HOPE’S END by Alison Pearce

Publisher: SNM Novel Publications (September 25, 2015)

Pages: 190

Genre: Horror

BLURB:

Hope’s End: Is it a person, place or thing? Or is it the end of everything? Eight close friends must uncover the dark hidden truth to Hope’s End. When the first settlers of the land came, they brought with them a curse that would befall upon a small village in Redeemer Valley, dating all the way back to 1853. But it took greed and sacrifice to unleash it upon the land. That greed and sacrifice would be initiated by a man named Winston Riley, for he knew what dark, arcane secret lay underneath and what would come in its wake. A mining expedition was hired at a dig site to unveil the terrible secret. A group of eight close friends, visceral explorers of the supernatural, set out to crack the ancient code in the eerie hauntings that plagued the quiet town where a family inheritance was to be claimed. But instead a malicious lost spirit wants to claim them… Together, they must solve the puzzle and decipher the diary of John Cort, who penned the diary of how the curse was unleashed and why. And in his own words: Alexander has shared all with me. It was even more than I expected. May God have mercy on us all.

MY REVIEW:

I was given a free copy of this book for an honest review.  I am not affiliated with SNM Novel Publications, nor do I know the author.  This is her first published book.

This story started off as a typical Halloween tale, with a group of close friends trapped in a haunted house, facing unknown horrifying monsters. But instead of them doing stupid things, making me yell at the book, they actually tried to escape.  As a reader, when we’re thrown into a story with a wide range of characters, it takes a while to get them sorted in your mind. So it’s really hard to build up an affinity for them until about the 3 or 4th chapter. A few of them will stick out right away, like Jimmy. He was my favorite character, other than Ron.

There was a lot of terrifying moments in this tale. Pearce did a great job keeping me involved, biting my lip over who was going to survive. Cause as you know, with horror stories, not everyone gets lucky enough to tell the tale. The story was fast-paced, the characters well-developed, so I was immensely disappointed when I reached about the last third of the book, when all the revelations came out, and I found it lacking and the plot thinned out.

Here were some of the questions I was left with: where did Riley get the money to buy the town, all the land and hire the men and equipment? Why did he start digging in a circle and work his way inward?  The answer he gave sounded really weak.  Just cuz.  Pearce tried to explain why the town and outlying areas were planned in a circle, but it made no sense to me.  And at the end, how did Julie get near the body, when Ron never left it out of his sight?  I know Pearce was trying to throw in a plot twist, but it just didn’t add up.  So, the last part definitely needs more plot development.

If you’re looking for a good Halloween story, you might want to try this one.  I was going to give it 4 feathers, but the more I thought about the story, the more unanswered questions I found, so I’m downgrading it to 3 feathers.  Not that the story wasn’t enjoyable or full of scares, it just doesn’t rate with the other books I’ve given 4 feathers too.

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