Okay, here we go! This is what I'm talking about. A no-holds barred, honest-to-goodness horror novel, perfect for Halloween. No more vague novels that are loosely horror based or have concepts that dabble in the supernatural, but a real, gritty, horrifying, terrifying book....or so I had hoped.
The story is that of Jack and Stephanie Singleton, a bickering couple on the brink of divorce, traveling lost and confused on their way to a marriage counselor when their run off the road by metal spikes in the road. The two make their way to a dingy bed and breakfast in the woods, where they encounter another couple in the same predicament as they are and the creepy, possibly inbred caretakers of the building. As night falls, it becomes clear that the seven individuals in the house are being stalked by a terrifying killer with a strange set of rules to his demented game, the most important of which being you might survive...a the cost of someone else's life.
Now, the concept of this book is what really drew me to this book. It's a solid set up. A verity of players, established yet horrific rules, a killer on the loose...let the games begin! Well, the problem is that the execution doesn't pan out too well and the resolution even worse so, but we'll come back to that. The thing is, the concept isn't the most original out there. Games, rules, doing horrific things in order to survive...this sounds familiar, doesn't it? Yeah, it's probably no surprise that Saw come out only two years before this book did and may have had a hand in inspiring it. But where Saw is just really popcorn horror at best and torture porn at worst, this story is neither mindless entertainment nor twisted and gory. It's just...kinda there.
The key elements to survival horror is the characters we're dealing with and their own arcs as they fight to not get murdered. It's too bad, therefore, that there's not much to like about these characters. They have the start of some interesting dilemmas: Jack and Stephanie handle loss in different ways, Randy and Leslie are both survivors of abuse...these can make for good characters, but we also have to like them. Jack is self-righteous, Randy is a control freak, Leslie thinks she's smarter than everyone and Stephanie is unbearably annoying. I wasn't rooting for any of them to survive because I wanted some I wanted some of them to just die already.
Which brings me to my next problem. It takes forever for things to happen in this book. While it is divided between four people as central characters, leaving one story arc hanging while we're stuck with someone else for who knows how long. Heck, one characters is left sitting in a closet for four hours because they just had nothing to do but be scared and give exposition while never actually being in danger. The pacing throughout, even when it had the ticking-clock time frame of a single night, was handled poorly and just wasn't very well written.
Now...for the ending. I don't really want to do another spoiler alert, so I won't go into too much detail but...it was so disappointing. I just kinda quit caring towards the end. I was just so exhausted by this story (or lack thereof) to care about the message the authors were trying to get across. Even then, it's so odd that I just don't think I get it. Not that I don't understand the message (they hit you over the head with that) but it's that I don't see why the situation these people are put in is necessary to achieve this goal. Yeah, I wasn't crazy about it and it felt a little like a cop-out.
Final Verdict
Yeah, instead of keeping me awake, this one kind of lulled me to sleep. It wasn't scary, it tried too hard to be deep, the characters were annoying and unpleasant, I just didn't like this one. I guess I didn't exactly hate it and, if you wanted to read it for yourself, I wouldn't stop you but suggest you save your money and check it out at your local library.
Have you read the book? What did you think? Comment below and share your thoughts. Please make sure to Follow Midnight Readings for instant updates. Have a book you'd like me to read or would like to make a recommendation? Contact me on goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/65448711-michelle-beer
Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Powerless-Shelley-Miller/dp/1543482546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519062043&sr=8-1&keywords=powerless+by+shelley+miller
Xlibris: https://www.xlibris.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001175242
Next Time: I don't think Champie's the culprit this time....
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