An entertaining spin on the ‘Final Girl’ mythology which is worth checking out

Although Hunter Shea has a fair bit of fiction on the market I have yet to read I still see my myself as a big fan; the dude is seriously prolific, and I struggle to keep pace! He’s probably best known for his many entertaining, trashy and pulpy creature features, including Rattus New York, The Devil’s Fingers and The Jersey Devil. His fiction is short, violent, funny, over the top and you always get your money’s worth when Hunter goes through the gears. Online, I recently noticed him championing the cult and very tacky Monster: Humanoids from the Deep (1980) and was not surprised in the slightest, as I love it too! He writes books akin to this fine exercise in exploitation cinema; if you want monsters threatening humanity, he’s your guy and few do it better.

Usually that is. Occasionally, he changes pace, and it’s cool when a writer does that and produces fiction slightly out of their comfort zone. For 50% of the time Slash is one of those books, similar in style to Creature (2018) than any of his more outlandish monster novels. That is not to say Slash doesn’t have a monster, it sure does, but it also lots of thoughtful insight into the cult of the ‘Final Girl’, a topic well covered in recent horror fiction and cinema. Everybody has their own favourite ‘Final Girl’ be it Laurie Stobie from Halloween or Nancy Thompson from A Nightmare in Elm Street; Hunter Shea provides us with a very likeable alternative (sort of).

Slash is a book of two halves and if you enjoy over-the-top violence and a mounting body count make sure you stick around for the pay-off. The first half is a more thoughtful experience and long-term Hunter Shea fans might be surprised by the length of time he takes in carefully setting the scene. This was pitched perfectly, with an outstanding opening involving the shocking suicide of a famous ‘Final Girl’ Ashley King. Five years earlier Ashley and her urban explorer friends were hanging out in the long-since derelict Hayden Resort in the Catskills Mountains when the group were attacked by a vicious killer who was never caught, although was rumoured to be injured by tough-girl Ashley. The entire team lost their lives except for her and the cult of the ‘Final Girl’ was born. The young woman also suffered memory loss but was soon to become an unlikely star, ending up the subject of podcasts, true crime tv shows with her image adorning t-shirts.

The first section cleverly tells the story from the point of view of Ashley’s grieving fiancé Todd Matthews, who also struggled to cope with her mood swings, depressions, and a type of fame which involved obsessive people turning up at your house and unexpectedly photographing them or rooting through their trash. Involving a group of their joint friends, Todd and company return to the Hayden Resort as they have just found out the whole site is going to be demolished very soon. Instead of finding closure things take a turn for the worse and the fear factor soon ratchets up when we head into more familiar territory with the story moving into the Hayden Resort.

This long since abandoned holiday resort was an outstanding location for what was ultimately an elongated stalk and slash sequence. Over the previous five years ‘Final Girl’ thrill seekers have visited the location of the massacre and carried out their own rituals, investigations and tributes, with booze and condom wrappers everywhere. Although the second stanza was a lot of fun it did not hold my attention in the same way as the preceding section did and as the body count mounted it did become predictable and rather ridiculous. Also, although she was dead for almost the entire novel Ashley King still dominated proceedings and, ultimately, she was considerably more interesting than the living characters the reader was following around the resort. However, I did find the trigger-happy stripper sister of an earlier victim to be highly entertaining. Finally, considering how balanced the build-up is many readers will find the big reveal to be incredible far-fetched, but it is in tune with what you might expect from this author. It might, however, have also worked with a subtler conclusion which was not so far over the top it was half-way down the other side.

Who knows whether Hunter Shea will pick up many new readers with Slash which is an entertaining homage to the 1980s era of horror film it is undoubtedly inspired by, but it is sure to keep his long-term fans happy. Playing around with the ‘Final Girl’ mythology worked very well, and some brutal kill scenes were thrown into the mix in what was another very solid horror novel from a great writer.

I am a massive fan of horror and after reading this I am left wondering why on earth have I never read anything by this author before.

This story is Texas chain massacre and the Blair witch project rolled into one and we follow a story that will certainly keep you on the edge of your seat. When we follow a twisty, gruesome, brilliant plotted story. which is full of tension and OMG moments.

I found myself hooked from the very first page and devoured it in one evening. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what was going to happen next. You definitely don’t want to read it with the lights out!

The slash is full of likeable characters and i felt like I was there in the story with them. I loved the dialogue between with the author adding some humour making it all very real.

This would make a brilliant movie! and I cant wait to read more by the author. If your a fan of 80’s horror you will love this book.

Thank you to Anne Cater for a copy and for the blog tour invite.

Great book for horror movie fans. slash reads like a movie. Lots of details and very well structured. I can envisions the broken down hotel and feel my heart racing during the climatic scenes. Story begins in the first page and gradually build ups, very fast paced.

This book has me on the edge of my seat! Such a good, fast paced story. I felt like I was right there alongside the main characters as they figured out a mystery that quickly turned into a paranormal horror situation. I really want to read the rest of this author's work now. 5 stars!

If you are a fan of slasher horror movies then you are in for a treat with this book! It certainly lives up to its title with some blood curdling results with its graphic imagery as someone or something hunts them down, murdering the group one by one.

Five years ago a group of friends broke into the Hayden Resort, a derelict, run down, abandoned hotel to do some urban exploration but only one person left the resort alive. Ashley King, known to the media and fans as 'The Final Girl'. A serial killer murdered all her friends in horrific ways, a killer labeled as 'The Wraith' but was never caught.

Although Ashley made it out alive, she never recovered from that night and never escaped from the Wraith psychologically, resulting in her taking her own life. 

Drowning in grief from his Ashleys fiancée, Todd finds a clue left behind by Ashely, one that could identify the Wraith and let Ashely feast in peace. Following the clue, Todd and his friends follow in Ashley's footsteps to the Hayden Resort and what follows is an almost mirror image of what Ashely and her group went through as they come face to face with her murder, the Wraith. 

There is enough killing packed with gore to satisfy even the most bloodthirsty readers and even though it reads like an 80's horror movie, this isn't a mindless slasher. It is full of complex characters, powerful imagery and intelligent plot lines and genre crossovers, horror, paranormal, suspense and psychological thriller with a serial killer to rival the likes of Leatherface and Freddy Krueger. I can see it now making its way to the silver screen as a horror movie, the whole novel would be a perfect cross over from page to screen.

With Christmas just around the corner this book would make an ideal present for horror fans, they certainly wouldn't be disappointed!

Slash was published on 24 Oct. 2019, perfect timing for halloween and you can grab a copy of it now from Amazon or Waterstones

Hunter Shea is the product of a misspent childhood watching scary movies, reading forbidden books and wishing Bigfoot would walk past his house. He doesn’t just write about the paranormal – he actively seeks out the things that scare the hell out of people and experiences them for himself. He’s the author of over 25 books, including The Jersey Devil (Pinnacle) and We Are Always Watching (Sinister Grin). Hunter’s novels can even be found on display at the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Thank you to the author Hunter Shea, publishers Flame Tree Press, Anne Carter and NetGalley for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest and independent review as well as including me on the blog tour.

The blurb and cover of this book shows that we aren't getting a cutesy story of love and friendship here. This book is a horror and boy does it pack a punch.

If you were to name the most infamous villains from slasher movies, I can bet Freddie Krueger, Michael Myers and Leatherface would top the lists. Well, dear readers let me just tell you that Hunter Shea has only gone and unveiled a rival to compete against these giants of the slasher films. Welcome onto the scene "The Wraith"

The Wraith is a character that's born from the creative genius that is Shea. Everything that you want in a villian is what you get:
Psychotic ✔️
Blood thirsty ✔️
Mysterious ✔️
Pure evil with cherries on top ✔️

Like all classic 80s slasher films this story had all the elements needed.
A gang of friends, who don't always make the wisest of choices.
A deserted location. Run down and abandoned and in the middle of nowhere. No-one will here you scream.
A psycho serial killer on the loose.
Lots of blood and gore. Great descriptions from Shea gives you a real sense of the bloodshed.
Those WTF moments when a character ultimately makes a stupid decision. You know the outcome ain't going to be pretty but you just love it anyway.
The delightful 'have-they-haven't-they' died scenes. These are always paramount in any movie as it gives you the shock value.

I really can't fault this book if I'm honest. It took me back to my childhood of binge watching Nightmare on Elm Street, or renting out Friday The 13th every Saturday from the video shop.

I would love for this book to be adapted into a film and for The Wraith to become synonymous with all the other heroes of the slasher films. (Yes I said heroes, because cmon you got to love Freddy and Jason don't you? Or is that just me)

There were plenty of scenes of guts and gore to keep me satisfied. Shea's love for the 80s movies sure does show in this book. He has taken all the elements we love about them and moulded them into a brand new, fresh story of the ultimate legend of serial killers.

Thank you so much to Anne Cater for giving me the opportunity to be on this blog tour. Thank you to Flame Tree Press for my gifted copy. But my utmost thanks and gratitude goes to Hunter Shea for breathing life into The Wraith.

Ash was famous; she was final girl. She and her friends had been big time into urban exploration, and they had visited a derelict resort called the Hayden. Only she had managed to somehow survive the massacre that ensued. And probably as a defense mechanism, she had blocked out all memory of the things that happened there. But the Wraith, the mysterious killer that had stalked her in that nightmarish place, would never leave her in peace. And her fiancee,, Todd would be forced to find out the truth about what happened to her.

This is just like a classic horror novel. I am a big fan of the likes of Richard Laymon and J. A. Konrath, so this was right up my street. Admittedly, I went into it thinking it might be a bit naff and a bit cheesy, but I was wrong. As my mum would say, it had me in suspenders for the whole time.

I really enjoyed this book. It has a good plot - okay, not the most original or unique story, but there are lots of different cool aspects to it, and it did keep me guessing as to what would happen next. I wouldn't say it was fast paced, but it isn't slow either. It is well written and there was just the right amount of tension to keep me interested.

The only thing I didn't really get about the book is the title! I'm not sure why the author chose that title because I didn't feel it had anything to do with the book.

Overall I really enjoyed reading this. I powered through it and it was one of those books I wanted to pick up at any spare minute, because every time I put it down I felt like it was a cliffhanger, and I wanted to know what would happen next. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who likes a good horror read.

As a big fan of exactly the kind of low budget slasher this novel pays homage to I really wanted to enjoy it. Unfortunately I really didn’t.
I think the problem is that the slasher genre is so much about visual energy and dumb tropes that when you try and shift it from screen to page it loses its dubious charm. That’s not to say that there aren’t some good parts. The treatment of suicide was, I thought, well thought through and sensitive. Some of the plot devices (including memory cards hidden around the place) were good too.
I just didn’t enjoy the action though. Largely I think this was because I never cared about the characters, so their peril didn’t move me at all. The result was a book I rushed through so I could read something else.

This is my first Hunter Shea novel and I can safely say it won’t be my last!

Five years ago Ashley King survived the infamous Hayden Resort Massacre, committed by an unknown murderer nicknamed The Wraith but as her memory starts to return, she’s unable to cope and commits suicide. This starts a series of events leading Todd and his friends back to the resort. Something evil is waiting for them, ready to claim more victims. Who will survive?

Goodness me did Slash scare the living daylights out of me! Don’t read this at night, if you’re a bit of a scaredy cat like me, it will have you jumping at the slightest of noises.

You’re probably wondering why I read a book that scared me half to death but I just love a good slasher film, so when I read the blurb for this book I found that it was a nod to the old slasher films, I thought I need to read that!

It turned out to be so much more than I thought. Of course there was a good dose of murder, mayhem and gore but I found myself really caring about the characters, hoping they’d survive.

The ending was good but there were certain aspects of it that I was a little disappointed with specifically the killer reveal but of course that’s just my opinion.

Slash was a gruesome but gripping novel that will have you on the edge of your seat.

My second novel by Hunter Shea and again it didnt disappoint.

Ashley king is the final girl in this novel. The sole survivor of a massacre that takes place five years previously in the abandoned Hayden Resort, where she and her friends were exploring the ruins, she hasnt talked about it since that day despite her infamy. She has blocked out the horror of that night.
Despite this she lives her life in fear. A near prisoner in her own home. Even with her boyfriends best efforts she cant shake off the devastating effects of that night.
When Todd, her boyfriend, finds her hanging in their basement, he is determined to try and unravel what did take place all those years ago in the Hayden resort and to try and find the killer labeled "The Wraith".

With no suicide note found Todd is sure that Ashley has left him a clue somewhere and when he does find it he sets off to the Hayden Resort with his friends in tow to unravel the mysteries of that horrific night and try to find out who The Wraith was and if he is still alive.

This one was a blast. A book of two halves, we have the first half as the set up. A well written, serious piece, with tension and desperation all around. Most of the character building is done in this portion of the book.

The second half is probably what most were expecting with the title and it doesnt disappoint. Its all about survival and horror and is more than a nod to 80s slashers like Friday 13th etc.

Despite a bit of a corny and predictable epilogue, this was hugely enjoyable. Sheas books tend to be a bit bonkers(in a good way)and this is no different.

Immensely readable and great fun, if you are fan in any way of tension/horror/slasher books or films Id highly recommend this read.

Thanks to Netgalley, Flame Tree Press and Hunter Shea for an Arc in exchange for an honest review.

Slash
Author: Hunter Shea
Publisher: Flame Tree Press
Page count: 288pp
Release date: October 2019
Reviewer: Theresa Derwin


I first found Hunter Shea in Forbidden Planet, with a pulpy monster cover and the title ‘Montauk Monster’.
I knew nothing about the book or the author; I just knew I had to have it - and now I’m addicted to Hunter’s words.
The blood, the violence, the humour, the old school monster mystery (minus Scooby) and the Jaws/Sharknado/Arachnophobia vibe of his work.
I’ve also lately discovered that I love the horror work that Flame Tree Press puts out - so combine the two - and you have his latest novel ‘Slash’. A modern twist and loving yet original homage to 80s Slasher movies, that in fact opens with quotes from three of the best.

Ashley (Ash) and Todd have a comfortable home, moved into a year ago and an ugly, damaged rescue cat, but Ash is drowning in memories of the past, nightmares and her own tears.
She bears scars of the past inside and out; scars from the killer and sharp glass.
She suffers from such a severe form of PTSD, her memory of that night coming through in only patches, so that no one really knows what the Slasher looks like.
When Todd turns up from work one evening with a nice Cabernet, he finds her hanging in the basement - no longer able to cope with her anxiety, fear of the dark and survivors guilt.
Her best friend Sheri has been slaughtered by a serial killer, along with other college friends by Then Wraith’ an unknown presumed escaped serial killer, at the local Hayden Resort.
After Ash’s suicide, that’s when the story really begins.
She’s a constant ghost hovering behind the scenes, as we the reader, and Todd, return to Hayden Resort to discover what really happened that night.
Todd’s anger is palpable, especially when his mixed race relationship is blamed by some, for making Ash a notable victim to start with.
Shea demonstrates an in depth knowledge of the typical slasher horror tropes and uses them to his advantage.
This is the second book of his that I’ve read, but he knows how to deliver good horror with surprises and emotion, never mind blood.
Great stuff

Todd Matthews loves Final Girl Ashley (Ash) King, who survived the famous Resort Massacre 5 years ago. When he finds her dead by her own hand, his life's only goal becomes finding out what really happened at Hayden Resort and hopefully revenging her death. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA, PEOPLE. And now commences all the blood and gore.

I have recently discovered my love of the old slasher movies, the ones where all the characters are cardboard cutouts and you know everyone will die - it's just a matter of how. LOVE THEM. This book is on one hand, a love letter to those slasher movies. On the other, it is so much more! The characters are great - I really cared about what happened to them, which made all the grisly (and inventive) death that much more horrible. The writing is great and the story line fast-paced, interesting and surprising. You never know what's going to happen in this story and the ending actually made me shed a tear or two, I will happily admit. This is a SMART slasher movie in book form and you should go immediately and buy it. Really.

Last year, I had the privilege to review a book by Hunter Shea called Creature. It broke my heart and put Shea on my favorites list. To this day that story has stayed with me. When I saw Slash, of course, I jumped at the chance to feel those feelings again!

One thing that Shea does well is to make you care about his characters. We get to know who they are, where they've come from...what makes them tick. Establishing this framework takes time, I get that! In Creature, I loved this introduction to the characters. It connected me to them and made me see them as so much more than names on a page. I loved the build-up as much as I loved the horror later. In Slash, however, this just made me extremely impatient. At 288 pages, it really should be a swift read, but I had difficulty sticking with it in the beginning, choosing instead to bounce to other books and back again.

I feel like the only character I really connected with was Ashley, our Final Girl. I had that same feeling of falling into the book. She was someone I had to know, maybe even already knew! Of course, you already know that didn't turn out well. The switch of narrative from Ashley to Todd is where my attention was lost. It's not that Todd is an unreliable narrator, although given his grief over Ashley's death that wouldn't be such a stretch. Though it might be because of his grief, that I found him to be a bit flat. I didn't not like Todd, but I didn't find that same connection.

Once Todd and friends make the trek back into Hayden resort, to that horrid place where Ashley survived, Slash definitely picked up speed again. (Although, I do have to wonder a bit about the hidden messages and puzzles that Ashley left. How oddly convenient.)

Slash, true to its name, doesn't spare the gore. While there were only a few parts where the tension felt palpable, the vast majority of the horror came from the carnage and it was a bloody good time! There's a twist to our killer and not one that's really foreshadowed in any way. He's certainly not one I'd like to meet in any dark alley, but it seemed like something was left out. I needed a bit more to make that stretch.

I was disappointed by the ending. Not the conclusion of Todd's story. No, that, while not necessarily fair, was satisfying but then came the epilogue. Gah. It was a totally made-for-tv credit roll groan.

There's absolutely no denying that Shea can write brutal death scenes. In this, it felt like a slasher film. There are so many things that lend itself to the slasher feel: the abandoned location, the sometimes cheesy dialogue, jokes that overstayed their welcome, and last but not least the supernatural killer. If you are expecting 80's B-movie horror, you aren't going to get it. It's a more subjective slasher than that. I assume that Shea was going more towards the "horror with heart" that I loved with Creature but for me, that ceased to exist with our Final Girl. Still, fans of Jason Voorhees and his ilk will be pleased with Shea's latest offering.

Thanks to Anne @Random things through my letterbox for my spot on the blog tour and the publisher for my copy of the book. All thoughts are unbiased and honest. Instantly the book cover grabs you by the balls and you can feel the pain and fear that this novel is going to subject you to. Slash examines survival, plain and simple. The idea that lightening couldn’t possibly strike twice is the primary theme. This book is more than happy to pack up its things and move home into other genres. This is a book that goes between Slasher, horror and thriller. It reminded me a lot of the Friday 13th movies, which are solid classics, this book in my estimation is just as good.

What does Slash, and those disturbingly awesome slasher movies have in common? A sole survivor, usually a woman who has witnessed untold terrors being dished out by a psychopath killer. She’s survived hell on earth, nothing could hurt her, again right? Right? I’m a massive fan of horror/slasher movies. I love the unlikeness of them, the over dramatized action within but most of all I LOVE being scared. I love to feel that adrenaline pumping, the body going into fight or flight mode and feeling that cold drip of sweat dripping down your neck. Will it be survival of the fittest or will the bad guy claim another victim?

“Absolute terror makes your mind do funny things…I’ve lost myself to fear all these years…”

Hunter Shea is a brand spanking author for me and just let me fan girl a moment at just how he captures the horror genre so captivatingly. This works, it absolutely does. I’ve been reading a lot of psychological thrillers recently and although I have been enjoying them, it kept me completely in my comfort zone. This book shook me, the road travelled started the same, it felt the same, but it had an eerie undercurrent. Safety was far from the mind, the author broke the reins and chased me through the dead of night. My chest was tight, I was running for my life, but I didn’t dare look back over my shoulder. Hunter Shea is an evil genius.

You think you know the horror genre, do you? As a very famous fictional red-headed character said, “you know nothing, Jon Snow.” Shea has taken the genre and pulled it until its snapping at the seams. This horror doesn’t fit into the perfectly marked horror box. It’s not the bogey man jumping out of it, it’s a psychopathic serial killer lurking, hiding, planning his next depraved act. It’s the human psyches worst fear. It’s what we are all scared of. This novel blew my mind. Sometimes I read a book that has emitted so many emotions from me that I just NEED. A. DAMN. MINUTE. I needed to get my thoughts down, but there were so many, would I be able to make a coherent thought? The only thought that was screaming for attention was – What in the fresh hell?

This book just expressed how in love I am with the horror genre. It expressed and sang out to me just how my nerdy self loves the fear, loves exhilaration, loves the examination of the human condition. This book was fear personified. My brain officially resembled scrambled eggs…in the most satisfying way.

“He came out of the darkness and he returned to it…”

Enter Ashley King our sole survivor of the Wraith during the Hayden Resort Massacre, five years ago. She is the perfect case study of a survivor with PTSD. She may have got through the ordeal, but her mind is most definitely not intact. Her body is whole, but her mind is fractured. Paranoia is king in her world. She is never going to be the same again. This new version of her is broken. Mental health is a fragile thing – it doesn’t take much for it to snap and snap it did. Todd, her fiancé learned that the hard way. The intensity of the events led me to keep reading, one chapter after another. Time meant nothing whilst reading Slash. My brain was on red alert.

Poor poor Todd. He had so much to contend with. Ashley’s pain and suffering took such an emotional turmoil on him. Her hurt was hurting him. His anger, his hurt at what she felt she needed to do unsettled me. It was painful reading. It made me sad. The melancholy was real, it was bitter and made me want to high five the author so hard. Do you want to read a cutesy romance novel about love? Then this is really not for you. If you want to read about raw, all-encompassing love through loss and anger. The real kind of love that sadly doesn’t get shown until a catastrophic event happens. He would have done anything for the love of his life.

The action is fast paced, and you won’t be able to stop until you close the final page. The second half of the book ramps up the speed into full psycho slasher miles per hour. Its violent, its gruesome and its everything you would want and more. The haunting world building was first rate. The sub-zero undertones are eerie and uncomfortable, this is a book you shouldn’t really enjoy reading. It should unnerve you, unseat you and make you question everything you know about human emotions. The world building reminded me of resident evil, it was uncanny and retched up my imagination to the top level.

The personal relationships contained within the pages of Slash highlighted that even during terror and adversity can still instil support and love. Todd, in order to heal and move on, needed to step into Ashley’s shoes. He needed to understand what she went through and the reason why she felt there was no other way. You could see that Todd struggled with it all. His mental health was wavering. He had a renewed sense of respect for Ashley.

Overall this was speeding train of emotion, loss, terror and by god was it intelligent. The twists left me for dead. Shea tied me up and threw me over the edge. His skill was that good. Just think of all the awesome slasher films, Halloween, Friday 13th, Scream and Saw and it follows the exact same formula and pulls it off so expertly. This is a book that will make you lose track of time, looking for evil etched on the pages then I can’t recommend this book enough. The perfect Halloween read.

I first heard of Hunter Shea when one of my podcasts recommended his books, I then found his podcast The Final Guys and knew that I needed to start reading his work. Slash was the first book that I read so I didn’t know what to expect.
Ash was the only survivor of the Resort Massacre and 5 years later she still wasn’t coping. Todd, her boyfriend had been by her side since that fatal night and when she couldn’t cope anymore, he was there to follow the clues.
This story starts by leading you into a false sense of security. You are with Todd whilst he is going through the grief stages. From that moment I was supporting Todd with all his decision and if I was in the room with him, I would have given him a big hug and would have gone off with him on his crazy idea. Even though he had his close friends by his side, he still felt alone and whilst he wanted their support, he did not want to put anyone in danger.
Once Todd had decided what he needed to do the book’s pace quickened as you follow Todd as he is searching for clues. The camaraderie with his friends broke up the tension but if you have watched or read any horror you know that the fun would not last for long. Your introduction to the Wraith was quick and his attacks on the group were graphic and brutal just what you need for this type of book. The origins of the Wraith were unexpected, and I did not guess what was behind the killings.
This was a book that I had to force myself to put down so I could get some sleep, it made me forget to buy my lunch as I wanted to get on my train to sit down and carry on reading. As for the ending, there was no way I was going back to work after lunch until I had finished this book. Days later whilst I am writing this review I am still thinking about this book.
If you like horror, then you know it is rare to learn about the close family and friends of the final girl, but this book does that. This is a book that I will be recommending to my friends and I am now going to pick up other books by this author

Wow! This story had so many great nods to slasher horror movies. It felt like this story was just crammed full of great references and easter eggs. Loved that the cat was named Elvira! 😀 You can really tell how much this author loves horror movies. I always hate when someone writes a horror book or movie when they don’t seem to actually understand the genre. So when I see an author who really, truly loves horror, it makes a story all that much better. I think this is a book most horror movie lovers will seriously enjoy.

The plot of Slash deals a lot with grief and relationships. There was a lot of emotion with the whole story. The beginning starts off a little bit slow as you watch the main characters slowly try to deal with their grief, and sometimes it does feel overwhelming. Not in a bad way, but in a way that makes you feel even more of a connection to the main characters pain. Once the story gets rolling, it escalates quickly. The rest of the story is a run away train of evil.

I really loved what Shea’s take on a slasher villain ended up being. It is a great twist to the killer. What or who the Wraith is, is something you just don’t see much in horror anymore, so I was really excited to see the author use that for his killer. Pretty clever.

There is a lot of great, crazy kills in Slash. Tons of gore and violence. I loved it! Very much in the same vein as the Friday the 13th movie kills. Absurd but epic AF! There is one scene with an animal getting killed, though. It was over quickly, but was a little violent. I always like to make a note of that for all the animal lovers out there.

I had a lot of fun reading this book. It was a quick, fun ride. I felt just like exactly like I was reading an 80s slasher movie! Nailed it! Very entertaining. This author is so good at capturing the hay day of horror movies in modern horror books.

Slash by Hunter Shea
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm of two minds on this one. I love horror in general but there are a few kinds of plot devices that don't work too well for me. Of course, there are some major exceptions to the rule, but I'm gonna cite one movie franchise that never kept my interest no matter how many times I sat through them: Friday the 13th. Jason. Meh. He made me lose my love for hockey and all straight-up slasher types.

But what about Scream, you ask? Well, we all know that was a PARODY and a great SEND UP, far outclassing the original fright-snoozes.

So what in the blazes does this have to do with Hunter Shea's novel?

It's a somewhat generic slasher "film" in an old abandoned resort. The best part is the build-up, the impact and the insanity of the Final Girl who had survived one attempt, only to off-herself and leave her friends scratching their heads, preparing themselves for their own eventual slaughter.

I really wanted to get into this. I'm a fan of this author. He does creature features wonderfully, crazily, and induces many an evil chortle in his readers. This one is of the same quality. It's a great send-up for an oft-tread storyline.

But me? I was bored silly, not able to connect to anyone but the Final dead Girl. Maybe that's to be expected, but I have seen it done well elsewhere.

One of my favorite authors has done it again! I really enjoyed this one it was a great take on the slasher genre!

Todd’s fiance was a final girl who survived a horrible tragedy at the Hayden Resort. It’s been five years since she faced the Wraith and she just couldn’t cope with things any more and kills herself. Todd is distraught and when he finds out she hid something in the resort he wants to go and check it out. They are about to tear down the resort so he has to do it soon.

He events a few friends to go with him but then changes his mind and tells them he wasn’t going to do it, but they knew he was lying and end up meeting him there. Together they go in and find the film, but they end up finding a whole lot more and will end up wishing they never stepped foot in Hayden because the Wraith is back and he is a gruesome killing machine!

I found the backstory of the Wraith to be kind of interesting and I liked how Shea created a slasher book that was a bit different.

When it comes to horror I try really hard not to become attached to any of the characters but I did end up liking a few and there was one I wanted to see die right off the bat…lol. I can’t say that I was a big fan of Todds but I did like his friend Heather and then I warmed up to Jerry after a while. I always know going in that Shea kills his characters so I was at least prepared.

I really enjoyed this one and I would say my only complaint would be that the ending sort of kept going on and on. I would think it was over and them bam the Wraith was back, so it was like just when you thought certain people where going to make it out alive they didn’t. Still it was a very awesome read!

4.5 out of 5 stars

Slasher horror with a paranormal twist

Ashley was the only survivor "the final girl" of a resort massacre. Her and friends had gone urban exploring in a deserted resort and only Ash made it home. They never caught the killer called The Wraith and she has never gotten over the experience - an experience she can't remember.

Her fiancé Todd knows how badly she was affected when her friends were killed and after Ashley kills herself, he finds a hidden NOTE letting him know she left a memory chip at the resort that might explain what happened.

I was expecting a slasher type story just by the descriptions given of the book and, in part, that is what the story is like. But there is more towards the middle and end of the book that I didn't expect.

The first half of the book moved rather slowly but the action ramped up nicely after that.

I've enjoyed other horror books by author Shea and I wasn't disappointed by this one.

I received this book from Flame Tree Press through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

After Ashley King survived a massacre at a famous resort, she is found hanging in her basement. A victim of suicide, maybe. What could cause this, what happened to her that she doesn't want to live? Todd Matthews, her fiancee intends to find out. She left clues as to what really happened and now he needs to go and find out.The killer called the Wraith is unlike any other monster.Todd goes to see what they find. Its not what everyone thinks. How will they stop it? Can t be stopped? Will anyone survive? I loved this book. i had been waiting for this and am glad that the author brought it to life, so to speak. I received this book from Net Galley for a honest review.