Let me just start off by saying that I'm going to avoid discussing plot details that are anything above and beyond what you can readily gather from the summary.
My suggestion is that you skip the summary AND any reviews (other than mine of course *wink*) and just go into this one blind.
Mother Horror notes: It took me a little while to get involved. To settle in and to enjoy myself. I kept wanting to get out ahead of the pacing and muscle through the confusion but I wish I would have reminded myself to just relax and let it happen.
This is a bit of a slow burn; Pyper keeps all the answers just out of reach for a long time. The game here is to see if you can just hang with these characters long enough to find out what the actual hell is going on.
Much like the show LOST, thousands of questions are presented without an immediate promise to answer them. Many loose ends left dangling at the ends of chapters; very little forward movement on any of the several, big mysteries happens before another plot twist comes and blows all your theories out the door.
Typically, this would frustrate me but Andrew Pyper does a few things very well that saved it for me.
* He writes interesting characters that engage in authentic dialogue.
* Pyper's storytelling narrative is so casual and effortless, the words just melt away and the drama plays out in my mind as the pages fly.
* There is plenty of creepy imagery and supernatural elements to keep an avid horror reader intrigued.
Lastly, I just had to know how this ended.
This is an unpredictable, highly addictive read where the author is totally in control of unpacking this mystery/horror/thriller exactly the way he wants it done. The reader should just take a back seat and let the story unfold without trying too hard to figure everything out--just enjoy being enraptured by the tale. I certainly did.