This week, superfan Sally Feliz shares her review of Red Hill Paradise by Caleb Jones! Sally has been a longtime friend and fan of Uncomfortably Dark and a friend and supporter to many in the indie horror world. We are so pleased to be able to share her thoughts on this new book!
Enjoy!
Red Hill Paradise
by Caleb Jones
I love reading a book when you can feel that the author put their entire heart and soul into it. I truly felt that with this one. Caleb shows tremendous growth in his writing in Red Hill Paradise, and I am thrilled. I've enjoyed everything I've read by him, but his skill and craft are definitely elevated here.
Red Hill Paradise begins with a young couple and their 4 month old firstborn arriving at a rental cabin in the remote woods of West Virginia. Caleb lulls you into thinking this will be a well-written vacation gone wrong tale. Nope! I mean, lots of things go wrong, no doubt, but it's so much more than that. At some point, this book turns into a full-blown nightmare.
It switches from a slow burn, creep fest, into a tale of one of my greatest fears. I'm not telling you what that is, it would be a spoiler, but it's terrifying. Caleb captures the panic and fear of these characters so brilliantly, and these feelings are compounded because he does some terrific work early on in the book to establish a strong reader/ character relationship.
There are some scenes in this book that are so damn weird, and I loved them! There is also a good bit of well-executed body horror, never gratuitous, always serving the plot well.
I highly recommend picking this up, Caleb really went for it this time and succeeded 100%!
Get it here:
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