I received The Evil Inside from Maxine Booklover Catlady in exchange for honest review. I should say this is a book that comes with mixed feelings when you read it, you love it and you hate it equally. I believe it is a strength since it leaves an impact on you and that is a trait of a talented author. The plot is good, the writing is short and quick, the characterization is well built, although, it is more focused on the main character Guy Russell and little invested on other characters, Mia, Callum, etc. Maybe, the author did this in purpose in order to draw the readers' full attention on the hellish internal journey that Guy Russell will begin.
Guy and Mia moved to New York with their son Callum searching for a new fresh start after the tragedy that happened in their hometown in Australia. Losing their unborn baby is something they want to leave behind with in a new place, new job, new country. It's New York where they landed and where Guy started a new job at an Advertising company owned by an old friend. Their new temporary home is nothing the Hotel Olcott, an old building with a dark past. And there Guy begins to witness the disturbing changes creeping slowly to his household, in his wife's withdrawing attitude verging towards breakdown, his son's eerie behaviour. All this and the whole surroundings will bring Guy back to his dark childhood, to his relationship with his mother, to his deep secret buried for a long time.
Guy and Mia moved to New York with their son Callum searching for a new fresh start after the tragedy that happened in their hometown in Australia. Losing their unborn baby is something they want to leave behind with in a new place, new job, new country. It's New York where they landed and where Guy started a new job at an Advertising company owned by an old friend. Their new temporary home is nothing the Hotel Olcott, an old building with a dark past. And there Guy begins to witness the disturbing changes creeping slowly to his household, in his wife's withdrawing attitude verging towards breakdown, his son's eerie behaviour. All this and the whole surroundings will bring Guy back to his dark childhood, to his relationship with his mother, to his deep secret buried for a long time.
I should say that the author succeeds to describe the slowly downfall of the main character, and his transformation from a normal caring father and husband to the paranoid unhinged thing he became. It is a self-destruction we witness here, a lost soul tortured by guilt and confusion. The paranoia will subdue, confusion will rule along with fear, suspicion, degradation, in one word it is a psychological chaos, a mental wreck, all this is combined to describe Guy Russell. As for the other characters, the author gave a brief picture of their traits and dilemmas, speaking here of Mia and Callum. He only shows a Mia, a bereft mother, unable to overcome the loss of her baby, drowns herself in booze and oblivion, receding and withdrawing from her reality, her husband and her son Callum. She is also bitter and evasive. As for Callum, the author portrays him only through the eyes of Guy, waving between normality as his child and strangeness and monstrosity as "not his child".
Another strength attributed to the book is the flashbacks between the present and the past of Guy Russell, the author gives us bits of the dark past of Guy, tantalizes our curiosity, makes us wonder what happened then; he reveals slowly the outrageous relationship between son and mother engaging us through those flashes to look into the childhood of Guy to see the true evil there, how twisted the human nature can be, how low the bottom someone can reach.
I gave the book a rating of 3.5 because sadly the author fails to introduce the sense of dread and fear, even the descriptions of the supposedly unnatural creepy events are more like boring and dull. And that's why the book should be included under the genre of psychological thriller, because the actual horror here emanates from the disturbing transformation of Guy and the inevitable gloomy disastrous destiny he is rolling down to, his paranoia and hallucinations have a snowball effect.
The writing style is short, effective, smooth and vivid. The author didn’t need long complicated phrases to attract the reader attention and engage him with the story. However, the author couldn’t shake away the impact of his advertising background which resulted into unnecessary scenes of Guy’s work tasks, made them a bit tedious to follow. The backstory of the Hotel Olcott needs to be more detailed with respect to its effects on the changes happening in Guy’s life, as it stands blurry and confusing . The author didn’t tell clearly if the hotel’s notorious history was haunted and it is implicated in Guy's downfall.
Overall, The Evil Inside is a good debut you would really enjoy reading if you are searching for a disturbing psychological horror, but definitely it won't be the one for you if you are the hardcore horror seekers.
My thanks go again to Maxine for sending me the book.
Another strength attributed to the book is the flashbacks between the present and the past of Guy Russell, the author gives us bits of the dark past of Guy, tantalizes our curiosity, makes us wonder what happened then; he reveals slowly the outrageous relationship between son and mother engaging us through those flashes to look into the childhood of Guy to see the true evil there, how twisted the human nature can be, how low the bottom someone can reach.
I gave the book a rating of 3.5 because sadly the author fails to introduce the sense of dread and fear, even the descriptions of the supposedly unnatural creepy events are more like boring and dull. And that's why the book should be included under the genre of psychological thriller, because the actual horror here emanates from the disturbing transformation of Guy and the inevitable gloomy disastrous destiny he is rolling down to, his paranoia and hallucinations have a snowball effect.
The writing style is short, effective, smooth and vivid. The author didn’t need long complicated phrases to attract the reader attention and engage him with the story. However, the author couldn’t shake away the impact of his advertising background which resulted into unnecessary scenes of Guy’s work tasks, made them a bit tedious to follow. The backstory of the Hotel Olcott needs to be more detailed with respect to its effects on the changes happening in Guy’s life, as it stands blurry and confusing . The author didn’t tell clearly if the hotel’s notorious history was haunted and it is implicated in Guy's downfall.
Overall, The Evil Inside is a good debut you would really enjoy reading if you are searching for a disturbing psychological horror, but definitely it won't be the one for you if you are the hardcore horror seekers.
My thanks go again to Maxine for sending me the book.
