Broken by Travis Thrasher

Laila had it all-before she made the wrong choice. This wrong choice resulted in the life of another man-one she killed with her own hands. Now she is on the run from the sins of her past and has settled anew in Greenville, South Carolina. However, her past does not want to leave her alone. Now several different men are after her for different reasons, and the only person she can trust is Kyle, whom she barely knows. Laila also fears she is going insane because of the frequent and unexplained visions she keeps experiencing. Above all else, she knows she will have to confront her past eventually and take what's coming to her, but what if there is another answer to her troubles? What if grace is real? What if God is real? She'll have to find out-otherwise she'll face death.

On the surface, Broken seems like an interesting book, mostly because it is largely based on the wrong choices of the lead. Travis Thrasher has somewhat abandoned his supernatural\horror kick he has been on for the past few years, but not really. Broken is much more meaningful than Ghostwriter and Isolation, but this does not make it an exemplary book.

Laila is the best character because her imperfect choices created a mess for herself. There seems to be a personality hovering beneath the surface, but it is not fully developed. There are only four other characters the plot focuses on, and none of them are very good either, but at least none of them are perfect. It's hard to nail down a villain, because any of the characters could be labeled a villain in other circumstances. Basically, this is an average cast of characters because Travis was more interested in supernatural elements than character development.

The biggest factor in this novel's fall from the Elite List is the vast and varied number of plot holes. There is no explanation for Laila's strange visions, even though they help her save one character from death. One character appears in the middle of the plot with no past and explanation for where he came from or why he was involved in the situation. There are no plot points that can be nailed down because the plot meanders along in an abstract fashion, sometimes showing the present and sometimes explaining the past. The characters wander around their world but never really get anywhere or accomplish anything. The biggest thing the plot is missing is a purpose. The biggest factor that saves the plot is a key character death at the end caused by Laila's wrong choices.

Travis seems to be making a roundabout journey back from his self-exile into the genre of horror. Broken is reminiscent of his past works, something he needs to return to in order to salvage his inconsistent career. Travis has much more potential as an author than he realizes, but he needs to tap into it before it's too late.

3 stars

The Promise Remains by Travis Thrasher

Debut novels have a low success rate in my book. The Promise Remains is no exception.
Sara and Ethan were young people in love back in the day. But when Ethan proposed one day, she refused for undisclosed reasons. Then the two of them went their separate ways and lived separate lives.
Now, years later, Sara is on the verge of marriage to another man, and she remembers Ethan's letters. As she begins to read them, she begins to have second thoughts.
Ethan is living the exciting life of a bachelor. He's got nothing to live for, and now his mother, the last person on earth he loves, is dying.
But Sara begins searching for Ethan without his knowledge. Will the two of them find each other in time?
That's a dumb question to ask. Of course they will. This is what drives this genre. It's hopeless.
But the plot was not completely hopeless. I see no reason why it needed to be so short. It's one of the shortest books I've ever read. The characters were starting to show some personality, but Thrasher gave them no time to develop. He cut them off at the end when they were just getting started.
With better characters, this book would have been a lot better than it was.
Sara's refusal of Ethan the first time, the very thing that drives the plot, is vague and hardly explained, not even at the end.
Yet this book still has potential, if Travis feels the need to rewrite it.
1.5 stars

Out of the Devil's Mouth by Travis Thrasher

The year is 1929. Henry Wolfe is a writer with big ideas. He writes books about his great world adventures. No one's really sure if they're true or not.
But one winter day, he is kidnapped by a car full of men and charged with a mission given by a rich man: to find his lost son.
Louis Prescott was an adventurer with wild ideas of finding the fabled Fountain of Youth in South America. He has yet to return.
Joined by his partner of old, Max Jourbet, Henry ventures into South America guided by Louis' older sister, a colonel, a doctor, and a handful of Indians. They are headed for the Devil's Mouth, the fabled location of the Fountain of Youth.
Along the way, they encounter several dangers. Though there are many character deaths, Thrasher makes sure he protects the central three characters: Henry, Max, and Kate, Louis' sister.
There are many legends surrounding the Devil's Mouth, but Thrasher made sure that only some of them were true, which was very realistic.
However, the legends that are true are a little absurd and without explanation. Thrasher says that he used these to transition his reader into the mindset of his new genre, supernatural. But they create plot holes because of their lack of explanation.
The characters are pretty good. Henry Wolfe, though I'm sure he is no Indiana Jones, has no personality, even though the book is told from his first person perspective.
If this book did not have the realistic end it had, it wouldn't even be worth reading. As it is, it seemed like Travis Thrasher just wrote this book for fun. But writing a book for fun and having it become Elite shows talent.
This book is a quest, but not a clear cut, boom-boom-boom kind of quest. It's just a normal adventure, one that's definitely worth reading.
4 stars

The Second Thief by Travis Thrasher

There's usually a reason why a certain book is an author's most popular. I found out why after reading The Second Thief.
The plot follows a bored businessman who decides to commit espionage with his boss's biggest secret. Since he already has a buyer lined up, he hops on the fastest plane to San Fran to meet with him. Unfortunately, the flight he's on crashes, leaving him as the only survivor. From there, he wanders through life, confronting his past and discovering consequences to his mistakes.
I have to admit, the middle makes you want to give up on it because it becomes a mediocre storyline long-repeated. He goes to see his aunt and uncle who raised him. They talk for a while. He goes to see his ex-wife. hey talk for a while. He goes to see his brother. They talk for a while.
But the ending makes it all worth it. Not only are the characters good, but the ending is one of the most original I have ever read. If you have never read this book, you should read it immediately.
5 stars

Sky Blue by Travis Thrasher

It did greatly intrigue me. This may be a short review, but I don't really know what to say about it.
The plot is about a literary agent and his wife, who is a movie costume designer. They are desperately trying to have kids. This lack of production has driven them apart over their years of marriage.
To explain more about the plot would be too confusing to those reading this review. There are many good characters, including the two leads. There are several other believable characters placed throughout the book. There are also comedic scenes that are not overemphasized.
The plot is complex, and hard to understand unless you've read this book. Sky Blue appears to be Travis Thrasher's life work, breaking often for philosophical views on life. The best way I can describe this book is Ty Buchanan (Try Dying, Try Darkness by James Scott Bell) meets The Second Thief (Travis Thrasher) and any given Karen Kingsbury book. I basically can't tell you anything else until you've read it for yourself.
4.5 stars

Isolation by Travis Thrasher

Isolation was a HUGE disappointment for me. Travis Thrasher has switched styles on us, and it's not working.
The plot is about a struggling missionary family who basically moves into a haunted house in the mountains of North Carolina. Even though it never says the words "haunted house", that's really what it is. The mother is seeing all kinds of sick visions, and the father is finding all kinds of questionable things in the house, and the young son is wandering all over the house seeing hidden things.
And there's a killer on the loose around the house.
The whole idea of the book is really nothing new; something you can read in a Frank Perreti, Alton Gansky, or Ted Dekker book. There is one surprise at the end, however, that almost redeems the book. However, the cheesy end had someone important die and come back to life.
The characters aren't up to his usual standards.
Basically, Sky Blue should have been Thrasher's last novel, especially since it was his life's work.
2 stars

Ghostwriter by Travis Thrasher

All original ideas must be put to rest eventually. Thrasher has used the scenario of the lead experiencing life that never really happened three times now. While Ghostwriter is better than Isolation, Travis has probably reached and climbed over the peak of his career.
Ghostwriter is about a popular author of ghost stories that suddenly gets writer's block. He panics and steals the manuscript of an up-and-coming writer and calls it his own. On the day the book comes out, the true author of the book begins harassing him. Than scenes from the popular author's first books start happening to him.
This is interesting, but it could have had a better end. I didn't like the way Thrasher forced the supernatural part into the end. I think he's overemphasizing his genre change frequently. This is also reflected when Travis talked about next year's book, also a supernatural thriller.
Basically, there's nothing wrong with Ghostwriter, he just hasn't yet gone back to his originality that he was so good at. And I'm not sure if another book will change that.
3 stars