Hello Again by Stan Schatt

Hello Again 
by Stan Schatt 
Publication date: November 13th, 2018
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Psychological ThrillerWhen Ben Eisner meets the girl of his dreams, he never imagines she could turn into his worst nightmare. After all, he lives in a twenty-first-century technological world and not in some nineteenth-century village where the natives fear ghosts and demons. When he begins to receive texts from his dead girlfriend, he assumes they are part of an elaborate prank, but the texts become more and more threatening and reveal information only his girlfriend knew. Texts from the dead are better left unread.  Hello Again is a psychological thriller, a paranormal spine-tingling adventure that will keep readers guessing until the last page.

Review:

Though it looked great on paper and started with a bang for referencing James T. Kirk in the first line of the book, I have to say that overall I have mixed feelings about Hello Again.

Honestly, I had a hard time with the first half of the book because I really could not get where we were going.  I do realize that some authors like to take their time setting up the backstory and the plot, but for me, it took too bloody long and I kept asking myself when we were going to get into it.

It was super descriptive (a well-known pet peeve of mine, if you are one of my regular followers, you know I like to get into things quickly and that I am not a huge fan of overinflated details), it slowed the whole story down and honestly, it did not feel needed at all.  I am happy to say that it got more interesting in the end, but I wanted that to happen much earlier in the book. There was a lot of potential to this story, but IMHO the execution was missed.

The main character Bill was okay, but he was not given any chances to make him an appealing character that can be related to or even sympathetic. All he has going for him is the fact that he is a nice guy and does a really nice thing for homeless people at this coffee shop. Other than that, I really felt indifferent to him and don’t even get me started on Amber.

Trying not to give away any spoilers, but she did nothing to me either.  She is the victim after all but I could not muster an ounce of sympathy towards her.  If I am honest, I did not like the female detective and Josh. Those for me were the 2 truly interesting ones in the book.

I was sold on the blurb and could not wait to read it, but as I mentioned IMHO and based on my personal taste, Hello Again was not as exciting as I expected. Had we more focused on the investigation and had different leads, unexpected surprises twists etc.. I do believe it would have been more up my alley and I would have been happier.

However, please remember when you read this, that it is all based on my personal preferences and we all like different things.  I like more action and get my heart beating faster, and I am pretty sure some will like this book a lot more than I did.

So please bear that in mind.  It is not for me, however, it could very well be a book that you would enjoy!  So please do not hesitate if you think so.