Ken Brosky

The intriguing cover for What Doesn’t Kill You by Ken Brosky caught my eye and I had to check further. I am glad I did, because I love creature features and stories that put characters to the test…and they will be. Not all will survive and I love that too. (evil grin)

Emma rolls into town, bringing with her a gift that will change the town forever. It invades the town slowly, and has a sweetness to those who claim its gift. Don’t we all know that nothing comes without a cost, and no on knows what the cost will be.

Valerie and Danny are the stars, but they are not alone. Some of the most surprising characters are those staying at the halfway house, seeking help for their addictions.

In a small town, there are no secrets, and Seven Sisters is in dire need of anything that can help the people, since Highway 55 became the Old Highway 55. How many towns have died because progress has passed them by? Why do they stay, when there is no future? What would be the lure that would compel people to move on? Does Emma know?

For Seven Sisters to survive, residents will be put to the test, needing the courage to fight for what is their lives. They will need to work together. They will need to draw from deep inside and find the strength to overcome their fear.

What Doesn’t Kill You by Ken Brosky was not exactly what I thought it would be, but the more involved I became, the more the characters drew me in, the more the tension built. The pacing and action allowed the suspense to build and I did not see the end coming. I do appreciate an author that can make me say, “Well, I sure didn’t see that coming.”

I felt the rating jumping between a three and a four. Whenever that happens, a four it is.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of What Doesn’t Kill You by Ken Brosky.

See more at http:www.fundinmental.com… (mehr)

Moon Song and her brother Hye were very close. Even after his drug use and other problems caused a rift between Hye and their parents, the siblings stayed in frequent contact until one day he stopped answering his phone and never returned calls. It is for this reason she hires Ben Sawyer, a private investigator who generally spends his time in lackluster stake outs of cheating spouses in between his vacation time. She accompanies Ben to the mining town of Blackrock, her brother's last known residence and place of employment. There they find some very strange goings on but no sign of Hye.
I didn't care much for Ben at first, but he grew on me and I loved Moon Song and her fierce love for her brother. I loved the way she faced her fears.
Nothing creeps me out more than people acting out of character or beyond the norm, and there seems to be nothing normal in Blackrock. Personalities have changed drastically. A professor who reports to the dean that a student has made inappropriate sexual advances toward him is basically told to go for it. And that's just the start of these bizarre happenings. Don't get me started on the clinic, or the funeral home. What does all of this have to do with the reopened coal mine? You'll have to read to find out.
Recommended highly to all horror readers and especially to those who enjoy Bentley Little novels. I am a huge fan of small town horror where the last remaining normal people turn into unlikely heroes, and that is just part of the reason this fast paced story was a hit with me.


My thanks to Timber Ghost Press for the review copy.… (mehr)

I received an e-Galley ARC of The Beyond, authored by Ken Brosky, from publisher Timber Ghost Press for review consideration. Edits: Beverly Bernard. Cover art/design: Greg Chapman. Interior design: Firedrake Designs. What follows is my honest opinion, given freely.

Certain set ups for a story just guarantee I’d be, not on high alert, but paying attention if I was there myself. Space, water related activities for example are big ones for me. Caves and tunnels too, I’ve found, because creepy things can happen, but also they can collapse or you can get stuck, and that is terrifying. Sarah Lotz’s The White Road has a scene, a few actually, with a cave system that is not for the faint of heart, it adds a whole layer of horror to that novel. So I dove into this one ready to be bothered, happily so. Horror fans love to poke the bear. Imagine the bear being a pinata filled with reactions to what you are reading, you never know what will fall out, not really. It’s a fun game.

So I was thrown a bit by how casually Trump was mentioned in relation to the coal industry, in just a small tiny part of the beginning. And it struck me, that it was happening, the start of his presidency being part of a time stamp in fiction that we read, and that’s all it has to be, can be. It felt surreal, it felt a little wrong as well, and then I went to the next sentence and kept reading. That opening scene of walking down into the mine is a great hook for the whole novel, would be a great cinematic shot if ever made into a movie. By the time you start to worry about what’s going on it’s already too late, once you’ve noticed the red glow you’re not leaving the tunnel.

I think this has a story that you can enjoy as deeply as you want, you can read it through and be done, thinking that was a good twisty book. Or, you can start thinking of the doorway in the tunnels and the choices that went into putting us where we found ourselves in the novel. It wasn’t infinite universes, we had very specific path a and path b, and I find myself thinking on that often, if there is a reason, and how it was tied up in the tunnels. I think this is a book that many will enjoy, horror, thriller, small town horror and suspense would be accurate genres to place it in. Brosky has written a town to stay away from, things to fear and people to mourn. I look forward to reading his next work.… (mehr)