I must have been expecting too much from his writing. It started off quite good with the Claymore (a Eurasian who dabbled with black magic) but it got pretty bland after that. Maybe because I was looking for originality as I see it in Amir Hafizi's Susuk.

It started out in Malaya, post Independence where there is a shaman and his nephew who is working for the government. Women started disappearing and Alihudin, the shaman, was summoned by Clive who was looking for Jessica. Clive believes that Claymore has to do with Jessica's disappearance.

From this point onwards, readers were transferred to Australia to meet the characters over there. Despite the fact that it's great to see some fusion, I ended being in confusion. The Ouija boards, the summoning and all, it somehow got me lost somewhere.

IMHO, the punch was not there. The story was too everywhere. Where Claymore dabbled in dark magic was not revealed (which for me is a very important source). And it became pretty cartoony in the end, which is so uncool. It must be me but somehow I think it's losing something.

Tunku Halim writes the book using very nice vocabulary and all and it is, I have to say, very descriptive. The way he described how Claymore killed the victims are very gory and yeah, I have flashes of the images in my mind (and still having it now). But I got lost somewhere and some parts were not even supposed to be there (can't spoil it for anyone).

It started very good and towards the very end, I don't really feel it ended up very well. But hey, who am I to criticise him right?

If I have bought it for lesser, it might have been worth. And I can't upload the picture sorry.

On another note:

'Why do you write about love so much?'
Quipped a voice
In the middle of an owl's hoot.

Because it's universal
It can be about a cat
A caterpillar
A country
Or even a hat.

'Why is it important?'

Because it's here
It's there
It's everywhere.

She imagined him
With those eyes with pure cheekines
To still be staring
Still questioning.

Love is not all about
'I like you,
You like me,
Let's wrap this up and be married'
It's..

'But I like that one
I want to just wrap it all up'

Huh?

You and me
Just be married and happy.

And she blushed again
With a strangely, sicky kind of grin.