Heather chose to read Highland Cove by Dylan Morgan
Rating = 🖤🖤🖤🖤 | 4/5
Â
Thank you to Rosie’s Review-a-Book Challenge for an eBook in exchange for an honest review.
Â
I love a good ghost story and/or horror movie. This book falls into both of those categories. I could easily see this book turned into a movie.
Â
The writing was elegant, vivid and wonderfully descriptive… I was drawn in from the first few lines:
Â
“Dark hallways resonated with the sounds of suffering. Doors slammed in the abyss, footsteps boomed off the walls, and tortured moans echoed the pain of their lives. Never before had he head them this clearly or in such numbers; never had he heard them so angry.”
Â
The story unfolds through alternating POVs from the five main characters: Codie the leader, Kristen the girlfriend, Alex the rich kid, Liam the believer, and Julian the camera man. Each character’s background adds to the tapestry of the narrative, while their individual experiences run the range of the fear spectrum. Historical chapters provide a perfect dimensional overlay to what the characters are encountering as they cross paths with the former residents of the asylum.
Â
I would have loved to have more actual encounters with the ghostly inhabitants, especially with Liam, and additional backstory. This is not to say that the story wasn’t complete, just that it was so entertaining that I wanted more. The book moves along at a good pace and there is plenty there to satiate any lover of the genre.
Â
Overall, this was a great ghost story and had a surprise or two I didn’t see coming.
Â
Â
Highland Cove Sanatorium sits abandoned on a desolate island one mile off the Scottish mainland. It’s a dark, foreboding place, filled with nightmares. Even darker are the asylum’s secrets: a history of disease and mental illness, macabre experiments and murder.
The tales of ghostly appearances are said to be more fact than fiction, but no one has ever documented the phenomenon. Codie Jackson aims to change all that. Arriving from London with his small independent film crew, they plan to make a documentary that will forever change their lives.
But when one of the crew disappears, things begin to spiral out of control. A storm closes in to ravage the island, and in the darkness Highland Cove’s true horrors are revealed. Now lost within the institution’s labyrinthine corridors, Codie and his team realize that their nightmare is only just beginning.
Thanks, Heather. Good review. I’ve read and enjoyed several of Morgan’s books, and I like horror, so I must check this one out. Thanks for participating in the challenge.
Thanks, Heather, for a review that might get me to read the book. I read a lot at night before bed, and am not sure what nightmares this book would give me!
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
Book reviewer and garden enthusiast. Updates from my Hampshire garden. Usually talking about books and plants. People do not forget books or flowers that touch them or excite them—they recommend them.
An excellent review
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent review, Heather – Dylan Morgan is a great favourite of the RBRT team!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nicely balanced review.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Heather. Good review. I’ve read and enjoyed several of Morgan’s books, and I like horror, so I must check this one out. Thanks for participating in the challenge.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Heather, for a review that might get me to read the book. I read a lot at night before bed, and am not sure what nightmares this book would give me!
LikeLiked by 1 person