Before You Sleep – Adam L.G. Nevill
Reviewed by Steve Stred
Yup. Steve is admitting that this is his first time reading Nevill. In reality –I tried to read Before You Wake: Three Horrors (the companion ebook to this one) last year, and just didn’t enjoy the first story. Shamefully, I re-read that first story last night and loved it
Anyways –back to this one.
Like I said, I’ve not read Nevill, but that’s going to absolutely be changing. Since the first day that I connected with Gavin aka Mr. Kendall Reviews himself, he’s been harassing me to read Clive Barker and Adam Nevill. Finally, after hundreds of thousands of messages, I’ve committed. I have a number of Nevill’s works, and will be focusing on making my way through the books I have. I have watched ‘The Ritual’ movie, but I’m usually a bigger fan of the books than movies!
As for this short but brutal collection, Before You Sleep features three stories to get you engaged and involved in Nevill’s writing world, and boy do they ever.
We start off with the phenomenal ‘Where Angels Come In.’ This is a folklorish/urban legend story about a mysterious house. It’s the house that everyone dares each other to go in. It’s where those that do go in aren’t the same if they make it out.
This just drips with unnerving tension. I was riveted from start to finish and just ate this up. Outstanding.
The second story is ‘The Ancestors,’ and if you thought story one was going to be the high point of ‘haunted house’ stuff in this collection –you’d be wrong. This one flips the script from ‘Where Angels Come In,’ and we are introduced to a young family who has moved to this house to try and let some real-life stuff settle down. While here, the young girl makes friends with a mysterious figure, ‘Maho’ who lets her sleep in her hair at night. The toys that reside in the house come alive at night and as things unravel and discoveries are made, you understand just how deeply the house is connected to its unconventional residents.
The final story, ‘Florrie,’ is also a take on house haunting, but this one once again goes in a completely different direction. We follow a young male adult who has purchased a house and is excited to renovate it and make it his own. It doesn’t take long until he develops a connection with the house and as well with the former resident. Completely unsettling in the best way possible.
So, final verdict? Consider me a fan. Consider me completely at a loss about why it took me this long. I promise Mr. Nevill to not sit around and push his works aside anymore.
This is my pledge to the great horned one. May he accept my apologies and not spear me through the chest.
KR: I should add that this collection is FREE. So please make sure you grab a copy.
Before You Sleep
A trilogy of horror stories from the award-winning writer’s first collection of short stories – SOME WILL NOT SLEEP – and an introduction to the nightmarish visions and ghastly spectres that have been disturbing the sleep of readers for years.
In this book, you’ll find two ghost stories and a tale of ancestral demoniac horror.
Before You Sleep is available FREE from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Steve Stred
Steve Stred writes dark, bleak horror fiction.
Steve is the author of the novels Invisible & The Stranger, the novellas The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick, and the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun.
On September 1st, 2019 his second collection of dark poetry and drabbles called The Night Crawls In will arrive. This release was specifically created to help fund the 1st Annual LOHF Writers Grant.
Steve is also a voracious reader, reviewing everything he reads and submitting the majority of his reviews to be featured on Kendall Reviews.
Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
You can visit Steve’s Official website here
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