Book Review: The Misconception: A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger, and One Scary Mother!

The Misconception: A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger, and One Scary Mother! by Owen Jones
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

While this short story is about a twelve-year-old girl, I would hesitate to share it with a reader of the same age. Our protagonist, Megan, is locked in a pitch dark, dirty, bug-ridden basement by her mother, who’s trying to expel the supernatural powers from her. Her father is completely unaware of this abuse.

The situation is the setup for Megan to explore the limits of her powers, as a way to escape, if only in spirit, from the basement. She has two mentors that are helping her – the spirit of her deceased grandfather, and the ghost of a Siberian tiger.

It’s an intriguing premise. The author dives into the storytelling wholeheartedly and without flinching away from the harshness of Megan’s circumstance. It’s clear this is a subject dear to his heart – and this is just the first of over twenty more installments about Megan’s life.

The writing leans more towards a narrative style, with character dialog only coming into play when absolutely necessary. The story starts slowly, perhaps because the author is still finding his footing, but picks up the pace soon enough. There’s a few typos, missing words, and unclosed parentheses scattered about, but not so many to distract completely from the story. Still, it would be good to run these novellas past a proofreader.

If you believe in or have an interest in supernatural powers, including astral projection, you may find Megan’s predicament intriguing.