by Hunter Shea

Another cute little story from the YA shelf. A nineteen-year-old college student likes to go ghost hunting at night and help lay the ghosts to rest. She is told about a restless spirit who appears around 8pm every night by a graveyard night watchman and decides to investigate.

The characters were well written, but the plot far too simple to make a very interesting story. The editing was pristine though, so perhaps something good for young readers. There's a touch of mystery, though far too much convenience.

by Hunter Shea

The first chapter seemed to keep switching between present and past tense. Twins witness their parents killed by presumably the Loch Ness monster while on holiday. We jump ahead to the twins grown up and settle into mostly present tense.

Natalie is obsessed with hunting down the monster that killed her parents, with the obvious difficulty that most people don't believe Nessie exists. Eventually her brother joins in the hunt after not seeing each other for several years. They've grown up and have much to discover about each other.

The narrative lacks realism. There's no plan for hunting the creature that isn't suicidal and guaranteed to cause some close calls.

I've enjoyed Shea stories before, but on this one I feel he sort of dropped the ball. For one thing I regard whole novels written in present tense trend as the stuff of very young Romance writers who didn't pay attention in English class. There were a few glaring typos or wrong form of words and the plot was overly predictable and lacking suspense.

I did get a laugh from a particularly good one-liner and to be fair, there were some dramatic scenes towards the end but again, they were a little too difficult to suspend disbelief. Definitely not Shea's best work.

by Hunter Shea

This story is a novella and reads very fast! A divorcing husband and wife exterminator team are assigned to test a new rat control substance that is supposed to stop them from breeding. Unfortunately the planned genetic modifications don't work to plan and they breed more prolifically and become aggressive and fearless. With the reputation of New York rats, this is a seriously scary scenario!

It's a very fast paced story with constant action through most of it and although the nature of the action is fairly predictable, the details are what makes the difference. I would call it a light Horror. There are definite horrific bits but with comedy asides.

The subplot dealing with the dynamics between the divorcing partners adds some depth but wasn't explored all that far and I felt was left unresolved. Overall the story didn't have a lot of depth, but if you're looking for a fast action Horror that will make to wonder about the scratching in the walls, this will do nicely.

In many ways it resembles one of those old 1950s creature Horrors, but with a more modern feel and without the predictable happy ending.

Wow. I'm shook. Like, crying on my couch needing to watch Forensic Files to calm down shook. 

When I checked out this book, it was a leap of faith based on a review from Char's Horror Corner. After all, this is the same writer who felt it was important to describe the penis of the Jersey Devil. So to read a book packed with so much emotion, deep characters, and really dark subjects knocked me off my feet to be sure. 

The book is a bit of a slow burn but it's far from boring. Andrew and Kate are such a good duo and I love reading about their day to day life, even if it was mundane. The scares were awesome and so true to the Bigfoot form. 

It would have been easy to write Kate or Andrew in a way that would be completely obnoxious. Kate could have been a "woe is me" whiner and Andrew could have been the unsympathetic, resentful husband, both of which I would have hated. And while there were flavors of this in their character, there were just as many wonderful traits that made me love both of them even when those traits came through.

Overall, I'm just REALLY impressed by this book. It connected to me in a way that I wasn't expecting and stirred up emotions I wasn't expecting to be stirred. That exactly what I hope for from a good book.

Final rating: 5/5 It was so much more than I was expecting.

Final thought: I can't decide if I wish there was more monster genitalia or not.