Ben Harris’s sister died of cervical cancer more than three years ago… his best friend and her husband, Roger Keswick, disappeared the day before the funeral. For the next six months everyone from the local police to the Department of Defense searched for him but to no avail… it was as if he had simply fallen off the face of the planet only to reappear at work as if nothing were out of the ordinary. Then by the purest of coincidences Ben finds himself pulled back into Roger’s life only to discover he has remarried… to Jessica… a woman the looks, sounds and acts just like his dead sister. To complicate things Roger is insistent his home, his car, his life is infested with tiny elf like creatures he calls the Katoy. He claims they run massive machines under his house and watch his every move… every move that is until Jessica is found bludgeoned to death in his living room and Roger is nowhere to be found . . . again.
Tegon Maus was raised pretty much the same as everyone else… devoted mother, strict father and all the imaginary friends he could conjure. Not that he wasn’t friendly, he just wasn’t “people orientated”. Maybe he lived in his head way more than he should have, maybe not. He liked machines more than people, at least he did until I met his wife. The first thing he can remember writing was for her. For the life of him he can’t remember what it was about… something about dust bunnies under the bed and monsters in my closet. It must have been pretty good because she married him shortly after that. He spent a good number of years chasing other dreams before he got back to writing. It wasn’t a deliberate conscious thought, it was more of a stepping stone. His wife and himself had joined a dream interpret group and we were encouraged to write down our dreams as they occurred. “Be as detailed as you can,” we were told. He was thrilled. If there is one thing he enjoys it’s making people believe him and he likes to exaggerate. Not a big exaggeration or an outright lie mind you, just a little step out of sync, just enough so you couldn’t be sure if it were true or not. When he writes, he always write with the effort of “it could happen” very much in mind and nothing, he guarantees you, nothing, makes him happier. He has consistently placed in the top 3 in 189 writing contest in a variety of genres and has been featured in magazines a couple of times to raise money for Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
Review:
Tegon Maus creates a world all his own in Machines of the Little People. His twists and turns keep readers on their toes. Make sure you pay attention, readers, because this fast-paced novel waits for no one. Maus' creativity in this novel is astonishing. He dreams up characters, ideas, and inventions that no one else could perfect. He portrays his characters in such a way that you can't help but become attached to them. His writing style draws the reader in with clever foreshadowing and many problems that are left to be resolved. Despite all its wonderful assets, the novel does have its drawbacks. I, for one, am not a fan of foul language- Machines is definitely one for more mature audiences with adult content and language. I would put it in the 16 years and up age range. The fast paced-ness of the novel can be a bit overwhelming at times, some clarification and "remember-when's" would be helpful every now and again. Keeping an open mind while reading, this book is not for everyone.
My final rating would be a 3 of 5 stars.
Reviewer:
Autumn
