The Only Child by
Andrew Pyper is the story of Dr. Lily Dominick, a forensic psychiatric, who is
used to hearing bizarre and outrageous claims from patients. She was orphaned
at six when her mother was killed by, what authorities would call, a bear. Until
one day she receives a case with no name. He is a man who assaulted another man
because he needed to talk with her. He has a gift for her. He claims he is over
200 years old, he’s not human and her father. Soon strange events lead her to
suddenly go to Eastern Europe and track now this man’s history. The more she
learns, the more his story seems unbelievable. He claims to be the inspiration
for Mary Shelley’s Creature from Frankenstein,
Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case
of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Lily soon finds herself in a race against time and against
others who want to see this man destroyed. Is he really who he says he is? Will
Lily finally learn the truth about her mother’s death? Will she be able to
escape this real life monster?
The Only Child
reminded me of Elizabeth Kostova’s The
Historian with more intensity and action. From the opening word to the
closing chapter, The Only Child is a
fast paced drama which intertwines the stories of classic gothic novels. Without
giving too much away, I loved how Mr. Pyper was able to weave the novels into
this story. I feel it is an interesting twist and modern look into these
classic characters. As I do with every book I read, after finishing this book,
I read a few reviews and some of the other reviewers didn’t like it. The main
complaint was it wasn’t scary. True, it wasn’t. It was more of an intense
horror than scary horror. But to be fair, in my opinion, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Dracula, were not scary either. I think
it is also unfair to view The Only Child
in comparison with these classics. Bottom line, I enjoyed this novel. I was
able to finish it in two days, not that it was a fast read but shows that I
couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good monster
story. It will have you wondering who the real monster is.
The Only Child
is available on
Amazon
in hardcover and on
the Kindle
as well as
at Barnes and Noble
in hardcover and on
the Nook
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