Ravenous - Dax Dagger
RAVENOUS
DAX DAGGER
*****
Some stories should stay unfinished.
Whistler Dodd is dead. The acclaimed horror author is survived only by his final, unfinished, manuscript.
Kirk Quade has the opportunity of a lifetime. The struggling author must finish writing the book if he wants to receive a two-book deal with Dodd’s publisher.
There’s just one rule: if Dodd turns up, don’t let him finish the novel. Sequestered in the dead author's house, Kirk is determined to prove himself. But as he delves into Dodd's haunting world, he uncovers more than just words on a page.
The monsters lurking in the shadows are very real – and they’re hungry. Time is running out and Kirk must choose between achieving everything he’s ever dreamed of, or saving his sanity – and the world.
Stranger Things meets Misery in this twisted cosmic horror.
MY REVIEW
****
It’s spooky season on Kindig Blog and what better way to celebrate than curled up with a book about an author trying to finish a novel in a haunted house?
When famed horror writer Whistler Dodd dies, his Will states that relatively unknown author Kirk Quade must be the one to finish his final novel for him. The catch? He must live locked in the authors’ unusual house - and the rules state that if Dodd shows up, he must not let him finish it!
There’s some scary imagery in Ravenous - this cosmic horror read creeps under your skin and stays with you long after the lights have gone out and you’ve put the book down. For example, there is a character who can see her doppelganger in the mirror with the slightly too wide smile. A reflection who she summoned by staring at a mirror in the dark as a child, and who tried to grab her hand to climb out of the mirror to play. The character refuses to look in any reflective surfaces since then, and after reading this book I also had the same issue! The haunted house trope is also well-portrayed with odd noises, long passages which lead to a mysterious mirrored atrium and portraits which are portals to other realms.
Although I really enjoyed certain aspects of the book, I did find parts of it - particularly in the latter half, to be a little repetitive and hard to follow. The middle of the book started to drag but in contrast, the ending was abrupt and I didn’t understand exactly what had happened which took away from the impact of the twist. I think that there could have been more satisfying places to take the conclusion than where the plot ultimately headed up.
Overall, Ravenous has some brilliantly scary imagery and I will struggle to look in a mirror this spooky season as a result, however it needed a bit more of a ruthless edit to help the storytelling along. Thank you to NetGalley & HQ Digital for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
LINKS TO BUY
Comments