A Book Review and I Reveal My Favorite Book of 2021

I am ready to announce my award winner for best book I have read. Yep, I have a clear winner. And, to be honest, this was not even much of a competition. This year, I deem Mr. Ronald Mafi’s novel, Come With Me as my overwhelming winner.

Seriously, I am not trying to make it sound like this is a commercial for the book, Come with me, but it is going to be unintentionally so.

So, the big question is why did I like it so much?

Imagine, if you can, careening down a path you thought you knew so well that every twist and turn of the path was known to you even before you had a chance to see the next turn in the road. I mean, you knew that path well enough that no matter what happened you thought you could handle it.

Next, I want you to imagine what it would be like if that path suddenly no longer made any sense to you and as matter of fact, now you found that monsters lie in the darkness on either side and the slope became so impossibly steep that you had no choice but to continue on for climbing back up the hill was impossible.

Ronald Malfi is a master at putting his protagonist in. I argue that this is quandary we find our protagonist Aaronn Decker in. As a matter of fact, he is so good at descending people through the levels of insanity, that I am amazed with his talents to bring you through the depths of insanity and make it feel completely natural.

Truth in advertising, I have been a Ronald Malfi fan for son long. It is hard not to love his work. You have not heard of Ronald Malfi? Have you never heard of Stephen King, or Josh Malerman? How have you never heard of Ronald Malfi, the master of true psychological horror? Well, read on and pick up a copy of this book.

In his latest offering, "Come With Me", we see the life of Aaron Decker as he is after the death of his wife. Guilt and grief stricken, we find a man searching for a way to get out of this miasmic existence when a series of strange occurrences lead him to discover something his wife, Allison, tried to keep hidden for so many years.

What was she hiding? I would argue her personal obsession as well as cross to bear. An obsession which quickly becomes Aaron’s to see through when he discovers a file of notes along with a handgun. This grabs Aaron by the nose and leads him to see the truth and complete the quest his wife was on.

By the end of the book, you finally are left to ponder what Allison means in the very beginning of the book, when she implores Aaron, “Come with me.” I know it certainly left the question in my head. A question I will certainly bother Ronald for an answer for, next time I see him. That question, and I don’t think I am giving anything up here, is this. Was Aaron supposed to die with Allison that morning? And yet, you have to read the book to understand why I ask this.

Amazingly well written, there is a danger in reading this book as it will ensure you forget about eating and sleeping. You simply have to know how it all ends and that is the challenge with a book like this. 

I really don’t say this very often, but this book really needs to become a movie and if that doesn’t happen, I will feel there is little justice in the world. And yet, no film adaptation would ever do the book justice. It is just not possible to improve on this work.

Check it out here!

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Until next time

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