#caleb james

Okay, gonna start out with the corrupt!peip au because it is the first one I want to talk about rn. (If you want to go straight to Caleb James, there is a marker for where that begins.)

So in the beginning, it is just John, Hannah, and Lex on the run together. At first, Lex really doesn't like John because she is a rebellious teenager and he works for the people who have just been psychologically tormenting her. But Hannah trusts him immediately (also helps that Webby tells her to trust him as well) and eventually Lex starts warming up to him.

During their time together on the run Lex and John form this weird snarky sarcastic father-daughter relationship where like 80% of what they say to each other is sarcasm, but Lex still doesn't fully trust him. Then at one point, they are staying in this small town under fake aliases and on the spot, Lex comes up with a lie that she and Hannah are John's daughters.

Hannah and John also bond a lot because they both have ASD and also John is really good at helping her out when she is having a panic attack. They don't spend a lot of the story directly interacting mainly because Lex is protective and she doesn't trust John at the start, but eventually they spend some time together and he kinda unofficially adopts him.

Then eventually Ethan turns up! Yay! John almost instantly adopts him as his son, and they bond a lot early on over their mutual love of mechanics and working with their hands. I don't have much of a plan for when Ethan arrives. But he probably arrives kinda wounded ('cause running from the government is dangerous) and John helps patch him up which instantly wins a bunch of approval from Lex. (Especially because they had gotten into an argument shortly before Ethan shows up.)

Then after a while (like a solid couple of months for the characters), we finally have the return of Xander! John is overjoyed to see him again and they have a very sweet reunion which is kinda interrupted by peip soldiers trying to kill them... again...

Xander is not really a person who gets along with kids much (social anxiety!Xander my beloved), but he eventually befriends them. Plus, him and Ethan bond over both of them having to go on month-long searches for the people they love.

Also, Xander and Hannah bond over art, because I feel like that, would be adorable and I am a big fan of artist!Xander as well.

So yeah, that is what I have planned for our chaotic weird found family who are on the run from the government.

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Now onto my personal original story:

Caleb James

"My name is Caleb James, I'm seventeen years old, and last week- I died."

I don't quite remember where this opening sentence came to me, but as soon as it did I was immediately hooked to this story that didn't even exist.

This is a story about a teenager who lived in a small town in a small family with a boring life. I mean sure there was always legends of ghosts and ghouls, but what small town doesn't?

His family wasn't anything strange, his dad was the local town pastor, his mum is a stay-at-home mum who sells pyramid schemes to her neighbours and friends, his older sister is a rebellious stoner, his younger brother is the golden child with his entire life planned out ahead of him.

But Caleb's just Caleb. He's the middle child, no expectations, no worries, no controversies, he is a boring kid with nothing important going on.

And then he died, he doesn't quite know how he did, but he's dead and buried. But his soul isn't in heaven or hell- it is in the wheatfields.

A week after he died he woke up in his childhood home all alone, the power still works, but there is no signal or internet and the tv is nothing but static. But there is something strange when he goes outside, his house isn't on the street he's been on for his entire life.

His house is in the middle of endless wheatfields.

He tried going through the wheatfields and it took him all day, but he ended right back up at his house. As if the world was looping on itself with the endless fields.

The story covers him trying to find out where he is, what happened to him, and what the creature in the wheatfields is. It follows both his afterlife in the Wheatfields and his life back when he was alive.

This book was so weird, but I couldn’t put it down.

The whole plot and scenes were so much different than what I was expecting. I was anticipating a more typical fantasy world and having the bulk of the story take place there. That was not the case. The “world” (it’s more of a realm) they were taken to felt more like wonderland. It was very sporadic and strange, so I was thrown off a bit at the beginning. Once I kinda accepted it, I was able to enjoy it a lot more. Also, the majority of the book takes place in New York City instead of this realm, which was a surprise, but I enjoyed it.

As for the plot, the author decided to do some of the most random things I’ve ever read. Out of nowhere, something would be happening seemingly unrelated to the plot. Like, it wasn’t bad, just confusing. One time a guy turned into a frog out of nowhere, that wasn’t explained. At some point, they found themselves on an American Idol-est show. Just really weird stuff going on, but not bad weird, just weird. I knew what was happening, but unsure of why it was happening.

The characters were enjoyable. Alex is a great protagonist. He’s smart and quick thinking in a bad situation. Very rational and caring. Jerod played a much bigger role in the novel than I initially thought he would. He was very humorous and was a good anchor for Alex throughout the story. I do feel their relationship was a bit rushed. The whole relationship formed within a few days, so that was a bit of a drawback for me. But I still enjoyed their antics. Alex and Jerod worked well together and were a funny pair.

Also, it was very obvious to me that there was a lot of fey folklore entwined with this story that I’m sure I missed. When something strange happened, I couldn’t help but wonder if the explanation lied with some old mythology I didn’t know about.

Overall, I have a very neutral feeling about this book. That’s why I gave it three stars, I think that’s the most neutral rating I can give. The plot was crazy and some things just seemed very out there, but I guess it worked well because I was interested in the story the whole time. I don’t even really know how I feel about this book besides the fact that I was interested.

This is the first book of a three book series.