When The Spirit Moves You, by Thomas DePrima

One of the keys to reading unpolished literature is to ignore the purple prose while seeking the story underneath. While Thomas DePrima is gifted in storytelling, there is a raw quality to When The Spirit Moves You that is both jarring and intriguing.

You’re typically told to SHOW, DON’T TELL when writing a novel, and while DePrima sins often and thoroughly by telling a bit too much, I’m not sure the rawness of his work doesn’t make for a better tale at the end. One of the things I hated about Twilight was the blank nature of Meyer’s prose. She demanded that you put yourself into Bella’s skin; DePrima forces an outsider’s view of the proceedings, and, frankly, it’s less exhausting to read DePrima’s work. They are prima facie targeting the same audience, but Stephenie Meyer can’t possibly have intended her work to be compared unfavorably to a relatively unknown author.

DePrima’s work is creepy. I’m sorry, but it IS. I don’t know how better to put it—and as I’m generally thought of as sort of creepy myself, the yeuk factor here is sky-high. You really do learn more about the author than the characters when you read something that hasn’t been polished, fixed, edited, and prepackaged for the tweenie market. It’s like he’s reinvented Gormenghast in all its verbose detail for the Twilight set.

I will also note that while DePrima’s work is raw and needs an editor’s pen at the beginning, the story starts to suck you in about halfway through. You can tell this is an early effort from a new author, but at the same time, the tropes are applied with a light hand, and right about the time that the time travel paradox is discussed, I’m reading with the same white-knuckled grip that I used on The Firm the first time I was exposed to John Grisham.

When I write reviews, it's usually because I'm taking notes as I read. In a way, you're experiencing the book with me. I'm engaged in commentary, not necessarily providing a holistic view of a tale.

This book is worth the read. You can actually SEE DePrima improving as an author while the book progresses. The tale grips you by the last chapters, and though the end has Return Of The King Syndrome (three too many epilogues), I am going to buy the next in the series. I want to know what happens, and have gotten caught up in the story. There's a love story here that I want to know more about. There's something appealing about a book that isn't polished—isn't packaged to appeal to a certain demographic—isn't marketed to increase sales or publication share.

DePrima's on my list now.