Wednesday, February 17, 2016

E.M. MacCallum: The Demon's Grave

E.M. MacCallum takes the reader where your nightmares literally come to life:

Strange shadows and whispers have recently started invading Nora's life, but this is not the first time it has happened to her, the same thing occurred when she was a child. When her friends ask her to join them on a weekend getaway she hopes that it will help her run from what is happening to her. They end up going to Aidan Birket's Victorian family home that has not been lived in for many years. While exploring the house they locate a marble doorway that should have remained closed. They are trespassing on the Demon's Grave and the only way to get out is to face that which scares and haunts you the most but each challenge you play for keeps die or fail the challenge and you are stuck in the Demon's grave forever. 

The prologue of this book really caught my attention,it was interesting, suspenseful and dark and I thought that it set the tone really well for the book to come, however, there were times that the book did not live up to the prologue. Other than the appearance of the Demon it does take more than half the book to make the connection to the prologue, I'm not saying this was a complete negative there were just times where I questioned if there is was two different books. I also think that to book dragged on at times, yes the challenges were interesting (and at times disturbing) but there was almost too many of them as it also took away from the side story as to really why they are all there. 

The characters within this book are supposed to be of college age, but to me they read more like they were high school students, even the college campus sounded like a high school. Maybe they were just first year college students but their maturity level is not one that I would associate with individuals in college. It's bad to say when you read a book but I really did not feel any connection to the main character Nora, I found her underdeveloped and the main traits that I could associated with her character are flat and whiny. I actually think that all the characters are underdeveloped and typical/typecast in this book, there was really no imagination.

I liked the challenge aspect of this book and the idea of playing on the nightmares that we have all had. This book had me reliving some that I had when I was a child (and they were disturbing to say the least especially as I was a child when I was having them) and I think that is the scariest part of the book. Would I now be able to handle my own nightmares if they came to life? I think that is truly the horror aspect of the book, looking into yourself. However, other than that, the challenges did not really play on any true fears that I have, but it you are afraid of spiders for example, you will find some scenes within the book disturbing and probably more scary than I did.

I have noticed that this book is part of a series but I question whether I would continue with it. While I enjoyed some of the aspects in the plot and the darkness that MacCallum has throughout, I really did not feel any connection or feel invested to any of the character which I find essential when reading a book.

Cheers!!!
Instead Of This,
Check These Books Out:
http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2011/05/amanda-stevens-restorer.html http://j9books.blogspot.ca/2012/03/ruth-barrett-base-spirits.html


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