PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Many of my reviews start off with my saying how I was already a fan of the author, but this is not one of those. I had heard of Dan Franklin before, mainly due to the Books of Horror Facebook group and their Indie Author Brawl. Dan Franklin had a book in last year’s Brawl, though I never did get around to reading that one. I am making a stronger effort to finish all 32 books competing in the Brawl this year, and it was with that goal in mind that I picked up These Things Linger. And I was totally blown away.
Synopsis
When Alex Wilson’s estranged uncle unexpectedly dies, Alex realizes he would do just about anything to make peace with the man who had raised him as his own.
He’d even reach out to the dead.
But things more dangerous than ghosts haunt his uncle’s broken down trailer and the nearly abandoned one-gas-station town of Fair Hill just beyond. Things that can devour the living and the dead alike, and are all too ready to answer his call.
Some parts of our past never really leave us. There are things that don’t know how to die.
These things linger.
From the author of the acclaimed The Eater of Gods, These Things Linger is a twisting and unforgiving novel of desperation, depression, heritage, and of other hungry, vicious things.
Doesn’t this great cover designed by Kealan Patrick Burke make you want to dive right in?
These Things Linger is a book I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come. This book is beautiful and heartbreaking, funny and terrifying. It is everything I ever wanted in a novel and more. It falls under the category of “grief horror,” in other words, a book that uses horror as a way of examining how people deal with grief. I am especially drawn to this particular type of horror. As a generally unemotional person, I find great enjoyment in the books that make me FEEL things, and this book offered emotions by the boat-load.
Dan Franklin writes everything in a way that feels real, even when the events are beyond weird. In These Things Linger, even seemingly unrealistic and unbelievable events feel truthful because of how well Dan Franklin has written his characters. Alex, Raychel, Buzz, and even Bartholomew the cat are such realistic characters that I couldn’t help but love them all. And because I loved them, I also completely believed their accounting of the absolutely insane events of this book. Events which I’m not sure I’ll ever get over. As promised, these things will, in fact, linger.
These Things Linger is available now in paperback, ebook, and audiobook. If you enjoy horror with a staggering emotional impact, I encourage you to devour this book as soon as possible. You won’t be disappointed.
