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    Wide Open
    Wide Open
    Wide Open
    Ebook338 pages4 hours

    Wide Open

    By Deborah Coates

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Wide Open by Deborah Coates is the first book in a series of "startlingly original" (Booklist) contemporary fantasy novels set against the sweeping prairies and desolate byways of the American Midwest, creating "a rural backwater where the normal and paranormal seamlessly merge." (Publishers Weekly)

    When Sergeant Hallie Michaels comes back to South Dakota from Afghanistan on ten days' compassionate leave, her sister Dell's ghost is waiting at the airport to greet her.

    The sheriff says that Dell's death was suicide, but Hallie doesn't believe it. Something happened or Dell's ghost wouldn't still be hanging around. Friends and family, mourning Dell's loss, think Hallie's letting her grief interfere with her judgment.

    The one person who seems willing to listen is the deputy sheriff, Boyd Davies, who shows up everywhere and helps when he doesn't have to.

    As Hallie asks more questions, she attracts new ghosts, women who disappeared without a trace. Soon, someone's trying to beat her up, burn down her father's ranch, and stop her investigation.

    Hallie's going to need Boyd, her friends, and all the ghosts she can find to defeat an enemy who has an unimaginable ancient power at his command.

    --

    Wide Open has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel, appeared on Locus Magazine's Recommended Reading List for first novels, and was chosen as a Tor.com Reviewer's Choice Pick for Favorite Book of the year. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction claimed that it is "one of the best first novels I've read in a long time" and Library Journal agrees that "fans of urban fantasies should enjoy the kick-ass [heroine]."

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 13, 2012
    ISBN9781429988117
    Wide Open
    Author

    Deborah Coates

    DEBORAH COATES, author of Wide Open and Deep Down, lives in Ames, Iowa, and works for Iowa State University. Her short fiction has appeared in Asimov's and Strange Horizons, as well as Year's Best Fantasy 6, Best Paranormal Romance, and Best American Fantasy.

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    Reviews for Wide Open

    3.5/5

    54 ratings7 reviews

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    • 4/5
      See the full review on Short & Sweet Reviews.

      Wide Open isn't set in your typical paranormal or urban fantasy setting. There's no big city, no subway, no skyscrapers or fancy cars or people with secret identities and hidden pasts. Rural South Dakota isn't where books in this genre are usually set, but the desolate landscape, where major city conveniences are miles away and the local bars really are places where everyone knows each other, is perfect for the story that Deborah Coates tells.

      This book isn't what I expected at first, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It's a story of ghosts and magic and secrets in small town America, where everyone knows everyone else's business but no one wants to talk about it. The sense of fear and anxiety is almost something you can feel as you're reading, and it stuck with me long after the book. I don't think this book is part of a planned series, but I would gladly read more with these characters. I felt like we were just starting to get to know them by the time the story wrapped up, so I would love to see what happens next to them.
    • 2/5
      Check out this review and more like it on my blog -- Written Permission

      I saw this book in the “New” section of my library’s website, and it seemed interesting. I didn’t really know what I was getting into with it. I think I expected more general fiction/mystery with a ghostly touch. But instead I got weird. Like. Just very odd.

      The premise (reading the Goodreads blurb) of Wide Open is OK enough, but for me it seemed like there were too many forces at play in the book. We had ghosts, we had the fact that Hallie is in the army, we have the big bad and his ancient power. And they didn’t really play nicely together. Not to mention that the fact that Hallie is in the army doesn’t really play much of a role in the book, except to give her a) a reason for seeing ghosts, b) a timeline, and c) something to repeat every few pages. Points A and B could have easily been taken care of by something else.

      Pausing on Hallie for a moment, I have a bone to pick with how she was written. Swearing all the time does not make a badass character. Being in the army does not make a badass character. There needs to be a certain attitude, and I really didn’t find that Hallie had that. On the subject of characters in general, I didn’t find anything stellar here. Boyd was pretty typical sidekick, and the rest of the characters are firmly secondary.

      The pacing of Wide Open was weird to me. A lot of time was spent investigating without really finding anything out. All the while, Hallie is counting down the days in her head until she has to leave to go back overseas. I imagine that Coates was trying to instill a sense of being rushed, or panic, but I didn’t feel it at all. I didn’t get emotionally invested in the characters or the story. I was mildly curious to see how it would end, but it didn’t have a great ending either. Not enough explanation for my tastes.

      Bottom Line: Wide Open has too much and not enough going on. It didn’t grab me, and I wouldn’t recommend it.
    • 4/5
      This is an interesting book I discovered thanks to a reviews on a review blog I follow: in short, Sergeant Hallie Michaels comes back home from Afghanistan on compassionate leave after the death of her sister Dell – an apparent suicide. What's different about Hallie is that, after a near-death experience on the battlefield, she now sees ghosts. And Dell's ghost seems intent on leading Hallie on an investigation on what looks like a series of murders tied to a conspiracy.

      The story is compelling and it leads in quite unexpected directions, building slowly momentum while fleshing out the various characters in a very appealing way. I liked Hallie quite a bit: the author balances her on the dangerous edge between grief, post-stress traumatic syndrome and hard-headed determination. One of the more appealing facets of her personality is her reaction to the ghosts: Hallie takes their presence in stride, with what looks like a soldierly, no-nonsense attitude that is quite refreshing, showing how she is not the kind of person that's easily swayed from her goals.

      Besides a well-crafted protagonist, the book excels in the way the ghosts themselves are presented: no eerie and moaning presences, but rather silent, almost distracted ones that nevertheless nudge Hallie, little by little, toward the necessary discoveries. It's a subtle way of approaching the paranormal that I found quite appealing and that was well balanced both with Hallie's down-to-Earth attitude and the story setting.

      If I were to find some faults in this book they would be in the depiction of the "bad guys": they feel a little stereotyped, a little bit "too much" for want of a better word. But it's truly a minor nitpick in a book that works very well through a faultless mood-setting and keeps the reader interested and involved from start to finish.
    • 4/5
      I found this book to be a real page-turner. The plot was nicely twisty, the characterizations very good, and the atmosphere was brilliantly well done- perfectly moody and often sinister.I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars, though, because some of the questions we were encouraged to ask at the beginning never really got answered, even though the plot as a whole was resolved. The Big Bad's magical prowess was not adequately or coherently enough explained for my taste, too- and there were several red herrings that just seemed to be forgotten about rather than resolved when the plot moved in a different direction.Al this was not especially noticeable while one is reading the book- it's very gripping! However, if one thinks about it afterward... well, I have questions.Still, it was an enjoyable read, and did capture well some of the weirdness of South Dakota small towns.
    • 4/5
      Lovely. A supernatural mystery, with ghosts, that's nicely paced and tense without being over-the-top. The protagonist has, for once, very good and clear reasons for the very typical urban-fantasy-heroine brashness, and she's well-developed and believable throughout. The love interest is also fascinating, in that he fills a very typical niche without setting off any of my asshole alerts, which is sadly rare in the subgenre. Most enjoyable. I look forward to the sequel.
    • 3/5
      Lately, I haven't been as into urban fantasy as I was in past years, but when I was approached with a request to check out Wide Open, I admit to being fascinated by not only the synopsis, but also the gorgeous cover. I've admitted it many times - a good cover can suck me in.Deborah Coates had a fascinating idea for this book - the presence of lingering ghosts, the mystery of an unsolved murder of a sister of the protagonist, and other supernatural elements all can combine for an electrifying, fascinating story... but there was almost too much.As I was reading, I found myself getting distracted, wondering if maybe there was too much. Don't get me wrong, I was entertained - as long as I didn't stop to think too hard. But I do stop to think when I read, and there just wasn't enough of an explanation for what was happening.It's a fine line - that line that separates the real from the supernatural. It's a hard one to walk because I understand that, as an author, you don't want to reveal too much so holes aren't poked into your story, but yet.. there still has to be something to make the story believable in its unbelievably (if that makes sense?). I think that Coates tried to do this - but the end felt rushed and unsettling, with a focus shifting toward another aspect of the story rather than the strangely large paranormal aspect.I'd recommend Wide Open as a story that is entertaining as surface pleasure, but don't go into it expecting for everything to be fully explained or, like me, you'll end up a bit disappointed.
    • 4/5
      When I was invited to participate in the blog tour for Deborah Coates’ debut WIDE OPEN, I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t heard much (anything) about this book before I received the synopsis in my email. Well, it called to me and told me, “Read this book!” The plot, the setting, the ideas – the synopsis is really good in so many ways. I heartily accepted Tor’s offer and received my copy of WIDE OPEN and dove in.WIDE OPEN is the story of young soldier Hallie, a South Dakota native who has come home on bereavement leave after the death of her sister Dell. The police think Dell committed suicide, but Hallie disagrees. The fact that she sees her sister’s ghost – among others – just makes her that much more desperate to investigate what really happened to her sister. What she finds out is something that involves ancient powers, disappearances, and a company with sinister intentions. Along with sheriff’s deputy Boyd, Hallie ends up being the only person who can stop things before they hurt more people.I admit, I am somewhat conflicted about this story. I think the biggest problem I had was with the main character, Hallie. She was almost insufferable. Not only is she rude and brash to the people in her life, but she keeps everyone – including the reader – away, keeping her arms crossed and her mind closed. Likewise, I think the characterization in the story was somewhat off, comprising multiple characters that seemed only like a semblance of a person. Even Boyd seemed slightly off. But Hallie was by far the worst character, and the one that almost prevented me from getting into the story.But the story… The plot is great, the setting is amazing, and the author’s vivid description of the South Dakota prairies is thrilling. I might want to vacation there now! Mount Rushmore, that place they mentioned in Jurassic Park… Even though there were some clunky sentences that could use refinement (trust me, Deborah Coates has a great future ahead of her with her writing style), the book’s prose was tight and clean. The contemporary setting with family drama mixed with mystery and fantastical elements was such a wonderful change from the explicitly paranormal or explicitly contemporary. Being used to having one or the other, never both, I really enjoyed the way Coates’ mixed them into a compelling story.Once you get past a slow build and unraveling of the story, the ending is thrilling and worth the wait. WIDE OPEN is not a novel for everyone, but if you can get into the story and past the prickly character, this is definitely a novel full of intrigue and excitement that you’ll want to pick up.VERDICT: Although beleaguered by a nasty protagonist, WIDE OPEN is a book with great writing, unique setting, and wonderful details. Check this one out!

    Book preview

    Wide Open - Deborah Coates

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