James Wymore's "Exacting Essence"...A Book Review

I met James Wymore in the spring of 2013. It took me this long to get around to reading one of his books. I finished Exacting Essence yesterday.

I shouldn't have taken so long.

I had no idea what this book was about when I began reading it. The cover shows us some spooky woods behind a girl holding an axe that's reflecting the face of a scary-looking clown. The book pretty much had all those elements and a lot more contained within its pages.

The girl, Megan has been suffering from extreme nightmares for years. They're so bad she wakes up with physical injuries and blames them on the dreams. Turns out, they're not just dreams--they have an element of reality to them that could prove deadly if you cross the wrong people while in the dreams.

Dreams fascinate a lot of people--probably why so many stories have dreams as either a subject in a story or a main plot point. Exacting Essence deals with the latter. The story begins with Megan and her nightmares. She is soon joined by Rose, a doctor who is hired to help Megan deal with terrors that come at night. In a separate storyline, we are introduced to Carrie, someone who is literally trapped in a dream. The two subplots continue until both stories merge and each victim is helped by the other.

And because this is a book about dreams, anything goes when it comes to what happens to them while they dream. The book is a quick read--a couple of hundred pages--and it opened my mind as to the possibilities that could exist in a dreamworld.

I was given the book by James last year at a convention. He wanted us to have us, mostly because the girl on the cover resembled my teenage daughter. I hope to never experience my daughter holding an axe with the reflection of a scary clown while in a spooky wood, but you never know. Good book! I enjoyed the read very much!