The Flip Side of History
Strange News, Hard-to-Believe Headlines and Other Curious Stories from History
Authored by Steve Silverman
297 pages
 
This was quite a curious and interesting book to read.  The biggest hook for me was that it was ALL true, no fiction, no embellishments.  Each account described is a real event already documented in history in some way be it by newspaper, biography or autobiography, editorial, news broadcast, personal correspondence, something.  Moreover, what is continually  impressive is the shear mass of information accumulated for this book.  It is clear that this wasn’t just a “sit down and churn a book out” kind of project.  The amount of information mixed with all the different types of events and incidents shows to me that this was a writing project that took a lot of time, effort, organization and passion.   I would guess that this author does in fact have a passion for history in general.  
 
The events detailed in this book are mostly from the late 1800s to the late 1900s.   Again, it is things like that that make me feel this was a long-term project.  The author had to find, research, compile the data, organize it and then put it into the book you’re going to read in an entertaining, concise and coherent manner.  These events cover all kinds of topics.  There are stories involving things from true crime, cons and con-artists, hoaxes, heroes and survivors to the most noticeably newsworthy events and, of course, just the absolutely oddest happenings that really drive parts of the human mind to maximum curiosity.
 
This  book is an easy read.   It’s very well written, logically organized allowing the information to truly  just flow from page to page and from the page to the mind of the reader.  Fascinating circumstances with specific and precise details easily create the array of images I’m sure the author is projecting into the mind of the reader.  The bulk of these accounts are not common or what one might call common knowledge, giving the whole reading experience a completely added allure and enthralling feel.
 
I love learning.  I am constantly learning things, looking things up, asking questions and finding the answers.  I would love to be able to afford to be a true professional student and honestly just take every college and course in under-graduate and post-graduate education that ever interested me.  I would probably end up with seven or eight degrees if I could.  Because I love to learn, I was immediately taken with this book.  Any history buff, lover of new information, knowledge seekers and the like will absolutely love this book.  I can even say that there was so much intriguing information in this one book that I know I will have no issue reading it a second time.  I enjoyed it that much.  Plus, I want to make sure I got all the information the author was offering.  Take advantage of the knowledge others can give you.  And this book is an excellent and entertaining way to start.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars 

Get your copy at the link below:
https://www.amazon.com/Flip-Side-History-Hard-Believe/dp/1094174874

Watching the Devil Dance
Authored by Will Toffan
180 pages
 
I received this book to review not too long ago.  I always have an extensive reading list so it takes time to get through everything.  This was a lucky break for me.  Not only is this a book about true crime, which you all know is right up my alley, but it is also a fairly short book.  But don’t let that fool you.  While the number of actual pages makes it a quick read, the content makes for an even faster reading experience. 
 
The book is about a man named Mathew Charles Lamb; a spree killer active in Canada in the late 1960s.  But in this recounting of those horrific events the author also exposes, clarifies and addresses the weaknesses, pitfalls and shortcomings of the criminal justice system in Canada at the time.  It tells of the crimes themselves, the killer including his life leading up to the killings and what happened afterwards.  
 
The amount of detail that is in this book is amazing.  With very specific interviews of all kinds of people, from witnesses to detectives to friends and family, this author really shines a light on what is certainly a very dark moment in the country’s history.  He makes it known in no uncertain terms that there were obvious failures in the treatment and containment of such a violent and callous spree killer.  He explains how this murderer caught practically ever break and benefited from every loophole possible making this an excellent example of how many people know when, where and how to work and exploit their justice system and their penal system.
 
The fact that this killer was able to slip through the cracks of the justice system and then the penal system, ending up in the mental health care penal system, is truly baffling from one aspect.  On the other hand, it is easier to understand how this happened as you read this book because Toffan fully explains what the mindset was at the time of these killings.  Understandably, at that time the terms spree killer and serial killer hadn’t even been coined yet.  People not only weren’t familiar with such offenders; they had a very difficult time wrapping their minds around the idea that someone would do something so vicious and heinous.
 
The content of this book is well researched, well written and very easy to follow as it has an extremely natural and logical flow to the information.  The information contained within the text is beyond interesting as it ultimately captivates the reader from the very beginning.  With spectacular insight Toffan details the horrible tragedy of Lamb’s shooting spree, submerging the reader in that era and putting them right in the middle of the story.  Toffan also gives us a very generous amount of background on Lamb which is essential  in understanding the mind of a killer.  Oftentimes, authors will only give a short summary of the life of the killer prior to their crimes or only detail the short time before the events actually take place.
 
This is one of the most complete true crime accountings I have ever read.  I can definitely say that I not only learned a great deal about a killer I had not heard about but I also found this book so interesting that I read it in four nights.  If I had read during the day, I would have finished it in probably two days.  It was that good.  I can safely recommend this to any true crime buff.  This is a must read for crime story lovers.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars
 
Purchase Link: 
 http://biblioasis.com/shop/non-fiction/watching-the-devil-dance/

https://www.amazon.com/Watching-the-Devil-Dance/dp/1771963255

Misery
By Stephen King, 1987
310 pages
 
I finally took time to read the novel Misery.  I have always been a huge fan of the film adaptation released in 1990.  Knowing that King’s stories always include more punch in the written work than in the film work, I expected this story to be much more intense, creepy and suspenseful in novel format.  I was not disappointed on that aspect.
 
The story is incredibly simple yet entirely multi-faceted and layered in psychopathology, fear, loneliness, helplessness, desperation and motivation.  Paul Sheldon, the main character, endures much more abuse, torture and torment from the antagonist character of Annie Wilkes.  While Kathy Bates did an excellent job of playing Wilkes in the film, the book character is much more intimidating and unnerving.  
 
The movie follows fairly close to what is written in the book but the amount of pain and fear inflicted on Paul and the various ways this torment is unleashed upon him is unsurpassed by the film.  Annie is much more unstable, much angrier and a whole lot more demented than she seems to be in the film.  The book allows us to experience of the little things that she does that help inflict terror upon Paul.  The various strange, cold, blank expressions on her face at inappropriate times.  The random and seemingly unprovoked repeated outbursts and fits of anger.  The underlying inferiority complex that obviously plagues this woman day in and day out ironically countered with her apparent feeling of superiority over almost all others.  
 
There were a number of times during reading this that I got chills or caught myself reading with my mouth hanging open in surprise or outright shock.  The detail King always seems to employ is beautifully demonstrated in this novel.  He expertly captivates and transports his audience directly to the little room in Annie’s house where Paul is victimized daily, giving us a front row seat to the carnage and even putting us right in the midst of it when he wants to.  Fantastically gruesome and spectacularly creepy writing sparks the best, and rather disturbing, horror images in the mind of the reader.
 
I would say there are only two things I wasn’t thrilled with concerning the novel.  First would be the ending.  I like the film ending better.  I’m not going to tell you the differences in the two because I don’t want to spoil anything for those who haven’t read it.  The second would be that, in the novel, King includes portions of the book Annie is having him write.  For me this inclusion didn’t add anything to the story really and it probably wouldn’t take anything away from the plot if these excerpts were removed.  It almost feels like filler material.  I can understand why King put it in there.   It is part of the story.  But the content of the forced novel has only a small bearing on the entire plot of the real book we are reading.  A much smaller influence than portrayed in the movie.
 
Still, I know any King fan would love this book.  And those that have a stronger type stomach will also love this book.  But if graphic gore and violence upsets you, this is not the novel for you.  I have to say though, it’s one of my favorite Stephen King novels that I’ve read so far.
 
RATINGS
4.5/5 Stars

​I am so excited to finally be able to get this review posted!  I have been waiting for the tour date to hit, anxious to tell you all about this book.
 
I usually don’t care much for the paranormal type horror.  Whether it be movies, books or comics, it’s just never been my thing.  However, every once in a while, I come across a paranormal horror story in one form or another that really does the trick.
 
This is one of those books.
 
As always, before I really dive into the few particulars I’m willing to share, I want to give you the blurb that made me want to sign up to read this when my awesome teammates at Blackthorn Book Tours sent it to me.  

​So here it is:
 
Pride and greed infect the soul, anchoring the dead to Gallagher Hotel.
 
When Chris, a master thief, and Riley, a contract waitress, get mysterious invites to an exclusive party at the haunted Gallagher Hotel, they discover that there is more at play than simple celebrations.
 
Hidden truths are revealed, and all hell breaks loose. But the “party” has just begun.
 
Now, Chris and Riley face their demons as they fight to survive a hellish nightmare full of spoiled secrets, carnage, and vengeful spirits lost to the hotel dating back to the turn of the 20th century.
 
Will they survive the night? Or will their souls be devoured by the most haunted building in Michigan?
 
 Not bad right?  Sounds like it has potential doesn’t it? 
 
The Haunting of Gallagher Hotel was a fantastic read.  It’s a great story about a group of people at what is rumored to be the most haunted hotel in Michigan.  We really stay centered on mostly one character, Riley, although there are five guests or so at the hotel total.
 
Riley is a contract server, kind of like catering.  She’s an independent gal with a boyfriend who is madly in love with her and already planning their future together.  Although she cares for him deeply, she kind of already has plans of her own.  She is a young woman struggling to make ends meet and takes the request of this event at the hotel because she believes it will be an easy night of easy money.  She quickly finds out that things aren’t going to be as easy as she had hoped.
 
As soon as all of the invited guests arrive tensions immediately begin to brew.  So many different personalities just forced together for a night in a strange place, a haunted hotel and some very oddball hosts makes for the perfect recipe for trouble.  All of the guests that Riley has been hired to serve for the evening seem to have this disgusting sense of entitlement.  The kind of entitlement that makes the average person cringe with loathing and abhorrence.  This makes the job much less pleasant for Riley than anticipated.
 
Also, she soon starts experiencing some very strange things.  Peculiar things begin to happen inside and outside of the hotel.  Before Riley even knows what is going on, dead bodies start to turn up in guest rooms.  She not only has to figure out what is going on, but she also has to figure out who she can trust.  More importantly, she must figure out how to stay alive herself.
 
Some parts of this book reminded me of the general idea behind the movie Final Destination in which the characters had to figure out ways to cheat death.  This novel takes that kind of idea and mixes it together with Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.  Once that is combined really well it’s as if the author threw in a spoonful of the movie CLUE just for good measure.  It’s a lot to put together, but this author was an expert with her literary loom and wove us a tapestry of  suspense, horror, truth, lies,  present, past and paranormal.  A very tall order, in my opinion, but extremely well executed in the finished  product, a novel that is sure to be a hit with any horror or suspense story lover.  ANY paranormal horror lover should be jumping at this novel as well.
 
Yes, there is horror in this novel.  There’s horror and gore, creepy ghostly secrets, blood and death, and just a dash of levity.  I always enjoy when an author adds a little comedy into the mix.  It makes for a much more entertaining read.  
 
I also enjoyed the ending.  It was like the last act in a thrilling and suspenseful play.  It was truly an excellent conclusion.
 
This was a fascinatingly chilling and exciting novel to read.  It was a true page turner for me, easy to read, easy to get through and very difficult to put down.  The best part, for me, was the diversity of the characters.  To me this adds a certain realism to the story and gives it a much more interesting angle.
 
My only complaint would be that the Part II section seemed to have quite a few words missing.  It seems that the writer’s mind was going faster than their hands could type, which is something I completely understand. The words missing are not “key” words.  It is obvious from the context that these are small more or less transition words and such, so it’s not that big of a deal really.  Unfortunately, it’s very difficult for spell/grammar check to catch those sometimes.  However, I do want to stress that, as a reviewer, I often get pre-corrected versions of manuscripts, before they are proofed and edited and completely published.  Remember guys, I’ve had this book for a while before I get to post my review, months in fact.  This is something that is usually fixed in the final copy.  So, don’t fret.  Some might feel like this novel is a bit long, but it moves so fast it really didn’t bother me as much as it might have if the book was bad.
 
I would definitely recommend this book to lovers of ghost stories and haunted tales, but also the regular horror lovers.  I promise this novel does in fact fit in that category as well.
 
And if you aren’t convinced yet…here’s the first chapter, FREE.  
https://henryroipr.com/tour-the-haunting-of-gallagher-hotel/

The Running Man
By Richard Bachman
(Stephen King)
 
First printing May 1982
 
This is one of those cases where the book is very different than the film.  The film was made in 1987, five years after the first printing of the novel itself.  King disliked the drastic differences so much that he demanded that his name not be used in the marketing of the film at all.  This demand was adhered to and we were given what is often touted as one of Arnie’s best movies of that era, alongside with films like Total Recall (1990). However, if you know the true meat of the real story, honestly, he’d be one of the last people that you would cast for this role.
 
In the novel, Ben Richards is still the main character.  But he is a broke man in his late twenties with a wife and an infant child of eighteen months.  Times are very hard as the societal setup is very dystopian indeed.  The regular people are poor and suffering in ways that one would never want to imagine.  

For Ben Richards, he’s going through a particularly rough time.  He’s been blacklisted from his own profession, leaving his wife to prostitute herself to try to make ends meet, as he’s unable to find employment.  The cost of living is unfairly high and the work and pay are disproportionately unavailable and low to the average man in this idea of 2025.  He’s barely able to keep himself together as they scrape by and then their baby girl, Cathy, becomes increasingly ill with the flu.  With no money for medication or doctor visits Ben and his wife are forced to watch their baby suffer, unable to provide help or comfort.
 
The Running Man is a game show on the Games Network.  The grand prize is one billion new dollars.  There are two kinds of currency, old dollars and new dollars.  Old dollars are easier to get but aren’t worth as much as new dollars.  It also identifies you as poor when you spend it.  Richards decides that with as bad as things are, they can’t really get much worse.  He decides to sign up to be a contestant on The Running Man.  But the rules are very different than what you might be familiar with.
 
First of all, the contestant is declared an enemy of the State.  He gets a twelve-hour head start before the Hunters, which are skilled assassins (and called Stalkers in the film), are unleashed on him.  For every hour that Richards remains alive, avoiding capture or death, he wins one hundred new dollars.  He is awarded an additional one hundred new dollars for every Hunter or law enforcement officer he kills while on the run.  He is let loose in the city, named Co-Op City, with his twelve-hour head start, $4800 new dollars and a pocket video camera.  He is required to send in two video tapes each day of recordings of himself to the Games Network.  He can say or do whatever he wants in these messages but if he doesn’t send them in, he’s disqualified.
 
He gets the one billion new dollars if he can make it an entire thirty days.
 
But it’s not just the Hunters after him, there is a penalty for being a citizen that helps a Runner and there is an enticing reward for turning him in.  Once he signs up and the timer starts, it’s just Ben Richards against the world.  An average man running for his life, for money on the hour, just to get out of poverty and get medical treatment for his daughter.  And he’ll do whatever it takes.
 
The way this novel was written is so much more emotional and effective as a novel rather than a movie.  While the film was an entertaining movie and I enjoy it very much, when I read this book, I found it was easy to get very emotionally invested in the outcome for Ben.  King writes with such expert description the trials and tribulations, the injustices and the crimes, the hardship and suffering endured by Richards and his family, you can’t help but want to take a stand with him and root for him from beginning to end.  King creates a classic every man character that is willing to sacrifice anything for his wife and daughter.
 
The novel still contains the much-enjoyed action and excitement that the film makes you expect, but it is so much better because the novel is incredibly more intense and dramatic.  This plot is a genuine underdog story with the main character as the normal average joe trying to be a hero.
 
The novel is much more psychological, much more intense, darker, more dangerous, realistic violence and realistic characters.  This creates a very personal aspect to this story that you don’t get in the movie.  This is where the liberties taken by Hollywood not only disappointed Stephen King, but also take away the very essence of what this story is really all about.  King wanted to write a story in which the main character was a common man.  Not someone who is super athletic and the body builder type like Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Ben Richards is supposed to be the kind of character that could be any one of us.  Just a regular average citizen struggling to make ends meet and tired of not being able to have access to basic needs like food, water and medical attention.  It’s the daily strains of regular life that drive this man to his edge.  In the film, even though Ben Richards is presented as the victim and the underdog he definitely doesn’t look like the underdog.  However, in the novel, it is plain as day that Ben is no ex-military specialist with unique skills and training allowing him to overtake his few opponents.  Instead, he is just a guy that needs money so badly that he is willing to have the whole multi-metro area of Co-Op City on his tail.  In the movie, Ben goes through the game with friends.  In the novel Richards is on his own from the start.  Alone and on the run, trying to avoid death and being hunted down like a vicious rabid dog.
 
This is a story one could believe could actually happen, with the way this country keeps going, citizens giving up their rights one at a time for the illusion of security and safety.  It brings into question how far a parent is willing to go for their child, how far a husband is willing to go for his wife.  Now remember, in the novel, this story takes place in 2025.  We aren’t quite there with how bad things have gotten.  However, in oh, 500 years, if we are still around, life could be like this dystopian tragedy.  After years and years of destroying ourselves, lying to each other, hating each other, giving away our rights to the government.  We could one day end up in a world where things could be similar to anywhere from Demolition Man to Mad Max to The Running Man.
 
While in the movie the action is confined to the four quadrants, in the novel the action runs rampant through the city in every direction with every kind of person.  Instead of presenting the novel in chapters we have a rather interesting countdown.  We start at “Minus 100 and Counting…” and as we go through each scene or “chapter” it counts down to zero.  This adds a lot of anticipation.  Some chapters are less than a page.  Some are several pages long.  But, there’s action almost everywhere you turn.  Something to make your jaw drop or your mouth utter “No way”, always keeping you on the edge of your seat, eager to turn the page before you have even finished reading it.  
 
In my opinion, although the film is entertaining and a great action flick, The Running Man novel is by far better than the film.  This is a novel that is a slightly different side of Stephen King, as he is writing as Richard Bachman, but the essence of King and his style is still very apparent and still makes the novel what I would consider one of his best and most classic pieces of work.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

Nothing Good Happens After Midnight
Edited by Jeffrey Deaver
 
This was an altogether fantastic horror anthology sent to me by Blackthorn Book Tours.  It is comprised of 13 stories all from different authors.  Each author has their own unique style and take on what horror is.  Some are what horror fans would consider true horror while a few others would be more considered maybe, drama/thriller.
 
As always, I scored this anthology the way I do all collections of this nature.  I read and rate each story individually and then I take the average of ALL of those ratings to get the total rating for the book itself.
 
In the case of this collection, the ratings broke down like this (this is not in any particular order of the stories):
 
1/5- 1 story
2/5- 1 story
2.5/5- 1 story
3/5- 0
3.5/5- 1 story
4/5- 3 stories
5/5- 6 stories
 
This gave me a total rating of 51/65 which is about 78%.  A 4/5 rating is 80%.  So, I have rounded up, like I usually do, to get to the 4/5 rating I have given this anthology.
 
The stories are very well written and cover all aspects of the horror genre.  This assures that there is most likely something in this book for everyone.  The subject matter of the tales includes police drama, intolerance, creepy midnight train rides, a very whacked out night shift at a local newspaper, cemeteries, precious artifacts, annoying neighbors and so much more.  This is definitely one of the reasons I think this was so well put together.
 
I think one of my favorite things about this collection actually has nothing to do with the composition of the material.  It’s the fact that the anthology is thirteen stories.  Thirteen generally being thought to be an unlucky number, I find this a very nice and subtle yet effective touch.
 
I could easily recommend this anthology to any horror reader.  While not every story will give everyone chills and goosebumps, there is certainly enough of both to keep one horror fan satisfied.
 
RATING
4/5 Stars 
 

The Healing Doll
By Bradley Poage
 
This story from the Bedtime Tales of Horror collection takes us on a journey through a world of superstition.  Now, many people believe in many different things.  In the USA, seven is the lucky number.  In Japan, it’s thirteen.  People believe in lucky rabbit’s feet and that they shouldn’t walk under ladders or let a pole or fence, etc. split a couple walking and holding hands, etc.  We’ve all heard about black cats being unlucky and say, picking up a penny that is tails side up.  
 
But there is a whole other world to what we call superstition and, in that world, it’s called faith and religion.  Think of voodoo.  Some of these practices the general public might cackle at, but others believe in them very deeply.  Some people believe in the power of certain crystals or statues.  In this story, the faith and belief are held about a doll.  But this isn’t just any doll.  It’s a special healing doll.
 
Now, if there’s one thing we all should have learned by now, it’s not to mock anyone’s religion.  That never turns out well.  And the bad is always more than you could have ever imagined.
 
Such is the case for a gentleman at an office who hasn’t been well.  A coworker gives him the healing doll and special instructions.  He’s happy about having the extra help and was even grateful that his coworker thought of him enough to worry about his well-being.
 
His girlfriend on the other hand, she’s not happy.  She doesn’t like the doll, doesn’t want it in the house and certainly doesn’t like the fact that a woman gave it to HER man.
 
You put all this together and you have a voodoo recipe for destruction and disaster.
 
This story has a fabulous build up through the whole story.  The ending is so fitting and so perfectly creepy that it just chills your soul.  It’s the kind of ending that gives the reader one of those sinister smiles of satisfaction, as if we had a hand in the dirty work ourselves.  It’s always a true joy to feel like you are right in the mix of everything with the main characters.
 
Surely this will be a tale that any horror fan can dig, especially with the added intrigue of voodoo and the dangers of dismissing certain powers.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

THE DVD COLLECTION
By Bradley Poage
 
“Every morning Angelique goes for her run.  But today a man will kidnap her and subject her to a fate worse than death.  She will become part of his DVD collection.  A fate no one would EVER want…”
 
This was by far one of the best stories I have read from this author.  This story has all the elements of horror you could ask for.  We have kidnapping, torture, a creepy bad guy that is eerily calm and collected.  We have murder.  We have sick and twisted obsessions that just can’t be ignored or brushed off.
 
Poage has taken to a new format, slightly changing the organization of his stories and how they are written.  He has added chapters which are created at the perfect break point in the story to force you to keep reading into the next chapter.  If you thought you’d seen some crazy stuff on TV or the news, please believe this story will easily rival any of that.
 
The suspense factor is so palatable it tingles your tastebuds and the tension so thick you could stab it with a knife.  The fear and intimidation of our poor victim in this story is so intense, her pain and terror radiating through every paragraph and, at times, jumping off the page and slapping you right in the face…you know, just to make sure you are paying attention.
 
A fantastic short tale that would be perfect for any sleepover, camp out or even a little evil bedtime story.  This is definitely one of the Bedtime Tales of Horror feature you will NOT want to miss.
 
RATINGS
5/5 Stars

This was another novel I anxiously requested to read from the people at Blackthorn Book Tours. Unfortunately, the book wasn’t for me.  The good thing is that I really think I am missing something when I’m reading and so I think the true meat of the novel is getting lost on me.  I’m not sure why this is, I just know that it wasn’t going to work out for me.
 
The blurb fully did its job and did it very well because I was beside myself ready to read this novel.  Here’s the blurb:
 
About Netted – The Beginning
 
When a serial killer pulls Dale and Jessica into his world of torture and murder, they are left fighting to escape the clutches of a sadistic cult leader.
 
Dale simply wanted to rebound from a failed relationship. Now, he is fighting to escape abduction.
 
Jessica’s curiosity led her onto the dark web where she found The Silent Red Room Show. She admired the show from afar…until she found herself sucked in.
 
Will these perfect strangers survive the dark web? Or will they become a part of a vicious serial killer’s deadly collection?
 
Yet, as I read and read, the plot became less and less clear to me and I felt like nothing was making any sense or falling into place.  Now, this novel is fifteen chapters.  I read seven.  By the time I started the eighth I still found myself wondering what I was reading and what was going on, trying to put it together as I read it but just couldn’t seem to get there.  I also make notes in the margins when I am reading something so I can go back and refresh on what I’ve read, put my immediate thoughts down instead of trying to wait or coordinate them separately and so I can continue to put things in the story together so at any time it could be something I am able to summarize for someone else.  
 
And still, like I said, seven chapters into a fifteen-chapter novel and I honestly couldn’t tell you the plot of the story.  A lot of it seems like we are just following two messed up people in their messed-up lives.  There’s mention of a serial killer in the blurb and seven chapters in I was still waiting for the killer to appear in the story.  Also, seven chapters in, I was left wondering where all the horror aspects were.  I mean, I’m approximately half way through the novel and no horror and no violence and this is supposed to be a horror novel.  That was frustrating because I started to feel like the blurb was misleading or maybe a mistake and meant for another book almost.  The largest part of the novel that I read that pertained to the Jessica character was a very long piece which seemed to be nothing but this Jessica chick complaining.
 
I read through chapter eight.  I still didn’t know where this story was going and there was still nothing very horror to it in my opinion.  So, I stopped reading it.  I can’t spend so much time and effort on reading something that makes as much sense to me as it would if it were in Greek.  My reading list for review requests in topping thirty or so titles and I’ve had to move on from some novels if they just weren’t clicking for me.  I do think that reading eight out of fifteen chapters is giving the novel a fair try.  It just wasn’t for me.
 
Because of this, it is very difficult for me to sum anything up or talk about how it’s actually written or address characters and plot, etc.
 
I do commend this author for their effort because I can at least tell that this wasn’t an easy piece of work to put together and complete.  So, props to them for that.
 
But as far as a recommendation, I will just leave that up to readers to decide for themselves from the blurb.  Maybe in reading the novel they will get something I missed.  I do want people to feel like they can give this a chance.  I just think a lot of the content matter may have been lost on me.  So, keep in mind my rating is from my own personal experience reading the book.

About the Author
 
K.T. Rose is a horror, thriller, and dark fiction writer from Detroit, Michigan. She posts suspense and horror flash fiction on her blog at kyrobooks.com and is the author of a suspenseful short story series titled Trinity of Horror, an erotic thriller novel titled When We Swing, and A Dark Web Horror Series. She also writes supernatural and paranormal horror novels and short stories.
 
Media Links
Webpage: https://kyrobooks.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kyrobooks/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/K-T-Rose/e/B01N4T91M2
Twitter: @kyrobooks
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6480089.K_T_Ro
 
 
 
RATINGS
1/5 Stars

SCARRED
By Damien Linnane
 
I asked for this book from the generous team at Blackthorn Book Tours.  It was the blurb summary that really piqued my interest.
 
Blurb:
 
There were five now. The mugger, the sex offender, the wife-beater, the drug-dealer. And of course, Peter. Jason hadn’t needed a gun to kill Peter.
 
Jason Ennis doesn’t understand why the world is such a confusing place. Why it’s so difficult to read between the lines, so hard to understand what people want, such a struggle to fit in. Not that he isn’t trying as he works a dead-end job and chips away at a degree that’s going nowhere.
 
But good things come to those who wait. Sometimes, when he least expects it, he gets a chance to make a real difference. To make the world a better place. By removing someone else from it. Someone who doesn’t fit in with his standards of behaviour, someone who reminds him of how they scarred him as a child.
 
Scarred is not for the squeamish. A poignant debut about serial killers on the streets of Sydney, it explores the addictiveness of vengeance and the tragic mistakes made by the misguided.
 
Now, as a horror and true crime lover, how can you not want to read that????
 
But when I got the book, I was immediately disappointed.  The format it is written in is almost like one HUGE paragraph.  As the manuscript went on, the format DID get a little better.  But it was difficult to read because there was little separation between thoughts and paragraphs, quotation marks were rarely used to identify dialogue, often leaving me wondering if the main character was thinking these things to himself or if it was a real actual conversation within the text of the story.  The compressed and unclear format made it very challenging and somewhat frustrating to read.  What frustrates me the most is that a simple click of grammar and spell check could have fixed about 30-40% of the issues.  The rest could have been easily solved with using paragraphs to separate different trains of thought and subjects.  If I had to call this style something, it is definitely written in the more ‘stream of consciousness’ writing method.  And unless you are right in the mix with the author, sometimes that can be very disorganized and confusing.
 
Another frustrating thing about this manuscript was certain things about our main character Jason get repeated over and over, virtually in every chapter I read.  Things like “he doesn’t like to be without his tactical gear or his gun” and other similar quirks.  These are repeated so often it’s almost insulting to the intelligence of the reader (me) because it’s like, how many times do you have to tell me that in one story?  Do you think I didn’t catch it the first ten or twelve times?  Come on.  I think I get what the author was trying to do, trying to make us identify with the character as an OCD and more militant type of individual.  But it got to be where if I saw that phrase, I wanted to skip ahead to get away from it.  I applaud and admire the effort the author made to make Jason real to us and put us in his mind and position, but at a certain point it just became like an overload of an audio track on repeat.
 
There also seems to be a lot of random information that doesn’t seem to apply specifically to the story and comes across more as filler material to bulk up the page count for the novel.

However…
 
The story itself, AWESOME.  At least what I could get through of it.  I will admit freely that at about the halfway mark I simply had to stop reading and put it away.  For me, reading is an enjoyable activity.  Not one where I like to experience a whole lot of frustration or spending time deciphering what the author was intending.
 
This story is also not near for the faint of heart.  It takes a lot to make my stomach turn and things of that nature.  Being the child of a police officer, I was exposed to murder crime scene photos and some of the most horrible stories from the other officers on the squad and the ADA that was my Dad’s old partner on the police force.  And there were still parts of this story that made me have to pull back and resituate my brain and emotions.  To me that is extremely powerful writing.  And it’s not done in a way that I think comes off as offensive.  This author is using these events to make a statement for certain characters involved.
 
This story should definitely come with one of those ‘trigger warnings’ that I see splayed all over everything nowadays.  It is truly a chilling story to read, just so hard to maneuver through.  It is extremely violent including such ghastly crimes as murder, violent rape and sexual assault, general violence, child pornography, torture, kidnapping, revenge, punishment, psychopathy, sociopathy and even suicide.  It’s as if the author was trying to include every horrible thing a human being could do to another human being all in one book.
 
While I wasn’t able to finish it myself, I can honestly say that if you want to dig in deep to the darkest parts of the human condition, this is a book for you.   But be prepared for the horrors that await you because they are in fact there on every page.

About the Author:
 
Damien Linnane was born in Sydney in 1986. His debut novel, the vigilante justice thriller Scarred, was written by hand in prison while he was serving a two-year sentence for a series of crimes, including the firebombing of a home, with the sentencing magistrate finding that his motivation appeared to be ‘vigilante action’.
 
Since his release from prison, Linnane has completed a master’s degree in information studies. He also works as a portrait artist and freelance writer, and is in the finishing stages of writing a memoir.
 
 
 
Media links:
 
Webpage: https://damienlinnane.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/damienlinnane/ OR
       https://www.instagram.com/embersofretribution/
 
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Scarred-Damien-Linnane-ebook/dp/B07XVQ63XF
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52916432-scarred 

​RATINGS 
3/5 Stars