Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Boys in the Valley

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: Philip Fracassi
𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭: The St. Vincent's Orphanage houses 30 boys and is run by a small group of priests. There they live an impoverished and strict life under the constant supervision of Father Poole and his henchman Brother Johnson. An already rough situation is made worse when an injured man is brought to the priests by the local sheriff in the middle of the night. To their horror, the man, covered in occult symbols and making sounds no human should make, unleashes something terrible in the orphanage.
𝐏𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬: 335
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: Horror
𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: Absolutely
𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭: no, but considering they're at an orphanage for boys, that makes sense
𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐝: early 1900s
𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book is absolutely tremendous and one of my favorites of the year. It is written in multiple POVs, giving an intimate glimpse in the life of many of the boys (and a few adults) before the chaos begins. Due to this style, you really grow to love many of the characters, which is almost unfortunate as none of them are safe.

Possession and demonic novels always tend to be the scariest stories to me, but throwing it into a group of children is a dramatic and effective move. Fracassi is excellent here, and this will be a long favorite of mine.

Content Warnings

cantfindmybookmark's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

Let me tell you, this book was legitimately scary. I have a pretty high threshold for horror and I had to set this book down a few times. That’s not to say the horror and gore are exorbitant or there just for shock value (though there is shock value). Everything in this book felt intentional and necessary for the story.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: St. Vincent’s Orphanage for Boys, rural Pennsylvania, turn of the century, winter.

𝟓-𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: The Exorcist meets Lord of the Flies (I did not come up with this, so saw it online)

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐨𝐭: Late at night a group of men arrive at this orphanage, which houses roughly 30 boys and is run by Catholic priests. One of the late night arrivals is badly injured, with occult symbols carved into his body and something evil carved into his soul. When he dies, that evil does not die with him but is instead released on the orphanage. Chaos and horror ensue.

If you’re into scary reads I highly recommend this one, but do check trigger warnings.

Content Warnings

sylvestra's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

natashaleighton_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Drenched in blood, occultism and claustrophobic levels of suspense and paranoia, Philip Fracassi’s Boys In The Valley was soo spine-chillingly creepy I’ve literally been forced to sleep with the lights on!

I’m not usually a huge horror reader (I’m actually a huge scaredy cat when it comes to anything remotely creepy) but when I saw this described as The Exorcist meets Lord of The Flies I couldn’t resist checking this out—and I’m soo glad I did.

It’s set in 1905 in a remote boys orphanage (St Vincent’s) in Pennsylvania, and follows 16 year old Peter, the ever watchful priests and fellow orphans who learn, work and worship until old enough to leave—or like Peter, train to become priests themselves.

Only, one stormy night, a badly wounded man with occultist sigils carved into him is brought onto the grounds (in hopes of saving him.) Unfortunately he dies— releasing an evil that begins to infect the residents of St. Vincent’s Orphanage, causing groups to form… leading to people turning up dead. Now Peter must choose a side, for his very life (and the lives of the children around him) are at risk…

The writing was phenomenally suspenseful and soo viscerally descriptive that I felt truly immersed (and terrified!) Not only by the demon possession/ slasher aspects of the plot, but by the sheer hopelessness we see these boys forced to endure, beaten and starved into submission.

Honestly, I was kind of an emotional mess before anything even remotely Exorcist-y even took place. Philip Fracassi does give us just enough time to start getting attached to these characters—before promptly throwing us into the emotional deep end to watch as the chaos inevitably unfolds.

And unfold it does, with one of the most brutal and viscerally gory scenes I’ve ever read. The creeping sense of dread also doesn’t really let up either and, with a Lord of The Flies-style mentality taking shape, absolutely no one is guaranteed safety.

I also really enjoyed the use of multiple POVs as it really helped to get into the minds of—as well as understand—the emotions and thought processes of our characters (specifically Peter, David, Johnson and Father Andrew.)

As I said before, I’m not usually a Horror reader so my frame of reference is pretty small. But, if you love folksy, rural horror with as much character development as there is blood soaked action, then you don’t want to miss this heart-poundingly terrifying story.

As always, given the themes and content of the book, readers should definitely check TWs before picking this up— and also invest in a night light, you’re probably gonna need it!

Also, a huge thank you to Nazia at Orbit Books for the physical copy.

Content Warnings

sdsmith80's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

<b>Truly Terrifying!</b>

This is my first book by this author, but it definitely won't be my last! I literally started reading late last night and have spent the entire day engrossed in this sorry.

I'm very desensitized, to the point where nothing really scares me anymore, but if that wasn't the case, this book would do it. It's a tight, intense thrill ride from beginning to end. I know it's been compared to Golding's Lord of the Flies, but Children of the Corn came to me quite a bit as well, especially with the religious aspect.

Seriously, if you like horror (and if you're reading my reviews, you probably do), you need to get this book. You won't regret it.

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