A jaw-dropping ghost story that may even frighten the ghosts!
A boy in a basement, a man in a booth and a darkness that threatens to swallow them both.
New York audiobook narrator Peter Larson and his wife Hannah head to his hometown of Maple City to help Peter’s ailing father and to put a recent tragedy behind them. Though the small, Midwestern town seems the idyllic place to start afresh, Peter and Hannah will soon learn that evil currents flow beneath its surface.
They move into an old farmhouse on the outskirts of town—a house purchased by Peter’s father at auction and kept secret until now—and start to settle into their new life.
But as Peter sets up his recording studio in a small basement room, disturbing things begin to occur—mysterious voices haunt audio tracks, malevolent shadows creep about the house. And when an insidious presence emerges from the woodwork, Peter must face old demons in order to save his family and himself.
So what did I think?
Let me start by saying that if life hadn’t gotten in the way, I would have finished this book in one sitting!
Setting aside the spooks, specters, and demons for a second, the characters in The Nightmare Room are so enjoyable. Peter Larson’s wife in all her sassiness cracked me up with her ability to wrap people around he finger. For me, she balanced the storyline. Despite the pain felt by her and Peter and the life event that caused them to move home to Maple City, she found a way to rise above and bring a little humour to an otherwise very dark storyline.
My other favourite character was Riggs. Peter’s reacquainted friend in his hometown. A live life by the day kinda guy that will chance his arm at anything!
Don’t be fooled, however, yes there are lighthearted moments that allow us time to come up for air but The Nightmare Room is very much full of nightmares, both past, and present. When the horror starts, it is relentless and you will be reading with knots in your stomach.
“The boy woke to the sound of his own screams”
The Nightmare Room is part of a series so I expected not to have full closure at the end, and while the ending did provide me with enough to satisfy my curiosity it’s also a fantastic lead into the next novel.
I will be stalking Chris’s Twitter account for a first glimpse at when book 2 in the messy man series will arrive.
Author Bio
Chris Sorensen spends many days and nights locked away inside his own nightmare room. He is the narrator of over 200 audiobooks (including the award-winning The Missing series by Margaret Peterson Haddix) and the recipient of three AudioFile Earphone Awards. Over the past fifteen years, the Butte Theater and Thin Air Theatre Company in Cripple Creek, Colorado have produced dozens of his plays including Dr. Jekyll’s Medicine Show, Werewolves of Poverty Gulch and The Vampire of Cripple Creek. He is the author of the middle-grade book The Mad Scientists of New Jersey and has written numerous screenplay including Suckerville, Bee Tornado, and The Roswell Project.
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The Nightmare Room by Chris Sorensen is available to buy now.
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