Buried Alive, by Stacey Marie Brown is the story of Hannah Jennings and Rhys Axton.  Hannah is returning home to Whistler, Canada after being gone about 9 years.  She has changed her looks and has adjusted her name around after her leaving and starting over.  Now trying to get her family and friends to go by the name she now prefers isn't her only problem.  She keeps remembering the accident that took it all away.  Rhys knows in the back of his mind that he has somehow met Hannah before but isn't coming up yet with how.  But with them both trying to forget the past hurts will they be able to move forward into anything more?

      Alone!—that worn-out word,
So idly spoken, and so coldly heard;
Yet all that poets sing and grief hath known
Of hopes laid waste, knells in that word - Alone! - Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1846) - The New Timon Part ii.

 

The knell, the shroud, the mattock, and the grave,
The deep damp vault, the darkness and the worm.
Edward Young – Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 10.

 

 

All Grace Courtemanche really wants (well, besides her stellar career as a Florida State Prosecutor - Grace: 345 Bad Guys: 0) is a home. A family. A place to put down roots and feel secure. Daddy always told her, winners do, Gracie, and doers win. And so she has, over and over again. In her most recent win, the mafia don she put away has tried bribery, threats, and now putting money into an offshore account in her name, getting her placed on administrative leave. Sigh. It can sometimes suck to be perfect.

 

After multiple threatening calls, Grace simply sends all the restricted number calls to her voice mail, for later retrieval by the sheriff’s office. But today, after eight calls, she picks up the phone on the ninth. And drops straight into a horror story.

 

It's cold. And dark. I can't breathe."

 

Desperate to save the young girl trapped in a coffin below ground, Grace throws her must win personality into trying to find and rescue the victim whose terrified voice and heartrending tears call out to her for help. But, why is the girl calling her?

 

What follows is a race against time, and against a psychopath who apparently has a person grudge against Grace, and no compunction about murdering innocents to make a point.

 

Luckily, her ex-husband has literally sailed back into town, docking his sailboat, No Regrets, in the harbor. He has his own problems, in the form of a thirteen-year-old son he didn’t even know he had. All the care in the world can’t help when your lover sabotages the condoms. Now, Hatch must help the grandmother trying to raise Alex to save him from himself. A member of a specialized FBI team, The Apostles, under the leadership of the infamous Parker Lloyd, Hatch is more than happy to assist his ex in her search for the Gravedigger, desperately working along with his crack team to help find the victims, and the soulless killer who is terrorizing Cypress Bend.

 

As with The Broken, Shelley Coriell’s first Apostle novel, there are many and varied layers to the tale. Grace is a driven woman, driven to the point where, as much as she wants a ‘life’ she has none outside of her work, and the house on the hill she dreams of building. Well, there IS Allegheny Blue, the ancient blue tick hound who refuses to leave his previous home, literally hiking back home from his new home twice, from his owner’s new home over 100 miles away. Now that is dedication to the land he was born and raised on. But Allegheny Blue isn’t her dog – is he?

Agent “Hatch” Hatcher is also well written, a sailor with no ties, and a loose-and-easy way of life that destroyed his connection with his wife ten years ago.

 

You expected me to give up everything – my job, my family, my dreams and sail with you into the sunset.

 

Or, did he? Be that as it may, now he seems the same, but different, as Grace watches Hatch and his team work together in a race against time. The other characters are as well developed, and the tension and suspense keeps you turning pages well into the night, breathless for the next big reveal. Who is committing these atrocities, and how is the murder of an elderly couple, being investigated by Greenup, Kentucky State Police Detective Tucker Holt, tied into these brutal crimes? All shall be revealed, and the answers to all of your questions? Well, let’s just say I was shocked and horrified at the answers – answers that will rock the small town of Cypress Bend, Grace and even the vaunted Apostles.

 

Overall, I was truly happy to be asked by Shelley to review her second book, and I can’t recommend it highly enough for lovers of suspense.

 

I received this book from the author in return for a realistic review. All my comments are my own. Please see my website for my review of The Broken.

Buried by Matt Shaw

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Read from February 21 to 23, 2014 — I own a copy, read count: 1

Would my family betray me? Am I worthy enough to be saved? I am scared. Is this really the end of me? But I don't want to die now. These are the questions that kept playing on Todd's mind. His disorientated mind made him question his parent's love for him and his sister's loyalty to him. He regrets the things he didn't do enough to be loved and cherished by them when he was free and able.

As he lay confined in his small restrictive box he tried to piece together why is he trapped here. His memories was fragmented and poisoned by wild hallucinations which only thickens the longer he stays in the box. What is true and what is merely his cruel mind playing games with him? Even so, Todd cherished these broken memories however twisted they are as they are his sole companion to get his mind off his suffocating situation.

WHAT I LIKED
The author did a great job with the flashbacks. The flashbacks was infused with twisted hallucinations which projects the protagonist's helplessness and the his claustrophobic experience really well. So well that I started having morbid thoughts myself: like keeping a sharp tool hidden on my body just in case what happened to Todd happened to me. This book gives me cold sweat as I do have phobia of being buried alive. Such a sick way to go you know. Worst possible way really. I was all jittery even before I started reading it. I am hopeless I know.

WAS I SPOOKED?
Maybe it's because of me having high expectation before reading it and I was fully expecting to be incapacitated by fear after reading it, which is why I was pretty surprised that this isn't the case for me at all. I am not saying that I wasn't the least affected by the sufferings of the poor guy crammed into a small box. I am, hence the earlier morbid thoughts. It could be that it was told in first person's view and the environment wasn't detailed enough to rub more of the fear factor in or something.

OVERVIEW
In terms of plotting, this book nailed it. It kept me speculating throughout the story and I am glad to say I kept getting it wrong. Now that's a good thing especially when it comes to story with a mystery to solve. I also love all the mindfuckings this book dealt me and it is a good read that kept me turning the pages. I just expect a little more on the fear factor. So this is more like a 3.8 rounded up to 4 stars for me.

ABOUT THE ENDING AND IN ANSWER TO THE AUTHOR'S NOTE
I am much relieved the author didn't go with his initial idea of having a silly ending. The current ending was a good pick as it brought a whole new meaning to the story and includes some moral values as well. I liked the twist where..

...Kayla was actually dead and just a figment of Todd's imagination in his desperation to escape his wretched reality. She is much like a guardian angel eventhough at first I thought she's a vengeful ghost wanting to claim her brother's soul to accompany her in the netherworld. Hey, it's a horror book, one would understandably expect scary stuff like that right? Aside from that Kayla twist, I also think that Todd's grief over her beloved sister's dead leading him to self-destruction habits fits really well with the story and it left a chance of redemption in the eyes of the readers when they eventually found out what actually happened to him at the end of the story.

(spoiler show)

Yes I liked the current ending although I don't mind...

...a 'darker ending' like the one where the Todd didn't make it. I wouldn't be upset with it - just make it a memorable one is all I ask for. *the dark side of me in control at the moment* This is horror after all so HEA can go fuck itself! When you strike, you strike hard and make it count. I would rather have a memorable ending than one that doesn't fit well with the entire story just because of wanting to conform with the demands of the general request for silver-lining. Just my 2-cents and I am in no way saying the current ending suck kay. It works too.

(spoiler show)

SIDE NOTE
Thanks to this book, little-moth-me have found several films featuring this morbid theme of live burials. I am going to list them here just in case they pique your interest too:
1) Buried (2010)
2) Brake (2012)
3) CSI Las Vegas Season 5 Episode 24 & 25 (Grave Danger) - directed by Quentin Taratino  ;)

Knowing a curious cat like me, I couldn't say no to these wicked films and will absolutely be watching them slowly. I know that this wouldn't be a good idea to dispel my fear of live burials, I just can't stop myself from wanting to know more. >_<; 


I am reading this book because of this image and its blurb....

The image disturbed me a lot. Yet I couldn't help but to find it mesmerizingly beautiful.

BOOK DETAILS:
Title: Buried
Author: Matt Shaw
Publication Date: August 4th, 2012
Publisher: Indie publishing
Type: Short Story, 12,840 words (approximate)
Genre: Horror Mystery Fiction, Psychological Thriller
Tags/Keywords: coffin, buried alive, box, confinement, captivity, claustrophobia, claustrophobic, young man, suffocating, unstable mind, hallucination, cramped, mindfuck

Description:
I've stopped panicking now. Not because I'm not scared. I just know panicking won't help the situation. It'll only serve to make it worse. Need to try and remain calm for as long as possible. Control my breathing. Save my oxygen. I breathed in and coughed. The air in here is stale. I hope I'm not in here for long. Please, dad. Don't let me be here for long. Please. I started to cry. Helpless.

* * * * *

The day after his 21st Birthday Party, Todd woke to find himself trapped in a box with nothing but broken memories for company. Told through his eyes, live his fear and feel his claustrophobia as he frantically tries to piece together what happened, who buried him and why in Matt Shaw's new horror novella.

Cover Design: Yaryshev Evgeny (www.yd84.deviantart.com)(less)



* Reviewed on February 24th, 2014


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View all my reviews

Rock Me Slowly (Buried Alive Rockers, #1... I know I'm hard to please but this book is completely tasteless. i had to DNF , this girl is rambling likes she's a silly teenager when she's suppose to be a grown woman. The lead guy is awful and then let's not even talk about Mickey , that dude is cockiness personified . “You’re just fucking whipped I get laid more times than you. And this dick beside me is ZackHarrison, Rhythm guitarist. To my left is Josh whom I believe you have already met. He is prettymuch just a bit behind me in the amount of lays he gets in a month. The girls just fucking love aguitarist, something about how they are good with their fingers. Then we have our drummer TannerSmith, who can beat the shit out of any drum beat. He is the fucking party animal. You will always seehim shitfaced, just ignore him. Our bassist here is Blaine Ross. He is a mean mother fucker that youwill grow to love. So that’s the band. I can’t promise you that I will keep my hands to myself".Seriously i would have punched in the nuts and walked out , thats how violent this scene made me.JOSH FIRST MEETING HER“You know Sophie I can’t stop thinking about what it would be like to fuck your hot little pussy. I’mhard just thinking about it. What do you say we sneak away and have a little tete a tete.” I’m verytempted. The thought of having this rock star hovering above me is a hot thought. No, I need to keepmy mind on the game here; I don’t want to lose my job".These guys are douches and i like alpha men just not complete asses. The writing is awful , DNF at 20 %

Rock Me Slowly (Buried Alive Rockers, #1... Fuck it! I quit! I don't even care who's who and what's what.

This book reads like it was some 9th grader's creative writing project. Use a comma here and there. Learn proper sentence structure. And For The Love Of God, GET AN EDITOR! AND NO, NOT YOUR MOM OR YOUR COUSIN OR THE OLD LADY ACROSS THE STREET! A professional editor!

This is going straight to my DNF & Help I've been burgled shelves.