Cursed: Ashley Lister
Reviewed By Steve Stred
I’ve read the first two books in Lister’s ‘A Dark Tale From Innsmouth’ series and enjoyed both of them.
Ashley actually sent me book three as well, but as happens from time to time, this ended up in my spam folder and for some reason, it wouldn’t release back to regular email.
Thankfully, Ashley was kind enough to send this back over – successfully I might add and I dove in.
Of the three I’ve read so far, this was the most solid of the novellas and shows a really dark progression about the going on’s in Innsmouth.
What I liked: ‘Cursed’ follows a group called from Innsmouth University called ‘The Explorer’s Club.’ They meet weekly in abandoned buildings and when there, they share stories of the paranormal and supernatural.
In ‘Cursed’ a new person comes along to see what the group is like. Unfortunately, this person is more than they seem and the group becomes involved in something they never expected.
Lister does a great job here of creating characters that really get under your skin. You want to see what happens, but at the same time, you’ve got no problem when a character meets a horrendous fate.
Once again, Lister loosely connects this story to the other two, but in this case, it’s very minor. I did enjoy the dark characters that are injected and hope we get to see more of them in future releases.
What I didn’t like: I found the ending to be a bit rushed and didn’t offer me the level of emotion I’d expected to have that the first half of the book had created. The ending itself made sense and works well, I just wish it was expanded a bit and not so abrupt.
Why you should buy this: If you’re looking for quick, dark reads, Lister’s ‘A Dark Tale From Innsmouth’ series is a great group of tales to tickle those urges. Lister loves to go dark and brutal, and the set up is always solid and makes you want to turn the page.
Cursed
Innsmouth University’s Explorers Club meet once a month to share stories of the supernatural. They meet in empty houses, abandoned buildings and derelict churches. They meet in the dead of night. They tell stories of the impossible, the unbelievable and the most terrible. And now, it appears, their meetings have been cursed.
You can buy Cursed from Amazon UK & Amazon US
Steve Stred
Steve Stred is the author of a number of novels, novellas and collections. He has appeared in anthologies with some of Horror’s heaviest hitters.
He lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with his wife, son and their dog OJ.
You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred
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You can visit Steve’s Official website here
Might have to give this one a try! 🙂