Masque of Shadow by T.A. Miles

August 22, 2014 By 5 Comments

MASQUE
Masque of Shadow by T.A. Miles
Publisher: Raventide Books
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Paranormal, Horror, Historical
Length: Short Story (29 pages)
Heat Level: Sensual
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Heartbroken over the premature death of her young sister, Estelle conceives a dark plan to recover Lunette’s innocent soul from the thief she witnessed taking it. The price is higher than she anticipated, reaching far beyond the loss of her own innocence when she enters voluntarily into the realm of the Lord of Shadows, into a theater of madness constructed by the souls of the dead.

Few things in this world are stronger than the bond between siblings. What Estelle doesn’t know, though, is if that bond will give her enough strength to keep searching for her lost sister.
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The horror elements took a little while to show up, but they were quite noticeable when they did. It was interesting to see how this author sampled the often gruesome origins of traditional fairy tales in order to make her story come alive. Masque of Shadows is truly intended for a mature audience. Given the dark subject matter, this was a great decision.

Once or twice I wondered why Estelle accepted all of the strange things she encountered so easily. This is a minor criticism of an otherwise mesmerizing book, but it would have been helpful to know a little bit more about her previous life in order to better understand why she was so eager to jump into a dangerous, new realm without any qualms about her own safety.

The villain in this piece was perfectly dastardly. I was especially creeped out by the physical description of him. It was a little unusual for this genre. In retrospect, it worked incredibly well given everything else the reader learns about him and his plans for Estelle.

Ms. Miles has a hypnotic writing style that made it impossible for me to tear my eyes away from the page. She described each scene in such precise detail that I felt as though I were watching a movie instead of reading a short story. This was my first introduction to her work. If it’s any indication of her talent, I don’t know how I’ll be able to remain patient while waiting for her next book comes out.

Masque of Shadow is a must-read for anyone who loves fairy tales. Just don’t be surprised if you follow in my footsteps and read it more than once!

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

Enter at Your Own Risk: The End Is the Beginning by Dr. Alex Scully, editor

August 20, 2014 By Leave a Comment

RISK
Enter at Your Own Risk: The End Is the Beginning by Dr. Alex Scully, editor
Publisher: Firbolg Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Historical, Paranormal
Length: Full Length (428 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Human beings—the undisputed top of the food chain, the long-standing masters of planet earth. Or are we? What may be crawling out of the sludge to take our place? What monsters have we created in our labs, factories, and our very own genetic code? In the fourth installment of Firbolg Publishing’s Enter at Your Own Risk series, which pairs Gothic masters such as Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, and H.P. Lovecraft with modern authors of the dark and macabre, the theme is environmental horror. As mankind’s tsunami wave of progress, industrialization, and technology reaches spectacular new heights, sinister things are churning beneath the surface. An unfamiliar stench on the wind. Waters a bit too murky. Soil a bit too red with blood. Progress at a price. A terrible, terrible price. Will we survive? What strange new worlds will emerge from the chaos? With an introduction from Holly Newstein, Enter at Your Own Risk: The End is the Beginning explores both the horror of the end and the hope of new beginnings for our planet and ourselves.

Not everything that goes bump in the night reveals itself right away.
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I couldn’t help but to chuckle at the creativity of some of the titles in this collection. By far my favorite one was “The Dreaded Hobblobs: A Heavy-Handed Fable for Short-Sighted Times.” It follows the increasingly disturbing interactions Daniel has been having with the Hobblobs that his parents always warned were about to take over their home whenever it got too messy. Daniel’s childhood impression of these grotesque creatures was so vivid that it sent a shudder down my spine. What really enamoured me, though, was how Daniel reacts to them when they make a sudden reappearance in his life much later on.

“Lily’s Daughter” is told from the perspective of Alexander, the teenage son of an archeologist who has disconnected from family life. The two of them live such separate lives that they rarely even speak to one another, so it’s a huge surprise when Alexander’s dad invites him to dinner. The premise was fantastic, but a slow start in the beginning made this reader restless due to the faster pace of stories that were placed just before it. So many important pieces of the puzzle were held back until later that I began to lose interest in Alexander’s journey despite being enthralled with it in the beginning.

This pattern repeated itself over and over again. It’s impossible to please every reader, of course, but I did momentarily wonder if it would have been better to group everything by the time period in which they were written instead of by theme. There were times when it was absolutely fascinating to see how authors who lived decades (or even centuries) apart approached the same subject, but sometimes it was also a little odd to jump from the fast-paced plots that tend to be favored today with the often slower styles that were popular in the past. I definitely appreciate Dr. Scully’s attempt to draw parallels between authors that aren’t normally compared though.

Luckily there were entries like “A Fine Day at the Zoo” that kept me on the edge of my seat. In it a single father named Shane has decided to take his son, Robbie, to the zoo with the hope of getting the boy to speak. Robbie’s disabilities shouldn’t affect his speech this much, but ever since Shane and his wife split up their son has been eerily quiet. The imagery in this father-child outing was so vivid that I felt a prick of disappointment when their adventures ended. It’s hard to say anything more about it without giving away spoilers, but had every short story been this provocative this anthology would have easily earned a 5 star rating.

Enter at Your Own Risk has something to offer to just about everyone. Nearly every type of science fiction is represented here, and that makes this book a good choice for anyone who enjoy this genre!

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

Justice, Inc. by Dale Bridges

August 18, 2014 By Leave a Comment

INC
Justice, Inc. by Dale Bridges
Publisher: Monkey Puzzle Press
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary, Horror
Length: Short Story (65 pages)
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Imagine a future where orphan children are adopted by international corporations and forced into indentured servitude, where zombie viruses are spread through heterosexual intercourse, where Osama bin Laden is cloned by the thousands for public execution. Welcome to the world of JUSTICE, INC. No one is safe. Nothing is sacred. And all sales are final.

Will the world end with a bang or a whimper? So much depends on who is paying attention when it happens and whether or not they realize what they’re witnessing.
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The first scene in “Welcome to Omni-Mart” made me gasp. Leonard, a lifetime employee of Omni-Mart, has been instructed to destroy an aisle full of lifelike dolls that grow and learn the same way that human children do. Digging into Leonard’s complicated, sad backstory made me wish his tale could have been expanded into a full-length novel. He’s fascinating character who lives in a world I’d never want to visit. Reading about it, though, made me shudder.

There were very few missteps in this anthology. “Texting the Apocalypse” records the conversation between two oblivious teenage girls as their world begins to fall apart. The premise of their chat is a great one, but it was too short to convey everything that was going on around them. As much as I wanted to enjoy it, I had trouble getting too deeply invested in what was happening to them due how little they had to say about it.

Sometimes unforgettable things come in small packages.“The Villain” follows two young boys who are arguing over which one of them is the hero and which one is the sidekick. It’s difficult to say anything more about them since the whole thing takes places in one short page of dialogue, but the ending caught me by surprise in the best way possible.

Don’t skip the introduction to this collection. Mr. Bridges had a unique reason for writing all of these stories, and knowing what it was made me enjoy them even more than I might have otherwise. This section also gives the reader a glimpse of the author’s occasionally cheeky sense of humor. I wasn’t expecting to laugh as much as I did, so having a hint about what to expect ahead of time was nice.

Justice, Inc. is a fantastic choice for anyone who loves the dystopian side of science fiction.

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

A is for Apocalypse by Rhonda Parrish, editor

August 14, 2014 By Leave a Comment

A
A is for Apocalypse by Rhonda Parrish, editor
Publisher: Poise and Pen Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Paranormal, Holiday
Length: Full Length (295 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

What do you get when you take twenty-six amazing writers, randomly assign them a letter of the alphabet and give them complete artistic freedom within a theme?

A is for Apocalypse

A is for Apocalypse contains twenty-six apocalyptic stories written by both well-known and up-and-coming writers. Monsters, meteors, floods, war–the causes of the apocalypses in these tales are as varied as the stories themselves.

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The reason why I’m not mentioning any titles in my review is that they all give away gives major spoilers about what kind of apocalypse to expect from them. The introduction explains why Rhonda Parrish decided to create such a unique collection, and I highly recommend reading it first. In order to avoid confusion, I’ll use the names of the authors who wrote them instead.

I didn’t have a clue what Ms. Cato was doing at first. Rick, her protagonist, is paying close attention to every beep from his dosimeter, but his reasons for doing so with such a calm demeanour aren’t immediately apparent. He remained a fascinating character to me even after I figured out why he wasn’t panicking due to how well this behavior fits in with the rest of his personality. It’s impossible for me to pick a favourite in this collection, but I recommend beginning with Ms. Cato’s entry to anyone who likes skipping around.

When I first started this book I thought I knew more or less what to expect from it because I read so much science fiction and horror. The authors’ imaginative twists on common apocalyptic themes genuinely caught me by surprise, and that isn’t an easy thing to do! With that being said, certain apocalypses would have worked much better as novellas or full-length novels due to how many characters they required or the complexity of their plots.

Ms. Taylor’s tale is a good example of this. In it Dr. Surya Johansson is studying the remnants of human civilization for reasons that are gradually revealed as the plot continues. Figuring out the doctor’s background and motivation for travelling from one tattered colony to the next kept me guessing, but so many characters were introduced that I had trouble keeping track of all of them. It would have also been helpful to have more information about the events that led Dr. Johansson to conducting this study. The tidbits sprinkled throughout the plot provided tantalizing clues about the backstory, but some of them never quite gelled together for me.

Mr. Aldin’s story begins with a flashback to the narrator’s childhood. Eric’s parents always reassured him that monsters aren’t real, but they were dead wrong. For a long time Eric believed that he was the last human left alive on earth, but when he finds evidence of a woman travelling through his terrority he knows he has to do anything he can to meet her. The character development in this piece was well done, especially once Eric’s risk-taking tendencies begin to show up. I had an inkling of what might be happening with this character, but seeing everything unfold through his first-person perspetive made the rest of the plot even better.

A is for Apocalypse is a clever anthology that I’d recommend to anyone who is a fan of hard science fiction.

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

The Magpie Chronicles by Sherry Gloag

July 17, 2014 By 2 Comments

MAGPIE
The Magpie Chronicles by Sherry Gloag
Publisher: EsKape Press
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Horror, Contemporary, Historical, Paranormal
Length: Short Story (106 pages)
Heat Level: Sweet
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A collection of thirteen mixed genre short stories based on the well-known Magpie Rhyme.

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
And four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told
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Nine for a kiss
Ten a surprise you should not miss
Eleven for health
Twelve for wealth
Thirteen beware of the devil himself.

Traditional poems are remembered because they speak to every generation that hears them. Will they continue to resonate with us in the twenty-first century?

As soon as I read the blurb, I couldn’t wait to find out how Ms. Gloag’s interpretation of each line could be reimagined in a fresh way. It’s uncommon for so many different genres to be represented in the same collection, and I was curious to see how and when they’d pop up together.

In “Three for a Girl,” a teenager gets into a fight with her boyfriend and decides to take a long walk to cool off before going home. What happens next caught me by surprise due to the attention-grabbing opening scene as well as how smoothly everything was tied together in the end. This is a good example of how to straddle the thin line between genres without compromising a quickly-paced plot.

“Five for Silver” follows two sisters around as they discuss the booming jewelry business that is bringing a lot of success to one of them. Like several other stories in this collection, this one had a great premise but never quite delivered enough details about what was happening in order for me to get into it. There were a few times when these tales had too many characters or never quite fully introduced them to the reader, and this made me feel a little lost in certain sections.

By far my favorite part of this anthology was “Eleven for Health.” The narrator is a woman who was married to the love of her life for decades. Their relationship has weathered far more than its fair share of bumps in the road. As she prepares for a monumental shift in her life she brushes up against funny, painful, and poignant memories that she hasn’t confronted in years. Strong character development and a plot that assumes the reader is intelligent enough to make certain deductions on his or her own made me wish for a sequel. I don’t know if the author has any plans to write one, but I’d love to revisit these characters!

The Magpie Chronicles dabbles with so many different themes that I’d recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in any of them. Some books benefit from shaking up the reader’s expectations of what will happen next. This is one of them.

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

Saving Grace Devine by Catherine Cavendish

June 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment

GRACE
Saving Grace Devine by Catherine Cavendish
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Historical, Contemporary
Length: Full Length (204 pages)
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Can the living help the dead…and at what cost?

When Alex Fletcher finds a painting of a drowned girl, she’s unnerved. When the girl in the painting opens her eyes, she is terrified. And when the girl appears to her as an apparition and begs her for help, Alex can’t refuse.
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But as she digs further into Grace’s past, she is embroiled in supernatural forces she cannot control, and a timeslip back to 1912 brings her face to face with the man who killed Grace and the demonic spirit of his long-dead mother. With such nightmarish forces stacked against her, Alex’s options are few. Somehow she must save Grace, but to do so, she must pay an unimaginable price.

It’s easy to brush away a fleeting glance of something dark and wispy as a figment of your imagination, but what happens when the form begins to take on a curiously human shape?

One of the most important things any good ghost story needs is a gloomy, isolated setting. What makes Arnsay an even better place for Alex to figure out who or what has been following her around is how perfectly ordinary this community appears to be at first glance. Many small towns are slightly obsessed with the people who put them on the map, but what makes this one unique is how its chosen to remember Grace and her family. Their reactions to the legends surrounding her life and death are nearly as intriguing as Alex’s increasingly bizarre encounters with the paranormal.

It would have been helpful to have more character development in this piece. Alex’s reactions to the spirits she encounters are well done, but it was difficult for me to get a sense of the personality she had before all of this began. So much time was spent on showing how her paranormal encounters affected her that I didn’t get to know much about Alex as an individual.

Strong pacing made it hard for me to put this book down. Hints about the backstories of the ghosts that are haunting Alex pop up pretty early on in the plot. At times they involve some rather detailed flashbacks, yet jumping into a previous era for a little while made the present even more interesting due to how closely everything is tied together.

Saving Grace Devine is a solid choice for anyone who enjoys the darker, more unpredictable side of paranormal fiction. This is one of the creepier tales I’ve read recently, and I’m looking forward to reading it again.

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

Tales from the Lake Vol. 1

June 26, 2014 By Leave a Comment

LAKE
Tales from the Lake Vol. 1 by Graham Masterton, G.N. Braun, Taylor Grant, John Palisano, Charles Day, John Paul Allen, Bev Vincent, Elizabeth Massie, Joan De La Haye, Tim Curran, Tim Waggoner, Jennifer Loring, J. Daniel Stone, William Ritchey, and Blaze McRob
Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Contemporary, Paranormal
Length: Short Story (128 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Dive into fourteen tales of non-themed horror, with short stories and dark poems by some of the best horror writers in the world, including the master himself, Graham Masterton.

Allow the very first instalment of Tales From the Lake to transport you to lakeside terror in Lover, Come Back to Me, Lady of Lost Lake, and Game On; journey to the basement of your local pet store in Dead Pull and your neighbourhood pub in O’Halloran’s; visit the apocalypse in Devil’s Night; travel to Africa in Witch-Compass and The Reunion; spend time with the talking dolls in Don’t Look at Me; experience drug addiction from close up in Junksick; and climb a ladder to the heavens in Perrollo’s Ladder.

Tales From the Lake Vol.1 includes the winning stories from the 2013 Tales From the Lake Horror Writing Competition: a nautical tale in Jenn Loring’s The Art of Wrecking; a bizarre story of strange addictions in J. Daniel Stone’s Alternative Muses; and a cult horror story in the jungles of South America in William Ritchey’s Las Maquinas.

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Perfectly ordinary days only remain so for as long as nothing unexpected happens. Unfortunately for the characters in the first volume of Tales From the Lake, extraordinary days far outnumber the run-of-the-mill ones.

Placing “Lover, Come Back to Me” first in line was an excellent decision. Alan’s reluctant fishing trip with his girlfriend, Jan, quickly wanders into some strange territory when she notices something weird happening as they wait for fish to nibble on their lines. Strong pacing and a few twists that I never saw coming kept me glued to the page until the end.

All of the stories in this collection have sharp, interesting premises, but some of them would have benefitted from more time to be fully developed before being released. For example, “O’Halloran’s” follows the bizarre journey of a man who has just dropped his girlfriend off at the hospital for an abortion. I had trouble following what happens next, though, and was a little puzzled by how certain events were meant to tie together.

Anyone who picks up this anthology should read “Don’t Look at Me” first. Imagine spending years sitting alone in a neglected corner of a garden shop as a conscious, intelligent garden gnome who can’t do anything to change his circumstances. It’s a boring, lonely, and depressing existence until everything changes in an instant. I loved the wry perspective of this narrator and would be quite interested in reading a sequel to his adventures.

“The Fine Art of Wrecking” is another example of a fascinating premise that never quite ties all of its clues together. Christopher grew up in a small, poor, isolated town that keeps itself going through a peculiar arrangement they’ve made with an incredibly powerful being. I quickly found myself immersed in the tough decisions Christopher and his neighbors have made in order to survive, but it would have been easier to understand the climax of this piece had more information about their arrangement been provided. A few other short stories were similarly a little sparse on important details.

This is an intriguing collection of horror and science fiction tales. From what I understand, there is a distinct possibility that a sequel is in the works. I, for one, am looking forward to reading more from any author lucky enough to be included in this anthology.

Tales from the Lake Vol. 1 has piqued my curiosity. This book is something I’d recommend to anyone who likes their science fiction dark and full of chilling twists.

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

Thief of Souls by JG Faherty

June 25, 2014 By Leave a Comment

SOULS
Thief of Souls by JG Faherty
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary
Length: Short Story (62 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Demons don’t forgive.

Perry didn’t want to be a thief. He simply needed to make back the money he lost on a bad business investment. Just three houses, then he can stop. But someone must be running a scam on him, trying to frighten him into turning himself in. He hears noises at night, small fires start in his house, and his dreams are filled with terrible nightmares.
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Soon Perry begins to fear it’s no mere scam—something unholy and inhuman is playing a game of cat and mouse with him. Perry has stolen an ancient idol…and the demon who inhabits it. However, when he tries to return the idol, he finds out it’s much too late. The demon intends to teach Perry a lesson, a lesson that will destroy everything and everyone that Perry loves.

Justice is a noble concept, but some criminals are so good that never have to worry about getting caught. Or do they?

Between taking advantage of people who had every reason to trust him and blaming everyone but himself for the bad decisions that lead him to robbery in the first place, Perry is the kind of protagonist that I love to hate. His intelligence and resourcefulness aren’t quite enough to make up for his many character defects, but they do make his journey even more interesting by providing glimmers of the person he could have been if he’d made different choices.

The foreshadowing in this story was a little too strong. I don’t mind having a good idea of what might happen ahead of time, but in this particular case the horror elements would have been even scarier had there been fewer clues about what was awaiting Perry around the next plot twist.

I’ve often wondered what antiques would say if they could speak. There’s something slightly eerie about a household object being passed down from one person to the next for many generations, and the mask in this book is no exception to that rule. This became even more true as Perry’s reactions to the things he hears, sees, and smells intensify. Thinking about the worst case scenario is scarier to me than having it spelled out plainly, and there was plenty of anticipation to be found as this plot built up.

Thief of Souls reads like a classic horror tale. There is a lot of creepy stuff between these pages for those of us who are fans of this genre!

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

Life After Dane by Edward Lorn

June 16, 2014 By 2 Comments

DANE
Life After Dane by Edward Lorn
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Contemporary, Paranormal, Horror
Length: Full Length (225 pages)
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A mother’s love is undying… and so is Dane.

After the state of Arkansas executes serial killer Dane Peters, the Rest Stop Dentist, his mother discovers that life is darker and more dangerous than she ever expected.

The driving force behind his ghostly return lies buried in his family’s dark past. As Ella desperately seeks a way to lay her son’s troubled soul to rest, she comes face to face with her own failings.
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If Ella cannot learn why her son has returned and what he seeks, then the reach of his power will destroy the innocent, and not even his mother will be able to stop him.

Death doesn’t always bring peace, and it isn’t necessarily the end of everything.

The character development in this book is outstanding. Ella is a deeply flawed narrator whose rigid worldview was as realistic for someone with her background as it was frustrating as times. She comes so close to understanding her past only to veer away from the truth once again. Her personality is so well-rounded, though, that I remained completely fascinated by her journey even though I don’t necessarily like her as an individual.

This is a very minor criticism of an otherwise excellent tale, but it would have been helpful to have a few more clues about what is happening as her encounters with her deceased son grow increasingly violent. Some of Ella’s experiences are pretty frightening, yet the other people around her don’t necessarily react to what’s happening the same way she does.

Speaking of violence, there is quite a bit of it in this story. The horror elements in it can be visceral at times. While they work well with the premise and strengths an already incredible plot, this is something I prefer to know ahead of time when poking around in this genre.

The mystery of what Dane wants and how exactly he was able to return from the dead haunted me from the first paragraph to the last one. I can normally figure these things out in advance, but Mr. Lorn’s clues were so skillfully placed that I was pleasantly surprised by how he fit everything together. This was my first introduction to his work, and I’m eager to read more from this talented author.

Life After Dane is as much a chilling mystery as it is dark science fiction. This is a fantastic choice for anyone who prefers the unpredictable side of either genre.

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

Witch Island by David Bernstein

May 29, 2014 By Leave a Comment

WITCH
Witch Island by David Bernstein
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Contemporary, Historical
Length: Full Length (218 pages)
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

A witch’s curse from beyond the grave!

Witch Island used to be feared. Even the bravest would not dare go there. Legend said a witch had been burned alive at the stake, and upon her death she cursed the town. Terrified residents performed rituals to keep her spirit trapped on the island where she was buried.

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Every community has its share of local legends. Some of them are true while others have been so blown out of proportion over the years that it’s nearly impossible to know if anything they claim actually happened. Of course Witch Island must be one of those tall tales. Or is it?

At first I was surprised by how much time Mr. Bernstein spent introducing all of the characters and explaining how the legend of Witch Island began. Many horror novels leap into the action almost immediately. Once the plot thickened, though, I appreciated all of the information that had been provided about the identity of the witch and the types of people who were about to visit her island. It was easier to keep track of such a large cast of characters given how much I knew about what their lives had been like before they decided to camp out in such a haunted place.

While all of the main characters had well-developed backstories, I would have liked to get to know their personalities better. Their childhood experiences were interesting, but for most of them I never quite found the connection between those memories and their current behavior. This is a strongly plot-based tale, so I wouldn’t expect it to spend as much time on character development as it did on pushing forward to the next scene. It still would have been helpful to have a better sense of who works well under pressure or has a tendency to be too trusting though.

The horror elements of this story take a while to show up, but once they do they’re much stronger than the science fiction elements. There are some genuinely frightening scenes in here that I’m very glad I didn’t try to read after dark or while on a camping trip. It certainly would have been scary to encounter those scenes while listening to all of the unfamiliar nighttime calls in the woods, but I don’t think I would have gotten any sleep had I tried to do that!

I’d recommend Witch Island to anyone who is a fan of the gorier side of these genres. It is full of the viscerally terrifying kinds of scenes that work so well in this kind of horror.

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