Reasons, a drama based on trauma and composed of a great variety of sub-genres – horror, fantasy, mystery, thriller, suspense, humour, self-help, and all part of the life of the character, Reason.
Reason meets a variety of creative characters that guide, teach, and challenge her right from her youth through to her deathbed.
Vivid, graphic descriptions of Reason’s reliving her life events as she moves through wonderful fantasy landscapes tied so beautifully to the unfolding of the story.
The writing flow I compared to a good quality road map that you need as you are heading out on a journey, but don’t know how to get there. Like a road map, there were many off and on ramps, detours, and places you stopped at longer than others. Some stopovers you tried to find a shortcut as the terrain was too heavy.
Descriptions of the various areas, portals, rooms, forests, water, characters were just amazingly made vivid. Easily seen within the mind, even with some being uncomfortable.
Reason, on her journey is learning/teaching the reader how to come back to themselves and handle life’s challenges. Humour, acting as a sedative, helps the reader continue what could be a very difficult personal reading experience. And there are many opportunities for self-help lessons.
A good read for anyone going through a transformation in life and seeking to learn about themselves.
Richard Patterson
Praise for REASONS
When picking up a book one can only hope to embark on a journey that moves them. While reading REASONS by Sherry denBoer, I found myself all over the emotional spectrum. I loved it. I hated it. I felt fear and anger. I saw beauty and imagination. And in the last pages, it filled my heart with happiness and hope.
It is everything you want in a novel.
Not only is this a challenging story of overcoming the shame of a regrettable past, it’s a tale of strength and resilience. The injustice that encapsulates Reason’s relationship with an abusive man is heartbreaking to the point it’s uncomfortable. It hurts. And it should. Abuse of a fellow human being is a battle all decent people need to fight. We should not shy away from it. But the pain the reader feels for her pales in comparison to the celebration of strength and hope she finds along her road to self-discovery.
Reason learns from many fascinating, and a few very funny characters in a parallel world.
Each character is nuanced and placed purposefully in the story. None miss the mark, and the payoffs are huge as the reader discovers how the characters of the magical world played a role in Reason’s real life. The lessons learned from them are profound, and a great reminder that people will help us along the way if we slow down and listen.
Sherry’s descriptive powers are as magical as the world she created.
She paints vivid pictures with words. From the visceral landscapes to the treacherous confrontations with metaphorical monsters, I felt as if I were seeing a movie play out in my imagination. The beauty of the magical world balances the traumatic events of Reason’s life story. It gets very dark, but the story must be told. Self-discovery is rarely found in a cute little package, but from the lowest points in our lives.
I closed the book with tears in my eyes, having learned so much from this novel.
Pain and suffering can be a gift if we can muster the strength to overcome self-imposed shame about our past. Without the bad, we wouldn’t appreciate the good. And the fires of our past can forge the beautiful person we can become if we can forgive ourselves, learn from the past, let go of our shame, and refuse to give away our autonomy.
Also, this book challenged me to never be a neutral bystander, doing nothing while evil imposes a power dynamic that threatens the autonomy of another human being.
This novel is as relevant as it gets in times like these.
I highly recommend REASONS by Sherry denBoer to any person struggling to overcome shame about their past. Not only that, anyone who loves beautiful prose, a well-crafted story, and a magical journey to wisdom and revelation.
By Josh Templeton
Here’s a brief bio about Josh: J.T. Langhorne is an author from Tennessee who loves his wife and kids, dogs over 30 pounds, and 90s nostalgia. He builds incredible sandcastles, relaxes with video games, and sucks at golf. His compelling novel Institutionalized can be found here. Enjoy reading it, and a review on Amazon would be clutch.
What’s next?
Well, lots of things! I’m currently working on another novel tentatively titled: To Cast a Shadow, and a non-fiction book tentatively titled: 42 Days in Isolation. More information to follow. Cheers and stay tuned or Sign up for my Newsletter.
