Tag Archives: Horror

The Catacombs

CatacombsThere will be no skipping parts—and no putting this book down until it has finished.

What can be scarier than wandering the catacombs under Paris in darkness? You will discover how horrific it can be below the city. The story plunges you underground with the four explorers, as they journey through the catacombs, pursuing a quest inspired by a mysterious video Pascal had found during a previous trip below.

Pascal and Daniele are both experienced cataphiles—the colloquial term for underground urban explorers of the catacombs. They guide Rob and Will through some treacherous terrain and tight conditions. The setting is described fully, and you will feel as if you are there in the tunnels as well, inching through every fissure crack. You want suspense and horror—look no further. The surprise will be not only whom they meet below, but also the shadows they each carry within themselves. As they trek, the characters naturally unfold their own stories.

The bizarre and shocking encounters underground trigger their reveries and innermost thoughts. The reader has a front row seat and glimpses into the past of Will, the main protagonist, as he reveals his nightmare while trying to come to terms with his own ghosts. The author does this with a smooth and compassionate brush.

This brings us right back to their horrendous situation that they are dealing with. We travel beside them, sharing their troubles; the deeper into the tunnels and the story, the bigger the shock becomes. Twists and turns are found not only through the catacombs, but the with each action decision the characters opt as well.

No more details told. I do not want to give anything away. Nevertheless, I have to disclose that I never expected the end as it unfolded. Not a fairy-tale ending but it is very much acceptable. Well done—suspenseful to the end!

This is book two in the series “A World’s Scariest Places”. The first “Suicide Forest” was also a great suspense thriller. For both of these stories, the series name is not enough to prepare you for what you will experience as a reader. You will learn new things about our world, and survive through our worst fears as well.

I have read both books in the series so far, and both are intense. These books have become my favorites, a modern writer surpassing King and Koontz. Jeremy Bates not only delivers maximum suspense and horror, but you are right there with the characters. The style of writing is honest, vivid, compelling and never a dull moment.

About The Reviewer

elizabeth_zgutaElisabeth Zguta is an advocate for Independent authors and publishers and encourages all writers to learn the skills needed for today’s book markets and to keep in touch with the new technologies.

​She is curious ​and always wants to know more about everything, and her attention goes to many places and topics. She considers herself a life learner, not only because of the courses she takes but also from the knowledge gained through life experiences. Nothing brings her more satisfaction than reading something new that sparks her imagination or connecting with other people regarding a topic. She is an Indie Author of supernatural, thriller suspense novels and writes blog posts.

Learn more about Elisabeth and her work at http://ezindiepublishing.com/

Borrowed Time

Borrowed_TimeI love short stories. Unlike novels, with short stories I get an entire story in a single sitting, and they’re easier to fit into my busy life even during hectic times. In a good collection, I get ten or more good reads without having to shop for another book. So I was really happy to find this collection by Chad A. Clark.

A diverse and well executed collection of stories, the tales in Borrowed Time range from horror to weird to literary. My favorite story in the collection is the first one: Mist on the Highway. In the vein of Rod Serling and Ray Bradbury, it’s a story that rewrites itself as you read it, constantly making you secondguess your assumptions about what is really happening. It plays off the familiar, referencing ghost hitchhiker stories, but is certainly more than just another retelling.

Another story in the collection, Falling to Dark, was scary enough that I couldn’t read it at bedtime without unduly influencing my dreams. I had to put it away and try again in daylight.

I recommend it for readers who are looking for shorter reads and like variety in the subject matter.

About The Reviewer:

BRYANT-CroppedSamantha Bryant is a middle school Spanish teacher by day and a mom and novelist by night. That makes her a superhero all the time. Her debut novel, Going Through the Change: A Menopausal Superhero Novel is now for sale by Curiosity Quills.

Learn more about Samantha and her work at http://samanthadunawaybryant.blogspot.com/

Suicide Forest

Suicide_ForestHeart pounding suspense!

I strongly recommend this book for suspense seekers, you will definitely be entertained. Revealed through the eyes and voice of Ethan, who deals with the strange and gruesome occurrences that he, and six other companions, experience in Aokigahara Jukai – the Sea of Trees, or better known in Japan as the place to go, to commit suicide.

Suicide Forest -It’s an intriguing title and it only gets better-Jeremy Bates wrote a vivid novel, and pulls the reader into the world under the trees, a woven canopy of twisted boughs and an imaginative macabre forest.

The protagonist’s back story unfolds nicely with bits and pieces of his experiences as an English teacher in Japan. The tension picks up quick, and the companions roll from one ordeal to another, in a well-paced sequence of events, responding to each tribulation in creative ways. They all react with their own voice and tone, bringing an added dimension to the storyline. Throughout the book there is a true sense of place, and of cultural backgrounds with the descriptions of the music, food and drinking customs, and boundaries in relationships-all defining our humanity. The differences between the characters, as well as their common threads, are exposed.

The cast of characters begins with Ethan and his girlfriend Melinda, both English teachers in a foreign country. Her friend John Scott, an American soldier, tags along. Also another teacher and Ethan’s co-worker Neil, and Tomo a young Psychology major-they then meet up with two new acquaintances, Ben and Nina, who are Israeli. All of them are from different backgrounds and cultures, and they each have their own personal struggles. A common theme they do share-thoughts about suicide, or at least about death, for various individual reasons. The seven companions hike into the woods following lifelines of ribbons, and set out to camp for a night. Not everyone comes out.
They deal with the situations that arise, until you are led to think there is no place to turn-or hope left. But Ethan finds a way. I don’t want to give anything away but an unexpected turn leads the reader into a shocking end…

I never saw it coming. I believe, humans are the worst monsters. You have to read the book to understand… As a reader, I finished the story satisfied, with lingering thoughts about the situation the book presented. I am always happy reading a story that makes me think and learn new things, and Jeremy Bates did an excellent job of sharing his added flavor to the story, with his own experiences in travel, and obvious research. I strongly recommend this book for suspense seekers, you will definitely be entertained.

About The Reviewer

elizabeth_zgutaElisabeth Zguta is an advocate for Independent authors and publishers and encourages all writers to learn the skills needed for today’s book markets and to keep in touch with the new technologies.

​She is curious ​and always wants to know more about everything, and her attention goes to many places and topics. She considers herself a life learner, not only because of the courses she takes but also from the knowledge gained through life experiences. Nothing brings her more satisfaction than reading something new that sparks her imagination or connecting with other people regarding a topic. She is an Indie Author of supernatural, thriller suspense novels and writes blog posts.

Learn more about Elisabeth and her work at http://ezindiepublishing.com/

Tales From The Canyons Of The Damned, Vol 4

Tales_Canyons_v4I’ve read the other Canyons offerings and felt an anticipatory frisson when opening this one. I intended to read one and save the others for consecutive nights. I read them all.

In “Bloom,” exotic and mysterious, S. Elliot Brandis examines a society based on a belief system that seems both familiar and foreign, comforting and cruel. It is a folk tale detective sacrifice story, and a good one. I adore Brandis’ descriptions! Two words become a complete picture. And when he gets going, one paragraph can be gripping.

Hank Garner covers territory in “The Hereafter”—geographical, meteorological and social—familiar to this Alabama native. My being from the Deep South means his story’s location and language make me so comfortable that, even with the foreshadowing, the horror ending is … I guess “enhanced” is the closest I can come right now. He does dialogue so well, giving each speaker a unique vocabulary and voice.There’s a parallel between Yankee-in-Dixie and Human-in-Haunted-Land in this story. The violence is mostly implied or from the distant past; the current ruckus is brief and final.

In “Eye in the Sky,” by Daniel Arthur Smith, the tentacles are high kilowatt affairs and blue is everywhere … until it’s black. Smith’s clean, tight writing delivers a jolt (ahem). As usual with his stories, he places the reader within the setting. This time, we get to be in a helicopter far above the streets of New York City. But that’s not the dizzying part; wait ’til you get to the arm of liquid chrome, the lifting lightning bolt . . . and those blue eyes.

It is good to read something by Jon Frater again. His story, “Sole Survivor,” is descriptive of place and antagonist. It doesn’t take long for a person to lose hope when all life has broken into fragments. Hold onto your supper; you’ll read of two-ton bloodworms, red ooze, and Sam. It’s as if Nevil Shute had written short horror.

All four third-person stories are engaging and give the reader the option of thinking about their underlying themes. This is excellent writing. Get this book. Plan to read just one. Let me know how that goes.

About The Reviewer:

Deanne_charltonDeanne Charlton is a well-traveled writer whose first book was a construction paper tome of 16 pages at age 8. She tortured her parents with homemade stage plays, using a sliding glass door to introduce characters. Eventually, she segued into real life, fulfilling a college degree and practicing several professions, and then she retreated to her make-believe world and the friends it now presents. While comfortable with poetry, she ventures into prose upon occasion, including short stories, essays, and book reviews. She curates a writer-dense Facebook group at DCharltonEdits, provides editing services, and tweets as @dcwrites. She is tender, fierce, and loyal.