Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 5/16/2019 + 1188 more book reviews

A few months ago, I ran across a post on Twitter which purported to list the ten best horror writers alive today. On this list was Ania Ahlborn who I had never heard of so when I happened upon one of her books at the library, I decided to give it a try.

Well, this novel was definitely creepy and kept me turning the pages. The first part of the novel has a young Stevie Clark trying to find out what happened to his best friend and cousin, Jude Brighton. Jude has disappeared and what happened to him is very reminiscent of another disappearance and murder of a young boy, Max Larsen, that occurred several years previously. So are the disappearances connected? And why do all the local dogs and cats in the area run off into the woods and come back sickly and not wanting to stay with their owners? And then Jude comes back but to Stevie, he has changed and not really Jude. So what happened to him? And is it all in Stevie's mind who imagines things like bags of spiders and other creepy things? Then the novel shifts narratives to a young doctor and his wife who build a house in the woods and are trying to have a baby. When the wife does finally conceive after her husband is killed in an accident, the baby turns out to be not quite normal. So how is all this connected? And are the bloody events that ensue all in Stevie's mind?

Overall, I thought this was a very good horror story which kept my interest throughout. I will probably be looking out for more of Ahlborn's novels.

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