The Possession (The Anomaly Files, 2)

Man, I couldn't wait to get into Michael Rutger's new novel, THE POSSESSION. Coming hot on the heels of last year's great tale, THE ANOMALY, I was sure it would be a superb follow-up. Boy, was I wrong! I can't believe the same writer churned out this weak, listless and nebulous tale?! There weren't any eye-opening revelations, or any AHA moments, or any plot twists as there were aplenty in its predecessor. It just seemed to me that Rutger couldn't form a cohesive plot this time around. I'm not giving up, though, as he is a big-time author and everyone deserves a do-over. But this one is not recommended!

I'm not sure what to say about this book. It's an odd story to say the least.

It starts off very slow with the four characters from The Anomaly Files looking into odd walls that have existed for decades around a town in Northern California. The setup is interesting enough to google the facts that are being presented about similar walls existing around the world. Nolan's (the on screen talent of the Anomaly Files) ex-wife Kristy, a journalist, is also in the same town looking into a missing teenager.

The story jumps between the walls being documented/researched and the possible abduction of the teenager. It's a slow setup and about 1/3 of the book the teenager comes back from the "abduction". It now becomes about the teenager and witchcraft, attempting to tie in why the walls exist. With dream-like sequences and jumps between characters stories, the book becomes a jumbled mess that is hard to follow or even care about.

The author (Rutger / Smith...whoever) shoehorned the characters from the first book in the series (?) into a this confusing story that eventually becomes about guilt from the characters past.

It honestly took me two weeks of reading other books in between to finish the last 50 pages. This was the one book this summer that I was looking forward to and it ended up being very disappointing. If there are more books in this series to be published I'll be waiting for other reviews before purchasing. No more preorders for this author.

I was looking for an adventure story, but got a Lifetime/Syfy original instead.

I jumped into The Possession immediately after finishing The Anomaly and can only say one thing: what a letdown.

I adored the adventure, mystery, tension, creepiness, and thrills of the first novel. Basically none of that was present in this sequel. The only real connection is the characters, which are all still very likeable and fun, but the thrills of adventure, mystery of the unknown, and loose horror elements were nowhere to be found. Instead of seeking out an impossible place, we're looking for rocks in the woods of a boring town... which don't ever really amount to much even in the conclusion of the book. Instead of weird anomalies and dangerous environments we have a creepy little girl and a misty small town. Instead if scifi elements, we have zombies but they aren't actually zombies? Instead of powerful dynamics of preservation of friends and self, we have a crummy love story with a side plot involving infidelity.

Honestly it was a MAJOR disappointment. The pacing was a bit of a mess and the plot was a bit confusing. The ramp-up to anything interesting was long, and the last 1/3 of the novel was a chore to get through. The ending was just as disappointing as the rest of the novel with no conclusion to the major connection teased throughout the story. Even readers of young adult fiction would be disappointed here.

As someone who LOVED The Anomaly, this sequel is an absolute skip.

*This review contains spoilers at the end*

The Possession is a follow up to Michael Rutger's fairly successful novel, The Anomaly. After that success to The Anomaly, Rutger decided to turn the adventures of our motley crew of mystery investigators into a series. And I am glad he did. The Anomaly introduced to a fantastic group of characters that the book really let us get attached to, without shelving any of them and only taking them down when convenient to the plot. So I was very excited to see what this next book in the series would do with these characters that I had fallen in love with. The end result was decent, though not as satisfying as I had hoped.

Let me start by saying that if you are going into this book based off that title and cover then you will probably be disappointed. The Exorcist this is not. If anything the book would have been better off with a title that addressed one of the more central themes/threats in the book, which is witchcraft. Yes, a possession is one the themes of the book, but is not as central as several other plots going on in the story. It also felt like a little bit of a cheat, which I will explain in spoilers down at the end of this review.

Let us focus on some of my non-spoiler things about this book first. As stated, I loved the characters from the first book, and we really got to know them all. In the first book our group was isolated from the rest of the world and so we really only had them to focus on. Every character felt important and well fleshed out. In The Possession we are taken out of the cave and now in a small town, where the few key town folk all have their own agendas and secrets. That was good, because every character in every story should have their own goals that they have. The problem was that there were too many new characters introduced. Not only are we following the returning characters, but about a dozen new characters as well. It became a bit of a character soup, and not all of them furthered the plot at all. I would often find myself wanting us to go back to our main characters and didn't care about the majority of the new characters at all.

One of the central new characters is Kristy, who is Nolan's ex-wife that is mentioned throughout the previous book. Her inclusion, for me, was both a good and bad thing. It was nice to learn more about this character we only heard about in the previous novel. However, she was pretty much the star of this book, and I did not find her as charismatic as the other characters. Not every character is going to be charismatic, but it is a big shift when those are the kinds of characters we have gotten accustomed to following in this series. The first book mostly just followed the POV of Nolan, while this book shifts POV a lot. One would think that this would mean that the writer maybe didn't know what more to do with his character, but that does not feel like the case. Nolan is consistent as ever, and his POVs are arguably the best in the book.

When we are in the POV of Nolan, we feel like we are in a true sequel to the original book. His relationship with the characters, his info dumping, his volleying with Ken, etc. It was everything I wanted in a sequel. Sadly we don't get as much of it as I would have liked, but we do get a good amount. We his character grow even more, which is another thing we expect in sequels. And I feel like he is the only returning character who does. Other characters grow, but they're new characters and that is easier to do than with returning ones.

The central mystery is an interesting one, and Rutger definitely did a lot of research for the book. These mysterious walls all across the world, including the one found under the Hudson river, the history of religion and their treatment of those suspected of witchcraft, etc. The book provides a lot of history that stands up under scrutiny. He does a fantastic job with that part of the book, and normally it would feel really forced, but in this case it works because Nolan is a buff of strange things in history. It never felt like exposition.

For the rest of our returning cast, they are all just okay. It is them, but they felt like background characters a lot of the time so that the book could focus on Nolan/Kristy/The Town Folk. It felt almost as if Rutger didn't know what else to do with these characters, one in particularly, which is a shame since there was so much that could be done with them. I was happy to have them back, but I just wanted to see more layers of them - or more of them in general. Towards the end of the book we do get this, but the ride to get there just wasn't as rewarding.

I know it looks like I have said a lot of negative things about the book, and you may be confused as to why I have given the book four stars. I will explain. The main mysteries of the book are fascinating. Things are confusing and it is fun to solve the mystery alongside the characters. The setting, while limited in what is explored, is fun and unnerving. There are multiple mysteries going on and figuring out how they are connected is exciting. The book moves at a brisk pace, and does get the heart racing - just not as much as the first. Overall, it was an enjoyable read and that is why it has the rating I gave it.

Now for some spoilers, and my opinions on them.

The New Characters - As I said, I felt the book had way too many new characters, and that it did not need them all. None more than Gina/Her Husband/Kurt. That was one messy subplot that I did not care about in the least. It did nothing for me, and the book would have felt the exact same whether these characters existed or not. Then there are the teenage twins, who serve a purpose earlier on, but then later on just kept reappearing despite not adding anything to the book. The same goes for the principal and his son. The same could be said for the father of the twins. Val/Alaina/Mr. Hixon were all good new characters, and I enjoyed seeing their importance in the story. I know that it is a town and we need to see it is populated to make it feel real, but I think the book would have been much tighter if it just focused on our returning characters, Kristy, and then the three new, good characters. Then we may have gotten more Pierre, instead of him just being a zombie puppet pretty much the entire book.

The Conclusion - I liked and disliked the ending. Parts of this book had great scares, but the pacing got thrown off for me by character bouncing so much. I just wish it was cleaned up and tightened a bit more. Getting to see more of Molly, with her telling off Kristy was fantastic and felt like she had finally come back to life. Nolan talking with Pierre and really caring about this guy he had originally been bitter about in the first book was great. Ken and Nolan working together like the old chums that they are - lovely. That is what a wanted way more of in the book, and I am happy that we at least got it in the end. The end of the threat came about in an anticlimactic way. The happy ending felt forced, and I wish it had been a bit longer and maybe a death or two tossed. Didn't ruin the book for me, but it would have made it more enjoyable for me.

Questions I still have - Kristy tells the annoying Gina about how she understands her regrets and poor decision to have an affair. It is unclear whether that refers to her blaming herself for her childhood friend being kidnapped or if she had an affair and that led to her divorce from Nolan. Maybe a little clue as to what will come up in the next book, if it ever comes out? Why does Kristy just take off in the end? I get what she is doing back home, but why cut off connection from the people who saved her life? What happened to Kristy's big exploration and being really popular, which was mentioned in the first book? Those are just a few that I have.

Ultimately, the book was an enjoyable read. Almost everything connects together fairly well, and things are sprinkled throughout and it mostly ties up nicely. I loved seeing my beloved characters again. We got a lot of cool history and a fun mystery. Could it have been tighter - yes, but either way, I was happy we got this book. I look forward to see if another will come out.

This is a great second chapter in the Anomaly Files. Just like the fist one, it is a slow burn. It couldn't have as big of a reveal as the first book because that twist was simply too epic. This story is creepy at times, and heartfelt. Rutger has a way of embedding insights about life into the story in an authentic way. I can't wait for the next installment.

Love this book.

I've always been a Michael Marshall fan, and I have really enjoyed his Anomoly Files books. The first was really entertaining, but The Possession was even better. I'm hoping to see these characters again in more books.

This book just never had the feel of the first one. The plot wasn't bad per se but it had some continuity issues that I could not get over and the dynamics of the characters that was front and center in the first book, was sadly missing here. 2/3 of the way through I found myself tuning out and not caring about what was happening.

Also, I felt that given the circumstances of the first adventure, the fact that they rarely if ever talked about what happened before and just how little impact it had on them currently...well it was just unrealistic.

I really like The Anomaly files concept and the mains and I will definitely keep reading but id like to see the writing style emulate the first book and not this one going forward. But that's just like, my opinion.

I love this book it has a great mix of Horror , Thriller, little bit of Sci-fi. It's a real page-turner . Fast paced , and I really enjoyed the characters. I also loved the first book in the series THE ANOMALY.

This was a hard book for me, meaning I had to force myself to finish it! I so enjoyed the first book in the Anomaly series and was looking forward to being reacquainted with Nolan and his team on another adventure as they film for The Anomaly Files! I was disappointed, this one just didn’t click for me.

The author starts us off in one very creepy town! He gives good visualizations of mist moving through the woods and town. The mist curls, it moves, it has “a kind of motility to it”. Another oddity that presents in this town are walls, walls made of rocks built in the past that no one knows why they are there. With a missing teenager added into the mix you have the beginnings of a good read. For me it just didn’t come together!