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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
In the time since Bird Box it seems all horror authors are going small. Less characters and simple plots. Having loved The Final Reconcilliation and his recent novella Scalines, this was one of the books I was most looking forward to. I love Keisling's style and he is great at building characters and kind wrote dialogue for all age groups that isn't cringey. (I mean how many authors are using teenage characters and having them say stupid things?). This talent proves well for this book that tackles an entire town dealing with its cult past.
The book starts with such a bang that is better than most endings authors build up to. However, this is just the start. We flash forward to children of the cult leader who have gone different paths in life, most of them mundain. The past had been forgotten, but never should have been.
Authors spend their entire lives getting to a book like this. This is epic and is definantly something I would reccomend. For me religious horror and books full of characters are not my favorite things, but Keisling's characters kept me interested.
Thanks to the publisher Silver Shamrock I got an advanced copy of this one.
The book starts with such a bang that is better than most endings authors build up to. However, this is just the start. We flash forward to children of the cult leader who have gone different paths in life, most of them mundain. The past had been forgotten, but never should have been.
Authors spend their entire lives getting to a book like this. This is epic and is definantly something I would reccomend. For me religious horror and books full of characters are not my favorite things, but Keisling's characters kept me interested.
Thanks to the publisher Silver Shamrock I got an advanced copy of this one.
I'm always going to pick up a book that has mentions of a cult in the blurb. It's just something I find so utterly fascinating but every time I do pick up these books, I'm always left disappointed and Devil's Creek was unfortunately no different.
Devil's Creek is set in Kentucky where there used to be a church that was home to a death cult ran by Jacob Masters. He believes in some nameless god and starts to get quite a lot of followers from the local town. In 1983, the church burned down after a mass suicide but some people did survive, including Jacob's 6 children and their grandparents. The main character we follow is one of these children - Jack Tremly. He is now an adult who returns to his hometown after his grandmother passes away. However, all he finds there now are more secrets and supernatural goings on.
We don't get a whole lot of information on the actual cult and what went on prior to 1983. Anything we do get is written very well and was super interesting, I just needed a bit more of it. Anything with Jack and his siblings in the present day is super boring. I really didn't care for it until the supernatural stuff started happening and even then it was very slow and you knew exactly how it was going to end.
Overall, this wasn't very scary/horror filled and it was really boring.
2 stars.
Devil's Creek is set in Kentucky where there used to be a church that was home to a death cult ran by Jacob Masters. He believes in some nameless god and starts to get quite a lot of followers from the local town. In 1983, the church burned down after a mass suicide but some people did survive, including Jacob's 6 children and their grandparents. The main character we follow is one of these children - Jack Tremly. He is now an adult who returns to his hometown after his grandmother passes away. However, all he finds there now are more secrets and supernatural goings on.
We don't get a whole lot of information on the actual cult and what went on prior to 1983. Anything we do get is written very well and was super interesting, I just needed a bit more of it. Anything with Jack and his siblings in the present day is super boring. I really didn't care for it until the supernatural stuff started happening and even then it was very slow and you knew exactly how it was going to end.
Overall, this wasn't very scary/horror filled and it was really boring.
2 stars.
You can find my full review here: https://mediadrome.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/devils-creek-by-todd-keisling/
I. Love. Cults. I love learning about cults. I love documentaries about cults. I love movies and books about cults. Do you get it yet? Cults are kind of my jam. I also love body horror and cosmic horror. Devil’s Creek gave me all that and then some. I am not sure I can use my words in a way that will accurately convey how much I enjoyed this book.
I. Love. Cults. I love learning about cults. I love documentaries about cults. I love movies and books about cults. Do you get it yet? Cults are kind of my jam. I also love body horror and cosmic horror. Devil’s Creek gave me all that and then some. I am not sure I can use my words in a way that will accurately convey how much I enjoyed this book.
DNF at 60%. No tea, no shade, but this is just not working for me. I'm pretty disappointed because from the description I thought it would be an all-time favorite. Cults? Small town horror? The past coming back to haunt the protagonists?? This book had all of the ingredients I wanted but in the end it didn't bake into a cookie I'd eat, do you feel me?
Todd Keisling is a good writer, there's not doubt about that. But I found the story to be repetitive and I thought it dragged (and I'm someone who loves character-driven, slow-paced stories!). I thought I'd be getting The Devil All the Time levels of fucked up, but instead this felt like reading a cheesy slasher film. Also I just want to mention that I started this at the beginning of February and it put me in such a huge reading slump that I didn't read anything for the months of February or March and that's a problem. Again, someone else might love this, but it didn't resonate with me and sometimes that's just the way.
Todd Keisling is a good writer, there's not doubt about that. But I found the story to be repetitive and I thought it dragged (and I'm someone who loves character-driven, slow-paced stories!). I thought I'd be getting The Devil All the Time levels of fucked up, but instead this felt like reading a cheesy slasher film. Also I just want to mention that I started this at the beginning of February and it put me in such a huge reading slump that I didn't read anything for the months of February or March and that's a problem. Again, someone else might love this, but it didn't resonate with me and sometimes that's just the way.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The short version: Keisling captures all of the horror of small town living and old time religion in a beautifully written masterpiece. I adored it.
The longer version: Keisling gives us a gaggle of characters who are unique and easy to cheer for (or against), a big bad who is truly the stuff of nightmares, and a third act which dares to go places that most other horror stories seem to shy away from.
There's body horror.
There's cosmic horror.
There's things that go bump in the night and cults and monsters and worms. Worms everywhere.
Whatever your preferred flavor of horror, it's somewhere in Devil's Creek.
But it all works together and flows seamlessly. What could have come across as a scattershot approach to hitting too many horror stereotypes was handled masterfully by Keisling, and it all built up to a bat-shift crazy story that I won't soon forget.
The longer version: Keisling gives us a gaggle of characters who are unique and easy to cheer for (or against), a big bad who is truly the stuff of nightmares, and a third act which dares to go places that most other horror stories seem to shy away from.
There's body horror.
There's cosmic horror.
There's things that go bump in the night and cults and monsters and worms. Worms everywhere.
Whatever your preferred flavor of horror, it's somewhere in Devil's Creek.
But it all works together and flows seamlessly. What could have come across as a scattershot approach to hitting too many horror stereotypes was handled masterfully by Keisling, and it all built up to a bat-shift crazy story that I won't soon forget.
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No