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Transformations in Pain
Bestselling Series!
Xander Drew's newfound Shifter abilities are put to the test when he must help identify and stop the young women of his small town from being victimized by an unknown man. In this disturbing second chapter of the bestselling thriller , Xander and his friends must learn that the real monsters plaguing their town don’t have claws.
Trigger Extreme violence, sexual assault, and strong themes. Reader discretion is advised.
Buy the book that bestselling author Paul Carberry “Is unrelenting and full of surprises. You will never want to leave Coral Beach.”
Xander Drew's newfound Shifter abilities are put to the test when he must help identify and stop the young women of his small town from being victimized by an unknown man. In this disturbing second chapter of the bestselling thriller , Xander and his friends must learn that the real monsters plaguing their town don’t have claws.
Trigger Extreme violence, sexual assault, and strong themes. Reader discretion is advised.
Buy the book that bestselling author Paul Carberry “Is unrelenting and full of surprises. You will never want to leave Coral Beach.”
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2008
3 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Ledrew
72 books62 followersMatthew LeDrew has written over twenty novels, some of which have gone on to become Canadian and international bestsellers.
Since 2007 he has traveled all over Canada promoting his work as well as teaching seminars on writing and publishing.
He currently holds a Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grant and an ArtsNL Professional Projects Grant for the completion of his first two Newfoundland-set novels, a treasure-hunt novel and a literary fiction novel exploring toxicity within the Newfoundland arts scene, respectively.
He holds an Honours Degree in English from the Memorial University of Newfoundland with a minor in Anthropology. He studied Journalism at College of the North Atlantic in Stephenville, Newfoundland. He has worked with Transcontinental Publishing as well as student-youth magazine The Troubadour.
He has been called "the face of Newfoundland Genre writing" and is one of the most successful authors working and living in his province today.
Since 2007 he has traveled all over Canada promoting his work as well as teaching seminars on writing and publishing.
He currently holds a Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grant and an ArtsNL Professional Projects Grant for the completion of his first two Newfoundland-set novels, a treasure-hunt novel and a literary fiction novel exploring toxicity within the Newfoundland arts scene, respectively.
He holds an Honours Degree in English from the Memorial University of Newfoundland with a minor in Anthropology. He studied Journalism at College of the North Atlantic in Stephenville, Newfoundland. He has worked with Transcontinental Publishing as well as student-youth magazine The Troubadour.
He has been called "the face of Newfoundland Genre writing" and is one of the most successful authors working and living in his province today.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 14, 2017
Transformations in Pain (Engen Books, 2008), the second release in Matthew LeDrew’s Black Womb series, is an odd duck. Whilst reading, I was exhilarated, angered and frustrated – often all for different reasons.
At its heart, this novel is a thriller with sci-fi and horror undertones. The driving force is how the characters, mostly teens and a few adults, of Coral Beach react when a series of violent sexual assaults shake their town. Keep in mind, dozens of people were eviscerated not too long ago.
LeDrew kicks things off by flexing his largest literary muscles. The Newfoundland author is superb at crafting action scenes and balancing pacing during tense moments. In the Prologue, a woman is desperately trying to outrun two shadowy stalkers. Teasing us along, her fate is soon revealed: “Eventually the screaming stopped, long before her terror was over”.
Alexander ‘Xander’ Drew, the main character (Anti-hero?) of the series, wakes up from a stupor covered in blood. Xander (whom I’ll refer to as such to avoid confusion with the author) is still deeply affected and scarred over the loss of his best friend and love of his life, Sara Johnson. Understandable seeing as he’s the one who killed her. Her death wasn’t entirely his fault, though: an evil corporation planted a bizarre organ inside Xander, spawning an organism with an intense bloodlust. On the plus side, it also granted him some pretty cool abilities, a Venom-like suit and the ability to speak in a different typeface.
Xander tries to return to normal life but he just can’t do it, a fact that worries his friends deeply: Mike Harris and girlfriend Cathy Kennessy. LeDrew throws us a curveball early in the count by having Xander share his pain by revealing his ‘situation’ to Harris and Kennessy.
When Transformations in Pain focuses on the mystery elements, it moves at breakneck speeds. The dialogue is sharp – another common trait in LeDrew’s novels – and the plot weaves together quite cleverly.
In spite of the good, there are definitely some problems that have made rating this book rather difficult. To get the nitpicks out of the way, Transformations in Pain – like the first in the series – has a handful of errors, particularly of the typographical variety. Most are cosmetic and from what I’ve read online seem to have been corrected in new editions. One stylistic choice I hope is standardized is the alternating references to characters by given and surname.
At times, it feels like the book dragged or meandered. I certainly appreciate authors building up their plot but some early scenes, especially the ones occurring inside the school approximately one-fifth into the story, could have been tightened.
What really stands out is the warm/hot reaction to sexual assaults (and crime in general) in Coral Beach. Some people are terrified and refuse to step outside, some brush it off and traipse through parks, alone, at night. Sexual assault is not something that should ever be taken lightly and Mike’s reaction is a realistic one: he wishes to go after those responsible for hurting fellow students. Of course, if he was only so brave to rally against the one responsible for shredding the flesh of a best friend, and dozens of others. Oh, wait: that was Xander. Mike’s decision to maintain a friendship with one villain to fight another seems rather odd. You know what they say, though: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The police – and most, if not all adults in general – seem powerless or comically inept. Even through suspension of disbelief, this can be infuriating and cause the reader – at minimum – to yell at the incompetence shown by the ‘grown ups’. I have reconciled this fact by treating the Black Womb series like a grisly, modern Scooby-Doo in that the kids are the only ones capable of solving mysteries.
Overall, I still enjoyed my second visit with the tortured souls of Coral Beach. As frustrating as things can get, a greater loss is to have not read the book at all.
At its heart, this novel is a thriller with sci-fi and horror undertones. The driving force is how the characters, mostly teens and a few adults, of Coral Beach react when a series of violent sexual assaults shake their town. Keep in mind, dozens of people were eviscerated not too long ago.
LeDrew kicks things off by flexing his largest literary muscles. The Newfoundland author is superb at crafting action scenes and balancing pacing during tense moments. In the Prologue, a woman is desperately trying to outrun two shadowy stalkers. Teasing us along, her fate is soon revealed: “Eventually the screaming stopped, long before her terror was over”.
Alexander ‘Xander’ Drew, the main character (Anti-hero?) of the series, wakes up from a stupor covered in blood. Xander (whom I’ll refer to as such to avoid confusion with the author) is still deeply affected and scarred over the loss of his best friend and love of his life, Sara Johnson. Understandable seeing as he’s the one who killed her. Her death wasn’t entirely his fault, though: an evil corporation planted a bizarre organ inside Xander, spawning an organism with an intense bloodlust. On the plus side, it also granted him some pretty cool abilities, a Venom-like suit and the ability to speak in a different typeface.
Xander tries to return to normal life but he just can’t do it, a fact that worries his friends deeply: Mike Harris and girlfriend Cathy Kennessy. LeDrew throws us a curveball early in the count by having Xander share his pain by revealing his ‘situation’ to Harris and Kennessy.
When Transformations in Pain focuses on the mystery elements, it moves at breakneck speeds. The dialogue is sharp – another common trait in LeDrew’s novels – and the plot weaves together quite cleverly.
In spite of the good, there are definitely some problems that have made rating this book rather difficult. To get the nitpicks out of the way, Transformations in Pain – like the first in the series – has a handful of errors, particularly of the typographical variety. Most are cosmetic and from what I’ve read online seem to have been corrected in new editions. One stylistic choice I hope is standardized is the alternating references to characters by given and surname.
At times, it feels like the book dragged or meandered. I certainly appreciate authors building up their plot but some early scenes, especially the ones occurring inside the school approximately one-fifth into the story, could have been tightened.
What really stands out is the warm/hot reaction to sexual assaults (and crime in general) in Coral Beach. Some people are terrified and refuse to step outside, some brush it off and traipse through parks, alone, at night. Sexual assault is not something that should ever be taken lightly and Mike’s reaction is a realistic one: he wishes to go after those responsible for hurting fellow students. Of course, if he was only so brave to rally against the one responsible for shredding the flesh of a best friend, and dozens of others. Oh, wait: that was Xander. Mike’s decision to maintain a friendship with one villain to fight another seems rather odd. You know what they say, though: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
The police – and most, if not all adults in general – seem powerless or comically inept. Even through suspension of disbelief, this can be infuriating and cause the reader – at minimum – to yell at the incompetence shown by the ‘grown ups’. I have reconciled this fact by treating the Black Womb series like a grisly, modern Scooby-Doo in that the kids are the only ones capable of solving mysteries.
Overall, I still enjoyed my second visit with the tortured souls of Coral Beach. As frustrating as things can get, a greater loss is to have not read the book at all.
May 28, 2015
Had to deal with a lot of strong emotions while reading this book. Matthew really knows how to create not only villains that you hate with a passion but also main characters that you feel so much for their plight that you can't help but envision them as real people. Was thinking about this book and all the things that occurred in it for quite some time after I finished reading it.
Enjoyed it from beginning to end, well besides the burning hatred I felt for the bad guys.
Enjoyed it from beginning to end, well besides the burning hatred I felt for the bad guys.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews