Published by Flame Tree Press on September 6, 2018
Genres: Horror
Pages: 288
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Also by this author: Ghost Mine
The monsters live inside of Kate Woodson. Chronic pain and a host of autoimmune diseases have robbed her of a normal, happy life. Her husband Andrew’s surprise of their dream Maine lake cottage for the summer is the gift of a lifetime. It’s beautiful, remote, idyllic, a place to heal. But they are not alone. Something is in the woods, screeching in the darkness, banging on the house, leaving animals for dead. Just like her body, Kate’s cottage becomes her prison. She and Andrew must fight to survive the creature that lurks in the dead of night. FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
Holy mother of god! I am not sure which part of this book freaked me out the most! Might have been me reading it at night in the dark….not very sensible. Things definitely go bump in the night hasn’t anyone taught you that! Well if they haven’t read this book and you will know!
Ok, so I am still freaked…but what a book. I spent a lot of this book cringing but mainly due to the illnesses that the main character, Kate, has, where movements can make her bones pop out her joints. Makes me cringe, I mean I really feel for this poor girl, she has Lupus and a whole host of auto-immune disease so constantly riddled with pain and exhaustion. I thought my arthritis that I live with day in day out in my knees and hands and wrists was painful, it’s not a fraction of what she goes through.
Andrew her caring and doting husband has his anger issues and let’s be honest who wouldn’t in his situation. I would be angry too. He takes a sabbatical from work for 3 months to a gorgeous little cottage in Maine by the lake to help Kate recuperate. Well like any good horror stories things go BUMP in the night (yes I know I am repeating myself).
I was on edge from the beginning of the book when Kate mentioned seeing shadows in her own home, Buttons the dog growling at them too. To the cottage where it just got so freaky and damn right frightening…I’m sure something is tapping at my window as I write this!!!! I wondered if this was a manifestation in Kate’s head due to all the different prescribed drugs she has to take and if she might just be going stir crazy but when Andrew starts to hear things that’s when I thought here comes all the bat s**t crazy stuff.
I did not feel that this was slow at all, we are led at just the right pace building on the characters. A couple held together through their love. Both adjusting to their lives and roles, making jokes about their situation to help cope. It was powerful to show the light with their love, in contrast to the darkness that lingers at the fringes. Yet, reminding you that Kate is trapped in her own prison, her daily darkness, is there still hope? Well, you will need to read the book to find that out.
I really could imagine this on the big screen. The descriptions in this book, I felt I was there each time the screams happened, each rock that was thrown, each branch was broken. That is Lupus writing to make everything feel so vivid but also damn right terrifying when reading this book! Plus you need to look at the cover of the anyone through slitted fingers..those eyes eek!
You need to read every page of this book, not just the story but the foreword and the Q and A too to get a real insight into this book. I will be checking out more of Hunter’s books, maybe on a sunny day when it’s hot with a drink in my hand, not stupidly in bed in the dark!!!
You really won’t be disappointed with this book.
*Thank you so much to Anne at Random Things Tours, Flame Tree Press and the author Hunter Shea for a copy of this book in return for my honest and unbiased review*
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