If you haven’t read, Bad Man, by Dathan Auerbach then you’re missing out. I was first introduced to Auerbach with his debut novel, Penpal which is an excellent read as well. With his latest novel we’re thrown into a world of tension and weirdness when Ben loses his little brother, Eric (who is three years old at the time) at a supermarket. One moment the boy is there, the next, he’s gone. Fast-forward five years and we get to see the emotional and psychological toll of such an event on both Ben and his parents.

Eric was never found and Ben is convinced that the police didn’t do a good enough job. He is also convinced that Eric is still alive. He suspects multiple folks and as we go through the novel, we start to see that Ben’s point-of-view is skewed. To say that strange things start happening once Ben starts working the night shift at the very grocery store that the event occurred, would be an understatement. Auerbach has a way with words that get under your skin, and the imagery he can paint it quite vivid. On top of that, his characters are top notch. They’ve all got their secrets and those little hooks kept me reading going. The way Auerbach weaved the narrative together is masterful. Many times I had to go on to the next chapter because of a bombshell chapter-end. Thanks for the late nights.

Auerbach’s characters are full of depths and secrets. As the story evolves, you’re left wondering who’s hiding what, and how it could be connected. The tone and atmosphere that Auerbach builds is rich and tense, and the dark imagery that he shows us is creepy as hell.

I highly recommend this book. It’s been quite a while since I read such a creepy and disturbing read. 

​Check it out here.

Daniel Yocom, creator of the Guild Master Gaming blog did a really nice review of my collection of horror stories, Tales from the Storm: Vol 1. Check it out!

http://guildmastergaming.blogspot.com/2018/06/tales-from-storm-volume-one-by.html 

​I picked up a copy of Apparition by Michaelbrent Collings at the last Life, the Universe, and Everything symposium a couple of months ago. For those of you who don’t know Michaelbrent, he’s billed as a Bestselling author and does quite well in the market. I’ve seen a lot of his work at the local conventions, as well as online, and finally decided to pick something up. The back cover blurb caught my eye and intrigued me:

Every year, thousands of children are killed... by their own parents.
Now, Shane Wills is about to discover why. About to discover an evil that has existed since the beginning of time.
An evil that invades loving parents and turns them into something else. An evil that feeds on the blood and despair of dying children.
An evil that most people will never know, because they cannot perceive the APPARITION.

To top that, his father was at the booth helping sell the books and he told me something along the lines of, that’s the only book of my son’s that I can’t read. It’s too disturbing. Whether true or not, it was a great marketing technique.

The story begins with the protagonist waking up in the middle of the night to his wife trying to kill their daughter with a knife. It quickly spirals into a tale of ghosts, unearthly entities, and constant thoughts of filicide that the protagonist can’t shake.

The story itself is a fast-paced, cinematic read that would make a great horror flick. In fact, many times while I was reading it, it felt as if I were watching movie. On that same note, sometimes I felt like the scares were there for no apparent reason other than to be creepy (#notreallyaproblemnowisit?). I loved the little snippets before each chapter and overall I found the content to be somewhat disturbing. Whether that was due to the fact that I have kids and the thought of killing my own children is horrible, I’m not sure.
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Overall the book is a fun read with some great twists and turns throughout the narrative. I loved the ending and the final confrontation. If you haven’t read Michaelbrent Collings, then this is a great book to start with. Fans of horror, both books and movie alike, should find this read entertaining.