{Book Review} JOE by H.D. Gordon

Book Title: Joe
Author: H.D. Gordon
Publisher: indie
Publishing Date: June 2012
Length: 268 pages (according to Amazon) or 336 pages (according to goodreads)
Source: Xpresso Book Tours review copy AND I bought a copy from amazon

A psychopath planning a massacre. A stuttering young girl with disturbing visions of the future. Six ordinary people who will all be in the line of fire come the day of the disaster.

Joe Knowe is not a boy. She is twenty-one years old, and she sees things before they happen; bad things, and the worst thing she has ever faced is just around the corner. A madman is going to shoot up the college Joe attends. The trouble is, her gift is stingy on the details she needs to divert the impending tragedy. Now, Joe has four days to figure out the mystery and save the lives of many.

From the author of The Alexa Montgomery Saga comes a tense tale that glimpses the mind of a genuine psychopath, follows an unlikely hero, and explores real-life terror in a race against time that will leave the reader breathless.

GOODREADS | AMAZON

Full Disclosure: This was a review opportunity through Xpresso Book Tours where you receive a book in exchange for an honest review. I also bought this book via Amazon.

I won't rehash the blurb as I tend to do that a lot. So you go ahead and read the blurb first. Go on! I'll wait.

Okay, so...this book is told from multiple points of view over the course of roughly three days. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in April 2012. Joe Knowe is gifted, or cursed depending on your point of view. She stresses over and over that she is not a hero. But of course she is. She is brave. I won't say fearless because you can't be brave AND fearless. Courage comes in the face of adversity, when you take action despite your fears. And THAT is Joe Knowe. She is amazing.

I really wasn't sure that I was going to like this book in the first few chapters when we switch points of view. It's not just two or three! There's Joe, there's Michael, there's John, there's Mina, there's The Decider, there's Eric, and there's Claire. All of their lives are connected via being students at UMMS. That is a TON of viewpoints and, frankly, I was approaching it with a frown, sure that I would get annoyed with it.

Instead, I was ensorcelled by H.D. Gordon's words and utterly mesmerized, with a constant ache in my stomach that indicates anxiety. Joe knows a massacre is coming and it's up to her to stop it. The Decider views himself as better than his idol, Hitler, and that he will achieve a new world order by killing thousands at his school and then off himself. As the tension built, I realized I was nearly 85% in and this was it...here it comes...

Gordon takes these view points and melds them together, each character picking up a thread from the other, and man...it was POWERFUL. It will leave you saying, holy shiitake! And at the end, I must say, I did not realize just how emotionally invested I was as tears formed in my eyes for Joe and the others affected. Amazing.

I'll be buying the next book for SURE and checking out H.D. Gordon's other books. She won me over in a couple hundred pages, easily, as a new fan!