Review: Shade

Title Shade
By John B. Olson
Pages 416
Recommended by Me

First Sentence A tear ran down Melchi's cheek, losing itself in the curl of his wild beard.

Synopsis
Hailey is a grad student in San Francisco. One night a dark monster attacks her and she is rescued by a strange homeless man. Melchi has lived his life on the streets tracking a monster known as the Mulo. When the Mulo attacks a woman and he saves her, both their lives we'll be changed forever.

What it has going for it
Well, I really wanted to like this one. It sounded so good and it's a bit obscure so I was hoping I'd found a gem but no such luck. It was pretty action packed, however, with lots of things constantly going on. It jumps right into the story with out a lot of back story to weigh you down and had an interesting premise, which is always good. Um, yeah, I can't think of much else it had going for it.

What's lacking
I love when a book just jumps right into a story and doesn't do so much explaining that you feel like yelling, "yeah, OK, I get it!" And while this one jumped into the action right away it never got to that point where you understand what's going on from character's conversations or actions. Seriously, four hundred plus pages and it never really made sense. I had to drag myself kicking and screaming through the whole book and was left just staring at the last page with an angrily raised eyebrow. A reviewer on Goodreads described it saying, "like I was looking through a steamed up window all the time.  I  just wanted to wipe it clean so I could see better." Agreed! Oh well, at least I finished the dang thing!

Yea or nay?
I'm sure plenty of people will like it and do like it but I wouldn't recommend it.