Kicking It Old School

 Mine - Robert R. McCammon 

                                                          

      I've heard a lot about McCammon yet the only experience I've ever really had was with Blue World a short story collection. I can only remember bits and pieces of it and I have tried, and failed to read Swan Song. Mine was picked up on a whim and I thought I was going to read a straight up horror novel but to be fair, it's not, but that's not a bad thing. What we have is a story with multiple threads weaving the plot together while the core focus is on Mary Terror and the baby she's stolen to present to a cult leader. As I read about how easy it was to kindnap the baby it was unsettling and couldn't happen these days. You simply can't go into a hospital wearing a nurses uniform and just snatch someone's kid. There are two stories being told here and each plot is given equal time. You have the crazy hippie who was a memeber of a radical group called The Storm Front who sees a message from what she thinks is their leader and then you have Laura who finds that the perfect life she thought she had isn't so perfect after all. She finds out her husband is having an affair and then to make matters worse, her baby is taken from the hospital by a crazy woman. 

      All of this seems like a great idea for a novel and for the most part it is, but it moves slowly, far too slowly at times which shouldn't happen wtih a book like this. The book would have benefitted with a shorter page count and dare I say less detail? Mine has a lot of filter, characters appear that seem to have a bearing on the overall arc of the story but serve as minor breaks in the action. There's no denying that McCammon is talented and you get to experience the loss that Laura feels. It's not the loss of her baby but also the loss of her marriage. Even though Mary Terror is a vile, crazy woman who is clinging onto the past you can see just how much she believes in the cause and how just one message serves as a tipping point that may seem like madness but is so much more. These are great characters that serve as the classic story of good vs evil. We can relate to these characters and even understand their motivation. 

        It's sad to see a novel with such great potential stumble so much and so often. Mine feels like Stephen King light at times and is bogged down with too much storytelling. Trimmed down, it could have been a great novel but as it is, it's just okay. Nothing special, nothing to add to the genre at all which is unfortunate becasue it starts off so strongly but I soon found myself running out of patience. I liked the history of Stormfront and how much of an imposing figure Lord Jack was. It shows the dark side of the sixties and just how dangerous groups like this really were. Mary kidnapping a baby for a man she once loved is a great plot device and shows us just how crazy and yes, even devoted Mary is. Mine has moments of brilliance yet falls into the category of C, or D rate thrillers. It's a name you hear about often but never got a chance to read. Stumpbling through MIne I felt cheated a bit. I've heard about great he is, but I just didn't see it here. Mine is an okay read, but is a little too long to contain a simple story like this. Trimmed a little it could have been a five star read but only eeks out a meager 2 1/2.