I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review.

If you like books with short chapters, this is a great book for that. I think some of the chapters were a single sentence long. That is partially because the book rotates through the POVs of several characters. Initially, it is not at all clear how some of the characters are connected for the story arc, but the scenes do set the mood for those characters' morals.

I didn't ever really feel particularly invested in the story or in the characters lives beyond wanting Juliana to get away from her monster of a father. Once that happened, I'd pick the book up here and there to read a bit, but I no longer needed to know what happened next. The short chapters were great for that though.

Overall I give Hell on High 2.7382 out of 5 stars.

Something about this just didn't catch or keep my attention. I had a hard time connecting with the writing and with the characters. Ended up not finishing it.

I enjoyed this book. It’s funny how it was able to stick with me. I started reading this book Back in May, got away from reading for quite some time yet I still had this book with me when I picked it back up to finish it.

I need to go read the author's previously published trilogy asap. I've been missing out. Hell On High is epic and terrifying in ways that most author's only strive for. Everest, human trafficking and all it's related evils, some jaunts through my home state of Massachusetts, and some good old fashioned vengeance, made this a great read for me.

I really loved the scenes on Mt. Everest, as the place is a famous graveyard in it's own right and has a literal Death Zone. It's not a climb to be treated lightly and when Patrick and Renatta agree to summit it, I was worried for Renatta. She only just started out climbing with Patrick ( a super douche of a man), and watching the dollar signs light up in the elder men's eyes at the thought of sponsoring the first woman to summit Everest was just sickening. Seriously, the men in this book deserve everything coming to them, and then some.

The book is an epic adventure and touches on topics that resonate in today's world. I recommend it to any one who likes eerie horror tales with lots of real world danger involved.

Liked but didn't love. I absolutely loved the PATIENCE OF A DEAD MAN trilogy and recommend it all of the time, and I was so excited about this new release.

I had to start a few times to really get into the story, but ultimately, I didn't care about any of the characters. I am anxiously awaiting his next book, and he still remains one of my favorites.

This was a very good book. Juliana finds out her father is a bad man and flees. She has to leave her sister Vilma behind. Juliana changes her name and climbs a mountain then seeks revenge.

Hell on High from Michael Clark hit a rough start when it was released earlier this year, through pirating and copyright issues – both Michael and Birgid’s Gate Press were unjustly dealt a crappy hand by Amazon – who mistakenly believed they had copyright infringed their own book, and who refused to release the book due to a pirated version already being on sale on Amazon! An absolute travesty, and frankly, a damning example of Amazon gone wrong. Michael was robbed of his own book release and had to fight to establish the right to publish his own damn book. Trust me when I say that there is very little that could have inflamed the indie horror community as much as that error – it was both unprofessional, unforgivable, and horrific. They sorted the problem out, but weeks were lost in the dispute, and I have to say it is incredible that something so bad could have happened (from Amazon’s side).


Let’s skip ahead to the actual book. I have read Michael’s Patience of a dead man (the first book of three – the other two are still waiting for me on my Kindle thanks to the collected edition), and like Michael’s voice, I found that book very easy to read. For Hell on High, Michael chose to go the path of Short-short chapters – some chapters in here are a paragraph long. This is emulating Patterson, it’s something I actually don’t like at all – to the point where I refuse to read Patterson anymore. With horror, I get that it’s to up the tension and provide multiple hooks from chapter to chapter, something Beverley Lee uses to effect in her books.


I hate to say it, but here, it was annoying. Regardless of the content of the chapters, it was like taking a commercial break after a snippet of the story. The insistence on chapter breaks with the sole intent of heightening tension did the opposite for me, I had to take repeated breaks from the book through irritation that the flow of the story was consistently broken. Any tension and “hook” elements were lost to my impatience and frustration in the broken narrative. This is such a large part of the book, such an integral storytelling style, it is fused to the core of the appreciation of the story, and it becomes the storytelling itself. I know other people have had similar problems from reading their reviews – and I think this is going to develop into two camps – those that thought the story sped along in a breathtaking climax that lasted the entire book, and those of us whose enjoyment of the book was removed through the Author’s insistence that something exciting was happening often enough to take a break from the action by closing the chapter. A chapter of a paragraph, a sentence even, is ok, when surrounded by chapters of a normal length. It is an emphasis. Here, it was a norm, and yeah, it frustrated me.


Let’s get back to the story, which is frankly Hell on High’s saving grace. Michael has fashioned a great character in his female protagonist in Juliana, we watch her fight her way to freedom and then fight her way to the top of a mountain in an attempt to gather money to save her sister from the fate she herself escaped. In contrast, we have two other stories that are related, that of her father Ze, who travels to America, and also that of the male antagonist, Patrick, who is the hate bait of the book.




Some elements here pushed my believability in the story, such as various ghosts that appear later in the book, that bring a touch of the supernatural to the story. There isn’t an explanation as to why the ghosts appear, or why they appear where they do (One travels all the way from Juliana’s hometown to America to help free Juliana’s sister – likewise, a ghost from America appears on Mount Everest to help push Patrick onward, up the mountain - the logistics of those actions are never addressed – ghosts can appear wherever they will) – but I know that this book ties in supernatural elements from the Patience trilogy – perhaps I was missing something due to not having finished that trilogy – regardless, the “rules” behind the ghosts appearing seemed plot-driven rather than explainable. Also, elements such as the psychic link between Juliana and her father are not explained, and elements such as her knowing he was in America would also probably mean her sister and their adoptive mother were most likely in America too – making her money-making attempts irrelevant. The logic here sometimes took a back seat.

The pace is relentless, and Clark builds the animosity toward Patrick wonderfully, he really is a character to despise. Likewise, Juliana is masterfully crafted, I wanted to stay on Everest to see just how bad it was all going to get.


To summarize is hard. I liked the story. I loved the characters. I didn’t believe in the psychic link, yet believed in the book of shadows Ze finds. I didn’t believe in the ghosts, and couldn’t understand why Juliana’s sister is saved from a dead character that had nothing to do with the sister herself, and who was frankly a subsidiary. I loved every minute on the mountain, despite it only making an appearance after around 65% of the story. Clark makes his ghosts touchable, with form, and able to exact revenge as if they are animated corpses, yet appear from thin air. The logic nerd in me wants it to make sense but is aware that there is a horror army of horror film fans to whom the logistics of that kind of thing are irrelevant.


I’m giving this 3 out of 5 ⭐’s. I enjoyed it, and it frustrated the hell out of me, and I believed it and I didn’t believe it, and I want more yet I don’t know if I could go through that again – if that makes any sense.


My thanks to both Netgalley and Michael for an ARC in return for my honest review.

Overall I enjoyed this book, but did have issues with the pacing.

The beginning of the novel starts out well and was really intriguing. When the plot reaches the journey to Mt. Everest, however, I found the pacing slowed down and found it wasn't really holding my interest. By about the 85% mark, I was wondering how the author would wrap everything up. The last 10% of the story made up for the previous slow pacing though and is where the supernatural horror aspect of the novel really picks up. I would have loved to see more of this throughout the story because it was well done and made for excellent ending.

I will definitely try out more from this author.

"Fernanda wanted to die, but Zé wouldn’t allow it, harvesting her at Aparecida’s behest, piece by piece, until her body would take no more. Finally, after almost a month of torture, she could no longer see. What will they do with my eyes? she wondered, not really wanting to know the answer."
 
Originally published at https://runningreader87.wordpress.com
 
The Story:
 
1970's Brazil. A madman, nicknamed The Farmer, is on the loose, abducting people and practicing Black Magick.
 
Juliana is a teenager growing up in Brazil during this time. When events transpire to make her realize The Farmer is closer to her than she ever dreamed, she must flee for the United States. Here she desperately works to save enough money to rescue her baby sister, Vilma, from this madman.
 
But work is tough, the pay is low and it's taking too long. Juliana fears for her sisters life. That's when fate intervenes and she learns of a special gift she has for mountain climbing. A gift that could bring sponsorships greatly speeding up the process of bringing Vilma to safety.
 
The only problem is, mountain climbing is as dangerous as it is difficult. Especially when her partner might be unstable as well.
 
My Thoughts:
 
I found myself captivated and drawn to the story.

At the time I had 3 books competing for my attention. This one won my sole attention outright.

I kept coming back to it and ultimately let it take over. The drive to know what was going to happen and where we would end up next led me to keep turning pages. 
 
First off, Clark takes us on a round the world adventure. We start in Brazil and then head north through South America, Central America and into the United States. From here we travel from the northeast across the U.S. and eventually end up in the Himalayas!
 
Like I said, we go all over the world. But the crazy thing is, I never felt like I was rushed from one place to the next. I felt like Clark had a love, appreciation and understanding of each place. He wanted the reader to get a taste of the cultures and atmospheres in each country, and in doing so he shows great respect and reverence for all people.
 
Clark also created some splendid characters.
 
Juliana is a great protagonist. She has a compelling story. Her plight, while vastly different than anything I've ever experienced, is about overwhelming love, and who can't relate to that? You find yourself rooting for her in all she does.
 
The antagonist(s) are well crafted too.
 
Dr. Ze is a dark character, committing unspeakably heinous crimes. His will to do whatever he can to further his own cause makes him easy to root against.
 
Patrick, on the other hand, is very complex. (I'll keep this vague because I don't want to give spoilers.) There are times you are completely exacerbated with him. You want his to fail and fall. But then, a short while later, you find yourself wanting him to turn it all around. You want him to be the unlikely hero that helps Juliana unexpectedly. It's a battle between if he'll turn out to do what's right or what's wrong. In the end, you are satisfied. I feel like Clark created a special character here.
 
Conclusion:
 
From the depths of Brazil to the Boston suburbs, from the Alaskan mountains to the heights of Mt Everest, this book takes you around the world. Swiftly and keenly sharing his knowledge of Brazilian culture, Michael Clark brings a fast paced, globetrotting adventure. 
 
The story, tone and pace of this book are exceptional.
 
I do think I would have liked it to be even longer. I would have like the ending to be drawn out a bit more-- to delve into what happened to our main antagonists with greater depth.
 
But overall, this desire was minimal. I felt like the book was refreshing and took turns that were completely unexpected. I had no idea what was going to happen and where we would end up next. It had elements of supernatural and religious horror. It also had the vibe of a slasher at times, and even a bit of a ghost story.
 
I loved it. If someone was looking for a unique horror read, I would have no hesitation recommending Hell on High!

A couple of years ago, author Michael Clark popped up as a suggestion on my Facebook feed for his first novel, Patience of a Dead Man. It not only covered all my favorite horror genre bases, but was the first of a trilogy. I've since read them all several times and highly recommend them. I've always been a huge horror fan and love adding new authors of the genre to my watchlist. I was really excited about Hell on High, and it didn't disappoint.

My favorite thing about Michael Clark's writing are his plots. They aren't retellings of the same old thing you've read a hundred times. They're fresh, new and interesting. This one really sucked me in and I couldn't seem to put it down. "One more chapter" takes on a new meaning here because they are very short. I expected that to make switching between characters messy, but it's done seamlessly and really helps build the tension. The ending was satisfying and tied everything together nicely.

It was a happy surprise to reenter the Patience of a Dead Man universe. It isn't necessary to read the trilogy, but those that have will enjoy it. This was a great read and I'm really looking forward to the next one.

A huge thank you to Michael Clark, Brigids Gate Press and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

HELL ON HIGH is excellent horror that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. Michael Clark knows how to write a fast-paced plot that keeps cranking up the tension to 11, with characters that feel natural and have genuine motivations. Not quite as good as Clark's "Dead Man" trilogy, but still riveting.

After reading “The Patience of a Dead Man” trilogy (which I absolutely loved) I had really high expectations for this book and was in for a good scare.

Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed. This book went absolutely in the opposite direction of horror. It was intriguing but I missed the feeling of looking constantly over my shoulder.

Still, I found it an interesting read. I loved to be a part of Juliana´s journey and the last bit of the book really gave me the chills.

I give this book 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. This is an honest review, and all opinions are entirely mine.

After reading Michaels series Patience of a Dead Man, I knew I would want to read whatever he came up with next. And here it is! Hell on High was a fantastic story with a great plot, multi dimensional characters and multiple chilling settings. The pacing of the book was perfect, and really covered some original and thought provoking ideas 🙌.

—-

Juliana is on the run from a very dangerous man. Her father. Also know as The Farmer, Ze is in the business of trafficking human organs and when he realizes his daughter has found him out, he will do anything to keep his secret safe. As Juliana flees from Brazil to the United States, she knows she must try and get her sister, Vilma, away from her father and stepmother as soon as possible. But that will cost money. A lot of money. In order to pay, she gets a job as a housekeeper but soon realizes it will just take too long. An opportunity comes along after meeting an avid climber named Patrick, and even though it’s dangerous, she decides it’s her best option for saving her sister.

“𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘳𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘯𝘰 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘫𝘰𝘣; 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦, 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭-𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘧𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳-𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯.”

—-

Filled with black magic and more than one perilous journey, Hell on High is an adventure you will want to embark on yourself. Pack your bags because this one hits shelves March 9th !

This was a suspenseful ride! I loved this book a lot and thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. Very atmospheric and scary.

Wow….just finished this black magic tale in one sitting-I couldn’t put it down. From the start in Brazil to the US to Mt Everest…the journey was long and rich with vibrant characters! At first starting out there are two journeys, one a man starting a downward spiral and another a fierce young woman fleeing everything she knows to escape the evil surrounding her. Juliana/Renata is such an amazingly complex character, she goes through so many emotions throughout her journey & her emotions are felt by the reader most definitely! The environments shown in this novel are so well fleshed out, you feel the biting cold from the mountains! Loved this story, the characters, and the ending! It’s a must read for any horror fan!

This novel was so full of unexpected twists that I had no idea where the journey was going until we got there.

The characters are rich and feel very real. Renata/Juliana is a driven woman who only wants to escape the evil life her father has created around them. She manages to escape, but she must then fight for her sister.

Black magic, mountain climbing, and fleeing a south American country. At first it may not seem connected, but by the end, it all makes perfect sense.

This story is very well crafted and thought out. It flows very well, and I had a hard time putting it down!

Oh my goodness… this book left me speechless.

There were so many intense plots points, the story really captures your mind and heart. The Everest part had me holding my breathe at some moments.

The ending I absolutely did not expect and it was such a surprise. Like I said… I was shook.

Reading about Brazil and the culture of Macumba was so interesting, I had never heard of this spiritual/religious following before.

Honestly, if you get the chance, read this book ASAP!

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, & Brigids Gate Press for a copy.

What a read!
Juliana is a 19-year-old high school student, her father, unbeknownst to her is a very evil man also known as The Farmer by some that knew him. When Juliana invites a friend to spend the night, her friend accidently enters a wrong room in the house and notices beads that are known for a certain occult worship. When Juliana's stepmother tells her father, he gets worried it will be known to others, so they both decide to abduct Juliana’s friend and make her one of their prisoners.

Juliana figures it out just how evil her father is when her friend goes missing and she runs away in fear, leaving behind her beloved sister Vilma. After changing her name and with her grandmothers help, she leaves Brazil heading to the US in hopes to start a new life to work and save money to get her sister Vilma.

Juliana ends up meeting Patrick who is not very liked by some because he is a spoiled rich kid whose parent bought his way out of trouble. As an experienced mountain climber Patrick teaches Juliana who was offered a lot of money by a rich friend of his family to create history, climb Mount Everest and have a picture taken with his flag. The amount of money would help get Vilma, so Juliana embarks on this dangerous journey.

Michael Clark is a new author for me, and I am excited to read more of his books. This book was so well written with no dry or slow areas, very smooth reading which was very entertaining.

“There were several scenarios, he figured, and unfortunately, he died in most of them.”
Spanning four continents, I absolutely devoured this world tour of terror. Hell on High set an avalanche pace, as you tumbled from one chapter to the next knowing that salvation was not possible and the chills you felt had nothing to do with the cold.
Starting in Brazil, Juliana faces the dangers of escaping from one of the most prolific organ farming cartels on the continent, to finding herself fighting off hypoxia and hypothermia while traversing over the frozen dead at the highest point on earth.
The characters in the book are fleshed out so well. They really feel like someone you know (be glad that you don’t). The way Michael Clark writes makes you empathize with these people, there was one character that I thought was way beyond redemption but I’ll be damned if I didn’t start to like and have some hope for them.
My words can not do this book justice, to say that I was fully absorbed into Hell on High would be such an understatement. There is so much that I want to talk about but won’t because it will be so much better when you find things out own your own. I can’t ask for anymore from a book. It was entertaining, educational, made me think, made me feel, was original, left me hoping for more, and left me with a book hangover that I am going to dwell on.
“I’m not a spiritual man, in case you haven’t noticed.” “You are now,” Pemba countered.
“Maybe, but it’s too late to find a god who will help me.”
“Not too late for next life.”

The story take time in 1970. I hope for ghost stories or mystical creature and meet Monster of Codó. The Monster believe in Magick, practice Black Magick and worship Exu. He also has abilty as a clairvoyant with that he know what happend next and make a move before get caught.

Juliana/Renata journey was awe me, 11 country to get better life to get away from her father. Jungle, wild animal, be hunted by her father minion, dessert, another trauma, oh Renata.. she is a fighter, i dont blame her to take revenge. Renata make a plan arrive in US, get a job, gather money to safe her young sister Vilma. Another event leading her meet Patrick and she find way to make more money. Climbing montain for sponsorship.

I really enjoy Renata journey, Patrick stuborn, Renata father determination, Vilma smart thinking, Aparecida petty nagging, Fernanda believe in her bestfriend.

Thank you to NetGalley for provide this book, it is pleasure to review this book.

#HellonHigh #MichaelClark #BrigidsGatePress #NetGalley #ARC