Tethered: Bryce Gibson
Reviewed By Steve Stred
- Paperback: 162 pages
- Publisher: Independently published (22 April 2019)
“Some people say that the land where I grew up won’t let anybody leave.”
While the title may say County Line Horror #4, I jumped into this book without having read any of the prior releases in that line, and it’s safe to say you don’t have too. I suspect somewhere along the line we get some cross visiting characters or towns, but at no point did I feel lost or that I should’ve read something prior.
‘Tethered’ follows Aiken, our main character as he tries to turn his life around following a poorly thought through prank that backfired and got him and his pal Brent in a whole heap of trouble.
He’s moved in with his girlfriend and her infant son. He’s dropped out of school but has a decent job.
Then his sister does something awful and he has too many to drink, gets pulled over – DUI.
While he does the field sobriety tests, he catches some motion in the woods and a massive Rottweiler appears.
This is where Gibson throws us into a real fun, fast-paced ‘who-done-it’ mystery tale. I read this in one sitting and found the words just threw themselves off of the page. As the story unravels you’ll be guessing about who is causing all of this grief, but also finding yourself angry and frustrated over the small town mentality against the family Pine.
For the first time reading Gibson’s work, I have to say, he is an incredibly enjoyable storyteller. He works in a very efficient fashion – fewer words that still create big pictures. In a sentence or two, he’d describe the trees or the trailer or whatever and you were transported there.
I personally seem to be able to find great reads that have dogs on the covers, without reading the synopsis. I was gifted a copy of ‘The Art of Racing in the Rain’ by Garth Stein. I snagged a copy of ‘Unsaid’ by Neil Abramson years ago in the Calgary airport and devoured it. And now ‘Tethered.’ Three very different books, but each book is filled with family, heart and some tense drama.
Definitely a book I’ll be recommending to a lot of my fellow thriller fans.
Tethered
THE BITE IS WORSE THAN THE BARK!
The rural area where nineteen-year-old Aiken Pine grew up is a place that nobody seems to leave, but Aiken is one that got away—at least for a little while.
Before Aiken became a high school dropout, he had big plans for the future. But one horrible mistake changed everything.
When his younger sister stabs the head cheerleader, Aiken is forced to go home. Everybody says it was bullying that led to the fight, but Aiken is convinced there’s more to the story.
As he begins to unravel the mystery, Aiken is faced with other things from the past—an intricate web of secrets and lies among high school friends.
And, even with all of that, Aiken has another problem… there’s a sinister dog that’s been following him around.
A dog that’s out for blood!
You can buy Tethered 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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