For most of the books and movies I’ve reviewed this semester, I’ve looked at the piece as a whole. However, with Relic, I wanted to go a little bit differently with how I wanted to discuss it. This book was probably one of the thicker books out of the ones I had to read this term, but it was constantly filled with something going on. This kept me entertained throughout, but I really just loved the first 50 pages of the book. The part that really determines how good or bad a book will end up being.
The way Relic started, reminded me a lot of the Song of Ice and Fire series. Each book started with a character that ultimately discovers the true secret of what is going on in their area and dies at the end of their chapter. However, for Relic, we instead get three chapters of people encountering this epidemic.
So after having ranted in previous blog posts about how I hate things being gory or filled with blood for no reason, why do I love these three chapters filled with death? Because unlike the others that were there to just show how bloody everything can get, this instead showcased more of a mystery for us. We never see the monster in these first few chapters. Just mentions its existence and knowing that it killed the person in the chapter.
This tension that builds up with every death makes us sit at the edge of our seats wondering who will be next and if the monster could indeed be stopped.
Although I’m not as familiar with the thriller genre, as soon as we are introduced to Green, things start to slow down but we know it’s not so calm in the backdrop of everything. The monster lurks behind closed doors and someone perhaps knows a little more than they should. My only other experience with the thriller genre comes from The DaVinci Code where we also have someone that has strong intelligence try to find a way to stop a menace bigger than themselves and solve the mystery.
As an author, this book shows me just how to set a precedence with genre expectations and how to showcase the danger through death without being directly attached to the main characters. I’m glad to know it’s not just A Song of Ice and Fire who likes to kill someone by the end of chapter 1 that holds no value to the rest of the story.
So will I keep this book in my library? Definitely. It’s a fun read. It fits in a way that I normally wouldn’t have touched this, but it itches that want of more DaVinci code without being Dan Brown and including monsters instead of just underground organizations. Perhaps this will be my first step into reading more in the thriller genre after this.
