Do you like roller coaster rides? If you do, you're in for a treat if you choose to read Horn Pattern. Indeed, the adrenaline never stops no matter what page of the book you happen to be on. The story starts out in Toronto, Canada (actually, there is a brief scene in Japan that precedes it, but Toronto is definitely the home base). The reader is almost tricked into believing that he or she is experiencing another day in an ordinary teenager's life - just as a roller coaster will falsely lull its riders into believing that it is utterly harmless as it secretly and slowly climbs its way to the top with a clackety-clack. The teenager in question is named Lorissa Vollist, and though she seems fairly normal, she is enshrouded by a dark, mysterious force. This is an entity that the reader gets to glimpse, to guess at, but it is always hiding, always lurking, never quite showing its face. Lorissa, who lives with her grandparents, is invited by her estranged father one day to spend her vacation with him in a place called Yelidin, a small town surrounded by countryside several hours from Toronto. Hesitantly, Lorissa agrees to go and finds herself surrounded by the splendor of her father's mansion complete with several servants. She discovers that all of the women who live in Yelidin dress in an antiquated yet fashionable way (it has a name, but I would rather you learn it through reading the book instead of me giving it away). Lorissa is anything but on vacation in Yelidin with all of the family and town secrets that she is busy deciphering and this dark force, taunting her while the reader follows right along in a frenzy of adrenaline.
Gretta Hines is without a doubt a master storyteller. No matter how intricate Horn Pattern becomes, the reader will always know where he or she is in the book. There is no sacrifice of clarity in order to provide suspense and excitement as there is in many other books that I've read. I also like how the author intervenes from time to time to give the reader a message. This reminds me of the device that Miguel de Unamuno used in his book Niebla. I also detected a clear Edgar Allen Poe influence in the story's gloominess, in Hines's foreshadowing. She has a knack for engaging the reader by using suspense, by hinting at what is to come without revealing it until the right moment. Her style is clean and crisp without being pretentious. She is more than able to juggle different registers in the speech of the various characters. Ms. Hines has a wonderful knack for describing women's clothing and accessories — things that I as a man would not know how to describe or name, nor would it occur to me to mention them.
The best reason for reading this book is that it is a quality story. You won't be bombarded by clichés or run into dead ends. You might say that this book is best suited for teenagers and young adults because Lorissa Vollist is 19 years old. However, I can assure you that it has appeal for adults as well. Go ahead, let your imagination run wild. Satisfy your curiosity. Horn Pattern awaits you here: http://www.amazon.com/Horn-Pattern-ebook/dp/B00DXNGA82/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374955123&sr=8-1&keywords=horn+pattern+gretta+hines
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