| Were we talking about winning the lottery then "it could be you" is a pretty positive statement, but we are not. Instead we're talking about Justin Robinson's Everyman, recently released upon an unsuspecting world by Books of the Dead press. If you're tired of vampires, werewolves, and the other tried and tested ghosts and ghoulies of popular fiction, then Justin's book may be just what you've been looking for, as here we are introduced to a relatively under-represented creature, the doppleganger, but with an undeniably modern twist. I can remember reading about Dopplegangers in primary school, the old legend stating that if you ever met your exact double, then your time in this life would soon be cut short. Robinson takes this idea and moulds into into his own through the character of Ian Covey, a man who can assume the likeness and identity of his victims with a view to stealing their lives, and escaping his pitiable own existence. Covey may be an unpleasant character, but there is an undeniable sadness to his own story that adds an extra element to both the story and the villain himself. The fate of those whose lives are stolen comes to be worse than death itself, as his victims remain alive, but dispossessed of their identity. This leads to an amalgamation of these lost souls into a combined entity, the story of which runs parallel to that of Covey. It's a complicated idea, and a many threaded novel, but Robinson does a great job of pulling it all together and keeping all of the strands coherent. To find out more about Justin Robinson and Everyman check out this interview by Weston Kincade |