The Rundown
The premise is simple. An aspiring screenplay writer brings his old friend out to Hollywood from Philly to write a commissioned screenplay. They’ve been set up in the life of luxury, with a house and cars provided by the studio.
Unfortunately for the studio, one of them is more fixated on the former resident of the house – Tom Mix – than he is on the movie he’s supposed to be writing and the other is more interested in drugs and partying.
As the house starts to spook them with unexplained events they rely on external input from people who are familiar with the reputation of the house to validate their experiences.
I had high hopes for The Ghost of Tom Six. A promo teased its solid 5-star rating on Amazon and the description of a ghost story set in Hollywood had plenty of potential.
Potential is the key word to bear in mind with this book. The writers clearly had passion for their subject matter and were fixated on some events in Hollywood history that lend themselves to potential hauntings. Within all the historic tidbits and events in the book there’s a tale that could have been more effectively told but the work seems to lack proper editing.
Technical issues are common through the work. Incorrect punctuation is used with dialogue tags and in some places periods are used where question marks are needed. The manuscript is inconsistent with some of its own mistakes and that makes it harder to let the technical issues slide. It’s very hard to present a flawless book in published form. Typos can be inserted by writers, editors and typesetters. In this book it’s the prevalence of mistakes and the nature of some of those issues that raises questions about a lack of proper editing. For example, reading on my Kindle at the 14% mark the reader is told Tom Mix was married 7 times to 6 different women but at the 11% mark the writer had stated Mix had been married 5 times, noteworthy because it was 3 more times than Cherry had been. This kind of narrative inconsistency underscores the need for developmental editing.
On the content side of things there’s a tendency to repeat information. Not everything shared is essential to the story or contributes meaningfully to character development or the plot, either. Certain elements feel overemphasized, such as Cherry’s pursuit of drugs, and the kind of creep out factor that could have been developed through the narrative is quashed by characters who, for much of the first part of the book, don’t seem overly worried about anything spooky that might have happened and don’t change their habits. This is more of a story about how they are possessed; one by an obsession with Tom Mix and one by an addiction to drugs.
The Recommendation
In a curious way, this book may be more about how Hollywood breaks people than anything else. Underscoring all the stories of tragedy that emerge throughout the book is the simple truth that Hollywood is a place where people lose themselves – through ruined careers, ruined relationships, drugs or unforeseen circumstances.
Be warned – there are many technical issues littering the pages. If you’re a reader who finds that frustrating then you will want to carefully consider if this is the right book for you.
Lots of potential here, but it fails to come together in a compelling way.
The Rating
2 Stars (out of 5): Needs work/not ready for publication. This book might have promise, but it is in need of a rewrite and/or extensive editing.
The Pros & Cons
Pros: HumorCons: Character Developement, Dialogue, Formatting, Plot Sometimes Jumpy, Plotline, Simple Writing, Typos
