Wow. This is a can't miss book. Combines Gothic and horror perfectly. My review is simple...Read This Book.

2,5 stars rounded up to 3.

I had really high expectations for this book, the plot seemed intriguing and scary. Unfortunately, I'm really sorry to say, this wasn't the case for me: the plot is dull, chapter after chapter, it seems something really big and unexpected you didn't see it was coming is about to happen but the end was quite foreseeable, no plot twists, a lot of unclear and unexplained details. A few passages were indeed quite nice and gripping but they didn't lead to anything jaw-dropping.

Coming December 20, 2022 from Cemetery Dance Publications, Holy Ghost Road by John Mantooth is perhaps the most uncanny coming-of-age tale since a small band of children battled an evil cosmic horror buried deep beneath Derry, Maine.

Some roads are haunted by the past. Some by ghosts. Some are even haunted by demons. The one Forest must travel is haunted by all three.

Forest discovers Pastor Nesmith praying to a demonic entity in her family’s barn, and knows she must run. Enraged at the possibility of having his true allegiance exposed, Nesmith pursues Forest as she flees on foot, hoping to reach the one person who will believe her - her grandmother.

Unfortunately, Granny is forty miles away, and Forest has no car, no phone, and no friends. To reach her, Forest will have to learn to see the world true, even as the demonic and the sacred wage war for her soul.

John Mantooth masters the deep point of view first-person narrative in this tale. The strong and unique voice of Forest is honest. The voice of a teenage girl beset on all sides by horrors intent on her destruction.

Throughout the work, religious themes blend with the magic of nature and creatures to guide and teach Forest along her journey. There are plenty of unsettling, and scary scenes with an evil, twisted preacher and his band of acolytes. As well as an evil goat demon connected to Forest in suprising ways!

Mantooth layers imagery and symbolism from the first page to the last - imbuing the story with meaning and purpose. Forest has an important lesson to learn, one she teaches her companion in the novel, and one readers will walk away with as well.

John Mantooth is the award-winning author of two novels and a short story collection. His first novel, The Year of the Storm, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. He has also published three crime novels under the pseudonym Hank Early. Heaven’s Crooked Finger (written as Hank Early) was a Next Generation Indie Book award winner and 2017 Foreword Indies Award Finalist. He lives in Alabama with his wife and two children.

I'm not usually a fan of books written from a first-person perspective, but this was really good. The main character had a very strong voice that helped to move the story along, and the cast of characters was varied enough to keep things interesting despite a plot that could have easily felt a bit too repetitive.

The lore is well-explained but not overly so, allowing everything to breathe with a bit of mystery. This read very much like a folk horror with some southern Gothic thrown in for good measure.

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

A thoroughly enjoyable tale of magic, fantasy and coming of age, set in the southern U.S.

The book as a whole was well written and quite nicely paced. Reading this felt like a breath of fresh air, The relationship between the main two characters was quite endearing as were some of the scenes set by the writer, I could imagine exactly what the scene would look, smell and feel like.

Well worth checking out!

If you're looking for a southern fried thriller with a bit of introspection then Holy Ghost Road definitely hits the mark!

Right off the bat I'll say that this book absolutely knows how to set the mood, giving us description after perfect description of just what it's like to live in the deep south, where everyone knows everyone, and a bit of magic still lingers if you look hard enough. The action starts right off, grabbing your attention and giving you most of the important players in the book immediately. Forest is a plucky young girl, running from something she doesn't understand. Throw in a cult leader, his terrifying sister, and their dead eyes henchman, and you've got the making for a great book.

While it doesn't have the gore and deaths that might be typical of the genre, Holy Ghost Road brings a unique horror to the table, of fighting something very human but not, something bigger than yourself, with a reach that seems almost impossible to grasp. The level of reverence with which John Mantooth describes magic and the Holy Ghost throughout the novel really makes every interaction and revelation that Forest encounters feel genuine and heartfelt.

My only criticism with the novel was the brevity in it's wrap-up. Not to give anything away but the scene felt short, and after all the build up, I may have pictured something more grandiose in scale. Otherwise it was a wonderful light read, with enjoyable characters that I found myself rooting for time and time again, despite all the odds being stacked against them. Would definitely reccomend.

I really enjoyed this book. A sort of twisted, Southern gothic version of The Wizard of Oz, only instead of the wizard, you have a wise woman and instead of the wicked witch you have a demonic preacher. As for the flying monkeys, the preacher’s sister, Ruby Jewel, is one of the most terrifying villains I’ve encountered in horror fiction lately.

Recommended.

15 year old Forest finds her stepdad worshiping the devil in their barn. She decides to run away to her grandma’s house, but is pursued by her stepdad, Pastor Nesmith, and his minions. The story is told in first person, from Forest’s point of view. Her voice is sometimes like reading stream of consciousness. I felt like the story lost momentum at times. The book started strong, went too slowly in the middle, and picked up steam in the end.

I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest opinion.

Great read! I would definitely recommend this one if you like something dark and gritty! I do enjoy a good escape story

This story was dark and gritty, the atmosphere was so good, you could feel Forest's desperation and anger as she is running from the Reverand and what he wants from her.

We are dropped right into the middle of Forest's flight from what she has seen the Reverand doing in the barn. She takes off running, her only thought is to escape and make her way to her grandmother's. There is no one she can trust as the Reverand has a hold on the town. The kind of hold that can only be described as cult-like. These people would give up their families with no thought if he asked it of them, and what he wants right now is Forest.

The people that Forest finds help from on her journey are few and far between, She meets one in particular in Elijah a man she finds lost in the woods after he experienced some paranormal phenomenon in a haunted barn.. he was trying to debunk the haunting, but ended up fleeing, still convinced however that there is a logical explanation... However, with Forest, her granny, and the Reverand there is nothing logical about what's happening and before the book is done Elijah's beliefs will be sorely tested.

This book sucked me in, it was fast-paced, and flew through it, needing to know how Forest was going to survive what the Reverand has planned.

I will definitely be reading more by this author!

Holy Ghost Road challenged me as a book - and I ended up enjoying it so much more because of it.

It's a dark, atmospheric good versus evil story, with the evil masquerading as a religious man whom everyone loves but is in actual fact linked to a demon.

The challenges I found were the religious aspects (something I am not) but then again, how can you have a demon without the flipside?

There was also a LOT of repetitive copy around the chase. After a while, I actually realised this added to the book rather than take away from it; as it allowed for character building rather than passing shallow descriptives.

As for the story - I was left a little intrigued as to the journey some of the characters had had leading up to the events. I could have had another hundred pages or so hearing about how it ended up as it did. That all said, this was my fiirst taste of Mantooth as a writer, and I was certainly impressed.

Dark and atmospheric, grabbed me from the start. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I could NOT put this book down. I loved Forest, and I loved every moment of this book. I will highly recommend to my colleagues!

Some roads are haunted by the past, Some by ghosts, Some are even haunted by demons. The one forest must travel is haunted by all three.
When she discovers pastor Nesmith praying to a demonic entity in her family’s barn.Forest knows she must run. Enraged at the possibility of having his true allegiance exposed. Nesmith pursues Forest as she flees on foot, hoping to reach the one person who will believe her, her grandmother unfortunately Granny is forty miles away, and Forest has no car, no phone, and no friends. To reach her, Forest will have to learn to see the world true, even as the demonic and the sacred wage war for her soul.
Really enjoyable read totally recommend
Thank you NetGalley and Cemetery Dance Publications
I just reviewed Holy Ghost Road by John Mantooth. #HolyGhostRoad #NetGalley

A girl, Forest, is on the run from a deranged preacher and his blind sister whose disability poses no handicap. Fortunately, Granny has hinted at clues throughout time. All Forest needs to do now, is escape detection.

Super creepy story. Kept me interested from the start. You really care about and root for some of the characters, while waiting for the others to get their just desserts. I wish the ending had been a bit more clear about some things, but all in all it was a great read.

I love this author. I wish he had more books to read. I'm a sucker for anything southern and anything horror. Put both together, and put them together well, like Mantooth, and it's a winner in my book.
Southern, coming of age, faith based horror. Not that it's a religious book. It's your usual crazy preacher from the south type novel we all love.

We meet Forest, a girl of 15, running through the woods trying to escape her evil stepfather Nesmith. The locals refer to him as “Brother Nesmith” and most of them are the congregation at his church and are completely under his spell and control. What is disguised as a Godly church is quite the opposite, for when Forest says her stepfather is evil she speaks the truth. She has witnessed his evil and now she’s running for her life. Along the way she crosses paths with Elijah, a young man lost in the woods without his shoes, phone or car keys. Elijah ran into the woods after having his own creepy scare. They make a deal to help each other and the adventure/ordeal begins as they flee Nesmith, his blind giant sister, his hulking “assistant/bone breaker” Helmet and the mysterious “Goat Shadow” that seems to be attached to Nesmith, yet has a kind of its own.
Unfortunately, I found the story to be repetitive and tedious. Forest and Elijah running or swimming, getting wet and hungry, drying off only to fall into the lake again, finding food only to leave it because Nesmith is too close. Danger-safety-bad person-kind person-safety-danger, etc. I was hoping for the shadow goat to speak up at some point. That said, the ending wraps the story up just fine. Thank you to #netgalley for opportunity to read and review #HolyGhostRoad.

“Is it a symptom of too much power? The ability to weave lies through truth as if you are the only one whose perspective even matters? It feels as if this is the strongest magic of all, and the most twisted. The power of a lie believed.”

What a wild ride this book was! I had no idea where it was going to go.

The story starts with Forest, a plucky 15 year old girl desperately trying to reach her Grandmother’s house after witnessing something terrifying. The story continues from there including lots of thrilling twists and turns.

This book is fast pace which kicks off as soon as you begin reading page 1. You are thrust in to this dark, atmospheric world reminiscent of the hit TV series Midnight Mass. Perfect for those dark autumn and winter nights if you’re looking for a horror book that’s fast paced, creepy and thrilling with some lovely heartfelt moments included.

Solid tale from Mantooth about a young girl named Forest who witnesses her mother's boyfriend, a smarmy preacher named Nesmith, collaborating with a demon goat creature in the barn and decides to go on the run to see her grandma, a mystic of sorts who may be able to protect her from Nesmith and the demon, who have ideas of their own for Forest. Very well-written and surprisingly subdued considering the horror-tinged subject matter, which actually works to its advantage. Not the usual "evil demon" story you might expect to get from the genre, which is a good thing. It's really a character-driven story with enough supernatural doings and creepy settings to keep things interesting the whole way through. Much better than I'd expected. I'll have to look for other works from Mantooth. Highly recommended.