The Unseen

Reading is my passion or at least one of them. So when the opportunity to review new books presented itself, I jumped at the idea. The deal is simple...the publisher sends me a book, I read it and write an honest assessment of what I think. I get a free book and the publisher gets a review.  Some books I'll like, some I'll love and some I will probably hate. So here goes:

Imagine an undercover culture of people who keep themselves apart from humanity. They work off the grid not because they have to but because they want or need to live their lives unseen. Then imagine what would happen if one member of this sub-culture discovered others who shared his compulsion to watch the lives of others not out of any perversion but rather in a quest for a connection with a subconscious memory or feeling of happier times.

Most of us have had the opportunity to "people watch" at the mall, the beach, in school, even as we drive from one place to another. It is a harmless pastime that can help to pass a few minutes or hours of inactivity and keep boredom at bay. In T.L. Hines' novel, The Unseen, the harmless pastime is a way of life that the author's hero, Lucas.

Lucas is a young man raised to be separate. When he is not washing dishes to add money to his getaway stashes, Lucas spends his days and nights living in abandoned buildings, eating leftovers and forgotten lunches from office break rooms and watching strangers. His code of ethics is simple. He watches until he feels a connection with someone, some hint that the person is aware of him. Once a connection is felt, he creates a history, a present and sometimes a future for his subject. He doesn't interact and he never goes into their private homes to watch them behind closed doors. An orphan in more ways than one, a chance encounter changes the game and moves Lucas from life on the periphery to the types of connections he never imagined. And isn't really sure he wants. 

As the basis for a novel, the story of Lucas as he discovers  a group of people with a similar compulsion to watch, it would have been more than enough to create a compelling read. Unfortunately, T.L. Hines doesn't have enough confidence in his original premise and before the end of the novel has thrown in so many unbelievable coincidences and random plot twists as to leave me feeling as if I had read not one book but at least three and none of them very good.

The biggest problem with The Unseen is that T.L. Hines doesn't know what type of book he wants to write. After setting up a fairly intriguing character in the loner Lucas, Hines introduces Donavan as the conduit for Lucas to learn of the Creep Club. The club is a group of people driven like Lucas to watch the lives of others but unlike him they also need to record and share what they see. Within days of his first encounter with Donavan, Lucas has broken his cardinal rule and is watching people in their homes. Unfortunately what he sees is a couple planning a murder and unlike the rest of the Creep Club members, Lucas wants to get involved and save the intended victim. Again, the novel could have been saved at this point if Hines had followed this story thread to a somewhat logical conclusion. Unfortunately he decides to add a government conspiracy, genetic engineering, mind control and the kitchen sink to the story instead. The result...one great big muddled mess.

So there you have it my first review. Would I recommend this book? No...not unless you're someone who enjoys reading a story that really does have everything but the kitchen sink.