Rick Hautala (1949–2013)

*** Spoilers below****

I believe this is my first time reading this author, I have a few other books by him, unread, but I don't believe I have read anything else from him....unless it was years ago.

I was looking forward to reading this, the synopsis sounded chilling and vintage horrors are my fave....they are usually the best. Unfortunately, not this time. The synopsis wasn't even accurate.....there was no " beautiful dark haired woman". Only a teenage haunt that terrorizes the daughter....a little bit.

The book is about a man, John, his wife, Julia, and their daughter Bri, who move back to John's hometown in Main. They are there to live with his father, Frank, after his having had a stroke. John and Frank have a sour relationship and Julia is caught in the middle.

Frank is the only relatable, likable character.....outside of Randy, John's childhood friend, but he's not exactly a central character. Unfortunately Frank later dies. It took only four chapters for me to absolutely hate everyone else, by then John was already shown to be a selfish brute, who verbally abuses his wife pretty much every conversation. Julia is a spineless and weak woman who thinks of nothing but satisfying and catering to John, thereby perpetuating his disgusting behavior. Bri had already become uber annoying with her supposed loneliness for friends......they had only been in Main a single day, how onely can she be???

One seriously has to wonder if Rick Hautala has ever been around other human beings in his life. Outside of Frank, none of the characters react or converse like real people. They are seriously unbelievable.

The story itself isn't exactly bad.......its just not good. It drags on slowly, with surprisingly little happening. The plot was very transparent and easy to figure out...John buried his teenage love, Abby, after finding her dead from suicide, a death she blamed him for, as he didn't want to have the child she was carrying.

When the horror actually started, it ended shortly after. Abby spends the majority of the book haunting Bri....which makes zero sense, considering Bri isn't even John's biological child, and she's only been his stepchild for 5 years. John's eventual death is the only satisfying part of this book.

If this is Hautala's usual offering, I'm certainly not excited about reading the other books I have.… (mere)

"One trick is to tell 'em stories that don't really go anywhere..." - Abe Simpson

A collection of four novellas that just didn't do it for me.

I really appreciated Hautala's writing. He really captured the feeling of the different eras these stories take place in. But I didn't care for the stories being told.

Two of the novellas, Tin Can Telephone and Blood Ledge were compelling stories that just suddenly... stopped. It was worse with Tin Can. I was certain the book would circle back in a later novella. But no. It just ended with a mystery. Blood Ledge at least had an ending. It was just sudden and abrupt and felt like the author intended to extend the story but didn't.

Miss Henry's Bottles was far and away the best story in the bunch. It's worth picking up the book on sale just for this tale. A very satisfying and excellent Gothic that throws a swerve at you just as you think you have everything figured.

The last story, Cold River, did that thing I don't like: the character starts questioning reality as stranger and stranger things begin to happen. At first, the story is gripping. But as strange things keep happening, I began to get the feeling there was going to be no rhyme or reason for any of it and I was pretty much correct. The story to me felt like it just dragged on and on and on.… (mere)

Gory Horror!

This was a great book! At first it seemed to start out a little slow, but it finally started picking up speed the more I got into it. It is about friends that go hiking in the mountains and they end up fighting for survival from "creatures" that live in the mountains.

Beware as this book contains graphic details of gore and it is not for the faint of heart. If you like very graphic gore and horror then this is the book for you. Four star read on this one.… (mere)