Book Review: "One Child" by Jeff Buick

One Child
Author: Jeff Buick
Publisher: Enthrill Entertainment, Inc.
ISBN: 9780986619908
Genre: fiction, thriller

About the book (taken from the back cover):

"Halima, a small girl in Kandahar, Afghanistan, dreams she changes the world.

A Wall Street MBA learns the business world can be an ugly monster.

A soldier and an embedded reporter search for answers in war-torn Afghanistan.

U2, the most popular rock band in the world, prepares to take the stage in Moscow.

There is no apparent connection between the two, yet the threads of destiny are pulling them together. And when they collide, people across the globe watch in fascination.

One Child is a reflection of how our world is now, and how it could be. It digs beneath the surface of war-torn Afghanistan through Halima’s eyes. It exposes the cost of greed. It shares the anguish of a young American soldier and the tenacity of a Wall Street MBA who learns that the business world can be an ugly monster.

From the day you meet Halima, to the moment U2 walks onstage, One Child will rock your world."

My Thoughts:

After finishing the last page, I closed "One Child" and sat in reflective silence for quite a period of time. This powerful, fast paced and emotional story held me captive until the very end. There were times when I had to put it aside to do some necessary tasks, but as soon as I had a chance, I was right back to reading to find out what was going to happen next. With the twists and turns and the ending that totally caught me off guard, I found myself finishing the book in no time - wishing it didn't have to end.

Jeff Buick is an amazing writer. He developed a very gripping storyline that hits very close to home. When he follows 4 different and seemingly totally unrelated characters, he pulled me into the story and never once did it seem awkward or make me wonder where things were going. Buick hauled me in hook, line and sinker.

The characters were fascinating and well developed with my favorite being Halima. She captured my heart from the very beginning. I enjoyed all the characters, but Halima is a character that will be carried with me for a long time.

Parental note - I won't have any problems giving this book to my older teens. It does contain some offensive language and violence. The overall message is a good one, and brings to light the realities of both war and corruption.

Note:

When asked to review this book, I was present with what I thought would be a fantastic concept. "One Child" was to be presented online for a month and each day a portion of the book would be released. It would contain biographies and pages of each of the characters, an indepth look at them and a section to get to know them better - including interaction. There would also be media that would would coincide with the book, ie: videos, news casts, etc. to make it more real. Plus, you could also interact with other readers and discuss the reading of the day. Truly a really interesting aspect to make reading this story more fascinating.

Sadly, I cannot comment much on this, as my review book and password to access these areas arrived yesterday - no fault of the publisher or author. It appears the postal system must have done an inspection with my package, and it was cut opened, then taped, and some sort of inspection label was stamped on the outside - smudged so I really couldn't read it to know exactly what happened. With that said, I was worried I wouldn't get this book done, or that I wouldn't be able to get my review up in time. However, with Buick's captivating writing style, it was not difficult to meet today's deadline.

With that said, I wasn't able to participate in the online section much. The first few days were free, and I did get a sampling. I enjoyed the extra media that went with the book, but I really hated being tied to this big old clunk of a computer to have to read each day's portion of the book. I would have appreciated the option to download each day to my ereader, and then use the interactive chapters to look things up. Personally, that is my only complaint. I thought the interactive chapters were a cool idea, and brought the book to life. Please realize that I can only comment on the first 8 days.

To find out more about One Child, you can visit the web page at www.onechildonline.com. Starting today, you have the option of purchasing this book in regular binding or ebook format.

If you would like to learn more about the author or find out what other books Mr. Buick has written, you can visit his site at: http://jeffbuick.com/

Book was provided by the publisher for me to honestly review.