THE FEAST OF ALL SOULS

• Number: 9781781084625
• Release: December 6, 2016               
• Author: Simon Bestwick
• Availability: Print-Book
• Genre: Paranormal
• Tags: Horror
• Publisher: Solaris

Alice’s house stands at a gateway between worlds. Now something has awoken on the other side - and she's in its way... 378 Collarmill Road looks like an ordinary house. But sometimes, the world outside the windows isn’t the one you expect to see. And sometimes you’ll turn around and find you’re not alone. The suburb of Crawbeck, on a hill outside the English city of Manchester, overlooks the woodlands of Browton Vale. Alice Collier was happy here, once, but following the end of her marriage and loss of her daughter, she’s come back to pick up the threads of her life. John Revell, an old flame of Alice’s, reluctantly comes to her aid when the house begins to reveal its secrets. The hill on which it sits is a place of legends – of Old Harry, the Beast of Crawbeck, of the Virgin of the Height and of the mysterious Red Man – and home to the secrets of the shadowy Arodias Thorne. And now Alice and John stand between him and rest of our world... (from Night Owl Reviews)

THE FEAST OF ALL SOULS

by

Simon Bestwick

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About the Author

"Among the most important writers of contemporary British horror," according to Horror legend Ramsay Campbell, Simon Bestwick is the author of Tide Of Souls, The Faceless, Hell’s Ditch and the serial novel Black Mountain, together with the story collections A Hazy Shade Of Winter, Pictures Of The Dark, Let’s Drink To The Dead and The Condemned. After having spent most of his life in Manchester, he now lives on the Wirral with a long-suffering girlfriend. When not writing, he goes for walks, watches movies, listens to music and does everything in his power to avoid having to get a proper job.

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MY THOUGHTS

This isn't your normal ghost story.  It starts out that way but boy, does it go in another direction.   The author gives you everything that keeps the reader connected, fast pace, lots of action, characters that are a bit odd and terror.

When Alice loses her little girl and her marriage has gone down the tubes.   She appears to have no direction and she is extremely depressed.  She makes a decision to move and the move may not be the best decision she has ever made.   She moves into a eerie, falling down and isolated house.   As soon as she does, things start to go really bad. I got a little tired of Alice going around like a zombie.   She needs to get it together.   Just as I thought that, the plot quickened.  The author didn't give the reader thoughts of possible ghosts, we're talking actual ghosts.  But it didn't stop at ghosts.  There was more. Alice has no choice but to get it together.   I liked when the author takes you back in time and history of an old house.  There is old tales, priests, customs, mysteries and most important, actual documentation.  Alice learns about all of the history of the house through stories told to her. The author gives you so much to feed on that you definitely feel satisfied.  If you love creepy, then this is definitely creepy.  There were some sensitive topics in this story that I felt the author handled quite well, such as the loss of a child.   I know from experience how stories that don't handle that subject delicately can  actually add to the hurt of the reader.  This author handles this subject perfectly.  This author wrote with an out of the box perspective.  You think as you read, this is going to end just like all ghost stories, but when I got to the ending, I was actually surprised.   What a different approach!  I have to have characters that I can relate to or I have a real problem with the book.  This book gave the reader the main character, Alice, and I found I related to her as though I knew her.  You also get different time spaces.   The first part of the book is about the present and then it starts to go to the past.  Very different and interesting, as the author keeps them separate for much of the book. Then they start to merge together. 

I received a copy of this book from the author and Night Owl Reviews and voluntarily decided to review it.

I would give this book  4 STARS. 

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