Black Fire - Hardcover

James Kidman

3.28

46 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1587671069 ISBN 13: 9781587671067

Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications, 2004

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What color is the fire of your soul?

It's been seven years since the life shattering event that Eddie Farris thinks of as The Showdown, the night he killed his father in self-defense. Seven years since his world was almost completely destroyed. Seven years of trying to put his life back together and trying to put the past behind him. But sometimes the past doesn't want to stay dead. And sometimes the dead come back to haunt you...

In Eddie Farris's case, the dead are coming back with a vengeance. Who is the strange, mysterious figure who seems to be following Eddie, taunting him, threatening him? He can't be the person Eddie thinks he is. That man's been dead for seven years. Ever since the night of The Showdown, when Eddie killed him...

Nothing in Eddie's world is quite what it seems to be, and he will soon discover that you never really escape your destiny; it burns within the fire of your soul...

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

The doctors say this will help me heal.

In the days since I awoke from the white haze, the world has been a blur of blinding lights and muffled noises and distorted memories fading in and out of reality, in and out of my dreams and nightmares. Machines beep and hum. Voices carry down the hallway. Somewhere, someone screams for reasons I can only begin to imagine.

I'm trapped in my own little hell.

A personal inferno.

The lights are bright during the day. At night they dim so I can sleep. That's never a problem, although my dreams are haunted by visions of the recent past. Nothing solid. Every moment is like gazing into a broken mirror. Echoes of confusion. Flashes of movement. But those echoes grow louder and the flashes become brighter with each passing night.

I'm eighteen years old, and the doctors say I'll recover from my wounds.

Right now my side aches, as if the bullet is still in there. I feel the burning, like a white-hot knife is being jabbed into my flesh.

The drugs create a fog in my head, but I can't imagine the pain without them. The pain comes in waves, blinding me, branding my mind.

I can't remember much. Not yet.

But I know a way to recover the memories, to rebuild what I once had.

I told the doctors how I can remember what happened, with a little help from them.

I told the doctors I used to write every day.

The act of putting words on paper has helped me through a lot of difficult times. My fears and dreams, spoken through other people's mouths. My fears and dreams, acted through other people's bodies. Nothing real, all fake, all make-believe, yet all reflections of reality.

After some discussion, the doctors have decided it's what I need to do now: I need to write.

My memories are distant and disjointed, but I'll try to make this as coherent as I can.

The doctors tell me to write, so that's what I'll do.

I'll write about the day my life changed forever.

I'll try to explain The Showdown, if I can discover what that really means.

I'll write this down like any other story I've ever dreamed up.

Like any work of fiction that has ever lived inside my mind, and inside my mind only.

What I can't remember, I'll piece together along the way.

I'll pretend it's all make-believe.

But:

This is real.

This is what happened.

This is why we had to run.

Why my flesh was torn open.

Why I'm here now.

It's why I'm alive and others are not.

I've lost everything that ever mattered to me.

But I'm going to get it back.

From Publishers Weekly:

In his highly readable horror debut, Kidman employs several narrative tactics (including flashbacks, dreams and journal entries) to tell the moving story of Eddie Farris, a 20-something writer with an overactive imagination who killed his father, Michael, seven years earlier in self defense and is still suffering severe psychological consequences. Making matters worse is the fact that Eddie still lives in tiny Black Hills, Pa., where the town residents treat him like a freak. When Eddie's high school sweetheart returns, claiming to be stalked by a resurrected Michael, Eddie's life spirals even further out of control. The brutal murder act, referred to as "The Showdown" by Eddie, isn't actually depicted until the book's end. Instead, Kidman refers to the incident throughout? slowly foreshadowing and building tension as the reader becomes emotionally invested in the characters. Readers journey with Eddie through an adolescence made miserable by his abusive father, and they share in his blossoming romance and brutal breakup with his former girlfriend. Unfortunately, a contrived conclusion cheapens the plot and may leave readers feeling duped.
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