Fall Leaves and the Black Dragon is quite the interesting tale of a boy haunted by the past. From the time he was six, Liam was plagued by horrible nightmares and hallucinations brought on by a terrible fire. Once he learns that his parents had been lying to him about that night, he decides to take a trip back to his childhood home to confront his demons.
The book starts out like an excited child, which is perfect because, at first, the story is from a child’s perspective. It really sold me on the story to begin with. Unfortunately, it continues to read that way even when the main character is an adolescent, and later, an adult. Though it wasn’t bothersome enough to take me out of the story, it was a little disappointing. There are also a lot of typos and strange grammatical errors. More than once, a Ouija board is referred to as “an Ouija” which just really bothered me.
Overall, I think it is definitely worth the read. It’s an interesting story and I find that I am curious what happened to Liam later on in life. I do still have a lot of questions. Though calling this story horror is a stretch, it certainly has a few horror elements. If you spook easily, I don’t believe you’ll even find it that scary. Gustafson did a good job of creating a fascinating world!
