REVIEWS: The Mesmerist

Third person pov, linear structure, starts right off into the action with Moody on a train noticing a young woman and in his immediate desire for her and empathy for what he guesses is a sadness within her, he hypnotizes her and they go off to live happily ever after.

The author, Michael Knight, gives us a setting, a situation, and a follow-through within the first three paragraphs.  He also offers a conclusion–had no conflict arisen to move the story out further.  A "stranger" enters the picture to threaten the happiness of the couple.  What Moody has noted is a natural talent of Penelope–her piano playing–turns out to be of prize-winning value as the stranger has been after Penelope to award her this prize.  The solution of course–and we can only be happy that Moody has caught the man in time–is to hypnotize him and send him on his way, no one the wiser.

Here is the ultimate protagonist wanting something and when conflict arises, finding out just how far he’ll go to achieve and hold onto the object of his desire. It need be noted that even while it appeared that Moody wanted to make Penelope happy, having sensed her sadness (which truly was not established by her confirmation), he understood because he had felt that sadness, that loneliness.  Therefore, he in fact was really only seeking to better his own situation, compounding it by taking her former life away from her.

There’s some nice language use: "He bent and picked up the picture, stood looking at it until Penelope’s music came back to him, a melancholy sound on the fragile air."  But then, what exactly is "fragile air"?

The ending is a bit diverted into a rollout of the future, bright and happy as he sees it, as long as he maintains control over her past.  The last line, "Moody wondered if their footprints would be covered by morning" indicates to me that there will always be the threat of Penelope finding out the truth, and like the snow, he must cover their tracks.

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