I want all these rich snobs to die. I hate people that harp about breeding, like only BAD people come from BAD families. "Know the father, know the son." Yeah, well, fuck you. My grandfather abandoned his son, and my daddy turned out to be a great guy. POTUS knows his family tree, and he's a fucking nightmare. Breeding doesn't mean shit. Especially since all these rich families are usually so inbred I'm surprised they don't have extra toes.

I would like to take a moment here to make a PSA to Gerry Conroe, the editor of the Granite Falls Ledger, and anyone else who thinks deer hunting is "pointless": deer hunting is good for the environment because deer reproduce rapidly and humans, being the stupid creatures that we are, have killed off most of their natural predators. This means they can keep spawning and spawning without any population control, and that, my friends, is devastating to agriculture. Deer can leap most 10 foot fences, and they are notoriously aggressive during mating season. Without people hunting deer to keep them in check, crops would be wiped out, top soil would erode and other animals would starve. Now, I'm not saying everyone is entitled to just go shoot as many deer as they please. No. You are only to hunt males, and only so many, and only during deer season. And for the love of God, eat what you hunt. Don't be that guy. I despise big game hunters, trophy hunters that shoot beautiful animals just for the horns, or the skin or a cool photo. With those people, it's not sport. Sport would be winning the hunt bare handed against the lion, not from 100 yards away with a rifle and a scope. 

But anyway, hunting is sort of necessary. A necessary evil, a lot of people say. Until wolves and cougars are more numerous in the wild again, animals like deer, rabbit and ducks have to be kept under control. Those are just facts. 

Now back to your regularly scheduled reading.

I haven't been able to read much lately because of my migraines. So I do audiobooks. Too bad Libby didn't have this one.

But here's a fun story. I saw my new primary care doctor to get things set up and running, and he recommended they run an allergy panel on me. I agreed because it has been 15 years since I was tested. I didn't think they would find anything, though. I was told I had non-allergic rhinitis. Weeeelllllll....not this time. The nurse tested me for 40 different triggers, and I came back allergic to a whole host of local Okie grass and trees, plus four types of mold and....CATS. I am allergic to cats. My cats. Kill me.

I'm about to start an aggressive regimen of allergy shots, and I have to carry an EpiPen for a while. But the treatment has a high level of success for those that complete it. It just takes 3-5 years. 

But they said that may explain why my migraines are so bad. I never had these problems in Tennessee because I wasn't allergic to the local flora there. I also only had one or two cats while there. Here, my allergens have quadrupled. 

My life is loads of fun, yeah?

Reread.

The final "gift" has been delivered to Harvey Connally, the uncle of Oliver Metcalf, but Harvey is certain the gift was actually meant for his nephew.  When Oliver sees the shaving box with a blood-stained straight razor inside, all of the repressed memories came flooding back.

Oliver's father was a monster who had visited his rage upon the patients of the asylum and worse, his own son Oliver.  And through Oliver's childhood, Malcolm had been grooming his son to be the instrument of his revenge.  From the beginning of the renovation project, Oliver had been having blackouts and performing tasks (without his conscious knowledge) that his father had implanted into his memory years prior.

Between the death of his uncle and finding himself standing above Rebecca holding the straight razor, Oliver finally snaps out of the trance he's been in and realizes what has been going on in Blackstone all along.  Now that he's remembered his past, he's been freed of his father's influence and the "curse" is lifted from the town.

This series was great.  I love serial novellas and wish they would make a comeback.  There was always just enough thrill and suspense in each novella to keep you eager for the next one.  The stories were so well written that I was never truly sure who the dark figure was.  Not until right before the reveal.  I adore John Saul novels and am glad I decided to reread this series.

Reread. 

After the tragedy that killed Germaine Wagner and left her mother Clara incapable of speech, the town is even more convinced that there is a curse on Blackstone.  Rebecca has been kidnapped by the dark figure and hidden deep inside the Asylum.  No one knows what has happened to her and while half the town believes she is responsible for the what happened to the Wagners, the other half believes that something terrible has transpired.

Oliver is still having terrible headaches, which he assumes are repressed memories trying to fight their way to the surface.  He's worried sick about Rebecca.  Oliver knows that everything leads back to the Asylum and something that happened when he was a child, it's up to him to remember.  He just doesn't know how.

Meanwhile an antique stereoscope has found its way into the home of Ed Becker, a former criminal attorney, who gave up that lifestyle to return to Blackstone as a simple civil lawyer.  After staring into the stereoscope, Ed begins having nightmares of cases past.  Cases that he shouldn't have won.  Cases that set the worst kinds of people free.  Then his dreams begin coming true.  Before long, the Beckers are another family left broken by the curse of the asylum.