I have mixed feelings about Driven by Mason Coile, but one thing I can say without hesitation is that it moves. Short chapters, lean writing, and a plot that rarely slows down made this a quick read.
I especially enjoyed the first third of the book. Jamie Newcross is a man whose life has steadily fallen apart. His wife and daughter are gone, he’s living in increasingly worse conditions, and, perhaps most troublingly, he seems to be haunted wherever he goes. Every time he moves, the ghosts eventually find him.
This portion of Driven really worked for me. It’s character-driven, genuinely creepy, and there’s something unsettling about watching Jamie accept less and less from life as he slowly squanders what remains of it.
Then he buys a smart car.
Jamie purchases a highly advanced, fully autonomous vehicle from a rather crooked businessman, hoping that living on the move might finally allow him to escape his ghosts. Unfortunately, the car appears to have some problems of its own.
This is where Driven began to lose me.
Once Jamie gets into the car, the novel shifts much of its attention away from the haunting that initially fascinated me and toward the vehicle itself. It’s certainly a creative premise, but I found myself wishing Coile had spent more time exploring the creepy, character-driven story he established so effectively at the beginning.
The ending didn’t quite land for me, either. The car eventually felt unnecessarily anthropomorphized, and the explanation for Jamie’s seemingly endless hauntings didn’t feel entirely consistent with what came before.
Still, Driven deserves credit for its creativity. Coile blends horror, science fiction, psychological thriller, and even a little mystery into just over 200 pages. It didn’t ultimately go where I hoped it would, but it certainly got there fast.
*Note: In the spirit of the transparency, AI was used as a collaborative tool in developing and refining this piece. The ideas, perspective, and final editorial decisions are my own.
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