Clickity, click, click... a creepy tale of witchcraft

Clickity, click, click, click...

Forsaken was given to me by Maxine Booklover Catlady Publicity for an exchange of an honest review.It is important to mention first  that I'm not a keen fan of witches, sorcellerie, witchcraft horror. Like vampires and werewolves, I find that witchcraft is so overused in the genre that it lost its scary glamour. However, I should add that very few writers proved to be an exception to that as they knew how to employ their crafts smartly to surpass the mediocre clichés and succeeded to introduce strong plots with real frights. Their witches are real, very wicked and so evil to make the devil their apprentice. And, I found that in few books such as Banquet for the damned by Adam Nevill, a book crafted to perfection for a debut and in Forsaken by J.D Barker which also strives to deliver the eager readers a dreadful atmosphere, a hideous witch and a family at stake.

In the beginning it was a journal and a promise.

Thad McAlister is a famous horror writer living with his family in Charleston Sc. This time, he has written his masterpiece, a dreadful book journal about the trial of a very evil witch who terrorized the Shadow Cove township. It is a book that poured itself in his mind. A tale which was told by someone inside his head without any intervention or assistance from him. That's  when the problems started and the gates of hell began to open. When Thad leaves to New York in order to sign a movie offer, terror and nightmares will shake the life of McAlister family. Separately, they will engage on a journey of horror where the evil character of Thad's  doomed book is taking shape in this world  through her familiars and lunatic followers, and turn McAlisters' nightmares real. On her side, Rachael, Thad's pregnant wife, is left to live the most dreadful moments of her life, alone with her daughter and housekeeper, isolated from the outside world, under the watchful eyes of evil minions of the witch.  At that moment, Rachel needs to fight back if she wants to save her life and those of  her daughter and her unborn baby against a pure evil that is waiting to claim something that Rachael had promised to give long time ago.

The  book has built up an atmospheric psychological tension starting with the prologue where the author gave us a direct hint about the actual sources of the problem; it is an old  journal and a secret promise who brought all that.

A fast paced book where actions follow without a break. Short chapters have infused the sense of rapidity in laying out the story. That also has created an eagerness in the reader to turn the pages without stopping in order  to know what is going to happen next. The style is well written with nice short sentences, fine prose. Description is not burdened with long boring phrases, the premises between the McAlister house, the forest of Shadow Cove, the unstoppable rains and the bougainvillea are perfectly displayed. The elements of earth, water and fire are smartly used to enhance the sense of the witchcraft. A feeling of creepy enchantment reigns along the chapters where the characters are no longer in possession of their will nor freedom and that is scarier then any other spooky things, when someone fully controls you is another form of possession. The description of the witch, shifting between old woman and beautiful girl, her long nails clicking, her rottenness, her hissing voice are so real, and when her dark shadow comes to exist through her followers, the reader can't help but to feel with the protagonists a dreadful unease. Their desperation is morbidly contagious. Pregnant in contractions, Racheal comes to face alone a pure evil, she is trapped with her daughter and housekeeper in their house unable to leave as it  became quarantined by thorny nasty bougainvillea, and guarded by wicked minions, Racheal is desperate but she has to fight for her family's sake. From his side, Thad is struggling to keep his sanity when his world is invaded by his main wicked character who manifests herself through Christina, a fatal beauty that reeks of foul manipulation and pure evil. She lures Thad into her world by sex and threats sending him to the hell-mouth.

I loved the way the author weaved in two stories in one, chapters that vary between the present and the very far past when those witch trials took place. The author represented those trials in the form of chapters taken from the journal of Claytone Stone_1692  of  Rise of the Witch, Thad's evil masterpiece. There is  an eerie cold atmosphere in those chapters and the very disturbing facts regarding the witch and the town are creepy. A feeling of hesitation and doubts are floating in the air, and together with the scribe, the readers  do not know how to react towards the accusations of the residents of Shadow Cove against the witch who looks only like a sixteen year old girl, an orphaned child. The readers find themselves dragged  with Claytone by the deceiving innocent look of the girl/witch who  controls his mind and whereabouts. Thus, readers are perplexed to believe or not the atrocities inflicted by the witch whose angelic beauty deemed  frightening and creepy. I love the fine sentences used in those chapters, they have a bit of  lyrical  with an eerie enchanting ambiance.

For me, I should say, Forsaken excels more in the psychological terror than the supernatural evil dark powers. When you are stripped of your will, of your strength and ability to even move and fight is very scary. Scarier than those Minions scattering around. I couldn’t find them frightening despite their sharp teeth and beady eyes. However,  the portrait of the witch the writer gives is very unsettling.In a quick note, I found the homage given to Stephen King's  famous work Needful Things amusing for being myself a huge reader of King.

Finally I will be definitely waiting for the next book in the series of Shadow Cove Saga  to be released because J.D Barker has become  among those who are constantly on my radar.

Thank you again Maxine for sending the book. You definitely rock.

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