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A review by deearr
Half-Made Girls by Sam Witt
4.0
Looking for a story so full of grit that your insides will feel raw long before you’re done? Can’t get enough horror from what you’ve been reading? Sam Witt’s “Half-Made Girls” more than fits the bill.
Truth be told, this is not my kind of novel. It wavers between reality and a place so fantastic it is hard to believe. It runs from straight horror that can lift the little hairs on the back of your neck to demonic images of fiendish animals that leave their victims draped in blood. It makes you want to put the book down while at the same time propels you to read just one more chapter.
Sam Witt is the main reason I kept reading. His writing is descriptive, different in a way that hooks you and entices you to continue. The passages read like pictures, powerful images that explode off the pages and promise nightmares for days to come. It is easy to become involved with the characters. Witt fleshes them out nicely, exposing their strengths as well as their underbellies.
Joe is the Night Marshal of Pitchfork County. It is his job to prevent the horrors he encounters from spilling out and inhabiting the sane world. The entire book is nonstop action, as Joe moves from one battle to the next. He is aided by his wife and children, who have powers that border on the demonic and sometimes cause even Joe to ponder as he walks the line between darkness and goodness.
If there was anything that didn’t make sense to me, it was the banter between Joe and his wife, Stevie. Our initial view of their marriage indicates a pairing that has splintered, although this is more from Joe trying to protect his family from the evils that want to destroy anything he loves. Once they begin working together, their conversations during and after battles seemed a bit too lighthearted to me. Perhaps this is the way folks talk after squeaking out a victory against evil, but for me, it didn’t ring true. Perhaps it is just as well that this only happened a few times over the course of the book.
If you haven’t already guessed, this book is heavily seasoned with vulgar language and disturbing images, and is not for the fainthearted. The religious overtones may also cause other readers to close the book. Horror lovers who crave stories that will drag you through the muck and back will probably not be able to get enough of the Night Marshal. As for me, I have Sam Witt’s books on my “To Read” list. Now all I have to do is gather enough stamina to carry me through another of his stories.
Truth be told, this is not my kind of novel. It wavers between reality and a place so fantastic it is hard to believe. It runs from straight horror that can lift the little hairs on the back of your neck to demonic images of fiendish animals that leave their victims draped in blood. It makes you want to put the book down while at the same time propels you to read just one more chapter.
Sam Witt is the main reason I kept reading. His writing is descriptive, different in a way that hooks you and entices you to continue. The passages read like pictures, powerful images that explode off the pages and promise nightmares for days to come. It is easy to become involved with the characters. Witt fleshes them out nicely, exposing their strengths as well as their underbellies.
Joe is the Night Marshal of Pitchfork County. It is his job to prevent the horrors he encounters from spilling out and inhabiting the sane world. The entire book is nonstop action, as Joe moves from one battle to the next. He is aided by his wife and children, who have powers that border on the demonic and sometimes cause even Joe to ponder as he walks the line between darkness and goodness.
If there was anything that didn’t make sense to me, it was the banter between Joe and his wife, Stevie. Our initial view of their marriage indicates a pairing that has splintered, although this is more from Joe trying to protect his family from the evils that want to destroy anything he loves. Once they begin working together, their conversations during and after battles seemed a bit too lighthearted to me. Perhaps this is the way folks talk after squeaking out a victory against evil, but for me, it didn’t ring true. Perhaps it is just as well that this only happened a few times over the course of the book.
If you haven’t already guessed, this book is heavily seasoned with vulgar language and disturbing images, and is not for the fainthearted. The religious overtones may also cause other readers to close the book. Horror lovers who crave stories that will drag you through the muck and back will probably not be able to get enough of the Night Marshal. As for me, I have Sam Witt’s books on my “To Read” list. Now all I have to do is gather enough stamina to carry me through another of his stories.