Product Description

Imagine your worst fear. A fear that eats away at you - fear of death, of illness, of needles, of fire. Even of feelings. The people who live in Roxton know what it's like to live like that. But they have no choice. Emma Tate had lived with her fear of losing everything for more than two years. Her job is in jeopardy, her parents have been killed in a car crash, her life is collapsing around her. She, her husband and two friends attempt to seek peace in a luxury house in the countryside close to Roxton for two weeks. But the village of Roxton LIKES fear - it has a force within it which needs fear to sustain it and help it grow. And Emma and her companions cannot avoid becoming fearful...For Emma and the others there will be no waking from THIS nightmare...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89986 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'Shaun Hutson is significantly better than many other Brits. His short, cliffhanger-capped chapters propel you through the story at pace; Hutson takes us, breathless, over the finish line at a point where King or Koontz would still be doing their stretching exercises' - SFX 'One of the best fiction books of the year and one that has strengthened Shaun Hutson's reputation as Britain's greatest living horror genre author' - Dark Side

About the Author
Shaun Hutson is a bestselling author of horror fiction and has written novels under eight different pseudonyms. He has also contributed stories to 'Kerrang' and 'Raw' and used to host Sky TV's 'Monsters of Rock' programme.

Customer Reviews

Twist or stick . . .
For a long time now, Hutsonites have been praying that the Godfather of Gore would make a full return to his horror roots and many thought that this book would signal just that. But while it definitely nods its head in that direction, it's more slow burn supernatural chills than all out bloody horror.

The story follows two couples, both in some way disfunctional, each individual battling their own demons. They go away for a break to the sleepy town of Roxton. As you might expect though, something is rotten in the heart of Roxton and it seems to have something to do with a local mining catastrophe some years previously.

Settled in their holiday home, the Tates and the Mortons dance around their problems and each other and Hutson does a good job of creating a sense of 'walking on eggshells' in this mini-drama, which is, for the most part, more about people than screaming terror.

In one sense, this is a good thing, because one thing that Hutson has been accused of in the past is lack of characterisation - something he seems to attempt to remedy here. Unfortunately, come the end of the story, I couldn't help feel that all the 'horror' was kept for the end rather than spread effectively through the narrative. There are also a series of interludes involving secondary characters whose purpose, obviously, is to infuse the tale with the sense of the supernatural, to give some kind of explanation when the finale comes, but at least a couple of them feel utterly, utterly pointless and unresolved at the end, almost like Hutson forgot he'd written them, or just couldn't be bother resolving them. He has done this before though - see Stolen Angels.

Without ruining the end, it feels tagged on, rushed, totally unbelievable and a bit of a let down, especially given the good job Hutson had done up to that point of making you care about some of these people - something he usually doesn't bother doing.

In conclusion, a decent enough effort from Hutson but not a patch on previous horror outings like Erebus and Relics. I am now waiting for Dying Words, which sounds like it sits much more in the horror camp. Twisted Souls is definitely worth a purchase, but don't expect to be blown away.

A slow starter but give it a chance
You'll get half way through this book thinking that its leading nowhere and there's nothing spectacular about the story. Then, just as your about to put it down all the thrills of a typical Hutson Horror come flooding through. Its a book for the real Hutson fans but its a cracker.

thrills you with the surprises
Starts by lulling you into a false sense of safety with the mundane but then, wow, grabs you and never lets you go with the horror of it all. A really good thriller.