Title: The Hides (The Timmy Quinn Series: Book 2)

Author: Kealan Patrick Burke

Release date: May 1st, 2005

As a reminder – I’m reading each of these as part of the collected Timmy Quinn omnibus – Stage Whispers. This is the second novella. To find my review of the first, click here;

https://stevestredauthor.wordpress.com/2022/12/23/book-review-the-turtle-boy-by-kealan-patrick-burke/

Book two. The sequel. Always a worrying time, right? Can the author do the first justice? Will we still feel the same about the main character and his plight?

There’s very few authors out there who you know you don’t need to worry about handling the lofty weight and heavy goals of a sequel and one of them is Kealan Patrick Burke.

Book two is a different beast than book one. Where the first introduces the ‘curse’ Timmy Quinn now endures and carries with him, book two furthers how it has effected his existence, his family and Timmy himself. ‘The Hides’ is also a literal and figurative return home for Kealan, as described in the afterword. It has parts that felt almost lifted (in a good way) from his debut ‘The Master of the Moors,’ but as he mentions, this is set in the small town in Ireland where he grew up and the reader can absolutely feel that with the whimsical and realistic way spots are described.

What I liked: ‘The Hides’ opens with Timmy and family dealing with life after the events from book one. Things are different now. Everyone expects Timmy to bring back the dead and heal their hurting hearts. As his parents marriage crumbles, Timmy follows his father as he heads to Ireland for a new job and return to where he grew up.

Patrick Burke does such a phenomenal job of showcasing characters emotions and often it’s done with simple, minimal phrasing. I feel like if an editor suggested he add in some purple prose he’d react with anger and would spit in their direction. His writing is concise, purposeful and always at a level that makes other writers question what in the hell they think they are doing with their own work.

Unfortunately, this is a Timmy Quinn story, so as soon as boots are on the ground, he begins to sense something and when we find out the horrible truth of his families history there, as well as the real reason for his grandma being so insistent on him joining his father, the reader is left feeling anger and sorrow for Timmy. Sadly, it’s an all-too real occurrence in day to day life, where family members feel they can use their family members to better them, even at the detriment to those they say they love.

The beast that Kealan introduces here is fantastic and one that makes you wonder if anybody will even survive the ending. It works really well to showcase the internal battle Timmy is facing – save himself or save his family – and Kealan doesn’t flinch when deciding for us.

What I didn’t like: So, when I finished this last night, I had to let it stew for a minute. At first I was slightly disappointed in that this went so far away from what I hoped to learn from book one. But, then I shifted my focus and understood that this is a continuation of Timmy’s life, not a straight follow up on the events that happened in book one, which we all too often get with series. If you’re looking for simply more about The Turtle Boy, you’ll be bummed to not find any of that.

Additionally, while the monster was amazing, I do wish we got a bit more of it. A longer battle maybe. Saying that, it does work really well and it didn’t feel like a book where we have 500 pages of hardship to only have the hero kill the big bad guy in a paragraph.

Why you should buy this: Frequently, I see people say they refuse to start a series as they’re afraid it’ll never be finished. Well, no worries here, all five books are done and dusted. Book two is a phenomenal follow up to book one and, Kealan has done a great job of moving Timmy’s life along, dealing with family issues, girlfriend issues and his new reality of seeing between and beyond the veil. This one rolled along really nicely and now I can’t wait to dive into book three.

5/5

The Hides;

Stage Whispers Omnibus