From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

So. Plot. The progression of the story tracks Jamie Morton’s encounters with Charles Daniel Jacobs throughout his life -- first when he was a young child, then a few times throughout his adulthood. Jamie refers to Jacobs as his “fifth business,” a movie term that refers to a character who doesn’t fit any other description -- not a lead, not a supporting character, not an extra. Except...isn’t he a supporting character? Minus the inherent dread inspired by referring to him as “my old fifth business,” I’m not sure I really get the continuing reference. Anyway. When Jamie first meets Jacobs, he’s eight and Jacobs is his pastor -- everyone loves the Jacobs family, beautiful wife Patsy, adorable son Morrie -- but Jacobs himself is taken with Jamie. (So maybe that’s what makes him the key?) The two form a friendship, but when tragedy strikes -- Jacobs’s wife and son are killed in a car accident, and Jacobs gives a sermon denouncing the church -- Jacobs leaves town and Jamie doesn’t expect to see him ever again.

What follows may as well be a coming-of-age novel. Jamie goes to high school, falls in love, has sex, joins a band, and eventually battles drug addiction thanks to a motorcycle accident. He’s an adult when he meets Jacobs again. Hoping to score drugs at a state fair, he sees Jacobs performing photography tricks using electricity. Jacobs sees Jamie in the audience and eventually cures him of his drug addiction, using some kind of electrical gizmo. So now Jamie is in his debt. He spends several months working as Jacobs’s stagehand, essentially, before Jacobs decides to move on, solo. He’s still doing research into electricity, and he keeps talking about harnessing the “secret” electricity, something Jamie believes is mostly just talk. But still, there’s something crazy and fanatical about old Pastor Jacobs. Also, after his “cure,” Jamie spends a few years beset by nightmares about walking into a house full of rotting corpses (all family members) waiting for “mother” to arrive. But after a few years, the dreams stop, he gets a job in Colorado working for a music production studio (thanks to a favor called in by Jacobs himself), and gives little thought to Jacobs or his secret electricity for many years.

The two reconnect while Jamie is still working the job Jacobs landed him -- at a music studio in Colorado. He essentially blackmails him into helping: if Jamie doesn’t come when Jacobs calls, Jacobs won’t cure Jamie’s childhood love, Astrid (I think that’s her name...suddenly it’s been 3 weeks since I finished this book and the details are fuzzier and fuzzier!). Now in spite of the fact that Jamie hasn’t spoken to this woman in almost 30 years, he jumps immediately when Jacobs makes this offer. Jamie has spent a great deal of the intervening time between Jacobs meetings doing research -- at one point Jacobs reinvented himself as a televangelist healer, and had a popular TV show. But Jamie and his research partner start to discover the darker side of Jacobs’ cures...namely that many of them eventually lose touch with reality. Jamie himself is still occasionally plagued by nightmares, and his boss at the music studio (another of Jacobs’ early cures) has a similar vision of the ant people. Anyway, Jacobs falls off the radar for a number of years, but resurfaces with this offer for Jamie.

This was the truly horrifying portion of the plot -- Jacobs is obsessed with death, conquering death. He could, of course, have run the experiment on himself (he’s dying as much as Mary Fay is), but it’s about proving that he can triumph. The horror part was...well, horrifying, but it’s almost like too little, too late, at that point. There’s not enough dread suffused throughout the plot, to the point where the final section might as well be an entirely different book. I read another review that suggested that this (the final portion) was a novella-worthy idea stretched out to 400 pages. Which I think is the case. I’m not sure we needed all of Jamie’s childhood and various backstory in order for the story to have an impact.

In all, this wasn’t a terrible read, just sort of lacking in impact. It meanders along for nearly 300 pages and when it finally gets interesting, it’s a little hard to muster up the energy to care. I’m kind of trying to avoid thinking too hard about the ending, really, because it’s just too freaky!

This is a terrible review! I shouldn't wait so long before finishing them!