Author: brokenwires

Genre: Short story/horror

What I liked about this book:

This came very close to hitting home as a horror story. The plot is detailed and for the most part well thought out, and it had a hooky beginning. I liked the bits with the victims and the detectives all being family (and then being one in the same).

What I did NOT like about this book:

It's way, way too short. It also needs to decide what genre it is.

It reads like a mystery, but is clearly supposed to be horror. I don't have any sort of visceral reaction to it other than curiosity over who the killer is. I should be grossed out, but I'm not. The author made the very common mistake of going so overboard with the gore descriptions that they just kind of slid off my brain without making an impact.

Pick one detail. The red of the blood. The ragged edges of the cut. Pick only that detail. Just describe that. That's how you make nasty gore prose. Too many details and it gets diluted and loses its effect, because it starts to sound fake.

The part about not knowing what the materials were made no sense to me because the police don't have a database of every material that's ever existed. The family part didn't have any effect either because I got no chance to get to know this chick before she died. 

Work on the realism, pick a genre, and make the piece longer, and it would be great.

Overall:

It's a fun read but not as good as it easily could be.

Rating: 

7/10. Needs improvement, but decent.