More Reviews

A  wonderful and uplifting adventure/love story of a boy who can predict  earthquakes and the social forces trying to take advantage of him. 

 I  loved this book. It contains local color with scenes in California and  Mexico, characters that you want to see persevere, and a balanced  perspective on the positive and negative sides of individuals and  organizations.
 Author Jerome Dobson's experience with his wife  Bridget as head writers for General Hospital, Guiding Light, As the  World Turns, and Santa Barbara has served him well. The dialogue moves  the story forward so smoothly that you forget you are reading a book.  The suspense builds because you care about the characters and you want  to know what happens to them. The story is told from the perspectives of  the different characters, which keeps the plot moving and provides  interest.
An interesting subplot is the love of reading; there is a  mysterious list of classic books that leads the characters to one  another. The list is conveniently included at the end of the book.
This  novel has a very satisfying structure that makes it a pleasure to read.  It offers an immersion experience, an escape from the everyday worries  of the world, while simultaneously reminding the reader of what is  really important.  As Amnon Buchbinder writes in his book The Way of the  Screenwriter, "The purpose of story, in a word, is meaning....stories  hold the potential to entertain us precisely because we want the wisdom  that story offers; it is a pleasurable experience." This story  definitely does its job. It teaches us about earthquakes, about the  influence of good books, and about love.  Jerome Dobson has used his  expertise as a screenwriter to transform himself into a master novelist. 

Lives  intersect in miraculous ways in this story of a little boy who survives  an earthquake that leaves him alone and angry with God. His future, as  unpredictable as the rumbling underneath the earth.
Dobson writes:  "It was the kind of day that would make big-city people, caught in  rush-hour traffic, want to chuck it all and move to the sticks..."
That's  what happens to us. We want to chuck it all and find a comfortable  chair and finish this book, because we are so invested in the  characters.
Well worth your time 

Fabulous  settings in Mexico and Western US; detailed characters, mystery,  mysticism and faith combined.  A great read and beautifully written. 

 It  is no surprise that the Emmy awarding winning, co lead writer for two  decades on mega success TV series The Guiding Light, As the World Turns  and Santa Barbara would write a knockout compelling and engrossing  novel.
Just as he had the eyes of millions  of loyal viewers  glued  to his TV storylines, Dobson has his fingers on the pulse of his readers  and knows how to keep them turning the pages!
A terrific story teller!!! 

 Jerome  Dobson succeeds at recreating the tension and anticipation that a  reader holds firm when invested into a multi-protagonist driven  storyline.

Pacing between each protagonist's individual journey  revolving around the center gem that is Daniel Pulido places readers in  the delightful situation of building anticipation in perpetuity. This  was found with my own desire to further along any of the three  respective perspectives at a given time until at last their journeys  merge.

Whilst the plot can be lauded ad nauseam it is the under  utilized structure of storytelling within a properly constructed  world  that truly stood out to me.

Paricutin joins the company of  excellent works structured in a similar manner of narration shifts,  headed by none other than "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner. 

1985,  The Mexican earthquake, magnitude 8.1, burying thousands. Teenager  Daniel is repeatedly reciting a poem, his voice finally breaking through  the rubble after 192 hours underground. His survival by imagining a  world made up from all the books he read, I found heartbreakingly  beautiful.
The church labels him a miracle. Unable to speak for  himself they invent his story with the intention to never to let him out  in the world again, to make him a person to worship from afar. They get  what they wish for when Daniel escapes the hospital and finds his own  path in life incognito. And what an adventure it turns out to be!
There's  his rage against a god that destroys good people, there are more  earthquakes and geology and we follow a collection of books from Mexico  to LA to Nebraska and back.
Paricutin is a pageturner, action packed,  full of twists and turns, with villains and heroes, wealth and poverty,  tears and laughter. An astonishing story, very well crafted and highly  recommended!