A review by theesotericcamel
Agony's Lodestone by Laura Keating

5.0

A very impressive long-form debut! The pacing was fast, and kept me wanting to find out what would happen next. Rather than going for a straight forward horror using beasties, this one takes a more abstract and psychological approach. There are no tentacles or claws in this story... But there is a disturbing loss of the sense of time and place. Set in the north eastern regions of Canada... This book could be seen as a modern rendition of Canadian Gothic. What gives the story more weight and believability is the complicated and strained relationship between the main characters. All whom happen to be blood related. The story is as much a family tragedy as it is a supernatural horror. And the supernatural elements seem to compliment the later. It's about how we keep looping the failures and disappointments in our life more than the positive ones. And also how those loops become distorted with time as well. A very solid first effort, and I look forward to her longer works.