gilda_elise

In the small town of Green Hill, all the children belong to an evil, magical, and entirely secret cult. For generations, every child in Green Hill has belonged to this cult until he reaches puberty. Then all evil, and all memory of evil acts committed, disappears. Only the children know of the ceremonies that take place on moonlit nights and in the caves that lie underneath the town's foundations...

Ben Tompkins has never seen a nicer bunch of people than the ones he met in Green Hill. That’s why he decided to move himself and his son, Jimmy, there when his wife had a horrifying mental breakdown. Ben doesn’t know about the children of Green Hill. But Jimmy is about to discover their terrifying secret…and pay the price for that knowledge.

Maybe not the worst horror story I’ve read, but it comes pretty close. I really could have done without the explicit torture. He especially seemed to have a thing about torturing animals, though the main character goes through so much I don’t really see how he could have survived. I had to skim a lot of that.

All that is too bad, because the premise showed promise. But much of it went unexplained, so the reader is left with some basic questions unanswered. Plus, the characters, the children especially, were pretty two dimensional.

I’ve read other books by this author and enjoyed them. So maybe this being his first novel has something to do with it not being up to par. Fortunately, it’s a fast read.