A quick word in praise of serialized stories, and Andrew Leon:

Andrew Leon, who wrote the excellent book "The House On The Corner" (My review of that here), has been serializing his latest story, "Shadow Spinner," in chapter form.

Shadow Spinner is for some reason being billed as YA, probably because its star, Tiberius (or "Tib") is 10-going-on-11.  It's not pure YA, though:  Like Harry Potter or the Narnia books, this book so far reaches beyond a YA level to be interesting to adults, and that's probably because the first five chapters so far have less in common with Potter or the Pevensies than it does good Stephen King.

Shadow Spinner takes place in an anonymous suburb populated initially by (seemingly) Tib and his mom, and of course there's something weird going on, dealing with shadows, but Leon manages to do a great job rolling out the scares quickly and subtly, from the amazing first chapter to the latest one I read this morning, Chapter 5, in which the villain of the story as well as a whole other weird character are introduced and everything jumps up a notch.

To put it bluntly, Shadow Spinner so far well exceeds The House On The Corner and that is saying a lot.  I've been getting each installment as soon as it's up, and I love that Leon is serializing it, because that's the way a story like this should be read:  The author doling it out, piece by piece, slowly revealing the entire terrifying world I'm sure is in store for us.

You can get Chapter 5 HERE, on Amazon, for just $0.99 (it may be free at times, as Leon is doing that), but if you haven't been reading it so far, start with chapter 1 here, and I'd bookmark Leon's blog, Strange Pegs, to keep up with new installments.

I'd say Leon is reinventing the book, but really what he's doing is reintroducing the book to us:  He's taking what books should be: great writing, great stories, great charactrers -- and making them even better by serializing them. If you like books and reading SUPPORT THIS MAN.  Go read his stuff, and leave reviews.  That way, we'll get more from him and more from people who want to do writing like this.