Dead Voices

Rating:
Summary: If you can hear them, it's already too late!
Review: Abigail McDaniels' novel Dead Voices is one of the shorter horror novels published under the Zebra label. It bosts some impressive artwork on the cover sure to lure any reader into it's pages. That's the good news. Unfortunately, what follows only feels like a partial story instead of a complete novel.

Perhaps it's the length of the story that lets it down but McDaniels barely scrapes the surface of a story which could have been one of the most original horror novels. The chief concept of the novel is the dead have decided to pay a visit, by phone. There are a few generally creepy moments in the novel. Lurkers in the backyard, faces below the surface of the lake but the plot is really too thin and it's easy to understand why the dead would be so ticked off! Why hadn't anyone else in the story come to the conclusion quicker is beyond me.

Sadly I think if McDaniels had continued to pursue the storyline, added more appearances of the dead, maybe made it a bit gorier this could have been a better novel. As it is at around a small 250 pages with large print it really comes across more as a young adult horror novel than something published by Zebra for adults.

Not a classic by any means and really the best part is the awesome cover artwork.

Rating:
Summary: If you can hear them, it's already too late!
Review: Abigail McDaniels' novel Dead Voices is one of the shorter horror novels published under the Zebra label. It bosts some impressive artwork on the cover sure to lure any reader into it's pages. That's the good news. Unfortunately, what follows only feels like a partial story instead of a complete novel.

Perhaps it's the length of the story that lets it down but McDaniels barely scrapes the surface of a story which could have been one of the most original horror novels. The chief concept of the novel is the dead have decided to pay a visit, by phone. There are a few generally creepy moments in the novel. Lurkers in the backyard, faces below the surface of the lake but the plot is really too thin and it's easy to understand why the dead would be so ticked off! Why hadn't anyone else in the story come to the conclusion quicker is beyond me.

Sadly I think if McDaniels had continued to pursue the storyline, added more appearances of the dead, maybe made it a bit gorier this could have been a better novel. As it is at around a small 250 pages with large print it really comes across more as a young adult horror novel than something published by Zebra for adults.

Not a classic by any means and really the best part is the awesome cover artwork.

Rating:
Summary: Timid, at best
Review: I picked this up at a local used bookstore, mainly for the storyline and creepy bookcover. I held onto it for a while, then finally started reading it. I just finished it, and I must say, I wasn't that impressed.

Gail and Roger Lamont movie to New Falls Church in Louisiana with their kids Keith and Bonnie. The original Falls Church was flooded and moved up onto the hill, and now an enormous lake sits nearby, with the old town at the bottom. Gail, the main character, meets and makes friends with Marilyn, and Roger makes friends with her husband Bob, as do the kids with Marilyn and Bob's son, Jimmy. Things are going well until the strange phone calls start, plaguing Gail, Marilyn, and many others. Then the sightings of intruders. Gail starts to wonder, as things get more and more excessive. Then they get even worse, and suspicions start to arise, all leading to the lake and the mysteries surrounding in it.

Would have been good, if it was better written. The characters were sort of weak. Gail is alright, as is Trudy, the elderly neighbor down the street, and her daughter Mavis is interesting, but Roger, Marilyn, and Bob are one-dimensional. The plot is repetitive. Many sightings of "prowlers," a lot of mysterious phone calls, most with the excuse of some senile old person, which gets old quick. If you didn't realize, all the phone calls are from dead people. Hence, DEAD voices. And, they're all old, so it fits the cheesy excuse. It takes 150 pages for a murder to occur, and only three people are killed in the whole book. Not like I'm a death hound, but the dead really aren't that frightening if they just call you and wander into your backyard. Also, the climax wasn't much, despite being an interesting idea. Could have been heightened in the horror, though. And one final note: the final explanation for everything is so obvious it's painful. I knew 40 pages into the 251 page book why this was all happening. And if you don't figure it out before it's revealed, you'll probably be scared by this, you're that slow in the head. Sorry for the insult.

Overall, not really good. Pretty timid. But if you just want something light, this is good.