Book Review: DiSemblance by Shanae Branham

Published August 1st, 2012
CreateSpace
369 pages (Paperback)

Jason Tanner’s life has always been different from the ordinary citizen’s. It started when he was an infant and his parents were only teenagers. A computer science prodigy, Lloyd attended MIT but left a pariah in the eyes of the school’s dean—but a computer physics genius in the eyes of his primary investor. Then his theories and ideas created a holographic machine and their world shrunk as contact with the outside world became less and less frequent. A computer prodigy now himself, Jason is about to learn that the world never waits for you if you have the ability to change it: it will come for you.

Detective Bruce Durante has been handed the case of the Comfort Killer, a serial killer so named because he appears to abduct terminally ill patients before returning their corpses to their families in refrigerated coffins. When he picks up the trail, it leads straight to the home of Lloyd Tanner.

Jason has been living life through the world of Lloyd’s invention and wishing he could carry on a relationship with Boston, the beautiful girl next door. When his father is murdered and framed as the Comfort Killer, he is brought back to reality in a hurry. He is forced to destroy all of the planted evidence—and finds he is being targeted as the killer’s new fall guy. But the secrets of his father’s invention run deep and Jason, his brother Isaac,Boston, the Comfort Killer, and Detective Durante hurtle towards one another on a deadly collision course that leaves everyone’s life hanging in the balance. (From Goodreads)

Thanks to the author, Shanae Branham, for sending me a copy to read and review.

I'm always looking for new books that don't fall within my usual comfort zone.  DiSemblance is a thriller/mystery that kept me guessing until the very end.  It had it's flaws, but I did enjoy the book.

The plot kept me guessing throughout.  I seriously could not figure out what would happen next.  However, it did feel rushed at parts.  Something would happen then, all of a sudden, something else is happening.  It did lead to some confusion.  The ending was very abrupt.  We reached the climax, solved the whole murder fiasco, then ended the story in about four pages.  The ending made sense, but I would have enjoyed a little more substance to it.

Holy crap, these characters lack basic social skills.  Jason is kind of a hot mess.  Wow, he does not know how to deal with people.  Overall, the characters were okay.  Not a ton of character development happens through the book, but I liked the characters enough to not want to see any of them dead (there is huge potential for that happen).  I would have liked to see a little more growth in the Jason/Boston relationship.  There is no hot romance or "insta-love" in DiSemblance, but it felt a lot more natural in progression, if being tortured over a virtual reality machine were an everyday occurance.  So much time was spent developing the story and virtual reality aspects, that the characters didn't grow a ton.  It fits with the book, but if you're looking for lots of character development, you're not going to get it.

If you're looking for a fast paced book that will keep you guessing until the very end, I do recommend DiSemblance.  I'm now interested in checking out some more thriller/mystery books!

Much love, Samantha