Olivia has been missing for months. Her family have tried to accept that perhaps she’ll never be found, and they’ll never know what happened. So when her brother Craig unexpectedly receives a stack of letters from Liv, all written not long after her disappearance, he’s both excited and frightened. Reading through her correspondence, Craig begins to get a sense of where she was, but he still doesn’t know where she is now, or if she’s still alive. Using what clues he can from the old letters, Craig sets off with his partner and his father to find Olivia, hoping for the best, fearing the worst.
Dark bleatings, my precious tribe! Today I’m reviewing a book that I read about a month ago. At the time of writing this, I have JUST finished an enormous review request binge (a month long, obsessive read-a-thon of all my hitherto pending review requests). I usually write my reviews right away, but didn’t have time, on account of the mad amount of books left to read. I only mention this because A) distance from the book has made me like it even more and B) the fact that I remember this book so well without having to refer to my notes at first is a testament to how good a job the author did with the elements I loved.
So, Craig’s sister, Liv, has been missing for a while but no one has noticed because it’s not unlike her to just go off-radar. He realises she’s disappeared when he suddenly receives a stack of letters from her that had been delivered to his neighbour by mistake. Liv met someone and went off to live in a commune with a few others, and it is evident through her account that something’s fucky (though she doesn’t quite see this herself).
Craig rallies the troops to go looking for her when her letters abruptly stop, and…. things… are discovered.
My gripes when I read this – and they do still stand – are mostly to do with Liv’s letters. She’s a little repetitive (“I’m not meant to be writing to you but I am anyway, woohoo!” – stated numerous times), and they’re also a little expositional. She’s stating a lot of things, and I think her experiences would have been a bit more intriguing if rather than this, she was just sort of innocently describing her day-to-day in a way that allows us, the reader, to read between the lines. Additionally, Craig’s thoughts tend to hammer home the hints she does give, as if the author was afraid we might not get them otherwise, when actually he’d done a fine job setting things up.
With that said, when it came time to write this review, I had forgotten my complaints until I looked at my notes. What I did remember quite clearly, unassisted by my mad scribblings, were all of the story’s great points. I feel it important to mention that because I do recommend this book and though, in the interest of writing a fair and honest review, I did need to air my criticisms, I urge people not to be deterred by my whinging. I think it says something that I only remembered my favourite things.
I loved the format. It switches between Craig’s perspective, and Liv’s letters, and I always absolutely love it when authors tell their story with this type of variety. Liv’s first person perspective really helped me to get to know her personality very well, considering we had never actually met her or got to see her interact with anyone in person.
I also LOVE the commune (cult) details. I’m a huge folk horror fan and many stories of this subgenre employ the use of communes and cults, and I bloody love them. I LOVE THEM, goddamnit! There is just something so inherently sinister to me about the thought of being indoctrinated into something altogether unsavoury by someone I like and trust. That really gives me the good horrors. The other thing that always reels me in to stories that feature these types of groups is that there are so many directions the story could go in, so it’s so much fun reading along waiting to find out if we’re going real-world or supernatural, or demonic, or something mystical, etc.
This story straddled a lot of lines pretty well and kept me guessing, and I really enjoyed it. I’d recommend it to horror readers that enjoy stories about cults, and difficult familial relationships. If you’d like to get a copy or check out the author, there are some links below for you:
Bleeeeeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
Leave a comment