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Eddie Cole is just an average almost 18 year old living in a remote, desert town. He’s achieving good grades at school, and even has a part time job in the local supermarket. He’s got a crush on Nina, who’s in his science class and works with him at the store. His father was murdered in a gas station heist, and his mother is terrible at cooking. In his spare time, he loves to write; something he’s become more obsessed with since his fathers death. He writes stories about his home town, his slightly kooky neighbour, his crush. He makes up scenarios where he’s the hero, where mob bosses reign supreme, where doctors have supernatural powers. On his 18th birthday, Eddie goes into work – and is completely stunned when one of his stories begins to play out in front of his eyes. Soon, all of his characters are running amok and wreaking havoc; and worse, they’re developing their own story arcs away from his own prose. They’re completely out of his control.
While the concept of this story was great, it’s not the most original trope. Inkheart was similar, as was the Goosebumps movies. Saying that, Brandt has managed to put an interesting twist on the genre. Eddie doesn’t stick to any one particular genre in his writing; he’s comfortable with writing romance, comedy, crime, thriller and fantasy – something that most writers do tend to shy from. And with good reason – the narratives can become confused with the author floundering between tropes. Which is what happens in Rewritten, unfortunately.
At times, the narrative becomes confusing – finding hard to differentiate between Eddie’s inner voice and his written narrative. The prose switches from Eddie’s point of view to one of his characters, often without a break in-between. When this happens, Brandt also switches from the inner thoughts of one particular person to another, while in the middle of the previous persons thoughts. It’s chaotic and confusing and unfortunately makes for a clumsy read.
S. A.
First published on Reedsy Discovery as part of their ARC program. You can read the original review here.
You can purchase Rewritten by clicking on the books name.