3.5⭐⭐⭐



- the book honestly got me hooked from the first pages, until i wasnt .
it gotten to the point that it has to be combine with two scenes that i couldnt understand and nearly dnf.
Apparently , i tried to finish it and it was worth it the end .




+ thankyou netgalley for the opportunity .

❤️shaye.reads

Literally just spent all day finishing this book and I don't regret it at all. Such a fun read with some genuinely tense, creepy moments! Reminiscent of Jordan Peele's Up, with some anti-capitalism thrown in. I always thought the story of Centralia would make an excellent setting for a horror tale, and it felt good to finally have that itch scratched some.

Shout out to the fact that all the main characters are likeable as well, and that two of them are POC. It's something you still don't see enough of in horror.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for my honest review.

This book was exactly what I wanted it to be! I loved it. I will make sure to check out other books by this author. When I requested this I was just intrigued by the concept of it and I loved how it turned out. This story had a great plot and if you have read this and enjoyed it, This was so much. It was such a great story. I would say give this one a try. I will continue to follow this author. Way to go to this author for not letting me down.

After her brother, Hye, goes missing, Moon Song hires private detective Ben Sawyer to discover what happened. The paramount concern is that Hye, a recovering addict, has fallen off the wagon or befell an accident in the coal mine where he's secured employment. While bad, either option would likely be preferable to the secrets Moon and Ben ultimately uncover in the town of Blackrock, Pennsylvania and the horrors unfolding within the mine itself.

In The Beyond's dedication, Ken Brosky acknowledges a formative point in his early life when his father showed him John Carpenter's The Thing when he was much too young. It's clear that film was an important touchstone in Brosky's crafting of this story, and Carpenter's inspiration is not only apparent but abundant as Moon and Ben's investigation takes shape. Brosky clearly relishes the transformative aspects of body horror and the uncertainty of identity that were hallmarks of Carpenter's arctic terror classic, and he puts his own neat spin on things here.

The most deft spin, perhaps, comes in Brosky's shifting of identity concerns to a struggle of interiority, as Ben grapples with premature onset of dementia. Early on, we're shown that what Ben grapples with may or may not be real, and this concern is an ever-present threat to his self-assuredness. It's a terrific concept, but also one that I wish Brosky had done more with and more fully utilized to ramp up the stakes. It does present an intriguing aspect to Ben's character and personal history, but never goes far enough to make the detective an unreliable player in the events at Blackrock, nor does it ever give readers enough reason to distrust the words on the page. I would have liked to have seen Ben's struggle with dementia have a deeper impact on the narrative, or for Brosky to use it to play some mind games with readers and force us to question just how much of the narrative is actually happening. With the shifting points of view between Ben, Moon, and a local professor, Saladin Zewail, we can never real doubt the reality of the story itself, its progression, or its characters.

Swapping the Antarctic for Pennsylvanian coal country circa 2019, however, is a fantastic move, and one that allows for some clever subtextual commentary on the death of coal mining as an industry and the dangers inherit to both the workers and ecology of the region (think Centralia, PA, which has become a ghost town thanks to an underground coal fire that has been burning since the 60s). While The Beyond doesn't overplay its hand politically, it does provide yet one more compelling reason for America's energy independence in the form of cosmic horror and transdimensional rifts. And although Blackrock's miners celebrate Trump's vow to reignite America's reliance on dirty energy, the townsfolk aren't exactly "winning, winning, winning," as the then-president so eagerly (and falsely) proclaimed. The dangers and dirtiness of coal mining, and the potential unknowns of what, exactly, these workers may be digging toward make for a natural bedfellow with horror. This isn't the type of story that would make a whole lot of sense with solar farms and clean, reliable energy, you know? It's really hard to be afraid of windmills, despite Trump's best efforts at cancer-related fear-mongering...

While 2019 promised the return and transformative power of coal mining to communities, the people of Blackrock don't exactly reap the benefits in the way they had necessarily imagined. Readers fare much better, though, and can rest easy that they'll be getting much more than a lump of coal for their efforts here. Fans of The Thing are sure to appreciate Brosky's riffs and expansions on familiar tropes, and The Beyond at times feels like a lost entry in Carpenter's Apocalypse Trilogy, which is always appreciated in works so heavily inspired by the Horror Master himself.

The story is interesting. It shows a girl Moon Song who tries to find his brother who works in a mine in Black rock. She and a detective go to find out what happened to Moon´s brother and they find a place whit a great secret behind the mine that affects the whole town.

Thank you to NetGalley, Ken Brosky, and all others involved for giving me a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Phew what a ride! Although I don't read a LOT of horror, I found myself incredibly gripped in this story. It was fairly confusing at the start, which is the primary reason why it is not getting the full 5 stars from me. I was consumed by this story, there were moments when I felt very spooked and needed to take a break, which is a solid sign of a good horror book to me. I definitely want to keep reading more from Ken Brosky, and am actually keen to reread this book to see if the confusion at the beginning resolves now that I've finished the whole story.

This is a well written book, with an absorbing storyline. I found this book a bit confusing at the start, but it quickly came together. This is a really enjoyable read. The story is well paced and builds well to the climax.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

My thanks to Timber Ghost Press, Ken Brosky and Netgalley.
I was tickled pink by how deeply I enjoyed this damn story!
I didn't have a clue about what was going on!
Somewhere around the 40% mark, a couple of women were fighting, and one said "I'm going to kill you." The other said something along the lines of " you just killed me yesterday. " Me? I'm wondering, what the hell? Yeah, it gets a bit strange!
This whole entire story worked for me. It's something I'd recommend. I especially want to read more from this author.
4 1/2 rounded ☝ to 5.