Soulstorm

Rating:
Summary: Hell on a Pennsylvania mountaintop
Review: Chet Williamson has once again written a horror story that is both inventive and scary. When five people are sealed inside a fortess-like mansion on Pine Mountain, one knows he will probably be dead before their 31 days are done. Three know they will be worth a million dollars each. However, they find out very soon that the old stories about the house are true and they are not alone.

If things get too bad, they all have emergency keys that will release the steel plates closing off doors and windows. But very soon, their numbers are lowered. Those left struggle to survive until two men stationed outside the house open the doors. If only they weren't the only ones making plans.

Soulstorm is a quick read, a real page-turner, with believable characters. Readers who like this book might also enjoy Williamson's Ash Wednesday. Both may be out of print, but they are worth finding.

Rating:
Summary: Hell on a Pennsylvania mountaintop
Review: Chet Williamson has once again written a horror story that is both inventive and scary. When five people are sealed inside a fortess-like mansion on Pine Mountain, one knows he will probably be dead before their 31 days are done. Three know they will be worth a million dollars each. However, they find out very soon that the old stories about the house are true and they are not alone.

If things get too bad, they all have emergency keys that will release the steel plates closing off doors and windows. But very soon, their numbers are lowered. Those left struggle to survive until two men stationed outside the house open the doors. If only they weren't the only ones making plans.

Soulstorm is a quick read, a real page-turner, with believable characters. Readers who like this book might also enjoy Williamson's Ash Wednesday. Both may be out of print, but they are worth finding.

Rating:
Summary: Even better the second time around.
Review: I was jonesing for something to read recently and decided to pick SOULSTORM back up and see if it was as good as I remembered. (It's probably been ten years since I first read it.) I picked it up a few days ago and from the first page, I found myself completely involved in it. I find myself looking forward to my lunch hour at work so I can jump back into the story. It's such a pleasure to read a horror novel from such a capable and talented author. The premise is somewhat familiar-- a group of people accept a challenge to stay in a house that is rumored to be haunted-- but Williamson's passion and imagination and storytelling ability is hypnotizing and this novel is uniquely his own. It is genuinely frightening (even for a jaded horror fanatic like me) and the characters seem to live and breathe on the page. It's such an exceptional book I've written two Amazon reviews for it! If you care about horror fiction, do yourself a favor and track this book down. As I mentioned, the premise is somewhat familiar-- Shirley Jackson's THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and Richard Matheson's HELL HOUSE come to mind-- but don't let that put you off. This book is outstanding in its own right, and is an under-appreciated classic. Thank you, Mr Williamson for a bloody good ride!

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding horror novel
Review: I was surprised to find no other reviews for this book. It really is an exceptional horror novel on many levels. The plot borrows from Matheson's Hell House and Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, but Williamson brings lots of interesting ideas to the table and does an outstanding job with it. A group of characters are offered large sums of money to spend a month in a mansion in PA that is rumored to be haunted. It is indeed and the entity that lives there is as evil as they get. The characters are interesting and believable, the scares are fresh and inventive, and the story moves quickly. By now, this book is kind of hard to find, but if you enjoy good writing and good horror, then track it down. It's well worth it.