The Heavens Rise by Christopher RiceMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
The story is set in New Orleans and revolves around a group of three very close friends -- Nikki, her boyfriend Anthem, and Ben. Nikki was also the apple of Mitchell's eye. Mitchell wants to possess her and it was an answered prayer when Nikki and Anthem broke up. One night when Mitch managed to spend some time with Nikki, things got a little out of hand and Mitch became very rough. It is during that night that things began to change for both Nikki and Mitchell.
After that night, Mitch has been trying to get back at Nikki because she managed to reject his advances. To make things worse, she got back together with prettyboy Anthem. Then, one evening, he managed to play the ultimate game. Then, in what appeared to be a tragic accident, Nikki and her family disappeared after their car ran off a bridge.
Shortly after the accident, Mitchell tried to throw himself out of the window. He survived but was in a coma that appeared to be permanent. But, recover he did and he vowed to seek his revenge against Nikki and her friends.
The tragedy changed a lot for Anthem and Ben. Anthem started drinking a lot. Ben, though he seemed to be doing okay, is having problems with regards to his personal life. However, Anthem finally decided to stop drinking. Ben also managed to get out of a would-be-violent situation. Both events appeared to have been caused by something unexplained.
Mitchell has returned to New Orleans and suddenly a lot of people start to die. He strongly believes that Nikki is alive and hiding somewhere. He believes that she will show herself once he gets his hands on her boyfriend and best friend.
Will Mitchell be able to get his revenge? Or will Ben and Anthem be able to save themselves.
The book starts out rather well. But, things start to go downhill from the point Mitchell starts to do a lot of terrifying mischief while he was in the hospital. During the first few chapters of the book, I had the feeling that things were going to go the way a Stephen King novel would go (and I love King) so I was pretty excited to read on. Unfortunately, the story feels like it suddenly had to rush and in that rush, things started to get choppy -- like things were cut haphazardly to meet the requirement for "proper number of pages."
I would have loved to know more about the cause of all the unexplained events. It would have been great to learn more about Nikki. It would have been better if the level of excitement and the tension was sustained all throughout.
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