My Rating ~ Four stars

4-gold-stars copy

DUE FOR RELEASE: 26 June 2018

Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Format: E-Arc

Blurb

Just as Jeremiah Goodbye is set to meet his fate in the electric chair, a tornado tears down the prison walls, and he is given a second chance at life. With the flip of a coin, he decides to return to his home town of Nowhere, Oklahoma, to settle the score with his twin brother Josiah. But upon his escape, he enters a world he doesn’t recognize—one that has been overtaken by the Dust Bowl. And the gift he once relied on to guide him is as unrecognizable as the path back to Nowhere.

After one jolt in Old Sparky, Jeremiah sees things more clearly and begins to question the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murders he was accused of. On his journey home, he accidentally rescues a young boy who follows him the rest of the way, and the pair arrive at their destination where they are greeted by fearful townspeople. When the Black Sunday storm hits the very next day, the residents of Nowhere finally begin to let the past few years of hardship bury them under the weight of all that dust.

Unlikely heroes, Jeremiah and his new companion, Peter Cotton, try to protect the townspeople from themselves, but Jeremiah must face his nightmares and free himself from the guilt of flipping the coin on those men who died.

Filled with mystery and magic, What Blooms from Dust is the story of finding hope in the midst of darkness and discovering the beauty of unexpected kindness.

Review

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Jeremiah, known as the coin-flip-killer, went to the electric chair for four murders. But Jeremiah didn’t die. Saved by a storm that destroyed the prison five seconds into his execution, he flees and makes his way back to his home town to confront his twin brother, who handed him to the authorities in the first place.

The town, called Nowhere, is a desolate town. The drought has taken everything from its people and left them with devastating dust storms they struggle to survive on a daily basis.

Along the way, Jeremiah picks up a young boy, Peter, he feels compelled to save when he sees his mother trying to sell him, to a man Jeremiah knows is bad news. Knows, because all his life he’s been able to sense flashes of things people have done, whether those people are good people, or not.

Once Jeremiah is back in his home town, a strange dust storm makes its way through, and it’s people start to act in odd ways. Will Peter, the strange boy who has no words, only repeats what others say, and Jeremiah be able to unravel the mystery of what is happening? Can they bring the townspeople back from the brink and discover unanswered questions about Jeremiah’s guilt or innocence before it’s too late?

I really really enjoyed this book. Parts of it got a little strange, but the story was mesmerizing. The descriptions of the dust storms had me holding my own breath, and the hopelessness the people felt just seeped through the pages. A book where ‘hero’ and ‘villain’ are mingled and not clear cut, it gave me Stephen King vibes, without the long winded descriptions I associate with him as an author. I much preferred James Markert’s style of writing, where we get the same haunting chills and strange happenings, without 12 pages dedicated to describing the contents of a cupboard (no disrespect to Mr King, I love his books, but I do prefer things to move along).

This story was creepy in an almost drifting way. The characters lives were well intertwined and I loved the way the story came together. I had frequent goosebumps and although it did get a little strange toward the end, the mysteries were revealed and didn’t leave us hanging!

I’d classify this book as historical adult magical realism and highly recommend it for fans of Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

Made with Repix (http://repix.it)