Vance and The Vances: A Cautionary Internet Tale (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781521834312)

Vance has the power of self-healing, a blessing well into the neighborhood of miracles, but his world is turned into hell when a dark website, snuff&grind.com, finds and exploits his talent until its full potential is realized and the cavalry comes to the rescue by way of The Vances.

In Part I, Jim Clarks, a young, small-town newspaper reporter, is sent to cover a house fire where a family of three is missing. After a disappointing interview with the sheriff, he's ready to call it a day when the brick fireplace collapses.

A photograph to accompany his nothing story allows him to see a notebook in a hidey-hole within the fireplace bricks. It turns out to be for the young boy who is missing, Vance. Jim reasons his treatment by the sheriff justifies absconding with the journal. Anxious to find out if he has a story that will get him out of Podunkville, he stops at a roadside rest area and reads by his car's dome light, his entrance into Vance's world, a place he soon finds is not a pleasant one.

Flipping through the pages and days, he read as Vance grew up via his diary, crude Crayola pictures evolving into words and sentences as the years passed, its validity hard to question until Jim comes upon an entry involving Vance healing quickly from burns, unnaturally so. Everything he's read is now a steaming pile of crap, the life sucked out of it by this bogus claim.

Checking Vance's mention of a previous incident locks in its legitimacy, and he continues to read. It's his introduction into a cyber hell that the young boy, Vance, was going through because of his ability. A healing gift plundered by Vance's parents allowing a dark internet site, SNUFF&GRIND.COM, to take advantage of his talent for which they were paid well, videos that exploited him, snuff films.

One Mr. Sims shows up to protect their investment. Mr. Sims is their intermediary and watchdog, some monetary gain pushing him to devise methods of getting the most out of Vance by ramping up the snuff video productions.

A new door is opened when they find out Vance can die and come back to life. It is then that he begins to hear voices that seem to be telling him something, but he can't understand them. Infinite Zero is where things come to a head, so to speak, this last video possibly being the death of Vance. Betrayed by everyone, even his parents, he accepts a lifeline thrown from the voices in his head.

In Part II, Attack of the Body Parts, Vance is on the lamb, tied to cornering the world's magnesium market and a massive fire, his power of healing taking a direction causing him to sleep with one eye open. He comes up with a solution, but the result is a far cry from what he intended.

This is a horror story, but one of survival. It shows how we hold onto life no matter how bad things get. It allows what we can endure and still maintain the will to live even if it's a life not worth living, hoping there is justification in the end.

Horror stories have horrific finishes. This has an ending I had to settle into, the direction one I hadn't considered until I was well down its path, the longer I continued, the more right it felt. Sometimes things turn out a way for a reason, but it must fit seamlessly into the story. Some endings are meant to jolt the senses, some just need to settle into them. You tell me.

Joe Paul

Author: Joe Paul Vanhaverbeke
ISBN-10: 1521834318
ISBN-13: 9781521834312
Publisher: Independently Published
Language: English
Published: 09/02/2018
Pages: 102
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.35lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.24d