Customer Reviews

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• Lauren Peroni

  Hannah’s Visions, Sam Sterk, PhD. Austin Macauley Publishers, 2020 Be prepared for an engaging, dark plot with complicated, realistic characters, and just the right amount of horrific tension. The new YA novel from Sam Sterk, PhD entitled Hannah’s Visions (September 2020) is compellingly destined to become a good read for any season. Publishing under the Austin Macauley imprint, Sterk is a New York educated sport psychologist, psychoanalyst, and a certified master clinical hypnotherapist whose emerging voice has much to say about the YA paranormal murder mystery. The novel’s story centres on the disturbing psychic encounters of 17-year-old acclaimed artist Hannah Cohen and the consequences of those murderous visions as they permeate her family, primarily her father, Yoni, a local lead police detective eventually assigned to investigate multiple heinous crimes. Though a bit more sinister and gruesome compared to other examples of the YA genre (one genre refusing to adhere to the rules of more rigidly defined literary fiction), Sterk offers a fresh and intriguing perspective on an otherwise rote scenario in his 290+-page debut effort. The novel’s plot may ring familiar with devotees of the genre, yet Sterk provides enough nuance and surprise developments to keep even the most jaded reader engaged. Beginning with Hannah’s sophisticated, almost rigid outlook and seemingly forthright relationship with her protective parents, the author manages to put a fresh spin on the travails of the young girl coming to grips with her paranormal abilities. As the author explains, “a murder is committed, a young lady is nearly fatally stabbed to death, and the attacker is now after Hannah.” True to her heroic and brave spirit, Hannah takes matters into her own hands to save her family and herself. Sterk’s character development left the reviewer horrified, sweating, and then turning page after page to read more. While the language and graphic descriptives may give some pause, Hannah’s Visions offers a reassuring dose of the familiar with a dash of the new, providing its readers with enough convention to be promising and enough terror to keep the reader on edge. Highly recommended.

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