I was given Hibernation by S. J. Epps when it was OnlineBookClub.org Book of the Day in exchange for an honest review.
The story opens at a church parade involving floats. Suddenly, an earthquake erupts. However, the main damage as far as we are concerned is in the local prison, where a pastor is in jail for refusing to marry a lesbian couple called Katy and Karol, or as the press calls them K&K.
It seems that the local LGBT community has decided to hold a campaign using a Sixties law that was meant to prevent discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, national origin and sexual leaning.
This is bad enough as other members of the community, such as police officers, are embroiled in the campaign as discriminators as well. We also discover that at least one of the local pastors is a closet gay, married with children. This quite naturally causes tensions in their marriage, which possibly push them both into the arms of other lovers.
Hibernation gives a snapshot of an inner city black community and the most prominent local church and its ministers including their relationships, sexual leanings and illnesses.
Hibernation is written in the third person in a language that is probably typical of the time and place. It has been well, but imperfectly edited, but it is not bad at all. I have more concerns with the cover and, especially, the title, which seem hardly relevant despite the explanation offered within the novel.
Owen Jones, Amazon Best-Selling Author from Barry, Wales, has lived in several countries and travelled in many more. While studying Russian in the USSR in the '70's, he hobnobbed with spies on a regular basis; in Suriname, he got caught up in the 1982 coup; and while a company director, he joined the crew of four as the galley slave to sail from Barry to Gibraltar a home-made concrete yacht, which was almost rammed by a Russian oil tanker and an American aircraft carrier.
“I am a Celt, and we are romantic”, he said when asked about his writing style, “and I firmly believe in reincarnation, Karma and Fate, so, sayings like 'Do unto another...', and 'What goes round comes around' are central to my life and reflected in my work. I write about what I see, or think I see, or dream... and, in the end it is all the same really”. He speaks seven languages and is learning Thai, since he lives in Thailand with his Thai wife of fifteen years.
His first novel, Daddy's Hobby is from the seven-part series 'Behind The Smile: The Story of Lek, a Bar Girl in Pattaya', but his largest collection is 'The Megan Series', twenty-three novelettes on the psychic development of a teenage girl, the subtitle of which, 'A Spirit Guide, A Ghost Tiger and One Scary Mother!' sums them up nicely. He has written fifty novels and novelettes, including: Dead Centre; Andropov's Cuckoo; Fate Twister; The Disallowed (a philosophical comedy); Tiger Lily of Bangkok; and A Night in Annwn (Annwn being the ancient Welsh word for Heaven). Many have been translated into foreign languages and narrated into audio books.
Owen Jones writes stories set in Wales, Spain and Thailand, where he now lives. He is a life-long Spiritualist, and this belief is interwoven, in a very realistic way, into many of his books and storylines. If you like a touch of the 'supernatural', try his books
He sums his life up thus: “Born in the Land of Song, Living in the Land of Smiles”.
