Through a Mirror, Darkly by Kevin Lucia

October 5, 2015 By Leave a Comment

DARKLY
Through a Mirror, Darkly by Kevin Lucia
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery, Paranormal, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (146 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Through a Mirror, Darkly is a Supernatural Thriller collection masked as a novel. With elements of mystery, suspense, and otherworldly horror, Through a Mirror, Darkly successfully delves into the worlds of Lovecraft, Grant, and the mysterious Carcosa.

“Arcane Delights. Clifton Heights’ premier rare and used bookstore. In it, new owner Kevin Ellison has inherited far more than a family legacy, for inside are tales that will amaze, astound, thrill…and terrify.

An ancient evil thirsty for lost souls. A very different kind of taxi service with destinations not on any known map. Three coins that grant the bearer’s fondest wish, and a father whose crippling grief gives birth to something dark and hungry.

Every town harbors secrets. Kevin Ellison is about to discover those that lurk in the shadows of Clifton Heights.”
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Through a Mirror, Darkly is a Supernatural Thriller collection masked as a novel. With elements of mystery, suspense, and otherworldly horror, Through a Mirror, Darkly successfully delves into the worlds of Lovecraft, Grant, and the mysterious Carcosa.

Have you ever wished you could peek into the corners of other people’s lives that they don’t want anyone to see? Not everyone is honest about what’s really going on with them, after all.

All of the stories in this anthology are set in the same small town. It was such a clever way to organize them. Because of this, though, I strongly recommend reading these tales in order. This isn’t the kind of collection that one should skip around in.

“Suffer the Children Come Unto Me” is about a priest name Bill Ward who is wrestling with a dark secret while also attempting to figure out who or what is threatening the students at the school where he works. One of the reasons why this story worked so incredibly well for me is that it took its time to reveal clues about what was going on. Slowly building up the tension like this was a smart choice for the subject matter. It made Bill’s dilemma much more frightening than it would have been otherwise.

It took me a while to get into “Yellow Cab.” The narrator is a cab driver who keeps experiencing hours of lost time while on the job, and his memory loss only seems to be getting worse as the plot progresses. While the premise was fascinating, the pacing was so slow in the beginning that I had trouble staying interested in what would happen to the main character next. It would have been helpful to have a few more hints about what was going on in the early scenes. The ending would have been even more fantastic than it already was if I had a few more hints of what was coming along the way.

I would have liked to see more character development in “Admit One.” Bobby Maskel’s thoughts about his working at a metal salvaging yard were interesting, but I never felt like I got to know him well enough to truly be intrigued by what was going on when he discovered something bizarre in the piles of junk that customers had dumped off at his job.

“And I Watered It, With Tears” shows what happened to a man named Andrew after his marriage disintegrated and his life fell apart. Something inexplicable happens while Andrew is waiting in line to pay a long-overdue bill. The plot twists were incredibly well done. While I enjoyed the whole book, “And I Watered It, With Tears” was definitely my favorite entry because of how much time the narrator spent showing the audience what was going on in Andrew’s mind.

Through a Mirror, Darkly made me shiver. This is a good choice for anyone who is in the mood for something chilling.

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

GodBomb! by Kit Power

September 23, 2015 By Leave a Comment

GOD
GodBomb! by Kit Power
Publisher: The Sinister Horror Company
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (122 pages)
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Somebody wants answers.

North Devon, England. 1995. A born-again revival meeting in a public building. The usual mix of the faithful, the curious, and the desperate. And one other – an atheist suicide bomber. He’s angry. He wants answers. And if God doesn’t come and talk to him personally, he’s going to kill everyone in the building..

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One of the things I love the most about Mr. Power’s writing style is how much tension he packs into every single scene. Reading one of his stories is like drinking a shot of espresso for me. I feel the effects of it almost immediately, and I can’t concentrate on anything else until I’ve digested every last drop of it. This works really well for the mystery genre in particular because it made it almost impossible for me to figure out where the next plot twist would take the character next.

Speaking of plot twists, this tale was full of them. I’d estimate that I was caught off-guard by ninety percent of them. This is something that almost never happens when I read this genre, so it was a lot of fun to be surprised by where the author was going so regularly.

The author’s intelligent use of flashbacks was yet another reason why I gave GodBomb! such a high rating. Not only did they give me a strong impression of who these characters were as individuals, they provided short breaks from what was currently happening to them. It was really nice to slow down the pace a little bit for these scenes, especially as I grew closer and closer to the end.

Definitely check out the list of characters and their brief biographies before diving into the first chapter. I was very glad to see Mr. Power include this information as it made it incredibly easy to remember everyone’s backstory.

GodBomb! is one of the best books I’ve read so far in 2015. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Evil and the Details by Roy A. Teel, Jr.

September 14, 2015 By 1 Comment

EVIL
Evil and the Details by Roy A. Teel, Jr.
Publisher: Narroway Publishing, LLC
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery, Horror
Length: Full Length (171 pgs)
Heat Level: Spicy
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Xeranthemum

There’s a scourge on the streets of Los Angeles. A serial killer is stalking, capturing, torturing, and killing young teenage boys. FBI Profilers Special Agent Steve Hoffman and Special Agent John Swenson are working with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Detective Jim O’Brian to catch this elusive killer. However, with each turn the investigation takes into the murders, the more puzzling they become. The deeper the investigation goes, the darker the soul of its source. It’s a race against not only time; it is also a race against The Iron Eagle, who they all know is working to unravel the mystery and capture the killer. Who will solve the crimes and end the terror? Only time will tell.

I was breathlessly horrified while reading this gripping tale of serial killers being hunted down and brought to justice. The F.B.I. and the Sheriff’s detective are scrambling to find and stop these monsters but they just don’t have the abilities that a certain Iron Eagle has. A reader gets to see more in depth of the man and the vigilante and find that he’s a very complicated human indeed.

It took a little while for the story to gel, at least it did for me. Even after saying that, the chapters flew by until I got to the chapter where the author truly laid the trap of intrigue, and I was completely hooked. Understand something; every single clue and killer that is revealed in the beginning leads to the big kahuna. It’s like tributaries that lead to a waterfall, seemingly innocuous as they merge into the big water system that goes over a huge cliff that shocks and awes a viewer. That is what is in store for a reader when they delve into Evil and the Details.
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Mr. Teel spends some time on character growth with each individual protagonist. I felt bad for Steve on his loss, I was entertained by the very unique relationship between Jim and his wife, and I was intrigued with how Sara and John’s relationship is developing, especially with how the first book ended. I advise readers to read Rise of the Iron Eagle first in order to understand how Sara could do the things she did in this book because its born from what happened to her in the previous.

Once again, the author takes a reader into the minds of killers. I was dragged through the mire of some very deviant murders and it bothers me that it’s always the young and vulnerable that seem to attract the worst of the worst. That is, until one of the bad guys makes a fatal mistake with one of his victims; that is the turning point. People around me could hear me gasping and I’m sure my face was making some YouTube worthy expressions because parts in the book got positively gruesome. It needs to be in order for the Iron Eagle to get involved and he gets involved in a huge way. The scenes with Marker made me cringe. I had to take a small break after that, but I couldn’t stay away. Where were the clues leading? And, how in the world does a bakery and baking mixes fit in? Readers are going to get a shocker from the solving of that mystery. Brace yourselves.

The author switched gears towards the end of the book and sort of narrated things a bit. True, I was glad to hear the facts without all the descriptions that otherwise might have been needed to get it all told thereby bogging down the pace of the conclusion. But then, Mr. Teel went back into action mode and produced a prologue for the next book. Obviously, the tables are about to be turned on the Iron Eagle if that scene was anything to judge by, but again, the author seems to relish the idea of making his readers squirm. The last few paragraphs were horrific. Definitely I’ll be rooting for the Iron Eagle to clean up this mess too.

One thing that stood out for me was Sara’s question to John. I was actually wondering about that myself. The author handled that in a creepy yet hard-hitting and honest manner. Seeing John transition, and the words the author used to describe it, and the dialogue that occurred during those moments, was masterful and extremely well done. It sent shivers up my spine because I could easily envision it. That truly made an impact on me.

Evil and the Details isn’t an easy read, but it’s a must read. If a reader has read the first book, then they won’t be disappointed with this one. John is even more interesting, convoluted and intriguing than he was in the first story. In this novel, a reader sees a more human side and validation that he never truly loses his humanity even when he’s involved in inhuman actions. He’s a robot in the field but his humanity doesn’t have a complete off switch and for that I was very grateful. Now Sara on the other hand, she is a character I need to watch. I question what is happening to her psychologically. I think those that read this book might see what I saw and will understand why I am wondering about her. I’m hoping I’m wrong because I think the Iron Eagle needs her. I need her. I like her in the story with him.

For fans of this genre, Evil and the Details is a must read. The mystery and suspense make it hard to put down, and the only reason to stop is to catch your breath. This is a hard hitting mystery for adults who like their stories with a sharp edge. Beware, this one cuts.

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

The First 18 Days by Trisha M. Wilson

August 4, 2015 By Leave a Comment

18
The First 18 Days by Trisha M. Wilson
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (138 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

I am in Hell.

Correction, Damnation.

I’m dead but I don’t care. What is this place I’ve fallen into with its neat rows of the pure white townhouses with a backdrop of more white? Where is the evil, the fire, the brimstone, the painful, agonizing screams of torture? Where is the Hell?
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The only thing remotely interesting about Damnation is the fact that we can’t go into Damnation Gardens. Why? What lurks behind those tall, imposing black walls? Will it be something truly hellish or will I spend eternity in this peaceful, too perfect place?

Not if I have anything to do with it. Hell shall rise with me.

How would you respond to an afterlife that wasn’t at all what you were expecting it to be?

The protagonist’s personal development was marvelous. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on with this character because the plot was written from a first-person perspective. This turned out to be an excellent decision, though, because it required me as a reader to think carefully about the clues the main character dropped about who they had been when they were alive.

The only thing I would have liked to see done differently had to do with which names of the characters were shared with the audience. A couple of their names were revealed. The vast majority were not. This is a very minor criticism of an otherwise chilling story, but I think it would have been more consistent for all of the characters to either mention their real names or keep them concealed.

There’s something to be said for letting a reader’s imagination run wild. Ms. Wilson struck a smart balance between describing what Damnation looked and sounded like and allowing me to imagine other key elements of it for myself. It was far scarier to come up with my own interpretation of what certain parts of this community were really like or why they operated the way they did than to have everything handed to me. Writing it this way was smart!

The First 18 Days was so frightening that I had to stop reading it well before bedtime. This is a fantastic choice for anyone who loves the horror genre.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Zombie Rapture by Stuart R. West

July 17, 2015 By Leave a Comment

SOMBIE
Zombie Rapture by Stuart R. West
Publisher: MuseItUp Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (266 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Life is good for Hunter Wright. He’s just about to graduate from high school and he’s found true love. Just in time to lose her. Because the Rapture’s begun and those in his path, living and dead, stand in his way of finding her. And it’s not the Rapture the faithful have been expecting either. Someone failed to tell the dead they’re not in Heaven.

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One of the things I like the most about zombies is how relentless they are. Other monsters can be outrun or outsmarted, but there’s almost nothing in the world that can stop these creatures. Mr. West’s version of them was particularly creepy because of how much time he took to describe the way their minds work. Those passages were really well done. I’ve read a lot of zombie fiction over the years. This was by far the scariest example of them that I’ve come across so far!

I would have liked to see more character development in this book, especially when it came to Hunter. He made decisions during the course of the plot that I didn’t always understand. What I did manage to figure out about his personality was fascinating, but there simply wasn’t enough information about it for me to form an accurate mental image of what it would be like to be in the same room as him or how the Rapture changed his personality.

The dialogue was short and efficient. Given the dangerous predicament they’d found themselves in, it made sense to me that Hunter and his friends wouldn’t be particularly interested in drawn-out discussions. I appreciated the fact that they showed their awareness of what was going on in part by choosing to stay quiet as much as they possibly could. It was a realistic response to their circumstances, and I liked that.

Zombie Rapture is a good choice for anyone in the mood for a fresh twist on this genre.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Rise of the Iron Eagle by Roy A. Teel, Jr.

July 8, 2015 By 1 Comment

IRON
Rise of the Iron Eagle by Roy A. Teel, Jr.
Publisher: Narroway Publishing, LLC.
Genre: Contemporary, Suspense/Mystery, Horror
Length: Full Length (278 pgs)
Other: M/F, M/F/F, Voyeurism, Menage
Rating: 5 Stars
Reviewed by Xeranthemum

Is The Iron Eagle a psychotic serial killer?

Or a new breed of Justice?

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide Detective Jim O’Brian and FBI Profiler Special Agent Steve Hoffman are hunting for a brutal serial killer; however, this case defies the profiling rules both men have been trained to detect. “The Iron Eagle” appears to only hunt and capture serial killers. Time is of the essence as with each passing day “The Eagle” gets more brazen. The deeper O’Brian and Hoffman dig into profiling the killer, the more they realize that this is more than a race against time – it’s a race laden with the realization that the killer may be one of their own.

If a reader is looking for a book that requires reading with the lights on and who enjoys a story about a criminal mastermind, then pull up a chair and get comfortable because Rise of the Iron Eagle is a wild ride and is sure to leave a haunting legacy in your dreams.
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I wasn’t sure what to expect when I decided to read this novel. I wasn’t bored, I wasn’t left unaffected and I sure as heck am glad I’m reading about the stuff that went on instead of seeing it for real. I think Mr. Teel, Jr.’s writing about criminals is like what Stephen King does for horror – leaves a lasting impression and horrifies while weaving a tale that one can’t step away from.

I ended up classifying this book as an erotic based on the three way relationship between one of the characters and two women. Also, the fact that a few of the deviants in the story got off on voyeurism while they did what they did was another reason I labeled it thus. However, this is first and foremost a mystery, and a murder mystery at that. And, this is a novel about one man on a crusade against the vilest of the vile, the most heinous and inhumane of human beings, and reading about them kept me on the edge of my seat.

The one thing that the author wanted to make crystal clear, and was abundantly successful, is making a reader believe that the method of death meted out by the Iron Eagle was warranted. Sure, Steve, the FBI guy, wanted the investigations of the crimes done by the book but, there’s a gray area that he sort of teeters on. Then there’s Jim, who actually is more open about accepting that what the Iron Eagle is doing isn’t such a bad thing, even when he duplicates the horrors done to victims onto the perpetrators themselves. It was extremely difficult to read because the author was highly graphic in his details. There is rape and torture and other extremely violent behaviors but it’s recounted in a manner to get the reader on the Eagle’s side. And, for me, it worked. Yes, I cringed a lot, and took a lot of breaks, too because some descriptions were horrendous and uncomfortable to read but that’s the point. Those creeps were under the radar, killing with seeming impunity, and until the Iron Eagle put the clues together and acted, no one was going to stop them.

What I liked were the surprises. I thought that I was going to be left with the mystery of trying to figure out who the Iron Eagle was but that was actually shared with the reader part way through. And I asked myself, why? Turns out there’s a cold case that is the whole impetus for the book. That’s the real mystery and eventually, although I wasn’t too keen on the cold and precise manner in which retribution was delivered, I ended up being very sympathetic to the Iron Eagle. I didn’t expect that.

Dialogue was dark, dangerous, powerful, gritty and incredibly effective. The characterization of both Steven and Jim were not written as touchy feely, getting to know you and your emotions type of detail, but were written as hard bitten, professional and driven. They are men who are extremely fallible with vices, profanity laden speech and yet take pride in the jobs they do. They really are the good guys, with a dark edge. But no one is as dark as the Iron Eagle. I eventually find out why and it broke my heart.

The ending was profound. As much as the author went into great gory detail with the initial few serial killers, when the final moment of reckoning came it was just a tiny teensy bit more anti-climactic than I expected. And you want to know why? Because I wanted the bad guy to suffer more, to pay harder for what was done to all the victims, and in my estimation, he wasn’t. In that I guess even I have a little bit of vigilantism in me. Imagine that.

Rise of the Iron Eagle is dark, gritty, compelling and powerful. It’s not a comfortable read but it’s potent, gripping, exciting and any other word you can think of to describe a book that makes a person read through their fingers because they alternately want to hide but can’t help but continue to read all at the same time. Believe it or not, there might even be a romance relationship coming out of this horror. Talk about unconventional. It’s not the focus but it sure made me happy that even with all this death and atrocity, love could still be found. Yet, even as one case comes to a satisfying closure, the author dangled a surprising carrot. I might need to fortify myself with cotton candy and fluff, but I definitely would read the next book in the series. Mr. Teel, Jr. has a commanding story-telling voice and Rise of the Iron Eagle is proof. Check it out and see, if you dare.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

B Is For Broken Anthology

June 12, 2015 By 1 Comment

BROKEN
B Is For Broken Anthology
Edited by Rhonda Parrish
Publisher: Poise and Pen Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical, Action/Adventure
Length: Full Length (296 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Broken people, broken promises, broken dreams and broken objects are just some of the ways these 26 fantastic stories interpret the theme of ‘Broken’. From science fiction to fantasy, horror to superheroes the stories within these pages cover a vast swath of the genres under the speculative fiction umbrella.

Featuring original fiction by:

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Science fiction has a creepy side. You can read about it here.

The titles of these tales give away major spoilers about what happens in them. Ms. Parrish used this same creative technique in her previous anthology, A Is For Apocalypse. Once again I will be referring to the author’s name in this review instead of the titles of their contributions so that other readers will remain just as surprised as I was by what happens in them.

Ms. Cleto caught my attention immediately. It was fun to figure out what a Snow Queen with a rare, magical gift could possibly have in common with an ordinary teenage girl like Gwyn. I enjoyed jumping back and forth between their timelines as I attempted to piece all of the clues together. The ending worked particularly well for the short story form due to how quickly the plots were sketched out.

This doesn’t happen very often when I read anthologies, but I enjoyed every single selection in this book. Some of them would have worked much better as novellas or full-length novels, though, due to their complicated plots. Ms. Simon and Mr. Fosbury’s piece of fiction was a good example of this. It showed what happened to a village midwife named Hessura after she made a difficult choice for one of the pregnant women she had helped. The premise was fascinating, but the plot simply didn’t have quite enough time to fully develop.

As soon as I started reading Mr. Phillips’ entry, I couldn’t wait to discover out what happened next. He described a little girl named Adina who born with an unusual birth defect. Her mother soon figured out how to turn this anomaly into a steady source of income for the family. The character development was incredible, especially considering how quickly the author needed to work in order to pull everything together. I never wanted to stop listening to what Adina had to say.

I’d recommend B Is For Broken to anyone who loves contemporary science fiction as much as I do. There is a lot of great material to explore in this collection!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Lesson by Joyce Ward

April 29, 2015 By Leave a Comment

LESSON
The Lesson by Joyce Ward
Publisher: Champagne Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Paranormal
Length: Short Story (62 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A rebellious, young woman and her stoned boyfriend learn an important and frightening lesson after behaving badly in a mortuary.

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Including basic backstories for the two main characters was a smart decision. Early on in this tale they make a decision that I would have otherwise found hard to believe. Knowing what kind of people they were made it easy to understand how their minds work and why they would consider this kind of choice to be a good one.

There was one plot hole that I would have liked to see addressed in this tale. It was something that I definitely would have expected at least one of the characters to notice right away, so figuring out why it wasn’t being mentioned was distracting. Had this not been the case, I would have selected a much higher rating for this story as I really enjoyed everything else about it.

Horror doesn’t always have to include blood. There are plenty of ways to frighten an audience without getting gory, and Ms. Ward spooked me with quite a few of them. I was so interesting in discovering what would happen to Kevin and Pamela next that I read the whole thing in one sitting, and I made sure to keep the lights on for a few hours after I finished it. Some images really shouldn’t be rattling around in my mind in the dark!

The Lesson made me shudder. It’s something I’d recommend to both longterm and brand new fans of the scary side of science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon by Roma Gray

April 28, 2015 By Leave a Comment

GRAY
Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon by Roma Gray
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Holiday, Contemporary, Action/Adventure
Length: Short Story (117 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

The path into darkness begins here…

How often have you read a short story and wished you could see what happened after the big ending? In this book, the ending is just the beginning as each short story represents a chapter in an upcoming Roma Gray novel or novel series.

SECTION 1: A collection of six Halloween-flavored short stories. The stories are a mixed assortment of spooky, action adventure, and horror tales.

SECTION 2: Interviews with the fictional characters giving the reader the inside scoop on their upcoming novels.

Never let the adventure end…

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2. AND THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED: The discovery of Atlantis changes the world in ways no one could have ever anticipated…or wanted.
3. SUMMER VACATION: A teenager discovers that not only is black magic real, it’s also very unpredictable.
4. THE INVISIBLE CARRIER: A deadly plague is spreading through the Pacific Northwest, but no one can figure out how. It might just be the truth is too strange to believe.
5. UNNATURAL DISASTERS: Governments are isolating disaster sites from the rest of the world. What are they trying to hide?
6. WILL THE REAL MONSTER PLEASE STAND UP? A rampaging mummy, two insane cats, and a secret government agency. For archeologist Alistair Black, it’s turning into a very strange night.

Expecting the unexpected isn’t as easy as it looks.

The interviews with certain key characters were incredibly well done. They provided information that I found both entertaining and completely necessary in order to fully understand what was going on for some of them. I ended up scrolling down to read the interview immediately after finishing each tale, and I was glad I made that decision. They worked much better together, although it’s difficult to go into any specific details here without giving away spoilers.

It took me a little while to settle into some of the plots due to their unique formats. Because each one is part of a much longer work, the pacing was nothing at all like what I would usually expect from a short story. A great deal of time was spent introducing characters and describing the worlds they lived in, and the main sources of conflict were sometimes a little slow to arrive. This makes perfect sense for something full length, but it was occasionally jarring for short fiction.

With that being said, I am eagerly anticipating all of the books that the main characters will be featured in. Every single one of them included something that surprised or intrigued me for completely different reasons. I’ve never seen anything like this done in the science fiction genre before and was impressed by how the author tied it all together. Ms. Gray took a risk here. It paid off quite well.

Gray Shadows Under a Harvest Moon has whetted my appetite for more. If you’re in the mood for something incredibly original, give it a try!

Filed Under: Horror, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense by Don Sloan

March 24, 2015 By Leave a Comment

 

SISTERS
The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense by Don Sloan
(Book One of the Dark Forces Series)
Publisher: Self-published
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Suspense/Mystery, Horror, Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (266 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

In this book, written in the style of Stephen King, two young people on vacation in a small New England seacoast town battle unspeakable horror and solve a hundred-year-old mystery. Fourteen Victorian mansions whisper dark secrets among themselves, and a dangerous shadow roams up and down the wide, wintry boulevard in search of new prey.

Imagine what old buildings would say if they had a way to share what’s really happened behind their closed doors over the years.
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There’s something slightly eerie about owning a house that has been passed from one family to the next for generations. Stories that explore why this can be so potentially creepy are among my favorite ones in the horror genre. Having so many of these homes included in the same tale, then, was a real treat for me. I was able to explore multiple histories instead of only one.

I had some trouble warming up to the beginning of this novel. The pacing of the plot was slow and uneven due to the inclusion of multiple flashbacks to things that happened in and nearby the houses many years ago. It also took me some time to figure out what was happening when the narration temporarily switched over to the houses’ perspectives. I found the writing styles of those sections confusing even after I knew how to interpret them because of how informally they used punctuation marks.

Wow, the antagonist was seriously frightening! One of the reasons why I was so freaked out by this villain is that the plot danced around the topic for such a long time. Wondering who or what Nathan and Sarah might be facing took up a great deal of time because there were so few clues about what was really going on.

The narration regularly switched between the present and past tense. The past tense was used for the contemporary scenes, and the present tense was used for events that happened in the houses a long time ago. While it was an interesting way to differentiate between various points in history, I did find it distracting to switch between the tenses so often. Sticking with one of them would have made my reading experience more comfortable.

Sometimes dreams feel like they’re actually happening. At other times real life can be as hazy as a dream. One of the things I appreciated the most about this book was how easily it was able to capture this uncertainty. It worked well for the premise and kept me on my toes as the characters continued to try to figure out what was happening.

The Sisters: A Mystery of Good and Evil, Horror and Suspense is a good choice for anyone who likes the dark, gory side of science fiction.

Filed Under: Horror, Mystery/Suspense, Reviews, Science Fiction/Fantasy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
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