the Swamps Grieve" is Charles's third book and it's getting weirder and weirder with every instalment but in a wonderful way!!. With every book, you'll never know what your gonna get because he has created a bizarre world.
I have to mention the cover, for me, it's a massive thing, it has to grab me from the first time I lay eyes on it. For the graphics and colours, it has an 80% chance of me buying it, requesting an eARC or from Kindle Unlimited.
This story is different to the other two in the sense that it's not gory at all, I believe it's about his relationship with the swamp and its surroundings, he questions his place within the swamp, don't know if I'm making myself clear because, for me, it's a bit hard to explain. I had to read it twice because you miss "details" on your first read, it becomes clearer on your second run and maybe you need a third to capture the fine details Charles has fantastically created.
Also, the way he describes the surroundings/moments/situations, the environment itself, it's so unique it gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I think the author will collect all the stories into one at some point but I'm actually doing it because they need to be read together.
I cannot praise enough C.M. Allen's works as they are truly wonderful in a weird way, very highly recommended.
About C. M. Allen
This is not going to be pleasant. You've chosen to read this, and I can only apologise for your evidently poor choice. You have been warned. It's a bit self-indulgent, so I will switch tot eh third-person to save face...
A summary is always an odd beast. It must capture the spirit of somebody without indulgence, intrigue without rambling, present an acceptable façade without revealing the picture's whole. Unfortunately, summaries can also tend towards sycophantic rants, and in this, Charles will most likely tread that fine line and objective truth and subjective nonsense. Charles is him, a man, a married man with three children and a house, a dog, a car, a job, many passions, a peculiar fascination with the human psyche and how it seeks to operate and undo itself, and a hobby for creative writing that evolved and spun out of control, evolutions within revolutions.
Charles enjoys finding simplicity within complexity, yet he is intrigued by the chaos in structure. Charles is someone that sees the normality within paranormality, the details within the vastness, and the enormity of the microscopic. Charles is not what one might call 'typical' or 'average', and perhaps, in this, there is a nugget of interest, a speck of personality cut from his own cloth, honed by his own hand, self-taught in many respects yet wholly dependent on the educations provided by others.
Charles is just the right amount of egotistically self-aware. Charles is keenly interested by the facets of the mind linked to emotive reasoning, finding everything homo sapiens do balanced and guided by how they feel. Every action they perform, everything they say, everything they think...secretly guided by the limbic systems in their brain squelches. Humans are not solely logical beings, and in accepting, hey emotive resonances, they begin to understand who they are as people, not just humans. And they, as people, however small they are as a microcosm in the face of an almighty, expanding universe, can only strive to find a reason against the overwhelming vastness of eternity.
Reason is purpose, and purpose makes everyone feel better. And so, to summarise: Charles is simply he, a dedicated and loving father and husband, responsible dog, house and car owner, and cultivator of the very small fragments of the mind humans do not necessarily concern themselves with. All great things start from the smallest of ideas. I did warn you. Wasn't that just a completely unnecessary word salad of nonsensical farce? Shared with Public
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