Why this book?: I figured it would be a cool twist of the horror genre, using ‘ancient religions’ and cats and that kind of thing. Plus, they were being republished, so even if I did get declined, I could have searched for this book in places other than NetGalley.
I would like to thank the people at Kensington Books for allowing me to have an ARC of this book via NetGalley.
Government cover-ups and Egyptian cults . . . I think
I seriously have no idea what this book was meant to be. I requested it because the summary sounded so interesting, and I was looking for a horror book. But what I got wasn’t what I was promised. In fact, it was nowhere near close.
Was it about an Ancient Egyptian cult, or the Christian Satan? Who was trying to cover-up what, and why? Was it the FBI, the CSI, the Russians, or the so-called “OSS” that was trying to cover-up what was going on? Were there actually sides to this conflict, because it seemed like people were non-stop “changing sides” despite no sides being clear.
Satan’s spawn can’t be hurt by guns but they can be burned, an arm that was growing a body in one half of the book started spouting maggots that would eat people in the next half, and that’s not even half of it. The Old Ones are supposedly stronger then the wandering mummies, and they can make people explode/light on fire, but they are weakened by a crucifix held by the priest/exorcist-despite a devout Baptist being infected and turned into a mummy. So does faith work, or not?
Nothing about this book made sense???
Confusion + Confusion = More Confusion
Drugs are okay, rape jokes are disapproved but still said, women always listen to their husbands and are meek and obedient, Sheriff Dan’s son’s best friend just so happens to have a book that explains the Egyptian cult in question, but then it later disappears. A priest comes in about in the last 25% and just has the answers to everything, although some of the answers just don’t make sense and are 100% obscure and meaningless.
None of the dialogue was realistic, most of it cringe-worthy at best. The characters weren’t much better-I was constantly confused with who was who and what side they were on, and why they were there.
And that doesn’t even go into the fact that the author must have some sort of life-long grudge against cats, considering that they seemed to have been shoved into the plot for no other reason than for them to maul people and tear eyes out. The plot and idea just seemed to have so many random, not-related elements thrown together in a melting pot.
Final Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Overall?
The fact that this book made absolute no sense brought it down to two stars, but the moment the rape jokes entered and people’s faces started to melt I was completely done. If you’re going to write a book, you have to have more of an idea behind it than just “I’m gonna make cats seem like devil spawn with mummies and gore and satan.”
Also, lets not forget the two rape scenes that were just brushes aside.
Would I Recommend?
No. Nope. Nuh uh, don’t waste your time like I did. Don’t even consider it, just ignore this book if you see it. Just-don’t.
Published: May 1st, 1986 (Republished: October 11th, 2016)
Publisher: Kensington
Page Count: 412
Genre: Horror
Synopsis: via Goodreads
No one knew where she had come from. A scrap of a girl clinging to a black cat with eerie yellow eyes. A lost child or an orphan, maybe. It was a miracle she had survived on Eden Mountain at all.
Suddenly strange things began to happen in placid Ruger County, bizarre killings that the police couldn’t solve. Horrifying accidents that the people couldn’t comprehend. An insatiable beast was stalking their intimate hideaways, their swimming holes—and their children.
No one noticed how quickly the little girl’s pale cheeks turned pink with health. How her frail body filled out with sleek, lithe muscles and feline grace. And no one noticed that at night her innocent blue eyes turned an eerie, evil yellow . . .