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5hadow_girl's review against another edition
5.0
Another great book - I've been having an awesome month!
We Came Back really sucked me in, and I thought about the story all day at work - I just wanted to get home to finish!
Full review posted soon!
We Came Back really sucked me in, and I thought about the story all day at work - I just wanted to get home to finish!
Full review posted soon!
wellwortharead's review against another edition
4.0
Frank Tanner has been a bit over protective of his teenage daughter ever since he lost his son, but it's not just his over cautious nature that his him suspecting something is not right with her weird looking new boyfriend Busty. Something evil is waking up at the old abandoned Lynwood High School. Something that wants revenge on Frank, and will use his daughter to get it.
Meanwhile there's a frightening change coming over the "good" kids in town. They're dressing differently, acting differently, and what used to be the honors society has turned into something dark and foul. Frank has enlisted the help of Justin, his daughter's former boyfriend to see if he can find any dirt on Busty, but he had better hurry because it's getting closer to Halloween and a party you'll never forget.
This was a real spine tingler!
Meanwhile there's a frightening change coming over the "good" kids in town. They're dressing differently, acting differently, and what used to be the honors society has turned into something dark and foul. Frank has enlisted the help of Justin, his daughter's former boyfriend to see if he can find any dirt on Busty, but he had better hurry because it's getting closer to Halloween and a party you'll never forget.
This was a real spine tingler!
thomaswjoyce's review against another edition
4.0
After a heartfelt dedication to his father (Lacey has donated all personal proceeds from the sale of We Came Back to a cancer charity in his honour), we are immediately introduced to the darkness that lies beneath the streets of Lynnwood. Lacey does a good job of describing the dark presence without giving too much away too soon. The author gradually brings the darkness into the story by the way it begins to feed on the teenage population of the town, beginning with Vickie, a high-achiever from a family of demanding high-achievers. It infects Vickie before moving on to high school quarterback Tom and National Honor Society members Angie and Carlos. It seems to only target the popular kids or the over-achievers, the kind of kids that would look down their noses at lesser students or ignore them altogether.
All of this doesn’t go unnoticed by the faculty of the high school, primarily History teacher Frank Tanner. We see a large portion of the story through his eyes as he struggles to deal with the cultish “Lynnwood Vampires”, a name the affected kids wear like a badge of honor. But Frank has more problems, what with his own teenage daughter’s sudden taste for mysterious “bad boy” Busty Brown, his grief over the son he lost nearly ten years before, and his daughter’s ex-boyfriend who lives next door and who can’t seem to get over the break-up. Indeed, Justin comes across as quite an intense character at first, seemingly stalking Alyssa by watching her from his bedroom window all of the time. But it soon becomes clear that, while dealing with his own grief over the death of his father, he never truly understood why Alyssa broke up with him. Most of us can relate to teenage angst, and this helps us to understand Justin’s character.
The main theme explored in the book is loss. The Tanner’s are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of Jeremy. Justin can’t get over Alyssa Tanner’s rejection, coming so soon after the death of his father. The scenes where Lacey explores the raw emotion of these characters, whether it is Frank’s wife and daughter trying to convince Frank to let go of some of the emotional baggage he has carried since Jeremy passed, or Justin recounting the terrible details of watching his father struggle for life while confined to their couch, are some of the best in the book. They give the characters an emotional depth and reality that allow the reader to relate.
The threads of the story begin to come together as the disturbing change in behaviour of the Lynnwood Vampires and unusual and horrific events become more frequent, building to a violent and unsettling climax. The true origin of the darkness that lives in the earth beneath the town is gradually drawn out, and we realise that Frank is more key to the plans of the darkness than we first thought, thanks to a traumatic event that is becoming ever more present in the real world. We then learn that the darkness has a specific punishment in mind for Frank, beyond its intentions towards the town.
As with his previous novel, Dream Woods, Lacey crafts an entertaining slice of small town American horror. He takes elements that we find safe and normal, and seeks to subvert them with creepy and, often, bloody scenes. His descriptions of the horrific darkness, when it finally takes form, are well done and his depiction of the main characters are generally very good. There are one or two minor errors that briefly took me out of the moment but, overall, We Came Back is another step in the right direction for Lacey’s writing career and I look forward to visiting his sinister imagination again in the future.
All of this doesn’t go unnoticed by the faculty of the high school, primarily History teacher Frank Tanner. We see a large portion of the story through his eyes as he struggles to deal with the cultish “Lynnwood Vampires”, a name the affected kids wear like a badge of honor. But Frank has more problems, what with his own teenage daughter’s sudden taste for mysterious “bad boy” Busty Brown, his grief over the son he lost nearly ten years before, and his daughter’s ex-boyfriend who lives next door and who can’t seem to get over the break-up. Indeed, Justin comes across as quite an intense character at first, seemingly stalking Alyssa by watching her from his bedroom window all of the time. But it soon becomes clear that, while dealing with his own grief over the death of his father, he never truly understood why Alyssa broke up with him. Most of us can relate to teenage angst, and this helps us to understand Justin’s character.
The main theme explored in the book is loss. The Tanner’s are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of Jeremy. Justin can’t get over Alyssa Tanner’s rejection, coming so soon after the death of his father. The scenes where Lacey explores the raw emotion of these characters, whether it is Frank’s wife and daughter trying to convince Frank to let go of some of the emotional baggage he has carried since Jeremy passed, or Justin recounting the terrible details of watching his father struggle for life while confined to their couch, are some of the best in the book. They give the characters an emotional depth and reality that allow the reader to relate.
The threads of the story begin to come together as the disturbing change in behaviour of the Lynnwood Vampires and unusual and horrific events become more frequent, building to a violent and unsettling climax. The true origin of the darkness that lives in the earth beneath the town is gradually drawn out, and we realise that Frank is more key to the plans of the darkness than we first thought, thanks to a traumatic event that is becoming ever more present in the real world. We then learn that the darkness has a specific punishment in mind for Frank, beyond its intentions towards the town.
As with his previous novel, Dream Woods, Lacey crafts an entertaining slice of small town American horror. He takes elements that we find safe and normal, and seeks to subvert them with creepy and, often, bloody scenes. His descriptions of the horrific darkness, when it finally takes form, are well done and his depiction of the main characters are generally very good. There are one or two minor errors that briefly took me out of the moment but, overall, We Came Back is another step in the right direction for Lacey’s writing career and I look forward to visiting his sinister imagination again in the future.
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