I'd just finished Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes (highly recommended, too, by the way) and was looking for something new to read, and lo, I bought this. I follow Blackford on Twitter, and I've sampled some of his work, enough to gather that this guy is doing something different with his writing: he's writing what he wants to write, to heck with whether or not it fits squarely into whatever genre is popular at the time.
Speaking of genres, this book doesn't really fit into one at all. Is it a crime thriller? Kinda. Is it a morality tale? Perhaps. Is there something supernatural going on? Possibly. To offer a very brief summary of the work, a group of young employees on a smoke break become curious about the babbles of a strange homeless man… and the real meat of this book is the story that this homeless man tells them.
After reading this, I can state the following with absolute certainty:
1) Blackford is a good writer. Per Stephen King, if you want to be a writer, you have to do two things: read a lot and write a lot. Blackford has obviously done his homework, and he writes with confidence, occasionally dropping some lines that are truly witty. The prose is smooth, and the work is decently proofed and edited.
2) First There Wasn't, Then There Was is a good story, and if you're contemplating whether or not independent electronic publishing is a good thing, this story, for many reasons, is a good argument that it is.
3) This work is really bizarre and thought-provoking, yet simple and straightforward enough that it's an enjoyable, lighthearted read.
If I were forced to point out a flaw, it would be this: the frame tale (about the smokers) could have been more developed; if I'd known more about the smokers, I think the book's ending would have packed a more potent emotional punch. The nature of a frame tale, though, is that it serve as a vehicle for the "real" story… and in that respect, it does its job.
If you're sick of reading stuff that reminds you of just about everything else you've read thus far, give this a shot. It's a pretty darn good breath of fresh air.
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Top reviews from other countries
MiasBeck
First there was a story, then there was no story, then there was
Reviewed in Germany on March 1, 2014
Miss S. A. Munn
Surprising story.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 17, 2015
Stephanie Jane (Literary Flits)
Genre-defying novella!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2017