Published by Flame Tree Press on October 10, 2023
Format: eARC
Source: Net Galley
Goodreads
Fans of The Ritual by Adam Nevill and action-packed horror movies like Demons and 30 Days of Night will love this new chiller from the author of Tomb of Gods.
During a winter storm, a ravenous beast preys upon the people of a remote town and a pipeline construction company. Among them, a predatorial psychopath welcomes a master as cold and dark as his heart. Following a trail of carnage, retired police chief Sam Larsen, along with a hellbent group of men and a corrupt sheriff, desperately try to stop the beast before its contagious hunger spreads to others. A young mother, trapped inside her isolated home with her children, must do everything in her power to survive the night.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
This is a book I should have read in October, instead I shone a spotlight on the book as I wasn’t able to read it due to personal issues. I have now read the book, and this is my review of this chilling tale!!
This story has a little bit of everything, some Viking folklore, a beastie, isolated circumstances, the cold, oh the cold and a community who want things to be how they used to be!
When I originally started to read this, I was a bit worried that I would lose interest once we discovered what the big beastie would be. I recently watched The Ritual by Adam Neville on Shudder and once I saw the beast, I rolled my eyes. However, it wasn’t the same here. I couldn’t clearly imagine the beast, and to be honest I am GLAD!!! This book was brutal and didn’t hold back on the gore. The beginning was slow, it’s setting the scene. An explosion disrupted a sacred area. The man I thought would be a big part of the book, got lost in the snow, and that’s when it all went a bit Pete Tong….. and boy did it!!
Sam, what a legend he was! The rituals, the magic, the realism of him drew me in. I loved and adored all the folklore of this town. It was haunting and haunted. I loved the fact that this town had its quirky ways and people didn’t laugh about Silas or Bendik and their beliefs because they were everyone’s beliefs.
God, I hate hate hate Kujak! He was god-awful and I guess the outcome for him was perfection. Shelby was just kick ass and she came through in the end. I loved the growth of her character and how she evolved.
I have one complaint, that ending!! I mean it just ended! I have no idea now what’s going to happen. I don’t feel like the characters I care about are ok. I mean I love that I can make my ending, but that was a cliffhanger and a half, and that twist on one person, well that was the cherry on the top! I did love that bit!!
This is a slow start, but once it gets going, it gets going!! The thing is, it does get going from about 25% ish, and it just doesn’t relent. I found it so intense and I just wasn’t sure how the author would carry it on for the remainder of the book but once the bowling alley incident happened it was crazy! So much was going on and it was like the mist, the white mist coming right at you.
I was in the cold, snowy mountains when I read this – probably not a good thing, especially on the days when there was fog, and the mist covered the town below….not at all!
Until the next time xxx
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 2024 Reading
- NetGalley 96
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