I love a good apocaliptic horror novel. This one was one of the best i hae read in a while. I would recommend and read more about this author

If Sci-fi is your thing you will love this. It has all a fan needs to become totally immersed - alternate worlds, demonic serial killers, undead spectres, enormous vultures, incredible landscapes, it really does have it all. It was fast paced and well written. I enjoyed it a lot and can't wait to read more from Jerome Sitko in the future.

This is undoubtedly a well written book and of a genre I usually enjoy but for some reason I just could not get into the story.

i really enjoyed reading this book, it had what I wanted from a horror novel and scifi novel. The characters were great and I had a great time going through this read.

Lance and his friends are enjoying their summer vacation. After all, he has escaped with his. Friends from the alternative world known as Sheol. He has nightmares from that experience. Lance is determined to go back to Sheol as he left his friend Ryan back there in Sheol. Sheol is a horrible world. Charlie is a demonic serial killer who takes great pleasure in having humans who follow hi commands without question. Those humans are truly not human anymore but groupings. Lance knows how dangerous it is to go back but wants to save Ryan. Will Lance go? Lance wants his friends to go with him and help him. Will they go with him?
This book would benefit from a longer running time. Enjoyable but slight.

Thank you, NetGalley, for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased opinion! Here it is:

I love a good apocalyptic novel. This one was definitely one that I would add to the books that I would recommend to my friends. What made me like this book even more is that it was partially set in 1984. As a child of the 80s, that was fantastic!!! At times, this book made me think "OMG, why would they do that?" Just as in a a lot of horror movies, the actions of the characters makes you want to take them and shake them and tell them to stop acting so stupid! This book would make a great book in a longer series. It definitely has the potential of drawing the reader in, longing for more.

I came into this book really looking forward to enjoying it. I thought that coming back into science fiction I'd enjoy this one, but I couldn't even keep my eyes on the page longer than five minutes at a time. As for writing though. The author is a fantastic writer; just this novel wasn't for me.

I think that there is a story here. But it gets lost in the leanness of the story.
For instance, I am constantly thinking...ok...what happened before that I should know about but the author does not explain?
I liked that there was a rescue mission, but was unclear why they needed to rescue.
I liked the Erebus and the Sheul world...reminded me of Stranger things.
However, the characters were poorly developed, the backstory not flushed out, and new characters introduced for convenience..ie. RENO.
the author spent so much time on describing cannibalism, then describing the worlds, the characters motivations, and what had happened before.

There is a story, there is a great dystopian/sci fi story...but its NOT coming through!

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into romance stories and girlie books therefore am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

I enjoyed this very much. 4 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟

I went into this book expecting that it would be a fantasy novel. Although I took the time to read the synopsis I still believed that it would quench my need to read another great fantasy.

Unfortunately I was disappointed at this book for multiple reasons. In my opinion it is more of a horror with fantasy elements. I felt that the book jumped around too much between characters and worlds without giving the reader any indication of when it would. In addition, the ending was done in a way that everything immediately was perfect.y wound up. It just didn't check any boxes for me when it comes to a fantasy novel and I ended up taking way too many days to read this because of it.

I would recommend this to people who like horror and also like fantasy.

Lance and his friends are enjoying their summer vacation. After all, he has escaped with his. Friends from the alternative world known as Sheol. He has nightmares from that experience. Lance is determined to go back to Sheol as he left his friend Ryan back there in Sheol. Sheol is a horrible world. Charlie is a demonic serial killer who takes great pleasure in having humans who follow hi commands without question. Those humans are truly not human anymore but groupings. Lance knows how dangerous it is to go back but wants to save Ryan. Will Lance go? Lance wants his friends to go with him and help him. Will they go with him?

This is a horror novel that moves quickly. The suspense kept me wondering what would or wouldn’t happen. I liked how Lance loved his dog. It’s a story that makes you realize how lucky one can be just living an ordinary life. The story shows what friendship is all about along with loyalty. It tells how one goes into challenges that they fear might not survive. It’s a story that can be read without reading the prior story.

What I liked

I love the premise. The two-worlds theory is really interesting to me, especially since I prescribe to the multi-verse theory of the universe. The premise that you can die in one world but not in the other is also very interesting to me. I wish the author had gone into a little bit more detail about that part, and gave a little bit more about how the two worlds differ. It almost seems as though one world is "hell," but the author never actually describes it as such.

I like that when the friends do speak with one another, they are honest. They don't seem to have much passive-aggressiveness between them, which is refreshing. They seem to really be able to depend on one another, which will be important on their quest to save their friend.

The author is very honest about what the kids do and do not know. Even without dialog between the characters, the author is good at explaining when the kids have no idea what is going on. The book is very honest that way.

What I didn't like

My biggest complaint with this book is that it feels like it should be a sequel. Too much is explained about the past as the story goes along. It has the feel that a whole book could have been written before this one, and it would have made a lot more sense. This doesn't make the book unreadable, but gives it a "not quite finished" feel. I would love to read a "prequel" by the author, that is about the boys' first adventure in Sheol.

On first glimpse, it's obvious that this is the author's first book. I noticed a couple glaring mistakes that a professional editor should have noticed. For me, this affects my overall enjoyment of the book.

I can't think of a book comparison that would make sense, as this is the first book of its kind that I've ever read. Other than some descriptions of cannibalism, I'm not even sure this book belongs in the Horror genre. I did enjoy that the author had different names for the two world, other than just "Earth" and "Hell."

The book is description driven, rather than character or action-driven. The characters don't actually talk much. They each have feelings that they express, but it's all as if it's in their heads. This actually irritates me just a little bit.

The book is also very wordy, as if the author couldn't quite figure out what he wanted to say, so used as many words as he could to cover it up. It almost feels like a first draft.

The Rating

All in All, I would have to give this book 3 stars. I couldn't get past the grammatical mistakes I ran across, and the book just isn't my cup of tea. This book seems more like a description based thriller than a horror book, so thriller fans might find this book interesting. I did finish the book, in order to give an honest review, but I doubt I will ever read the book again. If the author decides to write a prequel, I would definitely be interested to get the back story on the characters.

Conclusion

While I myself didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would, I can't discount the fact that the author had some very good ideas. The execution of the ideas just needed some additional tweaking, and maybe a professional editor and proofreader to take care of grammatical mistakes. My 3-star rating is based squarely on the fact that this book just isn't my personal cup of tea. I think that sci-fi fans would be remiss to not at least give this book a shot, because while very different, the ideas behind this book are unique and engaging.