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Perfect Circle |  | Author: Sean Stewart
Publisher: Small Beer Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Seller: Blue_Cloud_Books
Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 676828
Media: Paperback
Pages: 243
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8
ISBN: 1931520119
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781931520119
ASIN: 1931520119
Publication Date: June 1, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
William "Dead" Kennedy has problems. Hes haunted by family, by dead people with unfinished business, and by those perfect pop songs that you cant get out of your head. Hes a 32-year-old Texan still in love with his ex-wife. He just lost his job at Pet-Co for eating cat food. His air-conditioning is broken, theres no good music on the radio, and hes been dreaming about ghost roads. When Wills cousin ("My dad married your Aunt Dots half-sister") calls in the middle of the night about a dead girl haunting his garage, it seems like an easy way to make a thousand dollars. But nothing is ever that simple, especially when family is involved. Wills mother is planning a family reunion of epic proportions. Wills ex-wife is married to a former Marine. His twelve-year-old daughter Megan thinks Will needs someone to look after him. And recently his dead relatives seem to want something from him.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
 Another emotionally impacting book by stewart - nearly perfect January 7, 2010
Tactitles (Missouri)
William Kennedy, aka Dead Kennedy, sees ghosts. Everywhere. He even sees his dead relatives. A failure at most things in his life, he has decided to try to turn his strange ability into something useful. For a fee, he consults with clients who are affected by ghosts. Some are people living on an emotional brink, being slowly consumed by the presence of suspected ghosts in their homes. Some are savvy real estate agents, who attempt to use Kennedy's services to reassure their clients that there are no ghosts in a property. While Kennedy sees his service as helpful to people, he can't seem to help himself. His personal life is almost a complete shambles. The book follows Kennedy on a sometimes humorous, but mostly harrowing, journey into an uncertain future.
Kennedy's character is sympathetic, despite his admittedly bleak view of life. As he slowly unravels, the sense of dread and concern for him grows and grows. You root for him, even when he doesn't want to help himself. The most fascinating character, though, is his 12 year old daughter Megan. Against all odds, she seems to be an anchor amidst a continuously swirling sea around her.
Kennedy realizes that he is alive, but living just like the sad ghosts that he encounters. He wants to be better, but his world won't cooperate. He wants to grow, but can't seem to find the right spiritual food. His story is told from his point of view, and it is effective and impacting. There are moments of suspense, humor, great sadness and tragedy. Like a car wreck, I was riveted to the words despite my eyes being halfway closed at times, reluctant to take it all in and yet unable to look at anything else. If you read a lot, it is likely that books blur together over the years, and details get fuzzy. You probably remember a select few special ones. Within that small room of memory, it's probable you'll find a space for this one.
Second favorite book by Stewart. November 12, 2009
frumiousb (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
I think I have said this before. Several times before, even. Sean Stewart is a *wonderful* writer. His characters have great sensitivity and depth. His humor is subtle, but effective.
I have not always found his plotting skills were as good as the rest of the package. I thought the first few books I read by him were slight and a little bit easy to forget. Then I read Mockingbird, and it was an astonishing novel. Everything good combined to be something great-- I still really recommend it.
Perfect Circle is not, to my mind, quite as good as Mockingbird, but it is awfully close. Ostensibly about ghosts (at least according to the cover), it is more about a man trying to fix his life in the face of unusual talents and the usual handicaps. There was something about the plot that reminded me oddly of Douglas Coupland's novels. I suspect neither author would appreciate the comparison, but there you go.
When I look back on the book, I find the ending has melted away from my memory. I can discover it back again quickly. Still, there is something a little unfinished about the ending which makes it slightly less strong than Mockingbird. At least for me.
Meet William "Dead" Kennedy and find out for yourself.
Ghost Story March 25, 2008
David Brockert (Madison, Wisconsin)
"Perfect Circle"by Sean Stewart, ©2004
Will Kennedy is weird. He is the star of this oddball book. He sees dead people, so his relatives call him DK (Dead Kennedy(s)). He is a product of poor south Texas white trash. Not all of his folks are poor or from south Texas, but they all belong in the same group. He is a screwed up, scared young adult. He does not have a driver's license because he found himself trying to avoid accidents with, and, thereby causing accidents, with dead people he can not distinguish from live people. This happens mostly at night, when it is harder to see color. To him, dead people look black and white and live people look colorful.
He starts out trying to help his cousin with a ghost, things happen, he ends up in the hospital with a big bill he has no way to pay and with a bit of notoriety about his ability to see ghosts. The story evolves into a bit of horror about how a ghost tries to make him do himself harm, so he slowly descends into a psychological problem state. Can the ghosts harm him? He thinks so, and he also thinks that they can get others to do him harm as well. This is sort of proved by the actions that put him into the hospital in the first place. You can really feel that he should be scared. I kept thinking he should own up to what is happening with people that he trusts, but that is problematic to: if they can not see ghosts or other evidence of them being there, they may begin to feel that maybe he is off his rocker, and so he would be right back at the start and worse since others feel he is losing his mind. All in all, I just felt he needed to stop running from his ghosts and start doing more with them. They were scary, but not horribly so. He should have held his ground and done something with or for them. But, hey, I was not in his shoes nor did I grow up as he did, so I can only fault him so much, the rest is part and parcel of who he was.
I really got into this story, after all it is fiction and look at all the thoughts I had about this poor fellow.
 Not so "Perfect," but a fun read nonetheless May 23, 2007
beckyjean (East Granby, CT)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Early on in the book, this engaging read promises chills and thrills via a truly creepy encounter with a young female ghost, but Perfect Circle turns out to be not so much a "ghost story" as a story about a broken man -- indeed, a man who's always been at least a little bit broken -- learning to pick up the pieces and create a life for himself.
Dryly funny, full of East-Texas local color, and ringing true about how it feels to be down so long you don't know how to get up, Perfect Circle was so enjoyable I read it in one sitting. It's not perfect -- I felt the ghost of cousin Tom was not as menacing as he was meant to seem, and I don't feel the book's title is particularly resonant (though Stewart tries hard via tie-ins with the REM song, the CDs the protagonist breaks, and the shape of cousin AJ's glasses) -- but it's definitely worth a read, and a reread.
This was the first book of Stewart's that I've read, and I'm interested to check out more.
Ghosts in the family tree April 26, 2007
Genevieve M. Ellerbee (Alexandria, Virginia, United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Beautifully written, as all of Sean Stewart's books are, this story is about a man who happens to have a special talent. It's also about families and how they relate and respond to each other.
William "Dead" Kennedy is, in every sense of the word, a loser: he has a failed marriage, can't keep a job, can't take his daughter out to do anything enjoyable, and lives in a crummy apartment with just his music to keep him company. Well, except for the ghosts, that is - the ghosts of family members and complete strangers alike. When a request from a distant cousin to investigate the dead girl in his garage results in a gunshot wound and a newspaper article publicizing his abilities, Kennedy finds his life moving down a road he never expected.
More in the mode of Mockingbird (my favorite Stewart novel), Perfect Circle is a compelling and poignant book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 25
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