Don't Move

Megan is trying to put the pieces of her life back together after losing both her husband and her son in a terrible accident. Looking for meaning in her life, she joins a church group on a camping expedition. Any chance for redemption seems lost as the group of campers lose their way. Alone and stranded, they find themselves face to face with a type of spider no human has ever encountered……. Spiders are one of my biggest fears and I listened to this cringing and wincing and closing my eyes. A creepy crawly horror fest

So, I purely 100% only requested this book because it was written by Murr from Impractical Jokers. I'm not really a fan of spiders, but hey, it's October and I'm all for thriller/horror books right now...as long as they're not too scary. This was RIGHT on the border of being too scary for me. If I had been listening to this at night, I would have had to stop.
This being my first experience with this writing duo, I wasn't expecting too much just because I didn't want to get disappointed by someone I was a fan of before he was an author. But I was immediately sucked in even though the beginning was not super exciting, and I was hooked the whole time. Around the halfway point, the book takes off and my heart was in my throat until the very last sentence. This book reads like a movie. I could see the whole book in my head even though I was listening to the audiobook and working at the same time.
The characters were ok, I connected ok with Megan, but not really anyone else. I just really felt for Megan. We start with her losing her husband and son in a freak amusement park accident and realizing she is going to go through another horrific ordeal in this book is just heartbreaking. I loved her determination to get out of the forest alive.
This book was actually super gory which I wasn't expecting. I'm actually kind of happy I listened to this audiobook so I didn't have the actual visual of reading and seeing on paper the gory parts. I'm not a fan of gore! It really made the book so much more believable and like I said, made it read like a movie.
If you are ok with spiders and a little bit of gore, definitely give this book a try!

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Blackstone Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

What a fantastic find! Don't Move is a fast-paced horror book centered around Megan, a woman dealing with a traumatic incident from her past. After losing her husband and son in an awful theme park accident the previous year, she decides to go on a church camping trip. Unfortunately for her, the trip is destined to be plagued by monstrous spiders.

The strength of this book really is the characters. The authors did a fantastic job of making both the protagonist and the side characters compelling in a short space of time, which for me is the key for good horror. I adored Megan and I really wanted her to survive the ordeal. Ricky is not a typical protagonist and I found him very interesting as a result, particularly as you couldn't predict his actions. The other characters don't get much page time but that didn't stop them from being decent additions to the story.

As an audiobook, I found the narration great. I was surprised when it finished to learn it was narrated by one of the authors, but it does make sense as the pacing and sense of excitement was created through the narration extremely well. The narrator was clearly passionate about their work and it paid off.

Overall, this is a great creature horror book. I don't normally like the genre much (I was looking for a spooky audiobook for Halloween) but I recommend it for all fans of horror as you might be pleasantly surprised. I will definitely be looking into other works by these authors and I'm so glad I requested this book.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

Megan Forrester is grief-stricken and haunted by past horrors. She embarks upon a camping trip with her church in the hopes of alleviating some of these anxieties in the great outdoors. Little does she know that boarding the bus, along with seven other outdoor enthusiasts, is the opening sequence for a new nightmare to begin, instead.

The first chapter was horrendously graphic and tragic and the rest of the book was a thrilling terrorfest, from that point onwards. The dialogue run a little cheesy on times and I had to suspend my belief at multiple junctures, but this was a great amalgamation of fun adventure and gory horror, with a suspenseful narrative to tie it all together.

This book starts out full of action and doesn’t stop until the end. The book begins with a horrific accident at the state fair and our central character, Megan’s life changes forever.
Fast forward 6 months and Megan goes on her first vacation since the state fair incident. She goes with a church group 7 hours away to West Virginia for a weekend camping trip. The group starts out with 8 people and at the last minute has an add on of Ricky who seems to have some sort ulterior motive for going on this trip. There is a prehistoric presence in the forest and no one is safe.
Once in the forest, the action never stops. My favorite part of the book besides the fast pasted action, the vivid descriptions and the fact the James is the narrator of the audiobook is that you think the story is over and BAM it’s not!!
If you are ready for a horror read that’s perfect for the spooky season,
At the end of my audiobook, the authors answer questions and chat which I really enjoyed!!

I loved this audiobook it was very engaging and the narrative was perfect with changing his voice for different characters. Let's get to the story and how it was the perfect story thriller for spooky season. The story kept me engaged from the first chapter to the end. Also that ending OMG! I rate this book 4/5.

Don't Move starts off with a gruesome, chilling first chapter and never lets go.

Enjoying a summer evening at the local traveling carnival, Megan Forrester's life shatters before her eyes when a horrific accident claims the lives of her husband and son. Months later, Megan is trying to get her life back together and overcome the near-paralyzing guilt she feels. A church camping trip seems like the perfect way to ease herself back into the world a bit and start claiming her life.

Little does she or any of the other members of her party realize that what started out as an innocent weekend excursion will soon become a terrifying, deadly fight for survival in an isolated part of the Monongahela National Forest.

James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth's Don't Move feels like a lot Stephen King story that you'd tell around the campfire as you tried to scare the fool out of each other. After the horrifying opening chapter, Murray and Wearmouth take time to introduce and develop the various members of the camping party so that when bad things start happening, we've developed an emotional investment in the party. From Pastor Rizzo to his daughter Emma and her boyfriend, Ryan to the grandparent and their grandson, Murray and Wearmouth create more than just a group of victims waiting to meet a horrific fate. We also meet Ricky, the ex-boyfriend of Emma and drug dealer who has a different agenda for this trip than just getting away from it all.

Tension and terror built over the course of the novel as the group discovers something lurking in the woods that's out to get them and that help may not be as easy to get as they hoped.

Listening to the audio version of Don't Move was a suitably creepy experience. Read by Murray (of Impractical Joker fame), there were times when the story not only had the characters looking closely at the shadows, but I was as well. (It may not help that I get up early to job and this book accompanied on several mornings as the sun was coming up). Murray does a superlative job of ratcheting up the suspense and creating and distinguishing each character through his performance.

Creepy and compelling, Don't Move is the perfect horror/suspense story for the Halloween season.

I received a digital ARC of this book and the audiobook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Full of gruesome horror, this book is full of gore, fear, and chills. Definitely not for the faint of heart...or those with a fear of spiders. I enjoyed this fast paced novel and was fun to listen along as the horror story unfolds, and it starts with such a strong bang too, which is great. A definite must-add to your tbr.

I received an advance reader copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest review via netgalley and the publishers.

**AUDIO BOOK VERSION**.
Don't Move is a fast paced horror that will make you second guess going on a camping trip again thats for sure!
After a horrific tragedy at the very start of the book, Megan Forrester finally leaves the house to go on a camping trip with her church group. The church group is a very mixed group with a mix of backgrounds and issues of their own and end up at a different location to the one they set out for.
This mistake turns into a living horror story not all of them will walk away from!
If your scared of spiders (like me) this will definitely make your skin crawl and jump!

Don't Move by James S. Murray and Darren Wearmouth was received direct from the publisher and I chose to review it. if you read my reviews, you know I like "creature features," pure unadulterated creatures killing humans or whatever there prey is, there is no need for anything "psychological," in horror, outside of the United Kingdom. You may also note I don't go into plot in my reviews but I will tell you lots of killing happens in this movie and little, if none standing around talking about life, liberty and whatever happens, action starts and continues throughout the book. If you, or someone you know whom you make purchase for, would enjoy this type of book, this is one of the top books of this year in this genre.

5 Stars

This was my first fiction audiobook and I am still appalled by the horror this book contained. The whole story was so gripping and moving that listening to this book wasn't like watching a movie, but a quick flashing horror episode that candidly started with Megan's family loss and moved to the end very effortlessly. I will give credit to the authors/narrators to make it very thrilling and moving by exquisitely creating the premise in an open field, adding appropriate no-nonsense characters, giving them reasons to belong wherever they were, and the part they played, and their fine visualization details in some spooky scenes.

Some eight diverse characters go on a wilderness camp tour organized by the church but little did they know was that it might be the last trip for many of them. Just on the first night of their stay they confront something that keeps them on the ticking clock of survival and an arachnid-like creature is on the hunt and it senses vibration that's gets delivered by its thousands if not millions of web threads which are invisible to human eyes. One wrong step...one wrong touch to any web thread and that creature would come hunting. One after one people start disappearing and the remaining group must find a way to keep themselves safe and protect themselves from that inevitable terror.

Intriguing enough? Then must give it a read or try this audiobook. What I loved the most about this book was its meritorious characterization; while reading a book it's easy to imagine characters and visualizing them, I thought it might be different from an audiobook like this where I might face difficulty to develop that cinematic experience I always seek. But in reality, author @therealmurr 's top-notch narration made it possible where characters like Richard Varghese and Megan came to the life while listening to this book. Varghese was surely a conspicuous character with his cocky nature and erratic behavior. Megan as a protagonist had her share of the story with her past keep influencing her present. Other characters like Ryan, Emma, Rizzo, and Lucas had their significant roles and bonds that added different angles to the story.

The way this book has ended I am not sure if there will be a second book to this series or not but there's still one slight possibility. Just when I thought everything went well and things settled down, as usual, the authors gave it an end that I didn't expect. It won't be an exaggeration if I say I literally missed a breath with that end. Consider reading or listening this book if you are into spooky horror books and one thing for sure: the authors will send chills down your spine!

This audiobook was a bit surprising. The beginning has you believing that the scary elements of the story may possibly be human, but supernatural elements begin to unfurl and leads this book all the way through the end with pure suspense. I thoroughly enjoyed the message from the authors at the end and they really did say it best when they said there is one moment in the book where everything just takes off and does not stop until the end. The ending is very open and could lead you to believe that their may be a second, but with the end message, it appears there will be no real conclusion. Very well put together, especially for 2 different authors who were raised in basically completely different worlds. At times it almost felt like a few stories wrapped up into one main event, which I feel made me enjoy listening even more.