One thing I will say for Brian Kirk's "Will Haunt You" is that he creates a nightmarish feeling for the reader throughout the whole book. You feel off-kilter and dreamlike, not knowing where you're going or exactly what's happening or why. The characters are interesting and three dimensional and you care what happens to them. Ultimately for me, though, it ended on an unsatisfying note. I kept being concerned as I read it that it wasn't going to wrap up in a satisfying way for me. There were so many pieces of the story dangling throughout I worried that Kirk wasn't going to be able to pull them together. It was a little like my experience with "Lost" on TV. I enjoyed the ride, trusting that the creators were going to wrap up the sprawling story they had set up. For me, they didn't. And I had the same feeling here. The end was anticlimactic.

I found this book to be interesting on so many levels. You can read it as is but I had the benefit of the preliminary lead up to the release of "Will Haunt You". I am still not sure whether it was a positive benefit or not.
Imagine being given a book that in essence "reads you". As you read it, you draw the attention of a mysterious individual who forces you to play a "game" for some unknown reason. Jesse doesn't believe in the legend of the book but finds out that it is all too true. I really don't want to give much away here.
The pre-release hype was intriguing and interesting, to say the least. I am hoping that it is still available if you search online. It was absolutely brilliant though I found the book to be a bit different than I had expected but then again, it is an open book for each person who reads it. It is an open-ended question as to who or what "the individual" is and I found elements of H.P. Lovecraft with his ancient Gods. I am hoping that there will be a continuation or sequel with another down on their luck person who finds the book and we learn more about what is going on and why.

This book was creepy and odd and very interesting to read. I enjoyed it very much. I love a good scary book or movie. This book even had a little something extra. "This book was given to me for free at my request from Netgalley and I provided this voluntary review."

Not quite what I was expecting from this title, I did have fun through the journey. The cast of characters were entertaining and the feeling that the narrative could really go anywhere added to the enchantment. I am the type of reader that is ok with ambiguous endings and this left just enough open to draw my own conclusions.

How bizarre! That just about sums up this book! Quite clearly the author has a highly fervent imagination, and there is a story, however strange, here! A story of what you might do to attempt to turn back the hands of time, after all other options have been expended.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book for my honest opinion.
You really want to be on Jesse's side because he seems like he is trying to get his life on the right track. He's got great friends who get their band together and rock a bar or two. They can still get the "panty-throwing" groupies who just want to be with a rock star.
Jesse is not like the old Jesse though. He doesn't drink, he doesn't do drugs and he doesn't get a quickie from the groupies. He has a wife and a kid waiting for him at home. Jesse is the designated driver to a band mate that night and things are never going to be same.
This book keeps your attention from every gore filled page. The story takes down Jesse's past and you must attempt to figure out how he can get out of the situation, if he can survive the torture of the goons. Every time you think that he should just lay down and give up, he finds the little ounce of will to go on. His handicap son is his will to live. You will be fighting for him too. Read this book for find out why.

Scary and surreal, Brian Kirk’s Will Haunt You will do just that. A mind-bending trip where, like our unreliable narrator, you are never sure if the horrific events unfolding page by page are real or imagined. Deliciously creative, devilishly terrifying, the plot twists and turns all the way to the end.

Let’s take this from the top:

I really, really enjoyed the first 10% or so. The writing was quick and the story had me all-in.

Then...I don’t even know how to explain what happened, didn’t happen, or maybe happened. It was like some sort of bad trip that just wouldn’t end and when it DID end, it left me feeling like I had just wasted all of my time.

I wanted to like it, but I just couldn’t grasp any one past of the narrative for more than a few pages before it was ripped away and something new started. I didn’t feel any feelings toward the main character and often found myself skimming through pages toward then end so I could just move on to something new.

This might be for some reader out there, but it just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to the publisher, Flame Tree Press, and NetGalley for giving me a chance to read and review this.

I received a free ARC of this ebook from Netgalley in return for a review.
The first part of the book was great, the characters were interesting and deeply flawed and I was engaged. Then I’m not really sure what happened - rooms that shouldn’t be connected were, people weren’t really the people they looked like or maybe were clones or maybe were stuck in an experiment or
maybe were themselves but had had their minds wiped, and all the while the narrator is telling you its all connected (I can’t see how) and STOP! DON’T GO BEYOND THIS POINT AT YOUR PERIL!
There was just too much going on, I found it impossible to keep up with and had to really force myself to finish.
I’ve not read any of this authors other work, and it seems from other reviews that this book is an misstep for him but it has put me off looking at this other stuff!

A psychological horror that messes with the reader's mind are quickly picking up popularity, and I'm happy to admit that Brian Kirk's latest novel is setting up a good example for future stories yet to come. Jonathan Janz does it with some of his books, Stephen King is addicted to the approach and has mastered it, even John Ajvide Lindqvist wrote an entire novel based on such a scenario.

Making the reader a character and creating vibrant scenes of storytelling with excellent writing, Kirk is one to watch and I'm quite happy the publisher granted me access to this title.

Words can't Drs what I just attempted to read. The first six chapters are great, and then...It goes downhill from there. It was like attempting to figure out a fever dream. And then it ends, and you just feel...empty. I feel like this book could have been so much more if it had stuck to its creepy horror beginnings. But I stead, it turned into this weird existential sci fi novel that was all over the place. Skip this one by any means necessary.

'Will Haunt You' sounds good from reading the synopsis. who doesn't like the idea of a book that pretty much controls you? Sounds spooky enough, right?
The beginning starts off strong and interesting enough. It manages to grab my attention; I'm intrigued. I want more. The characters, although, not always likable, are tolerable and fit the story. The pacing is decent and I'm thrilled to read more. Half way through or towards the end, my patients wanes. I start putting the book down more then I did in the beginning. Not caring to actually pick it up, but I do out of obligation and that is never good.
It's not as if the book got really bad, it's just that the book no longer was as good as it was in the beginning. The author almost started rambling in most areas and the story became too convoluted in a lot more areas than should be acceptable.
Again, it wasn't a bad story... it just didn't live up to the hype by not managing to keep it promise of a good time.

I received an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you Netgalley.

Where to begin. The theme of this story is incredibly unique. “The book reads you.” Wow right? Well it fell a tad short for me.

If you aren’t used to the author’s writing style, you may be confused fairly easily. His writing is unlike any other author’s but is a tad abrupt.

Overall, I’d say read it for yourself with no expectations or assumptions.

2.5 stars.

WILL HAUNT YOU, by Brian Kirk, is a novel that had a spectacular marketing line: "You don't read this book. It reads you."

Along with that, there was a "prequel story", of sorts, that could be found on some sites. The allure of a book that materialized out from nowhere, and ended up with the reader ultimately listed as a "missing person", was a concept I was excited to read about.

I mention this, because the expectations it gave led me to expect something quite "supernatural" and "haunting" in style.

The novel starts out really strong. The former metal group known as The Rising Dead, were having a ten year reunion at a local bar. Aside from more missing or grey hair, and bodies no longer in their physical prime, most of the members acted as they had a decade before. Only Jesse Wheeler had really changed. He was now sober--for seven solid years--married and with a son--selling jingles to ad companies, instead of rocking out and getting drunk every night.

". . . What the biggest mistake had been. The lifestyle, or bringing others into the mix . . . "

Then the story deviates from what I was expecting, and heads off in a different mind-altering reality.

To be fair, the writing is good. I think part of why I became so lost in the plot had to do with the fact that it was nothing like the earlier "Prologue" had led me to believe. There were some scenes where I thought I knew what was going on, but seconds later we were in some new mental state with Jesse.

I'll openly admit that I was completely confused as to the hows and whys--even after the final scene. When our main character goes from his own tale into "talking directly to the reader", I was pulled right out of the story, and never really seemed to get back in.

Overall, Brian Kirk is an excellent writer, in my opinion, but the direction this particular novel took was simply not for me.

". . . I'm the one truth in a house of lies."

Aside from not having a clue why/where this was headed, I believe my problem had a lot to do with the pre-conceived notions I got from the early marketing. If I hadn't read that, would I have seen the book in a different light?

I honestly don't know.

I would love to see Kirk write a full horror novel in the future, and get the chance to connect to his writing in a less confusing/chaotic setting.

". . . Life is mostly spent waiting for something else to happen."

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Actual rating of 2.5

Don't read the book, you've been warned. Whether you take this warning to be anything but a hokey gimmick is up to you though, Jesse sure didn't take it seriously. After reading a strange book on a friends recommendation, Jesse Wheeler thinks nothing of the warnings that are printed in the front of the book, he soon finds himself the victim of some strange, sick and twisted scheme which he believes to be the work of his old band mates. He had just finished playing a reunion show with them and was on his way home when the whole thing started. He finds himself stuck in a game of cat and mouse, and he is definitely the mouse. What is the point of all this? Is it just a prank? WHAT IS GOING ON?! You'll have to finish the book to find out, but remember, you've been warned.

So I was really excited when I read the blurb for this book. It has such an interesting premise and sounded SO intriguing. We're told about a book from the dark web that warns people not to read it, I mean, come on, if it's in the horror genre, it has a creepy book in it that gives me vibes like 'The Ring', and it has reference to the dark web? Well my curiosity is just too big of a beast to pass it up. As I read this book though, I realised something...the book in the book (hahahaha) is only mentioned a handful of times...and the dark web isn't mentioned at all?? I found this incredibly strange, as it actually mentions these things in the blurb of the book. So that kind of threw me a bit.

The beginning of the story is strong, and it draw the reader in quite effortlessly. However, things start to become quite garbled as we journey further into this story of personal terror for Jesse Wheeler. By the time I hit the 40% mark, I found the pacing to be severely lacking, the story just didn't seem to be moving anywhere at all. It also seemed to have become a bit jumbled and a tad confusing, whether this was actually the point or not of the author, I'm honestly not sure. If that was Kirk's intention, by golly you did a fantastic job, if it wasn't the intention, maybe another round of beta readers and editing may fix it up. There was one part there that I have to admit, I skimmed through. There is a portion where our protagonist, the ex-rock and roll star, finds his head trapped in a device that forces him to listen to an educational spiel of sorts, about some experiments. At first I found it interesting, then I realised that it just kept going, and going, and going, and going...and you get the point. I skimmed through it because it became absolutely boring to me. Now I'm big into science, I LOVE to hear about freaky things to DO with science as well, but this I just found tedious. Maybe if this section was about a quarter of the size it'd be much better. I was also worried that by skimming this portion, I'd be missing out on something I'd need later, and while some things were mentioned again, I found that I managed perfectly fine with the small portion that I DID read. So it just seemed long winded and unnecessary to me.

I didn't mind Jesse as a protagonist. He whines a lot, but I suppose he feels he's been given a hard shot at life. He had dreams of grandeur, he was going to be a massive rock star, then when he was drunk one night, his son was injured from falling out of his cot and that ended any and all dreams that Jesse once had. He doesn't quite take responsibility for his own actions, and he gets down on himself a lot. He feels guilty basically all of the time because he doesn't want to be where he currently is in life, but feels that he owes it to whoever because of the shit that he did when he WAS a rising rock star. It just seems like one giant cycle that keeps on going forever. All in all though, he was written well, had some depth and was likeable enough, though I wish he'd grow up and stop blaming everyone else for the problems he caused himself. And maybe he should go and talk to someone about his inner feelings. See? I'm talking about him like he's a real person who can actually do these things, so he must be written well.

The secondary characters were supportive enough, Malia was obviously written the best to me because she was the star supporting character and we encounter her the most out of all the others. I liked the way they all interacted.

The story itself. As said above, the pacing drops of around the 30-40% mark, and I very nearly DNF'd this book, but I just couldn't, I really needed to know what the whole purpose of what was happening to Jesse was. So that is definitely props to this author because they made me keep reading even when my attention was not kept enthralled by the story. It was the need to know what happens at the end that kept me going. It was written well enough, at times I felt the structure of some sentences as the story progressed a bit strange. There wasn't really any flow to them after a while, and it felt very stilted. There is a definite creep factor to the content, that's for sure. A feeling of being trapped and helpless that I feel Kirk portrayed quite well. I just feel like it needed another round of readers and editing to make it shine. The ending didn't disappoint that much, it made sense, but I feel like there was too much energy spent on breaking the 4th wall, rather than just writing a damn good horror story that makes you jump at the slightest of sounds. This had massive potential to be a killer horror story, but I feel like it's not quite there yet.

If you like horror, give it a shot and see what you think. The pace does pick up again around the 60% mark, so just try to stick with it. I absolutely flew through the last third of the book.

This book was good, but not great or what I thought! It saddens me when books get all the excitement built up... Only to be let down. It was lacking a lot and i hate to say this, but I know it takes a lot to write a book....but maybe I'm missing something?

I’m going to be totally honest from the outset. I judged a book by its cover – something I often find myself guilty of. When I was looking through the list of books available for review I was instantly drawn to Will Haunt You with its spooky symbol on the jacket – but most of all it was the word “Haunt” which fished me in.

So without even reading the synopsis, I requested a copy, and entered into the Brian Kirk’s book completely blind, thinking I would be getting a supernatural yarn.

I am going to try really hard not to spoil things here so let’s just say, that this book was not at all what I was expecting. I’m sure you’ve heard it said in reviews before that a book or film doesn’t quite know what it wants to be, or which camp in which it wants to place its foot.

Will Haunt You is kind of like this, frantically leaping from one horror subgenre to another, often to quite jarring effect. One minute you think you’re reading a Ghost Story but then seconds later you’re like “Oh! It’s a Conspiracy Thriller!” only to be wrong-footed and to find it’s actually Science Fiction. Until it isn’t anymore.

Generally, this kind of split personality is rather detrimental to a story but here it absolutely works. It keeps the reader on their toes, wondering what will be next, just like the besieged protagonist Jesse, who blunders from one crazy situation to another, becoming more and more confused as he continues on his nightmare journey of discovery. While reading I was put in mind of a number of classic horror and thriller movies and books which I could favourably compare this to, but to tell you which ones would probably ruin some of the surprises along the way, so I won’t!

Once I had read the book I went back to look at the blurb, and I’m glad I didn’t read it beforehand. It’s kind of spoilery, but also not really! Think twice about considering doing so if this is on your To Read List.

But did I like it?

Very much so.

The small cast of characters are well drawn and relatable, Jesse especially, who is very much the archetypal set-upon everyman, and for whom I felt a great deal of sympathy despite some of the upsetting things which are revealed about him along the way. The pace moves along like a juggernaut, unstoppable until the final act which kept me reading late into the night to find out how it was going to end.

First and foremost, despite its changeable nature, this is most definitely a horror novel and it’s here where it succeeds the most. Kirk’s descriptive powers had my gripping my book a little too tightly at times and during many of the creepier passages, I noticed that the hairs on my arms were raised! A week after finishing it, I am still thinking about it. So, despite saying that I didn't get the experience I was expecting, that’s not a bad thing: the book did exactly what it announced it would from the outset.

Will Haunt You will haunt you!

Kirk’s new novel, ‘Will Haunt You’ is an interesting premise that seems to get lost within itself as much as the main character opus. Although there is a lot on offer with the novel, there are things that become a bit laborious whilst reading. There is some sheer brilliance also found with the pages but overall, it doesn’t really hang together particularly well.

The characters are very strong but for the most part very unlikable. I personally could not relate to any character which became problematic for me. The main characters is one of those people who never truly takes responsibility for his actions and falls victim to his own series of events that leads him through his own purgatory. Jesse Wheeler is an ex alcoholic who was in a heavy metal band and this is often used as an excuse for his personality.

The secondary characters are very well drawn but do suffer from an unlikable quality that stops the reader becoming very involved. To counter point this, the characters are very well drawn and Kirk has a real talent of making them come alive. They are extremely life like and even those this is a feather in his cap, it also provides a downfall in the same way due to the ugliness of it all.

The plot is long winded and interesting for the most part but at times, I found my brain wandering whilst reading. The premise is extremely good but is long winded from getting from point a to b. The passages are very well written and Kirk does have a very good talent of bringing things to the fore with an underlying menace the flows throughout the novel.

Overall, the book is well written but meanders which personally, feel like an elongated short story with a bit too much padding. Kirk is a very talented writer but unfortunately, this book never really took off for myself and I am not really quite sure if this is personal. There are pure moments of brilliance with long winding plot points. The book’s climax is what really sells the book but it takes a while to get there and Kirk does bring it all together. The novel does haunt you by the end but can’t say it was a book that I enjoyed. I really wanted to love this book but it fell short for myself but there is an audience out there that hopefully this will speak to better than myself.

I was initially unsure about my feelings toward this book. The more I read the more engrossed I became. I was drawn to the characters and felt myself drawn into the darkness and depravity of the situation Jesse found himself in.

I loved loved loved the concept of this book: the dark web, the creepiness, the idea that reading a book can shape your destiny (I had Ring in mind when I read the description).....seemed like a good time & a perfect fit for me!

Unfortunately, there were things I just couldn’t quite get past. The plot became very confusing at times and it was difficult to hold onto all the strange details while reading at night due to insomnia. This was most likely my issue, as my tired brain just couldn’t handle it.

Also, the visceral goriness began to get to me and I just don’t generally enjoy that type of horror. To a certain extent, of COURSE it is necessary, and I get it, but then enough is enough.

Overall, 2 stars. I don’t think this was a poorly written book - don’t get me wrong!!! It just wasn’t to my taste. I’m sure others have thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was brilliant! To each their own!