Wednesday, July 8, 2015

We Are Monsters - by Brian Kirk - A valiant first novel

4 of 5 Stars     Review copy

This is the first published novel for Brian Kirk, the father of twin boys, who makes his home in Atlanta, Ga.

From the 1st page of We Are Monsters...

"The Apocalypse has come to the Sugar Hill mental asylum.

He's the hospital's newest, and most notorious, patient--a paranoid schizophrenic who sees humanity's dark side.

Luckily he's in good hands.  Dr. Eli Alpert has a talent for healing tortured souls.  And his protégé is working on a cure for schizophrenic, a drug that returns patients to their former selves.  But unforeseen side effects are starting to emerge.  Forcing prior traumas to the surface.  Setting inner demons free.

Monsters have been unleashed inside the Sugar Hill mental asylum.  They don't have fangs or claws.
They look just like you or me."

I always make notes as I read and three-fifths of the way through We Are Monsters I noted that I kept waiting for this book to take flight, but it never seemed to get off the ground. Well-written, but I would have liked it to have been so much more.

To that point, the book seemed more like a treatise on the care and treatment of the mentally ill in a modern day asylum than a horror story, but I will admit, once the horror is finally unleashed the action is fast and furious.  At times surreal, the payoff was definitely worth the wait.

From Samhain Horror, We Are Monsters is available now in both paperback and e-book formats.

Recommended for the patient horror fan.





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