(More 3.5 stars)

Just not my thing. It began to lose me with cellular memory and became ridiculous from there.

Let me just start by saying right off the bat : if you’ve never read a Paul Cleave book, you are seriously missing out! It seems to me like not enough people are talking about him and they should be as he’s a fantastic voice in the thriller genre! I was introduced to him a few years ago by my dear friend Dom and I’ve not looked back since. I always expect some level of uniqueness from this author and once again, he absolutely delivers.

Joshua was born blind and is convinced he’s been cursed from birth. But when the man who was raising him, a police officer, is killed along with the murder suspect he was chasing, things will start to look very differently. In more ways than one. Joshua gets a new pair of eyes but due to a bit of an incident, he ends up with one eye from the police officer and one eye from the killer.

This is the sort of premise only a genius like Paul Cleave can come up with. A Killer Harvest has such a complicated and intricate plot, yet it’s executed brilliantly. There’s quite a large cast of characters but it never gets confusing. While the storyline is rather dark and disturbing at times, you can always count on the author to somehow add a dash of humour along the way. There were moments where I surprisingly snorted with laughter while being simultaneously utterly grossed out.

This is one of those books you just can’t put down, perfect for binge-reading. Well-paced, suspenseful and with a spine-chilling conclusion, it held my attention from start to finish. Yet it’s also quite thought-provoking at times as some murkier intentions come to the fore. Absolutely phenomenal! This is a must-read and I highly recommend you pick this one up and also check out Cleave’s other work. He deserves to be on everyone’s list of go-to authors and I absolutely can’t wait for whatever Paul Cleave comes up with next!

Suspense thriller with a cool premise but the end went off the rails. Worth a read if you need a fast suspense.

Believe it or not, I have never read a Paul Cleave novel before! I know, I know, from what I hear, I am seriously missing out. I was pretty pumped when #cjsreads decided to pick up A Killer Harvest, the newest publication by Paul Cleave for one of our August reads. Chelsea, my good friend from The Suspense Is Thrilling Me, had raved about this one to me months ago so I was going in with pretty high expectations. I am glad to report that this novel met (and surpassed!) all my expectations. I binge read this one over the course of a few hours and was left with a serious book hangover.

Sort of a mix between sci-fi, thriller, and mystery, Cleave weaves a seriously addicting novel from the first pages. A detective is killed in the line of duty and his murderer (a known serial killer) is also killed. Hours later, a blind teenager, Joshua, goes into surgery to receive a set of eyes to try and restore his vision; after a mishap, the teenager receives his sight after obtaining one eye from the detective and the other from the serial killer. As Joshua gains his sight, he begins to recognize people he shouldn’t recognize (after all he has never seen them before) and seeing memories from someone else’s life, leading him to realize that perhaps he is dealing with cellular memory. As Joshua begins to discover what this means, and another murderer hell bent on avenging his partner’s death, Joshua finds himself in grave danger.

Crazy, right??

I loved how this novel sort of had a sci-fi, medical thriller vibe but it was extremely realistic. Could this potentially happen in real life? Maybe? I’m not sure but it absolutely had me thinking there was a truth to be told. Cleave has a serious honesty about his writing that had me hooked. I loved the characters and found Joshua extremely likeable and relatable, even as a young adult character. The story never felt young or over exaggerated (which is a problem I often find in adult literature with a YA narrator). Cleave was able to find a perfect balance.

This book was non-stop action and I found myself violently flipping pages as I devoured this novel. The ending was my absolute favourite. I loved how Cleave chose to tie all the various storylines together.

Overall, I would highly recommend this novel for anyone who enjoys a fast paced, thrilling read. I gave it 5/5 stars.