Okay this is my first book review since Tamworth Grice's Listening to Ian Magick came out, for which I also wrote a review. This book was suggested to me by my Kindle app on my Android phone. I had just finished reading some Lovecraft stuff, and I recognized the author name as one of the people I follow and who follows me. Here goes...
So I cannot say enough about how creepy this book really is. It takes you into the world of Jack Winter who seems to be your run of the mill Louisiana resident. His life is a typical American story - his in-laws don't like him because they feel like he isn't good enough for their daughter who is used to the best in life because she comes from money. But she marries Jack because she loves who he is. Things are tough but it's okay, because they havce everything they need, even though things get tight here and there. The story starts off with Jack bringing the family home from a Chuck E. Cheese type of place because it is his daughter Charlotte's birthday. She turned six, and the family is on their way home from the celebration. Jack is driving a beat up old saturn because, like I said, things are tough and he and his wife Aimee are saving for a new one and are almost there.
Then the headlights go out just as Jack sees something in the road - a pair of black eyes looking back at him. He flips the car in his instinctual aversion of the car - he jerks the wheel to avoid hitting whatever was in the road. Everyone is okay but Aimee is beyond upset because she thinks that Jack fell asleep. However Charlotte (who likes to go by Charlie) wanders off, eventually revealing to her father that she saw something in the woods, and that she saw the pair of eyes right before the car flipped.
I will not get into too much detail but suffice it to say that you find out who the eyes belong to as you go along. Ania does some flashing back and you learn why Jack loves Charlie more than his other daughter, Abby and maybe even more than he loves his wife. She tells the story perfectly, giving you just enough information from the past and the present that you begin to more and more be sucked into the story, praying for a happy ending.
Jack's a good guy, you can relate to him. Charlie and Abby are good kids, and their dog Nubs is even a likable character. All in all I would say that this is one of the better books I have read in a long time. Ania Ahlborn does not pull any punches, nor does she take her foot off the gas once she steps on the accelerator. She forces you to hang on and enjoy the ride, even if you begin to suspect that you may be headed for a cliff.
Ania Ahlborn can be found on Twitter - @AniaAhlborn and her website is http://www.aniaahlborn.com/ so go and sign up for her newsletter and be ready when her next work comes out this winter!
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