This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Peter J Story lives in San Antonio, Texas with his wife and their two pugs. He writes code by day and fiction by night, considering himself an author of deliberate, genre-free stories with a soul. While his is not a pen name, he does enjoy chuckling to himself about how well it suits his passion.
Being extremely shy as a youngster, Peter spent his days in two primary hobbies: studying people and reading. He found both pastimes equally fascinating. Among his favorite characters were Encyclopedia Brown, Sebastian the Super Sleuth, and Sherlock Holmes. When in search of new mystery stories, he read Murder on the Orient Express and found the tale intriguing. Unfortunately, he felt that the name “Hercule Poirot” was unseemly, and abandoned any further inquiries in the character’s direction.
Then one day, at the age of ten or so, Peter’s uncle introduced him to the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, and his world changed forever. He was carried away by the story and tried his hand at mimicking the epic. Unfortunately, due to his existing love for Star Trek: The Next Generation, this took an unholy turn toward a hybrid of the two worlds. But he enjoyed it, nonetheless, and isn’t that what matters most? Of course it is.
As he grew, Peter learned to enjoy a variety of new writers, such as George Orwell, Leo Tolstoy, Herman Melville, Ernest Hemingway, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Stephen King, Dave Barry, and C.S. Lewis, all of whom had a tremendous impact on his writing style. He planned to go to college (with a vague notion of majoring in something to do with literature), then decided to instead spend seven years as a missionary (mostly in Mexico City). The time paid off, however, and taught him even more about human nature and the art of telling a subtle, character-driven story.
Reviewed by Keegan Kang for Readers' Favorite
Grak is a small-minded, self-centered nomad living in a tribe before pre-recorded history. And as the title of the book - Things Grak Hates - says, he hates things. Lots and lots of things. When things don't go his way, he blames everyone but himself. When things do, he takes the credit for them instead. Due to a fortuitous event manufactured by him, Grak becomes the leader of his tribe; a tribe which never had a leader before. Author Peter J. Story plausibly weaves Grak's interactions as the leader with other characters in the novel, letting us see how Grak misinterprets almost everything that the tribespeople do, by believing that every action is either for his benefit or acting against him. The novel chronicles the consequences of Grak suddenly taking over leadership of his tribe, and explores the outcomes of his decisions. The conclusion of Things Grak Hates may not be satisfying to some readers, but it does give a contrast to Grak's actions.
I felt that this work was brilliantly written, as Things Grak Hates can be read in two different ways. The first way is treating it like an ordinary story about a nomad's life in a tribe. But upon re-reading the novel, parallels can be drawn between Grak's actions and major themes in history. Suppression of information, harsh punishments for dissenters, and twisting the truth to suit one's agenda come up again and again in history, and it is easy to compare Grak's journey as a dictator against these events. At times when reading the novel, I felt that if the names of the characters were changed, and the events in the novel were modified, it could be a biography of most dictators rising to power so kudos to author Peter J. Story! Surprisingly, I found it easy to relate to Grak, perhaps due to the fact that all of us have a little Grak in ourselves. While I disliked Grak by the end of the novel, I at least understood his actions. Overall, this is one of the better books I have read and I have no difficulty giving it 5 stars.
