Book Review: Under the Overtree

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Under the Overtree     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
James A. Moore
Class/Genre:   Fantasy   Horror
Meisha Merlin, Mar 2000, $16.00, 440 pp.

Once upon a time, ignorant people not realizing what they called forth cast a spell. Now what they called forth wait for the Chosen One to arrive so they can begin causing mischief. No one residing in xenophobic Summitsville, Colorado knows what lives along side them as these Others are very good at hiding their existence from their human enemies.

Mark Howell knows he is too shy and obese to be anything but an outsider. Already disturbed by his family’s constant moves, the fifteen year-old despairs that he will ever find a place where he fits. He becomes a victim of the school bullies who severely beat him and leave him bleeding on a special stone in the nearby woods.

From that moment on, Mark becomes marked as the Chosen One and they subtly begin to change him physically and mentally. Mark starts making friends and even finds a girl who care about him as much as he does her. His enemies start disappearing or dying in horrific inhuman ways. Though Mark is not the perpetrator, he is the cause because no one messes with anyone under the protection of Them. The Hunter knows he must stop Them, hopefully without sacrificing an innocent lamb named Mark.

Fans of THE SHINING and PHANTOMS will welcome James A. Moore into the ranks of horror master. UNDER THE OVERTREE is fresh, complex, and totally enthralling. Summitsville is an intriguing town that should serve as the backdrop for future novels. Though the characters are fascinating, what makes Mr. Moore’s novel so entertaining is the author’s ability to make the supernatural seem so scientifically natural. Fans of urban fantasy and horror need to put this on there must read list.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner