eBook Naomi ePub

I sometimes got bogged down in places, but before I was thoroughly put off, the story would pick up again, until I finally was able to finish it.
Mr .Clegg is an author whose work I have read and enjoyed in other works. This is not a particularly easy read, but if you enjoy reading stories of depraved bastards getting their just desserts through curses, this is your book.

it was so so

In Douglas Clegg's newest paperback novel, NAOMI, Jake Richmond has moved to Manhattan to escape the ugly memories of Carthage, Virginia. It was in Carthage that Jake fell in love with his childhood friend, Naomi Cross. When something bad happened to Naomi as a teenager...something that she couldn't even talk to Jake about, she eventually left and moved to New York City. It wasn't long before Jake followed her. Though Jake looked for his lost love, he never found her until it was too late. Instead, he started a career as a writer, got married, and had a wonderful child. When Jake's wife leaves him for another man, he once more begins his search for Naomi, only to find out that she committed suicide by jumping in front of a subway train a few months before. The body of Naomi may have been torn apart by the train, but not her spirit for she is destined to return to help destroy an evil that caused her death hundreds of years before when she was a young girl, living on a plantation in old New York. In order to win this battle, Naomi's spirit will need the help of Jake, as well as the help of a woman named Maddy (who owns an old brownstone in Manhattan where the bones of several murdered witches are found buried beneath the basement floor) and a homeless boy who calls himself Romeo and knows the subway tunnels like the back of his hand. All the players are gradually drawn together to finish their roles in a drama that was started in a previous lifetime, and only a few of them will survive the final confrontation between light and darkness. While not having the action and intensity of YOU COME WHEN I CALL, Mr. Clegg's newest book has great characters that drive the story forward and a premise that held my interest. The author is extremely skillful when writing about the ambiance of teenage life, especially where young love is concerned. He's able to capture the innocence, the hope, and the melancholy with stark clarity that brought back memories of my younger years. Mr. Clegg also knows how to weave the intricate details of a story, creating an atmosphere of suspense and dread that permeates each layer of narrative as it gradually unfolds. I found myself loving the characters of Jake and Naomi, wishing that they could have found each other as adults and fulfilled the possibilities that their long relationship seemed to promise. I also liked the details of Manhattan's subterranean caverns that house the old subway tunnels, and where hundreds, if not thousands, of homeless people live. I found the City of the Forbidden where the Serpent (evil incarnate) lives underneath Manhattan to be well-drawn and frightening in nature. I did think, however, the ending was a little too quick and that the novel could've used another twenty pages or so to wrap things up in greater detail. Anyway, I believe NAOMI is a wonderful weekend read and is recommended to those who enjoy a well-written tale of the supernatural. Though Mr. Clegg has yet to write his breakout novel (a novel that hits the top ten on the bestseller lists), I feel confident that it will soon happen. This author has a talent that keeps drawing me back to him. There's only one thing I would like to say to Mr. Clegg: please work something out with your previous publisher and have your out-of-print novels reprinted for your growing mass of fans. You have several that I would like to read. Perhaps Leisure Books could buy the publishing rights and print them under their logo. These would certainly add to your popularity as an author.

"PURITY" was an excellent appetizer for one who's never read a Douglas Clegg novel.
"THE HALLOWEEN MAN" was a pretty decent main course, although I found parts a little stale with too many ingredients.
"NAOMI," however, was a poor choice for dessert. What started out as a very intriguing plot (man discovers long-lost girlfriend has committed suicide and learns of her dark past but still claims to see her, believing that she isn't dead yet) ends in a ball of silly confusion and rather too quickly. I'm not for one to really dwell on the negative, but it's difficult not to when you expect something more from a talented author. Douglas Clegg has created in "NAOMI" a handful of charaters that are truly hard to appreciate: Maddy is completely unbelievable; Jake is often too sweet and sincere for his own good; Laury often speaks like an adult rather than the child she is. Only Romeo and Naomi (who only really lasts for the first few pages) seemed to have more than one dimension. Unfortunetely, neither get the story-line they really deserve. Then there's the interwoven plot of 18th century witches that seems to pick up so suddenly that the reader doesn't get much time to digest the first few chapters of the novel that revolve around Naomi, Jake and their lives apart following an intense love for one another (a subject often repeated in Clegg's stories). Despite all of this, I did find "NAOMI" a fast read due to the short chapters and not a complete waste of time. The witch-massacre storyline was incredibly vivid as well as the world beneath the NY subway lines, both working very well together as two entirely different backdrops. And I also enjoyed the the hunt for ancient witch graves and artifacts underneath Maddy's home -- just not her as a character. All in all, "NAOMI" may not be up to par with Clegg's other novels (granted, this one was written online, a few chapeters a week), but it's a decent summer-time, red-eye flight type of book.

Jake and Naomi were both born in Carthage, Virginia, a place where evil stands side by side with the righteous. Neither one had a descent family to turn to for support so they clung to one another. At seventeen Naomi left town to attend school and a year later Jake followed her though they never stayed in touch with one another. Thus, Jake is shocked to elarn that his childhood sweetheart died by falling onto the tracks of a New York subway station.
In a bizarre coincidence, Jake rents an apartment in Greenwich Village just across the hall where Naomi lived. When he goes into the subway to catch a train, he swears he has just seen Naomi walking on the tracks. When it happens again and other weird things occur, Jake wonders if Naomi is dead or is her restless spirit trying to communicate with him. Either way, Jake knows that he cannot ignore what his senses tell him for if he does he will go slowly insane.
Douglas Clegg has written a complex, suspenseful, and exciting horror novel that contains several levels of understanding due to strong subplots that tie back to the prime theme. The story line includes several likable and not so likable characters, but the show belongs to Jake who must contend with the curious and crazy happenings that engulf him.

Harriet Klausner