The Loon

Have you ever started watching a movie and even though you didn't even know what it was, it gripped you straight away and you watched the whole weird and wonderful thing? This book reminds me of those moments. So wonderfully fun and imbued with a heavy sense of "It's gonna get CRAZY at some point" vibes, I couldn't help just enjoy the characters and the insanity undulating beneath the whole thing.And I have to mention the first part, father and son...at the park. Beautifully written and poignant and terrible. Very dreamlike and gripping.I fully recommend this book.

A maximum security psychiatric prison called the crane Institute AKA the Loon, houses some of the worst criminals in the country. Now comes a bitter snowstorm, rioting prisoners and a escaped serial killer who only wants to kill everyone in his path. Now a woman and her daughter who have escaped a bad relationship have come to the Loon for Shelter From The Storm. This is a recipe for disaster already. But that's not the worst thing that's getting ready to occur within the walls of the prison. I like how the characters are established in this story. Things really start cooking about halfway through. This is a must read and a page Turner

I couldn't put this book down. It had me from the get go. It's a must read! Enjoy! You won't regret it!

The Loon is a book that circles around a psychiatric prison, and focuses on the themes of innocence, corruption, light vs. dark and the deep void of insanity inside all of our minds. What I thought initially to be a psychological horror to turned out as more of a suspensful thriller with a decent amount of gore. The plot is fast-paced, sweeping you along at a pace that is not too rapid nor too slow.However, everybody has flaws and The Loon is no exception. After reading the whole thing I have concluded that there was simply no editing process at all - there were many gramatical and wording errors such as saying "read" instead of "red", placing a question mark where a period should be or vice versa and misuse of quotation marks. Also, some paragraphs were inverted whereas others weren't, and there was nothing to suggest why it was so. I don't know if that was simply a mistake on my Kindle's part or the actual book, but it got annoying after a while. Unless you're a complete grammar snob like myself the fast pace of the story will keep you from noticing, or at least stressing over, the simple errors.Generally the writing was very smooth and descriptive, but not getting lost in the details. The characters were also very deep, demonstrating how there is a mixture of light and darkness in everybody and how insanity is sometimes closer than we'd like to believe. I expected it to greatly explore a mind of insanity, but it instead focused on normal people with serious, realistic issues. However, the book rarely exentuated the mentality of a conflicted character - it simply allowed the reader to make up their own mind.The story's tension built up slowly throughout the novel, coming to a suspenseful climax, but I feel that the ending was a bit of a let-down, however I cannot say why without spoiling the story. There were also a few undertones of romance in the story, but they did not dictate or get in the way of the plot, which was good for the thriller, but as a result they were slightly shallow and underdeveloped, and that in turn effected the believability of the ending.For all of the serious flaws The Loon has, it is still a very enjoyable read and should be read once, alone in a dark room for maximum effect.

This was a really great, well-written thriller that kept my attention and had me doing the "just one more chapter" thing for hours late into the night! Fortunately, the chapters were quite short, in a writing style that worked well with this story. I would have given this 5 stars, save for a few problems: the typos were distracting and annoying, which is my main complaint. I don't recall seeing many errors in the first half of the book, but they seemed to jump out at me during the second half -- I actually found myself wondering if the editor got tired and his or her attention lagged! There weren't misspellings; rather, a completely incorrect word would be used in a sentence. For example: "she nodded minutely," when the word was supposed to be "mutely." Also, at a place where the storyline was in a guard's head, he switched from being one guy to another right in the same paragraph. (I think Mitchell became Darryl.) Also, Dr. Wiseman became Dr. Whiteman at one point. It's just distracting.The unique writing style of the prologue nearly made me discard the book -- I didn't care for it at all. But I try to give things more of a shot than that, and I'm glad I did, because the story was excellent!Lastly, I think that the novel could have used somewhat more in-depth character development. That of the protagonist and the woman were basically ok, but others could have benefited from being more fully developed.My second and third points are suggestions; no "stars deducted" for those! But the typos definitely merited decreasing my rating from 5 stars to 4. Someone needs to pay a little more attention during editing! Otherwise, I quite enjoyed the story, and look forward to reading more from this author, as well as recommending him to friends.

"the Loon" is a prison for the criminally insane. It houses the worst of the worse. Every activity has to be planned and carried out to precision or lives get lost. With a severe snow storm coming the staff are prepared for some disruption. They are not however, prepared for what can go wrong in "The Loon".Michaelbrent Collings never disappoints. His wields his stories with the same precision as a surgeon with a scalpel. The way he inter-twines horror, mystery, thriller and a touch of the supernatural is quite remarkable. One of my go-to authors when I want to relax into a well-written book, confident in the knowledge that I will be thoroughly entertained.

Didn't take long to get going, and once it did it kept going right to the end! Best book I've read in a long time. Nonstop action and suspense. Well worth the read. Definitely will be checking out his other books

I really enjoyed this novel. I couldn't read fast enough to find out what happened on the next page.It definitely kept me engrossed & on the edge of my seat.Well done Mr. Collings!

Despite the fact that I had never heard of the author, I really enjoyed this book. I Ann a huge fan of creature features and this did not disappoint

A good page turner. The pacing of the story is quick thanks to the short chapters and great edge of your seat moments.