This book was so boring. It takes place in a small town, and the characters are introduced in small sections so rapidly that not only did I get confused. I early on found myself not caring for any of them.

The small town and over all feel of the characters and text reminded me so much of Stephen King, that I felt vindicated when the Stand was mentioned, and I feel bad for saying so, but it feels like a bad ripoff of King’s style. I wasn’t sure at first whether the author just wrote the book with little heart, or if this was a passion project they got a little too into and forgot the readers don’t care about their characters as much as they do. Reading the author’s note, it’s the second.

Everything in this book was over the top but felt lazy. The killings the characters were manipulated into by Tanya were boring. Tanya was boring. The evil priest was ridiculous and stupid, like, how didn’t he know he could file an exemption for his church to pay taxes? That’s standard knowledge to most people not in churches as far as I know.

All the women and girl characters were victims, and yes I’m including that end part.

The part where a none religious, or not very religious guy asks to pray to the “big guy” was eye rolling.

This was just not the book for me.

A little boring to me, not able to fully get into it no matter how hard I try to. Basic horror thriller with police investigation aspects to it. Always have a hard time getting fully into those.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I didn’t find that the writing style worked for me, and the religious undertones were not my thing. This is not a bad book by any means, just not for this reader.

With hints of both Tommyknockers and Needful Things this book is a must for readers interested in horrors that is both supernatural and oh so human. Fast paced switches in perspective led to a sense of pressure and stress that was very effective.

Holy cow. What a book!

I’ve been ready for some good horror in my life and this was perfect. Small town, supernatural evil oddities, some gore, and it kept going up and up from here.

Highly recommend

This is a fantastic novel. It's small town horror, heavy dark religious zeal gone extremely wrong, and a small group of people against a much larger evil. What's not to love about all that?

This book has vibes of Needful Things but the author makes it his own. In fact, I think the main villain in this book is much more frightening than Leland from Needful Things. Because this "man" is truly terrifying. He has no moral ambiguity whatsoever. He just wants to watch this town burn for his personal satisfaction.

This story starts with a bang, a brutal scene you'll not soon forget, and keeps that horrifying vibe going until the explosive ending. With religious themes being a focal point of the narrative, my hats off to the author for neither condemning or validating religion. The characters are the pistons that pump life into these thoughts and the author never strays into "preachy" territory. It's a great thing!

Relentless, vicious, brutal, and uncompromising, this novel is a horror fiction lovers dream with amazing characters, huge heart wrenching surprises in store, and an absolutely brilliant plot that grabs your attention from the start and never lets up.

I highly recommend it.