"Old lies above, new love below"

Stauford, Kentucky is definfely a town worth avoiding, but whats the fun in that. About fifteen miles west of Stauford, Kentucky lies Devil’s Creek. Tons of small towns harbor secrets but few are as horrifying and grotesque as those buried beneath the burnd out corpse of an old church in Devils Creek. Lord’s Church of Holy Voices was the home to a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god. We quickly learn that just because something is buried, doesnt mean it will stay dead...

In 1983, the church burned to the ground following a mass suicide. The few who survived were aptly dubbed “Stauford Six,” and life for them was anything but simple within the town of Stauford, especially Imogen. With time the infamy of the "Stauford Six"faded, but it is apparent that the events at the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices left stains on their minds, bodies and in some cases their very soul.

Devil's Creek is at parts legitmately terrifying. It has such a perfect blend of cult, occult and horror that you may find yourself reading with the lights on into the late morning hours.
I recieved a digital copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley I
n exchange for an honest review.

Devil's Creek is a great example of the crazy shit people will do in the name of religion. This book takes that crazy and pushes it to the extreme. This book was brutal and intense. Sometimes the hypocrisy hit a little too close to home and I had to set it down for a while. The writing is so, so good and beautiful. The story is good but sometimes was a little more graphic than I like to read. Song to play with this book: Rage Against the Machine's Killing in the name of."

This book isn't for the faint-hearted. Dark and disturbing there's so much going on all you can do is keep turning the pages until you get out the other side - hopefully unscathed. A great horror novel.

I really liked this book. Such a great story. It grips you from beginning to end. The Author sets the story up very well, building up the characters and setting the small town vibe. The main protagonists have their own well defined characteristics and back stories they also interact and relate with each other so well. This book reminds me of Salems Lot. The way it is set up and the threat is insidious in the way it infiltrates, it is definitely creepy building up slowly into it becomes a dangerous eldritch threat. I felt this story mixed the horror of the supernatural with the very real underlying problem brewed from ignorance and fear. The small minded bigotry was just as scary as the Cosmic Alien Body Snatching Invasion.

Thank you to Net Gallery & Silver Shamrock for providing myself with a copy of this book.

Also a big thank you to the Author, a top book by a writer so on top of his game.

I enjoyed this book. Not quite as evil as I expected but all in all it was a pretty good read. I would recommend.

"Give me that old time religion!"

Cults have been documented back as far as 1060 BCE, and they have always held a strong place on my list of dark and macabre interests. From Jonestown to the modern day NXIVM, give me a documentary of anything cult related and I am in. That being said, it is rare that I find fictionalized portrayals to be worth my time - why go to fiction when the real thing is so dark and twisted on its own? That being said - "Holy hell" doesn't begin to describe my reaction to this novel.

Despite being home to the infamous Jacob Masters, leader of The Lord's Church of Holy Voices death cult, Stauford is much like any other town you'll find in rural areas of the south; with four churches for every square mile and enough hypocrisy to fill them all. Following the death of Masters and his devout followers, the six surviving children become the centerpiece to one of the most well developed horror plots I have read in ages, flawlessly told through multiple perspectives and across decades.

Across its 400+ pages, Keisling has delivered a horror novel that will stand the test of time. With incredibly well developed characters, a terrifying and unknown cosmic evil, and enough gore and depravity to earn a multitude of trigger warnings, Devil's Creek is hands down the best horror I have read in years, and I can't recommend it enough.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, Todd Keisling, and Silver Shamrock publishing for the chance to read and review!

5.002/5

A creepy and terrifying read that kept me hooked. Great atmosphere and world building, excellent storytelling and well thought characters.
It's highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

'Suffer little children' sang Morrissey of the Smiths back in the 80s, where this story starts and we are introduced to the characters of this generation spanning epic novel. A fine mix of prime King, a dash of Lovecraft and a soupcon of twisted body horror, I was enthralled throughout. Kiesling puts his own sick twist to the brew and serves us up a story that will shock, chill and appall in equal measure. This novel will be regarded as one of the years best genre releases and would make a fine tv or movie adaptation, hopefully with the aforementioned song thrown in.

Todd Keisling's Devil Creek has everything! It has a cult, possessions, zombies, incest, gore, and sex, just to name a few. In fact Keisling crams everything into this novel including the kitchen sink.

Here's what I liked about it. The characters are likeable and well drawn out. When it switches narratives, you know almost instantly who's narrating. The story is interesting enough to make me want to keep reading to find out what happens. It's a very dark and disturbing novel.

The downside, is there is too much crammed into this book and it becomes so far fetched. Reading early on about the incest is pretty disgusting and it never really explores the mental effects of the characters. As you read, somethings come out of nowhere and it forces you to accept the implausibility of it. The novel was too gory for my taste and it seemed like it was a slog for me to read.

Overall, it was an average read. Most people who read horror will probably like it, but for me I just wouldn't be able to highly recommend it. I probably say to a horror fan that it was decent.

Destined to make Todd Keisling a household name in horror fiction.

I have read so many fictional books about cults but this one is definitely in the top 10 for me. I had never heard of the author before when I requested this book and had expected it to be a typical run of the mill evil cult story. Boy was I wrong.
Todd Keisling has a way of weaving a story that has been told so many times and giving it new life. He sets the background so exquisitely and the character development is very well done. So many horror novels rely on sex and gore to fill a storyline but Keisling rises above that. Make no mistake. There is sex, blood and gore BUT it is only part and parcel of the story itself. The book is so very rich and just so much "more". It was definitely a treat to read.

<div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v1pEbAoO4Ac/XxMDC-kecfI/AAAAAAAAATo/_hwluqi2Q1UKaRJRqyJNAFZ9vgqoylOnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/devilscreek.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1533" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v1pEbAoO4Ac/XxMDC-kecfI/AAAAAAAAATo/_hwluqi2Q1UKaRJRqyJNAFZ9vgqoylOnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/devilscreek.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unfortunately, my review copy from NetGalley looked like this.&nbsp; I am very disappointed.&nbsp; I wanted to read this book so much.&nbsp; My Booksta and Goodreads trusted reviewers all gave such great reviews.&nbsp; I guess I will just go ahead and buy a copy and review again once I read it.&nbsp; *sadface*&nbsp;</div></div></div>

“All you have to do is suffer.” There are no spoilers in this review.
Devil’s Creek by Todd Keisling is a Book about an extreme religious cult that worships a different Lord. Reverend Jacob Masters sires six children from different loyal women. Those children are to be sacrificed to his God at the age of six and everyone seems okay with that except a few of the kids grandparents who thwart the sacrifice at the last minute and the rest of the cult gets burned up and dies.
Twenty five years later, those six surviving children are back in town and Reverend Jacob has returned from the grave and he is willing to sacrifice and destroy the whole town to get his way.

This book is gory and tries hard to make you shudder.
“Their faces were split open, chunks of bloody flesh held suspended in the air by the dark worms protruding through the viscera”
It has a very complex universe with every one of the surviving six having there own stories that intertwine with the main story. The book is very well written, has good development, but is long. I think it should have been edited down by 100 pages

Hands down the horror event of 2020. Devil's Creek is a fantastic read and definitely should not be missed. Such a compelling and immersive universe that Todd has given birth to, I want more, I need more! I fully expect this tile to land near, if not the top of every genre best-of list. This book will be for the ages. Full review coming soon.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC of this book. This book takes place in Kentucky, my state. This ended up being my favorite horror book this year. Such a creepy, spooky read. My favorite book by Keisling. A must read.

'Devil's Creek' tells the story of a religious cult and its descendants in the small town of Stauford. Thirty years ago, a Imogene Tremly brought a violent end to the congregation of 'Lord's Church of the Holy Voices', saving six innocent kids from being sacrificed by group leader Jacob Masters. Now, thirty years later, the surviving kids have grown up, but are still haunted by their past. When Imogene dies, her grandson Jack, a now famous artist, returns to Stauford once more, unaware that Jacob Masters is about to return. Reuniting with his siblings, Jack has to face his father, and his greatest hidden but ever-present fears, one more time.

There are a number of things I really loved about this book. The epic complexity of the story, which spans several generations and infests a whole town, reminds me of some great books I used to read in the 80s/90s. Even the approaching door-stopper size seems reminiscent of those glory days of horror I like to remember. And while I am usually not much into religious horror, I appreciated the tangible quality of Jacob Masters' preaching (ugh, that does sound weird somehow). The author painted some very vivid and expressive images of the church's beliefs and their execution, and did so quite literally through Jack's paintings of his nightmarish memories.

Not to forget the characters. I was afraid of loosing track of who was who, but actually that was never the case. From the beginning, it was easy to distinguish each of the six siblings and the other involved residents of Stauford. Finally: the story itself. While the main plot followed familiar paths and was predictable to a certain degree, the details and execution were original and delivered some freshly cut piece of horror, and on a big scale. My visit of Stauford and the Devil's Creek surely was a memorable one.

(thanks to netgalley, the author, and the publisher for a copy of the book, all opinions are my own)

This is a great book. I has the elements of all of my favorite horror sub-genres - cults, cosmic horror, coming-of-age, small town.... I loved it! The story starts right up and grabs your interest at the very beginning, and keeps you interested throughout the book. I have definitely become a Todd Keisling fan and will follow his career and read more of his books.

This book was all over my GR’s feed and everyone seemed to be reading it. From the amount of praise it received from very respectable sources and authors, maybe everyone was . Maybe this was the next best thing in genre fiction. At any rate, this book was sufficiently hyped up for me to be very excited to grab it off of Netgalley and read it. Then again, I might have read it anyway, I like a good scary story and I’ve actually read the author ages ago, I read and not finished (due to not having book 3, not for quality reasons) his Liminal Man trilogy and it was a pretty good introduction to Keisling, whose writing seems to have only improved since. You can tell, because this sort of fiction lives and dies by its writing, because the plot is usually…somewhat familiar sounding, maybe. I mean, have you heard this one before…a small town in the middle of nowhere, something terrible occurs (say, an evil man named Jacob Masters leads his devout congregation into the woods to start an evil cult worshipping the darkness below), there’s a confrontation (say, some locals who have come to see the reason), the evil is put down, but temporarily with an understanding that it shall be revisited upon survivors at some time in the future. Fast forward 30 years to the present day and the surviving kids dubbed Stauford Six at the time get reunited now as adults and must join forces to battle the return of Jacob Masters and his minions. Minus the details, this is a very, very familiar plot concept for a scary story, so if you can’t get original with the plot, you have to do so with the execution and Keisling does, he really does. The man may not reinvent the wheel, but he spins it of so ably. Excellent character writing, great atmospheric settings and oh boy does he go in for the graphic and grotesque of the gore and guts. Plus he throws in a very nice backstory and makes the darkness cosmic. The latter is unusual because typically cosmic terrors are set in New England (from which they were originally spawned) and thereabout, not boonf*ck Kentucky, but there you go. Dark indifferent entities apparently can find followers elsewhere. The appeal is difficult to understand, apparently originally it was meant to be subversive, defiant to a town of hypocritical small minded small spirited people, but it all too quickly turned into debauched depraved nightmare with a surprising amount of willing candidates, like everyone was just waiting the entire time to go live without modern conveniences and condone child abuse. The other thing difficult to understand is that out of Stauford Six, who mostly all grew up surprisingly well adjusted outside of frequent nightmares, only one kid left the town and went on to have a life outside of all that. Seriously? Why would you stay somewhere with a past like that? In a small town with long memories and nothing to offer outside of gossip and more small mindedness. Inexplicable. But anyway, eventually even Jack returns, if only because his beloved grandmother dies. And then Jacob Masters returns and the entire thing essentially turns into the battle for survival between the forces of good and evil. Yeah, it’s classic like that. Good too. But somehow it didn’t quite work for me, not all the way, and I’ve tried and tried to put it into words and it’s something like this…if possible….there’s just too much of the horrific within these pages. I mean, it’s relentless and in the end exhausting. Not enough balance, sadly so, because Keisling is such a good writer, but he seems to have made a choice to make the genre rule each and every page. In fact, it seemed that the ending took the entire second 50% of the book, but started even before that. There’s not so much in a way of set up and so, so very much in a way of graphic violence and abuse and sex and guts and gore and all that. And sure, I understand how genre fans would delight in all of that and it is objectively well done, it’s just over done, over the top, too much. It overpowers the novel in so many ways. This is, of course, a very personal thing and I’m sure it won’t be the case for many genre fans. I’m very specific when to literary terrors and I do like them literary, but there has to be the right balance of subtlety and graphic content. Not too slow and subliminal, but not too gore churning all the time either. The other thing is that for me this book read so slowly, it’s hefty enough at just over 400 pages, but it read longer than that, which is quite odd, it’s well written and dynamic, but somehow it still dragged. Yeah, odd. But at any rate, this was objectively good, I can understand how it gathered so much acclaim and attention, even if it didn’t quite sing for me personally the same way. And Keisling is definitely a talented author, it’s nice he’s got his magnum opus out into the world, maybe now he can do something along of the lines of the slimmer executions of the more original concepts. At any rate, genre fans should be delighted with this one. And small towns…well, they are always terrifying in some ways. Thanks Netgalley.

Creepy as hell! A fantastic cult horror with characters you can root for and fear. I generally do not scare easily from a book but there were moments while reading this that I felt genuinely uneasy and wanted to turn on all of the lights in the house. The author does a really good job of interweaving the supernatural evils with the negative history of the town creating the scene as an epicenter of evil. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any horror reader, or any reader for that matter!

"Old lies above, new love below"

Welcome to the Lord's Church of Holy Voices where Jacob Masters preaches the word of a nameless god.

1983 - Stauford, Kentucky - The Lord's Church of Holy Voices burns to the ground after a mass suicide. Jacob's six children manage to survive referred to by the townsfolk as the Stauford Six. Being the bible belt and all they aren't embraced by their community but reviled. Each longing to get very far away from their hometown.

Now an adult, Jack, one of the Stauford six, has made a successful art career for himself in NYC but when he gets word that his grandmother has died he returns to Stauford to settle her affairs. However, what he is about to find out is that not all secrets stay buried and some just might return from the grave to settle the score.

I am so torn on this book. This is one of the best written horror novels I have read in quite some time. Kiesling can set tone and atmosphere perfectly. Stauford itself is as much as a character as any other in the book. Buuuuuutttttt.....this book is too long. There. I said it. This book was a solid 5 star reading experience until around 65% but then oh my nameless god it became so tedious. If this book shaved about 100 pages off it would have been so much better. Even the climactic grand finale I skimmed because it went on F-O-R-E-V-E-R. I have checked out other reviewers thoughts on this and they are singing it's praises so my complaint could very well be a "me" thing.

This is a solid horror story and one that I think is going have plenty of accolades thrown its way. And as with all good horror novels - the gore drips from the page! Yum! 3.5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Silver Shamrock Publishing for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Oh, I loved this!

You’ve got the small town you really don’t want to live in, a dangerous cult, a creepy cult leader and simply epic horror.

This is my first book by Keisling, but it definitely won’t be my last.

The horror here is fast, furious and intelligent. And, yes, it’s graphic – in all the right ways.

I felt like I took an epic, terrifying adventure in this read. In the end, I just wanted more.

Seriously looking forward to his next offering!


*ARC Provided via Net Galley