Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horror. Show all posts

June 29, 2017

Brother by Ania Ahlborn

Synopsis:

From the bestselling horror author of Within These Walls and The Bird Eater comes a brand-new novel of terror that follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.

Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.

But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…

‘Brother’ is . . . a very brutal book to say the least. There is a lot of blood, a lot of cringing, and a lot of having to put it down to take a break. It follows the traditions of the Morrow family as they make their way through girls. By making their way through girls, I mean brutally murdering them.

This book is not for people who don’t enjoy gore. There is a lot of it, and some of it is really hard to read. If you can get through that, you will find an interesting story about a kid that longs for normalcy when his life is anything but normal.

You get the sense that Michael may not be all there, but it could just be his lack of education and communication with the outside world. All he knows is the messed up family that he has ended up with. He knows he doesn’t really belong in their circle, but it takes him the whole book to find out his actual truth.

Michael is a complex character while being a very simple person. For someone who has done unforgivable things, Michael has a good heart and feels very deeply.

Then there is Reb, Michael’s “brother”. I am not sure he has felt any emotion except for anger. Despite being a sibling, I feel like he ran the family. It lived and breathed on the back of Reb.
Wade was the father, but he was much more of a background character and didn’t really mean anything to me.

Momma – she got the family started in their messed up ways. Everything they did was to please her. She was an ominous presence that couldn’t really do much on her own. She did a lot of . . . cooking. She had a severe lust for blood and she wanted to see people suffer. For a character who doesn’t say a whole lot, she was terrifying.

Misty Dawn was the reject of the family due to her loneliness and need for love.

Brother is told from Michael’s POV and introduces you to his struggles and want for a new life.
It is a deep book, and it is well written. Despite the gruesome scenes, it made me want to keep reading.

If you can handle it, give it a shot.

3/5 Stars

Memorable Quotes:

“Them’s the perks of livin’ out in the wilderness, Momma has once said. You scream and ain’t nobody around to hear.”

“If it didn’t matter how hard they screamed, Michael didn’t get what the difference would be. Day or night, dead was dead. At least during the day he wasn’t trying to sleep.”

“Some hurts were just too painful to talk about.”

“The air was always better when the world was sleeping. It made it easier to breathe.”

“She was his Fate, delivering him from a life of horror, saving him from himself.”


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June 2, 2016

Joyland by Stephen King

Synopsis:
College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who broke his heart. But he wound up facing something far more terrible: the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and dark truths about life—and what comes after—that would change his world forever.
Stephen King novels are very hit or miss with me. I would love to say that I really enjoy them all and I can get into them right away, but that isn’t the case. When they hit – they hit hard, though. That is exactly what Joyland did. It hooked me from the very first page, and it didn’t let go.

I'm not sure what was so gripping about this novel. It had to be a combination of the amusement park mystique as well as the inner monologue of Devin. He is a very relatable character, and that fact made it easier to read through the book. I would read a sequel written from his point of view as well. He has a lot of insightful thoughts and an interesting personality.

Every character in this novel was really complex, and they all added to the intrigue of the story.

I was expecting it to be a little more in the horror genre, but I would call it more of a suspense novel. Nothing about it was really scary, but the mystery of it all kept me guessing and kept me holding on until the last page.
Also – I loved Annie and Mike, and the end of this book made me very, very sad.

5/5 Stars. Highly, highly recommend this one. This book touched me in ways I never would have expected. 

Memorable Quotes: “That first broken heart is always the most painful, the slowest to mend, and leaves the most visible scar.”

“Love leaves scars.”

“You think ‘Okay, I get it, I’m prepared for the worst,’ but you hold out on that small hope, see, and that’s what fucks you up. That’s what kills you.”

“The powers that be have a way of outlawing many beautiful things made by ordinary people. I don’t know why that should be, I only know it is.”

“The last good time always comes, and when you see the darkness creeping towards you, you hold on to what was bright and good. You hold on for dear life.”

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May 2, 2015

What Hides Within by Jason Parent

Synopsis:
Inside all of us, there is darkness. Inside Clive, it's tangible, and it's aching to get out.

What Hides Within tells the story of a man held captive by an unknown evil. Clive Menard is a spineless slacker leading an ordinary existence. But when Chester enters his life, it becomes far from ordinary.

A disheveled Clive stands alone in a hospital waiting room. A series of incidences have led him to undergo unnecessary neurosurgery. A voice inside Clive’s head nags him to kill the doctor.

Weeks prior, a murder investigation and an unrelated kayaking excursion set the story’s interlocking events in motion. When a remorseful killer, a bomb-happy psychopath and a mysterious widow spider converge upon Clive, they bring with them destruction and death. Clive must discover who or what is steering his very existence before he, too, is consumed by the carnage around him.

With a driven detective following his every step and a vicious killer hiding within his circle of friends, Clive must walk a narrow and dangerous path, teetering between salvation and damnation. He must confront Chester and his own demons. But is he powerless to overcome them?
By the cover of this book, I should have known what to expect. But, I did not, and there were quite a few scenes where I was cringing.

Reading a book with the main character of a spider is not a good thing for someone who is very afraid of spiders…
That said, it was definitely a unique story. Having something inside of your head talking to you seems terrifying in itself, but that thing can also control your actions. That is even more terrifying.

I enjoyed the story for the most part… despite the spider thing…
There were parts that dragged on a bit, I felt that the story of Clive’s roommate didn’t really get the full attention that it deserved. Detective Rielly was an important character, but she also just seemed like a small character and we never learn much about her.
So, while some of it dragged on, I also feel that it should have been longer to explore the characters more.

For a horror story, it was interesting and unique. If you are looking for something different, go ahead and pick it up.

3/5 stars.

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