Kyle Muntz

Two brothers, Michael and Steven (17 and the other just finishing college) are struggling to adjust to their new reality having recently lost their father to a heart attack. Virtually alone living in their father’s house (their mother lives elsewhere with her boyfriend) they are filled with memories of him - not all good as his anger and unhappiness continues to affect them even after his death. Michael’s cat shows up completely mutilated and vomits some black substance before expiring and that’s when things get real interesting. An indescribable dark creature has attached itself to Michael and has the uncanny ability to physically feed off the bad emotions and pain inside him. Michael’s best friend Halie practically lives with them and they start to get addicted to the feeling and begin purposely hurting themselves in order to achieve the high the creature provides. Steven also gets lured in and a lot happens. Reminiscent of early Stephen King, this book made me cringe at the gory details as well as at the horrible relationship these brothers have with each other and their mother. Filled with impending doom, I couldn’t stop reading it. Would you choose to let a creature feed off you if you knew it would give you euphoric instant relief from pain and bad feelings? It makes one think about the nature of addiction and how insidious anger and resentment can be in our lives.… (más)

What a strange, disarming novel. The beginning is so quiet, I wasn't sure whether to believe I was stepping into more of a fable or a terror. And the characters...nearly from the beginning, I didn't know whether I wanted to love them or throttle them. At times, both--especially when the horror came on, and kept coming on.

There were moments in the beginning where, I admit, I wasn't sure whether or not I cared to continue--things felt too quiet, and like the dark might be going in a direction, where it occurred, that I didn't much care to follow. But at some point, there was no more choice left. Much like how I imagine the characters felt.

For horror readers, I absolutely recommend this.… (más)