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    Turtle Boy
    Turtle Boy
    Turtle Boy
    Audiobook2 hours

    Turtle Boy

    Written by Kealan Patrick Burke

    Narrated by Patrick Lawlor

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    School is out and summer has begun. For eleven year old Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete Marshall, the dreary town of Delaware Ohio becomes a place of magic, hidden treasure and discovery. But on the day they encounter a strange young boy sitting on the bank of Myers Pond a pond playground rumor says may hide turtles the size of Buicks everything changes. For it soon becomes apparent that dark secrets abound in the little community, secrets which come cupped in the hands of the dead, and in a heartbeat, Timmy and Pete's summer of wonder becomes a season of terror, betrayal and murder.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAscent Audio
    Release dateFeb 5, 2013
    ISBN9781469086736
    Turtle Boy
    Author

    Kealan Patrick Burke

    Born and raised in a small harbor town in the south of Ireland, Kealan Patrick Burke knew from a very early age that he was going to be a horror writer. The combination of an ancient locale, a horror-loving mother, and a family full of storytellers, made it inevitable that he would end up telling stories for a living. Since those formative years, he has written five novels, over a hundred short stories, six collections, and edited four acclaimed anthologies. In 2004, he was honored with the Bram Stoker Award for his novella The Turtle Boy. Kealan has worked as a waiter, a drama teacher, a mapmaker, a security guard, an assembly-line worker at Apple Computers, a salesman (for a day), a bartender, landscape gardener, vocalist in a grunge band, curriculum content editor, fiction editor at Gothic.net, and, most recently, a fraud investigator. When not writing, Kealan designs book covers  through his company Elderlemon Design. A movie based on his short story "Peekers" is currently in development as a major motion picture.

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    Reviews for Turtle Boy

    4/5

    112 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Short and sad. Now I want to know more about other books in this series.
    • 5/5
      While this was a predictable little story it still had all the great elements. Great characters, a little freaky, compelling, and as a bonus it leaves you with a set up for sequels.
    • 5/5
      Creepy and hauntingly beautiful, I could not stop listening once I played it. Just an amazing story
    • 5/5
      Great story. A few very haunting moments. I would love to continue the series.
    • 4/5
      Turtle BoyBy: Kealan Patrick BurkeNarrated by: Patrick LawlorIts a good paranormal mystery but it does have have child abuse mentioned. It is a fairly short book but has a lot packed into it. Suspense, good mystery, ghosts, and murder. Good narration!
    • 4/5
      I like Burke's writing. He portrays a real world and believable characters. Plus, his stories are often uniquely scary; SOUR CANDY is a perfect example of this. And while THE TURTLE BOY was good, it also felt slightly splintered.Timmy Quinn is eleven years old and home from school for the summer. He is excited to spend it with his best friend Pete. However, a dark discovery at the beginning of summer leaves Timmy alone for most of the summer. Until his mom intervenes and forces Pete to be friends with a girl, Kim Barnes. Together they discover the darker secret behind the dark discovery.The story is solid and enjoyable. The characters are interesting and believable. The disjointed part was that the novella was part Young Adult and part adult. It seemed that Burke was creating his own YA character that teens and pre-teens could follow. The novella had all the characteristics of a YA novel. However, at the same time, the story seemed a bit intense and graphic for a YA story. Personally, I liked the extra intensity but then as the parent of a pre-teen, I'm not really part of the YA audience. There are five books in the Timmy Quinn series by Burke, so I imagine that it has resonated with people fairly well. Hopefully Burke is finding and pulling in the next wave of new readers who love horror and who like that extra-gore instead. I'm kind of digressing. I found the story fun to read, it kept me engaged all the way to the end, and I wasn't disappointed at the end. I probably won't pick up other Timmy Quinn stories, but I will be picking up other Kealan Patrick Burke stories.
    • 4/5
      Summer has just begun and eleven-year-old Timmy Quinn and his best friend Pete are looking for something to do in their small, boring town of Delaware. They go down to Myers Pond where they discover an odd looking boy sitting on the bank.

      This is a really solid short story, and the first in the series about Timmy Quinn. Good writing, interesting story, never dull. I look forward to reading the next one!
    • 4/5
      I loved most of this story. I couldn't put it down. Creepy, scary, dark. Usually not my kind of genre, but I enjoyed it. I was a bit frustrated by the over-worded scenic descriptions, like the clouds being painted with the colors of a "bruised palette." Those descriptions stopped me in my tracks over and over, and took me out of the moment. However, the dialog was well-written and the characters and story line were engaging. The climax was a bit confusing, and I feel like I need to go back and read it again to be sure of what happened. Not sure if that's my fault or the author's. I only gave four stars instead of five because I wanted a more solid closure at the end. I instead felt like I was being prodded into buying the next book in the series.Recommended to lovers of supernatural mysteries. You will love this creepy story.
    • 4/5
      Who would you give your life for? This is the question that haunts Timmy Quinn in this delightfully macabre tale. Timmy and Pete are young boys and best friends who are anticipating an idyllic summer. But their world is changing as construction crews erase the vestiges of their world. Still, they look forward to one more summer - then their idyll is shattered by a vision and their world is torn by an evil that threatens Timmy, his friends, and his family. But the vision isn't the evil; the evil is living and only Timmy can stop it. Burke's characters are well developed and the plot will suck the reader in like the mud at the bottom of Timmy's pond. And Burke's writing style will, to overuse a well worn phrase, keep you turning the pages until the end - which will arrive too soon. But never fear, there are more adventures to come as Timmy seeks to understand the penetrating question: would he give his life for someone?
    • 4/5
      At first I didn't think I was going to enjoy it but as I read on I became more interested in the story and the character of Timmy so much so that I have just downloaded the sequel. Like all ghost stories the situation is hardly believable and certainly didn't scare me or have me on the edge of my seat but nevertheless a good read.
    • 5/5
      I don't generally like novellas. They always seem to leave something lacking...poor character development, inadequate plot. (not as bad as short stories though)I got "Turtle Boy" free on Amazon a couple of years ago because it had such good reviews and I love a good horror story. It sounded intriguing. However, there were other books beckoning and I never got around to reading it until today. What a surprise! The main characters were developed enough that you felt you were right there with them. I enjoyed the story, although I don't generally like ghost stories either. However, the fact that there was a ghost almost seemed secondary. The story carried me along and at the end I purchased the combined first four novellas and the final novel in the Timmy Quinn series. Burke is an extremely talented writer. It's unfortunate that he chooses to write only short stories, novellas, and very short novels. I would like to settle down with a story that would take me more than a few hours to read.
    • 2/5
      The author did a good job setting the scene and building a sense of impending horror. The main character was well conceived. The book suffered from the author presenting too much information too quickly as the story unfolded. The book could have easily been twice as long. With a little more attention to detail and a second half that revealed its events with the same concern for tension as the first, this could have been an exceptional book. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.