If you like the 80's horror/alien invasion movies this one is highly entertaining.

A nice balance of humor and gore, teens trying to save the day with frozen food.

 

Makes me think of a mash up of Mars Attacks and The Thing with a little They Live and Alien tossed in.

 

 

DNF @ 60%.

I tried. I really tried. I wanted to love this book because it had the potential for so much cheesy goodness. But I just could not get interested in it at all.

 

The arcade is more than a kids’ favorite place to hang out. Legends are made in the arcade as the gamers compete for the highest score, the special items, and the secret levels. But this day will be different. Legends will die. Robby Asaro’s physical body passed away some years ago, but his consciousness continued on in his favorite arcade. Now an ill-timed act of bullying will trigger a deadly rage in Robby. This time, the body count is real.

This was a wickedly fun story! I know I shouldn’t have enjoyed it so much but I did. What gamer hasn’t fantasized about living in an arcade? Centipede and Ms. Pac-Man! There was definitely some nostalgia for me in this story.

There are few girls in the arcade and Tiffany Park has caught Robby’s eyes… attention. Unfortunately, she’s also caught the attention of the bully Chris Murphy. I really do like how the author portrayed the bully. He’s a messed up kid who’s looking for attention but he’s going about it the wrong way. We get little snippets of what’s going on in his head. I actually found myself hoping he would verbally express his loneliness and that Tiffany would sigh, tell him he had a jerk way of expressing it, and the two would have a friendly Galaga competition.

But this isn’t one of those books. This is a horror flick and it’s a good one. I was surprised how quickly the body count climbed as Robby’s spirit spiraled out of control. Tiffany has to use her wits to make it out of the building but there was no guarantee that would be enough. Her ally in these attempts was the maintenance man, Dan, who had lovingly tended to the arcade games all these years. They have to outwit and out-maneuver this now-malevolent spirit that has taken on the knowledge and attributed of each character it knocks out.

It was a great ride. I really enjoyed this tale. It had some surprising twists and the insight into Chris’s character put it over the top for me. While this is a short tale, I did get attached to some of the characters, Tiffany and Dan especially. I enjoyed the little surprises and the initial nostalgia of the arcade.

I received a free copy of this book.

The Narration: Joe Hempel did a magnificent job with this one. I’ve enjoyed several other books he has narrated and he didn’t disappoint with his performance here. One of the characters has a partially paralyzed face and Hempel brought that to life with his performance. He can bounce between angry jerk-face teen to Robby’s spirit to this partially paralyzed character with ease. 

MTY Productions is putting on a con to end all cons. Blood Camp Con will be a total immersive fan experience and introduce the world to a new horror icon.

The sh*t is about to get real up in here.

This story is exactly why I like Adam Cesare’s work so much. You can tell that he loves horror. Movies and the written word. Dude knows his stuff and it shows. My only peeve with this one is that I thought it could have been longer. While the characters were fleshed out well enough, I think there could have been a little more backstory and slasher action at the camp.

Overall, a very good bloody b-movie-esque romp in the backwoods of Kentucky. 3.5 Stars