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Solitaire – Classic Card Game

Games and Entertainment

8.0 (1 Ratings) Rate It

App

We brought to life everything you love about classic solitaire. Next time you're going crazy from...

The Last Confession of Autumn Casterly

Meredith Tate

9.0 (2 Ratings) Rate It

Book

When band-geek Ivy and her friends get together, things start with a rousing board game and end with...

Hazel (2934 KP) rated Insylum in Books

Feb 4, 2018

Insylum

Z. Rider | 2015 | Horror

7.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Not to be taken at face value

This is one of those books that if you read it and then let it digest for a while, it becomes much more than it originally appears. Unfortunately, as this is quite a short story, I can’t go into much detail without giving the game away but I would suggest that if you want to get the most out of it, you don’t take it at face value.

The premise of the story is simple, two friends (Nate and AJ) spend their last night together in a “funhouse” before AJ gets shipped off to Afghanistan. The “funhouse” is not what you would find at Blackpool Pleasure Beach; there is no fun involved. From the entrance, Nate and AJ need to discard all their possessions in exchange for a pair of pyjamas and paper shoes and once inside, they are not allowed to go back - they become inmates/patients.

It doesn’t take long for the shenanigans to begin and we are “treated” to some pretty graphic descriptions of what befalls the participants. I’m quite a hardened horror reader but even some of the “treatments” made me squirm. There were a couple of “tutting” moments though as is usual with horror books (and films) whereby the characters do things that you really wouldn't do in real life but, on the whole, it’s pretty good.

I’m not sure that I can say that the main characters of Nate and AJ are particularly likeable as I didn’t feel myself warming to them at all or particularly caring about what happened to them but they are believable and well developed for such a short story.

I have read another book by Z Rider - Suckers: A Horror Novel - which was thoroughly engrossing and, like this book, has more to it than first meets the eye and I would recommend them both to anyone who enjoys this genre.

Thank you to the publisher, Dark Ride Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy in return for an honest review.