Review: Tommy Nightmare by J.L. Bryan

Spoiler Alert!! If you haven’t read Jenny Pox, the first book in The Paranormals Trilogy, I would hold off on reading this review.

“While Fallen Oak recovers from the Jenny pox, someone new is hunting Jenny. Like Jenny, Ashleigh Goodling belonged to a pair of opposites with powers that mirror each other. Now Jenny and Seth must face the opposite of love...”

In Tommy Nightmare, we discover that Jenny, Seth and Ashleigh aren’t the only people with powers. In fact, there are quite a few more people. When we’re introduced to Tommy in the first chapter of the book, he’s an innocent foster child, unaware of his abilities when an awful accident occurs. As traumatizing as this is for Tommy, J.L. Bryan makes this scene and many others just as cringing as he did in Jenny Pox. Growing older, Tommy sees a T.V. interview of Ashleigh Goodling, Jenny’s arch enemy, and suddenly he’s feeling this pull to Ashleigh that he cannot get enough of.

On the other spectrum of things, Fallen Oak is a mess and forensics are everywhere trying to figure out what the heck happened to all these people. Meanwhile, Jenny is having constant flashbacks of her past lives as she continues to fight, accept and understand her abilities as more than hopefully a destructive weapon.

I was impressed once again with all of the unexpected places that J.L. Bryan took Tommy Nightmare. My only disappointment with this book was Jenny’s relationship with her father. You see throughout Jenny Pox that they’re close, not only due to being  father/ daughter but because that’s the only real human contact she has, but it’s as if that connection is disengaged. It’s sad, because I feel like much more could have been done with that bond. I was also surprised how small of a roll that Tommy actually played in the book. The beginning opens up with him and he is the start of a huge chain of events, but he isn’t the main storyline. This isn't noted as bad thing about the book, just simply an observation.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book as J.L. Bryan is definitely not afraid to put his characters through hell and back all for our pleasure and reading excitement. Tommy Nightmare proved to be a very worthy sequel to Jenny Pox.

My rating for this book:

Tommy Nightmare is the second book in The Paranormals Trilogy.

Note: J.L. Bryan recommends readers be 18 years or older.

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period.  He also studied screenwriting at UCLA.  He is the author of five novels and one short-story collection.  He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.  His goal is to provide highly original fiction like you won’t find anywhere else.  He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, as well as some dogs, cats, and domestic plants. You can follow him here:
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