THE HUNGRY ONES picks up soon after the events that tortured the little family in THE NIGHTMARE ROOM and adds a new setting and several new characters. I read the Nightmare Room in July 2018 so it’s been awhile and my memories are a tad bit fuzzy. I was able to follow along but wish I had read them back to back so things would’ve been fresh in my head.

Jessie, recovering from a breakup with her fiancé – he with the roving penis, as well as a traumatic injury, decides to start anew and purchases Motel Hell! I’m only sort of kidding. There aren’t any people being turned into sausages here (damn because that fiance might've deserved it) but she has purchased a rundown motel where a crazed man shot down several people two years prior. Now I want to be the next Norma Bates as much as the next slightly unhinged person, but I think even I might think twice about this decision!

The motel is not quite open yet but Jessie has a few guests needing a place to rest their weary heads including the Larson family from the previous book who are on the run after their last ordeal. But fleeing the things that haunt them isn’t as simple as hopping in a car and driving away. The arrival of people seems to awaken something within the walls of the motel and the Larson boy, who has already endured so much, now has to battle supernatural forces. Poor kiddo. I really felt for him and his parents. I also enjoyed meeting Jessie who is a resilient, strong and decent person. I know she’s not real but if she were she would be someone I’d like on my side.

Though this is a different book than The Nightmare Room, which was a slow build of creeping dread, it had enough chills to keep me happy and I enjoyed revisiting the characters and meeting the new ones. If you’re an action fan and love a story that moves, you’re going to find a lot to like here. There’s also some “eww” inducing body horror that involves a sliver that just won’t leave and that kind of stuff always makes me cringe also makes me very happy.

The Hungry Ones is a strong entry in The Messy Man series that builds up its world and keeps things fresh. Go grab yourself a large mug of whatever, a comfy blanket and settle in with both books. I’m sure you deserve it!

 

Source: Received for review consideration

 

Holy shit!

I thought this was just going to be the usual ho hum but creepy haunted house story to fill in my last square. 

 

It seems to start that way, but culminates in an intense (what is real and what isn't?) and very satisfying ending.

 

For me, this ranks up there with watching The Amityville Horror the first time (I was very young and about shit my pants)with shades of The Shining and The Conjuring tossed in.

 

Poor clueless Riggs get's left behind drunk in a hotel room.  LOL

 

I liked this book so much I read it twice! This time around I listened to the unabridged audiobook read by the author who just so happens to be a professional narrator himself. Since he's a pro and the material is his, his voice hits all the right notes. He's engaging, pleasant and unnervingly menacing when he needs to be and I recommend it highly! 4 1/2 Stars 

Here's my review of the story:

The Nightmare Room lives up to its title. It is a slowly building creepfest fueled by nightmares for the first half then picks up speed in its later half.

Peter and Hannah need a new start after a devastating loss and move back to Peter’s hometown to help with his ailing parents and to heal themselves. They move into a property that Peter’s dad purchased that is huge, old and in disrepair. Hannah loves the idea of the old home but Peter’s not so sure. 

"Hannah had gotten it wrong. This was not the sort of house featured on her home improvement show; this was every house in every horror movie he’d ever seen."

Despite his misgivings, Peter, who is an audiobook narrator, sets up his studio in the dark, dank basement and soon realizes that he may not be alone down there! Is it real or is he starting to lose his marbles?

I just loved some of the descriptions of the house. It makes me long for an old haunted house of my own.

". . . he was facing a narrow, grey door. A basement door. His vision had steadied and the room no longer moved about him. But the door… It’s breathing."

This is a decent little horror tale that has a lot of layers that reach far beyond the haunted house trappings. It deals with aging, grief and past regrets that come back to haunt. The main characters come across as real and imperfect and as a reader who needs decent characterization I really appreciated this. I did want to learn more about Peter’s birth mother because I’m nosy and have so many questions but perhaps that will happen in a prequel or sequel? I can only hope

The Nightmare Room by Chris Sorensen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After a personal tragedy strikes Peter and Hannah Larson, they find themselves picking up their lives and moving house. Said house isn't what it seems - something lurks within, seeming to originate from the dark and gloomy basement. As the presence continues to focus upon the two, its determination only grows, causing obvious and damaging rifts between husband and wife. It appears to already know Peter in some intimate way, and shocking, deeply hidden secrets soon come to light.

(WARNING: This review contains minor spoilers.)

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Chris Sorensen for giving me the opportunity!

This turned out to be an extremely difficult book for me to form a solid opinion on and subsequently rate. After a lot of thought, I came to the conclusion that I didn't really consider this one an outright horror novel, at least in regards to my own personal taste. When I instead thought of it as a supernatural tale with some horror elements, it made better sense in my mind. You see, in no way did I at all feel that uncomfortable, yet riveting unease that comes with something that ticks all the right boxes in the scary department. The typical tropes were there; the ghostly encounters, the ominous house, but something also felt missing and I had one hell of a time trying to figure out what. It could've been the absence of a sufficient build up, where time is given to properly establish a sense of dread, or maybe the haunting scenes merely didn't offer anything frightful. Essentially, it wasn't my sort of horror, I'd even go so far to say it was relatively tame in the scheme of things, yet I did appreciate the storytelling - twists included.

Peter and Hannah Larson were the sort of married couple you'd roll your eyes at - they were sickeningly perfect for each other. Their chemistry jumped out from the page, and despite dealing with the anguish of great loss, they found strength. They, of course, had their faults, which became evident throughout, but that only made them more relatable as people. I liked them, and I especially liked what Sorensen did with Peter. What revolved around Peter were secrets heavily linked to his past, and whilst the revelations kept coming, I too shared in Peter's shock. The two other characters that had a significant presence - that being Riggs and Ellen Marx, added a pleasant sprinkle of entertainment. I notably enjoyed Ellen's legitimacy at being an expert; she was no quack. If I could, I'd read a book all about her.

Despite the cleverness of some aspects, I can't deny that I felt that the story dragged at times. For me, there's nothing worse than feeling the onset of boredom, and there were moments that came dangerously close to that. I felt that the first half in particular could've used more time with the couple in the house, and less time in the Blind Rock bar for instance, which is where my interest really waned. I understand such scenes were for the benefit of character development, but my engagement primarily lay with Peter.

Sorensen's imagination certainly took me by surprise as I reached the end of Peter and Hannah's ordeal. Granted, the conclusion was all rather complicated, perhaps a little too complicated to understand right away, but it surely had a distinctive quality. It's rare that I come across an ending that changes everything so drastically, to the point where I need to pause and ponder over what I just read. I applaud the bold approach to implement such a memorable outcome.

In conclusion - Whilst the horror elements didn't do it for me, I mostly liked the story and background. It definitely had its ups and downs, but Sorensen is one author I'll be keeping my eye on.

Notable Scene:

The woman rushed toward him, and for a second he thought she was going to strike him him. Instead, she took his head in both of her hands and pressed her mouth over his. Peter felt her inhale abruptly - a reverse resuscitation.

© Red Lace 2018

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My co-host is officially reviewing The Nightmare Room for the site. I forgot we'd accepted it for official review, and picked it up from KU because I'd seen so many good reviews on it. So, technically, Chris Sorenson will be getting two reviews from us! But mine is the one not submitted by the author for review consideration.


This was a dang good book. It feels like its been forever since I read a book that creeped me out as effectively as The Nightmare Room did. The story sucks you in at once even with the potential pain involved with the how-to-begin-a-horror-story cliché tragedy involving a husband and wife. (Yeah, you’ll need a whopping 1 guess to figure out what it is.) But, as I believe I’ve said before, it’s the mark of a good writer if they can take something that normally induces eye-rolls or jaw-cracking yawns for the unoriginality and spring something interesting off of it. Sorenson has the mark of a good writer.

The Nightmare Room was proceeding along its merry little interesting-but-been-there-done-that path when things suddenly shifted just a bit to the left. And then you blinked, and it shifted a little bit more to the left. Pretty soon, it was zooming straight towards Albuquerque and you’re wondering where the hell you’re going to stop.

And the birds. THE BIRDS. Like you know when there’s a bird in a horror movie that things are definitely gonna involve flapping, squawking, slicing, and beady little eyes, right? Right. But even knowing the layout, the lines of it will still make you do a solid: “Yep. NOPE!” I noped. I noped, shuddered, and noped again.

The pacing is fantastic. The dialogue was perfect. The atmosphere Sorenson creates in The Nightmare Room is so thick and heavy you could practically bottle it. I was so completely wrapped up in this story that I remember thinking at one point that I was very glad I was reading it during the day, when dark was still several hours away. I loved the fact that the author kept twisting things just enough that I wasn’t always sure I could trust my assumptions.

It wasn’t perfect, though. I can’t say too much about the issues I had without spoiling some very major plot points, unfortunately. I just thought the author should have stopped about 3% (read on Kindle) earlier than he did, because it was a very powerful scene. Instead, it kind of did the whole “squeeze every last microgram of the toothpaste outta the tube” thing. Still satisfying, but not as satisfying as it could have been. And, uh, yeah. That’s actually all I can say without spoiling. Sorry!

Two favorite lines (that don’t spoil anything):

“God, what the hell happened to your hair? You look like Einstein f*cked Jerry Garcia.”

&

He would ‘yes, dear’ her into submission. Better that than to let her peek into the world in which he was now living—a world where the dead were restless and clawing.

 

Overall, just a great job, and the things that I had problems with are mostly personal things that might not bother other people at all. So take my criticisms with a grain of salt.