Matthew V. Brockmeyer

I am always keeping an eye out for good horror stories, normally i am left a little disappointed in the scare factor and let down by reviews that say how terrifying the book is.
But this book was NOT a let down at all.
I loved it and i could quite happily read it again straight away!
You've got meth heads, pot growers, thieves, and plenty of murder all to be had in the atmospheric backdrop of Humbolt County as well as ghosts! but It's the human horrors that take your breath away!
Rebecca and her daughter Megan are living out in the middle of nowhere with her boyfriend Calendula on a Marijuana grow plantation. If they can make it through this season, they will buy land and make build an organic farm to live off the land. That is the reason they stay, but is it worth it?
The other people in this story are. Drug addicts, women beaters and evil ghosts that continue to cause trouble. Certainly no characters you like no matter how much you read!
This is no feel good story with a happy ending, but a brutal, horror story
A must for an horror fans :-)… (más)

Many thanks to [a: Matthew V. Brockmeyer|16342628|Matthew V. Brockmeyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1487752922p2/16342628.jpg] for the ACR Kindle e-book of [b: Kind Nepenthe|35592297|Kind Nepenthe|Matthew V. Brockmeyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499202027s/35592297.jpg|57024709].

Matthew V. Brockmeyer is a skilled writer who immediately brought to mind Dean Koontz first novels, John Saul, and [a: Bill Schwiegart]. I look forward to future works by M. Brockmeyer.

Marijuana has been in demand since the beginning of life. It was not until prohibition against the 'kind nepenthe' that growers and sellers were forced underground, out into the mountains, and hidden amongst the Red Giants of Northern California.

This novel is horrible, and mysterious, fantastic and filled with the supernatural.

The characters which [a: Mathew V. Brockmeyer|16342628|Matthew V. Brockmeyer|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1487752922p2/16342628.jpg] have created and penned in this page-turner are three-dimensional. The spirits who haunt this story are so realistic I felt a cold shiver when first reading about Spider.

This is no feel good story with a happy ending, but a brutal, horror story which takes place amid the lifestyle of those who have little choice but to pick their jobs from resin coated, crystalline buds and the often times dirty business which makes only a few millionaires.… (más)

Kind Nepenthe is one of those books I looked at on NetGalley for a while but couldn't bring myself to request for the longest time. It just didn't seem like something I'd over enjoy, honestly. If you frequent NetGalley though, you'll notice the horror section of their available titles has been dwindling over the past few months. As a result, I finally ended up with Matthew V. Brockmeyer's title and I can admit I am pleasantly surprised.

Aside from a single graphically sexual scene, Kind Nepenthe plays the horror genre safely. Brockmeyer keeps things significantly more tame than many of the authors I read, which means he's got to make up for it in other places. In this case, the story itself is rather well developed - even if it does have a few holes. (Seriously, how'd the boy die, dude? You got ghosts you ain't tellin' us the deets on.) A few of the characters, or rather most of them, are almost offensively stereotypical. Diesel, one of the main characters, has a son who quite literally dresses like the photo you've seen of a kid wanting to look gangsta.

Now, I'm aware this sounds mostly negative, but in a way it allowed me to better formulate the type of behaviors associated with Brockmeyer's cast. It's not very complex, so for me to have read this book in two days means that Brockmeyer must have succeeded elsewhere in his work - and he did! The flow of Kind Nepenthe can be likened to the river that runs through Homicide Hill. It's a constant, rolling movement from one even to another. Not hurried, but steady.

There are two separate stories that take place here and four different endings. Despite its lack of originality in characters, Kind Nepenthe manages to wiggle its way into the reader's sympathies. I felt for Katie, the young, pregnant girlfriend of Diesel's son. My heart ached for Rebecca, whose loneliness begins to eat at her as the story progresses. Even Diesel managed to find an endearing resonance with me, much to my surprise.

While I was hoping for a little bit more boo! than I received, I look forward to more of Brockmeyer's work in the future. This book was a nice, relaxing read and I simply was not able to put it down. I'd like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy of this book for the purpose of review.… (más)

Deep in the wilderness of Humboldt County in Northern California lies a pot farm where a young woman named Rebecca wants to teach her five-year old daughter how to live off the land. Along with her boyfriend Calendula, they are helping a man named Coyote who is growing marijuana and is in need of help harvesting it. Calendula and Rebecca are hoping to live the hippie lifestyle and get enough money together from the harvest to buy their own farm.

It won’t be an easy task, living close by is Diesel Dan who helped start the farm and Coyote owes money to. Dan lost everything due to drugs and a stint in prison, but now he looks to make amends for his past and set an example for his soon to be born granddaughter. Coyote is strung out on pills and barely keeping his head above water and he wonders if he can come up with the money to pay everyone. To make matters more complicated the farm is home to an old legend and the ghost of a boy who is looking for a playmate.

Kind Nepenthe by Matthew Brockmeyer is a story about what happens when you dream big and reality slaps you in the face. All of the characters in this story make decisions that they hope will make their lives better but each decision comes with drastic consequences. For instance, we have Rebecca and Calendula who are working hard to get the money together for a farm but they have to deal with things like Coyote disappearing and threatening not to pay them and several other problems. They both get to the point where they wonder if all of this is worth it and their personalities start to change with Rebecca wondering if she ever cared for Calendula in the first place.

Another interesting character is Coyote who is regularly thinking of the wife and kids he left and you see how the drug lifestyle he has led has ruined him. I also enjoyed the relationship between Diesel Dan and his son. Dan is hoping he doesn’t follow in his footsteps as a drug dealer but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree even though Dan is trying hard to change. My favorite part of this book was watching all of the characters deal with the pressure of their lives falling apart.

Whether you like Kind Nepenthe depends on what you are looking for in a story. As a human drama, this book is excellent, I loved all the characters including the ones that do bad things such as Diesel Dan’s son. The book is sold as a ghost story though and it felt like that was an unnecessary part of the book. While there is a ghost and some elements of horror here it didn’t add anything to the plot and I felt that if you took out the supernatural parts it would have been better. All in all, though this was a really good read and I’m looking forward to more from Matthew Brockmeyer in the future.… (más)