The coastal town of Dorsal Finn is no stranger to the fantastic and the bizarre. A dark heart beats beneath its cobblestone skin and the rhythm is a beacon for all things devious and evil. Only its reluctant sentinel, Beatrice Beecham, keeps the town free from the terrible entities that it attracts.
Now Dorsal Finn has four new visitors. They look like a regular gang of youths, yet they are anything but human. Masters of manipulation and skilled in deception, these beings have their own agenda. Their tools to move their plans forward include an esoteric device and a terrifying cosmic creature with deadly intent.
And, unless she can stop them, the ritual sacrifice of Beatrice’s best friends.
Dark bleatings, my beloved tribe! I’m talking about a YA horror from one of my absolute favourite indies today, Dave Jeffery. In my opinion, he’s an exceptionally talented writer, and an even more exceptional human being. Next to the word “kindness” in the dictionary, you should find a picture of Dave. And those are just two of the reasons that I feel dreadful. He requested that I review this book ages ago and since I had already bought it, I assured him that it would be done “soon”. Well, I’m an effing idiot, somehow this book ended up falling down behind my desk, and from my mind it vanished. I knew that I was forgetting something, but I could never remember the “something” I was forgetting, just that I was forgetting it. And then, during a wild procrastination session (funnily enough, I decided to deep clean my office and rearrange the furniture instead of writing book reviews), I moved out my desk, and taaaadaaaaaaa.
So Dave, if you read this, my sincerest apologies for the ridiculous delay. And now, on to the review!
This story is a big dollop of horror sprinkled with some sci-fi fantasy. It’s pretty light on the actual sci-fi – the concept initially seems to have been birthed from the genre but there’s no sci-fi jargon or anything, no scientists explaining a black hole to astronauts who should already know what one is, using just a pencil and a piece of paper. But I digress. I’d summarise it as an entertaining YA horror romp told from multiple viewpoints.
Four aliens inhabiting teen human bodies have enormous potential to wreak the most insane havoc. We also have human characters. Something I do struggle with (more and more as I age, now that I realise it… with horror, I might add…) is more than, like, three characters is often quite troublesome for me. I am easily confused by multiple viewpoints because I tend to lose track of who is who. However, I always trust this author to guide me, and my mind-scramble didn’t last long before I got to grips with everyone. He’s excellent with characters, is Dave, which is one of my favourite things about his writing.
He’s also an excellent storyteller. I love books set in the real world, but with something incredible within it, and this did not disappoint. I very much enjoyed the chaos here, and following these characters through a series of highs and lows. Also, the ending was fabulous!
It’s another excellent read from Dave Jeffery, and I recommend it to YA horror fans who enjoy a little bit of a genre blend. If you’d like to check out the book or the author (you should!), there are some links below for you:
Happy Goat Horror 
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