Joanna’s inner monsters might not just be in her head…
Joanna spent years trying to forget her previous life. Now a promising writer, her future looks bright. But when her estranged twin sister contacts her to explain their abusive mother is missing, Jo must return to her hometown to confront her terrible past.
While investigating her mother’s whereabouts, Jo and her sister become stranded and are forced deep into a dark forest, pursued by a pure evil that stalks them. To survive this homecoming reunion, Jo must untangle the secrets that have plagued her family for generations and confront the very thing she fears the most, before it forms an attachment.
Latcher is the thrilling story of one woman’s fight to escape a past that won’t let her go. If you love your horror books with bloody detail, foreboding atmosphere, shocking twists, and enough suspense to swim in, then this book is for you.
Okay, I devoured this book.
Dineen’s writing—combined with the excellent story—grabs you by the throat pretty much right from the jump, and you’re left with some serious questions about what the heck is going on…which is the best way to start a horror novel.
We jump ahead several decades, and we meet Jo, who’s drawn back to the town she was never going to come back to. And then the reader should pretty much abandon every single plot idea they think is going to happen.
The story was absolutely fantastic, and the horrors that Dineen dredges up are actually terrifying, when they’re finally revealed. It’s been an awfully long time since someone gave me a monster that actually was original, and nasty. Dineen delivers.
But even better than that, the author did two other things that impressed the hell out of me. The first was the exceptional writing. This does not read like a first novel. It does not read like an indie novel. The writing is confident and assured and the word choice is simply brilliant. Why this isn’t a summer blockbuster novel, right up there with the big boys of horror, I’ll never understand. It should be. Hell, it should be a movie.
The second, which goes hand-in-hand with the excellent writing, is the fact that, from the opening, I was positive I knew what was going to happen. But it didn’t. When it went in a different direction, then I was once again positive I knew where the story was going to go. It didn’t.
There’s not a lot I like better than an excellent author who also can surprise me with the story.
This books does all of that.
Read it.
