Roberta Writes – Book review: Pull by C.J. Finch for Rosie Amber’s Book Review Club

What Amazon says

Alex isn’t just running from his past—he’s running from everyone’s.

Born with the ability to see people’s memories by touch, he spends his days trying to shut out the lifetime of traumatic memories he’s collected while he focuses on his work at his brother’s tech company, desperate for some semblance of a normal life. But that proves difficult with rumors of security breaches at rival companies, and the mysterious disappearance of a beloved employee.

Just as he feels he’s about to take a step toward normalcy, a violent kidnapping turns his world upside down. Unable to stand by any longer, Alex must turn to his ability to search for clues in the memories of the people around him to find the perpetrator before the ransom clock ends.

Pull is a mind-bending thriller with a plot that twists and turns, leaving you unsure who to believe and asking yourself… are you one of the good ones?

My review

I reviewed this book in my capacity as a member of Rosie’s Book Review Team. If you would like your book reviewed, you can contact Rosie Amber here: http://rosieamber.wordpress.com/.

This is a unique and fascinating story about a young man, Alex Hemsley, who has the ability to absorb other people’s memories when he touches them. This gift is not small and manageable as he does not read flashes of memories but rather every memory the person has. This talent has a positive side as he can ‘pull’ someone and gain all their knowledge thereby gaining a huge intellectual advantage. The down side is he also sees anything bad a person has done. He can also feel the persons dark emotions.

The story kicks off with Alex assisting the police with the interrogation of a suspected child molester and murderer. The murderer deliberately touches Alex thereby passing all the details of his unbalanced and cruel mind and emotions on to Alex, along with all his memories of the numerous murders he has committed.

The story then moves on to Alex in his job as the head of security for his brother, Drew’s, data storage company. Some of the data stored is highly sensitive and relates to details about people who have made information deals with the police in exchange for new identities. Many of these people are very evil and, through the eyes of the families of their victims, do not deserve police protection. Drew’s company and the companies of his competitors, make a lot of money out of the data protection services they provide.

Drew informs Alex that one of their competitor company’s has suffered a major data security break and that information has been leaked. He tells Alex to tighten security in anticipation of a similar attempted breach. The brothers quickly become embroiled in a murder and kidnapping where the ransom is the provision of their company’s data in each for the life of the victim. With the clock ticking, Alex and Drew set out to try and find the kidnapped woman and Alex is pressed into using his skill as a ‘puller’ to help their investigation. During the course of inquiries, Alex discovered another type of ability called ‘pushing’ where the ‘pusher’ can implant false memories into the minds of their victims thereby manipulating their memories, thoughts, and actions. The kidnapper appears to be the mysterious ‘pusher’ but who is this person, and why does he/she so desperately want the secret data held by Drew’s company?

Due to the nature of the villain and their ability to ‘push’ people and override their real memories, the story takes on an unreliable narrator perspective which is very interesting. It does mean, however, that the reader needs to read with attention as there are periods in the book when you don’t know what is real and what isn’t. The reader has to stay on his/her toes to pick up the unreliable parts and where the story changes.

I enjoyed this novel and this clever plot immensely and recommend it to readers who like a book that’s different and a bit challenging. 

Purchase Pull by C.J. Finch from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0GTN68QSM/