First I'd Like you to know a little bit about Matthew Carter and his book "LIQUID SOUL". I'm going to have him back for a review, interview and possibly a guest post. This HUGE ROYAL GIVEAWAY is going to last from now until Christmas Holidays. So, someone will have a VERY special gift!
For now, here's a bit about the novel "LIQUID SOUL"
Liquid Soul
Author: Matthew Carter
Publisher: Outskirts Press
Release Date June 29, 2009
Available in: Trade Paper, Hardcover, Kindle
Pages: 200
Buy it!
About the Book:
This story is more than just writing about some mass murderer killing innocent lives. In the end the narrator wants to be become them. There are situations in which people say they would do anything to be in another's shoes and do things a bit differently than they would, but nobody ever gets the chance. So I wondered what would happen if for a moment we were all able to become someone else and the moment was so fulfilling that we had to have it again and again and would only be stopped either by ourselves or by an outside force. At that point being ourselves would be on par with being someone else. There would be no difference whatsoever.
Throughout this story not only does he learn about other people around him, but about himself and who he really is, along with the father who killed his mother and abandoned him when he was younger. Through the blade, he is finally able to forgive his father, learn his why, learn from the mistakes his father made, and move on with the rest of his killings.
The story is told completely from the point of view of the serial killer and his warped thought process. He views everything as a greater calling, even as he recognizes his addiction. His fear of getting caught isn't that he will be locked away for life, but because he wouldn't be able to experience Liquid Soul like he has grown accustomed to in the past.
Despite being completely involved in who he kills and taking care of them after death, as well as talking to them on a daily basis, he doesn't even know their names. In the end his obsession with trying to become a part of their world pushes him to finding a way to join their world and become one of them. But he realizes he can't kill himself and through much time understands that it is his destiny to, as he likes to call it, "free people from this life, so they can enter the next." He takes his "job" seriously and does whatever it takes to make improvements to it.
About halfway into the story there is a part in which the narrator takes over an old man who supposedly had been doing the same thing as the narrator and in a passing of the torch, allows the narrator to kill him the way he would any other, with a knife to the throat. Even as the narrator tries to fight the killing, it is of no use as he no longer can control his arm. Instantly, snippets of experiences the old man had flash into his mind and one after another he relives lives he never knew about, through a tunnel of life that felt alien to him.
In a critical part of the story there is a person he kills but becomes himself afterwards, nothing else. Usually, the instant blood touches him, he becomes another person and for a short time at least, lives a moment in their past. But, for whatever reason he doesn't this time and it hits him harder than he could have thought possible. Depression strikes him down hard and he contemplates quitting the thing all together. During this time, unbeknownst to him, he actually thinks clearly for the first time since before Liquid Soul took its hold on him. He fights the urge at sanity and goes after the next person which, of course is a success. Throughout the story he has fought constant bouts of depression that limit him and his so called "freeing".
He doesn't realize his so-called "greater purpose" comes with a large price of separation from family and friends. But since he hasn't had either in such a long time, his making up for it, is burying them together and every now and then talking to them. The blood has some sort of hallucinogenic effect on him because he actually believes that they are happy being dead and in spite of their condition they are able to have short conversations with him.
In the end, all the narrator wanted was to be loved by as many people as possible and to live the life he never knew could exist.
A Little About the Author:
Matthew Carter has always been interested in what makes the human mind twist and turn, seeking the moment that a person's thought process goes from a sane and productive mechanism to a form of mental cancer. Carter lives in Romulus, Michigan, and 'Liquid Soul' is his first novel.
(Taken from the Author's Web Page)
You can Preview the Book - HERE
Friend Matthew on TWITTER
Friend him on FACEBOOK
Fan LIQUID SOUL on FACEBOOK
Now...WHY are ALL these things important to do? Well, Matthew and I are going to be giving away a Brand New Sony Pocket E-Reader (Winner Chooses Color). I'll set up that link soon, the page was down for maintenance! How do you WIN? Details Coming Shortly!
KISSES - XXX
