Book Review: Black Hat by Kayla Al-Shamma-Jones 4 Black Cats

Black Hat by Kayla Al-Shamma-Jones is a story about Maeve who experiences a mental break down. Her friend offers her a pill that is supposed to help her focus. Normally, Maeve is an honor roll student on the straight and narrow and would never consider taking drugs, but for some reason in college is isn’t doing so well. Against her better judgement and out of desperation, Maeve takes the pill. From then on strange things start to happen to her. She sees a strange man everywhere, she starts to become secretive and violent, and a constant paranoia follows her everywhere. Whether what’s happening to her is supernatural or all in her head is unknown in this first installment. You’ll have to read the second mini book to find out.

I enjoyed reading about this young girls descent into madness and thought, for the most part, it was written well. The story could use some more editing to tighten it up and catch the missing and extra words. As usual, I don’t like that this book does not have a conclusion of its own. You’ll have to read on to the next book which may also not conclude.

I like the characters, especially the quirky room-mate and the not so goody two shoes mom. I would have liked to see more development of these characters in the story, but for a short work, I thought the author did pretty good.

I’m interested to see where the story goes and wish the author would have combined the second part with this first part instead of cutting it in half. Why make your reader pay for half a story. I know authors think this is a great way to make more money from the story, but it angers the reader and they may not continue to the next part. They’ll just move on to an author who provides a whole story.

I liked the story and enjoyed reading it and would recommend trying it if you like dark tales of characters going insane. It was a refreshing departure from all the paranormal romance out there. I’d like to find out if it does take a paranormal direction especially after the ending, or if it takes a more realistic approach.