From
the back cover
“They
call it Beast House. Tourists flock to see it, lured by its history of butchery
and sadistic sexual enslavement. They enter, armed with cameras and camcorders,
but many never return. The men are slaughtered quickly. The women have a far
worse fate in store. But the worst part of the house is what lies beneath it.
Behind the cellar door, down the creaky steps, waits a creature of pure evil.
At night, when the house is dark and all is quiet. . .the beast comes out.
“Awakened
by an early-morning phone call, Donna found out that her ex-husband, Roy, has
been released from prison. She immediately dragged her twelve-year-old daughter
out of bed and together they hit the road─fast. The last thing she wants is for
Roy to get his hands on them again. But in fleeing one danger, Donna and her
daughter are unknowingly heading straight toward another. They’re heading
toward Beast House.”
Review
Warning: Possible spoilers in this review.
Cellar
is
a sleazy, fast-paced and mostly fun extreme horror novel that is often
effective and constantly disturbing. Most of the male characters and many of
the female characters have alarming qualities (Roy, the violent child rapist; Larry,
the wuss who shows hints of being into underage girls; etc.).
What
undercuts Cellar’s unsettling, not-for-the-squeamish effectiveness is its
sometimes choppy writing (especially in its last two time-shift/characters-go-insane
chapters) and how some of its characters make abrupt, plot-convenient attitude
changes (e.g., two of its characters fall in love immediately and tell each
other as much).
Cellar is a disappointing read (especially its finish), but it has some decent,
disturbing writing, and provides a setup for the next Beast Chronicles novel, The Beast House. Check it out from the library before committing cash─even a
few bucks─to it.
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