First and foremost, I'm a huge Ronald Malfi fan. I couldn't wait to finally get my hands on this novel since I didn't grab up a signed/limited copy. Was it worth the wait? Most definitely.
The Narrows reads like a Malfi novel normally does. Very intricately worded and a steadily flowing story telling style that can't be beat. What this novel does past that, is create a world you become enveloped in, and feel part of the characters within.
A small town with a history of flooding and hard times is struck with a bat infestation and troubled occurrences, some of which these flood waters have brought with them.
Two young boys go on a little adventure to a side of town that is strictly forbidden, to look for a dead deer out of curiosity. After finding the deer though, one of the boys sees a man by an abandoned building, and thinks it is his long lost father who walked out on him and his family. Could it really be his father, or could it be something of another plane?
When a local officer finds a floating child's body (this is the tie in from The Boy in the Lot, a free short story on your eReader), questions start to surface at the condition of the body, and what could have happened to create such a horrific sight. Shortly after, the young boy who thought he saw his father has up and disappeared.
A woman is driving home from a night of infidelity, and strikes... something, with her car. In a fit of terror she finds a neighboring man and asks him to help her find the body of what she thinks is a young boy she hit. When nobody can find a body or blood, and only damage to her car, questions start to arise as to what it could have been.
This novel strings together a cast of characters that only a storyteller like Ronald Malfi can truly put forth. He winds together a horror story with monsters of both the human and non-human kind throughout, and keeps the pacing at a steady stream, such as the flood waters in the small town in which the story is set. I want to elaborate more, but to tell a whole lot more would be a spoiler of the book. I would say this is definitely in my top three novels of his, and I'm glad it finally came out for the masses in paperback. On top of that, to come from Samhain Publishing, the new home of Don D'Auria is great, who many of you know, is of fame from the defunct Leisure.
Overall rating : A
Review by Kyle Lybeck
The Narrows reads like a Malfi novel normally does. Very intricately worded and a steadily flowing story telling style that can't be beat. What this novel does past that, is create a world you become enveloped in, and feel part of the characters within.
A small town with a history of flooding and hard times is struck with a bat infestation and troubled occurrences, some of which these flood waters have brought with them. Two young boys go on a little adventure to a side of town that is strictly forbidden, to look for a dead deer out of curiosity. After finding the deer though, one of the boys sees a man by an abandoned building, and thinks it is his long lost father who walked out on him and his family. Could it really be his father, or could it be something of another plane?
When a local officer finds a floating child's body (this is the tie in from The Boy in the Lot, a free short story on your eReader), questions start to surface at the condition of the body, and what could have happened to create such a horrific sight. Shortly after, the young boy who thought he saw his father has up and disappeared.
A woman is driving home from a night of infidelity, and strikes... something, with her car. In a fit of terror she finds a neighboring man and asks him to help her find the body of what she thinks is a young boy she hit. When nobody can find a body or blood, and only damage to her car, questions start to arise as to what it could have been.
This novel strings together a cast of characters that only a storyteller like Ronald Malfi can truly put forth. He winds together a horror story with monsters of both the human and non-human kind throughout, and keeps the pacing at a steady stream, such as the flood waters in the small town in which the story is set. I want to elaborate more, but to tell a whole lot more would be a spoiler of the book. I would say this is definitely in my top three novels of his, and I'm glad it finally came out for the masses in paperback. On top of that, to come from Samhain Publishing, the new home of Don D'Auria is great, who many of you know, is of fame from the defunct Leisure.
Overall rating : A
Review by Kyle Lybeck
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