Review: The Nightmare Girl - by Jonathon Janz

5 of 5 Stars     Review Copy

It's a sad thing when an author's work is no longer available because the publisher goes out of business, but it's wonderful when a new publisher sees value in putting that book back into the world.  Such was the fate of The Nightmare Girl.

This is another Jonathan Janz book I missed when it was first released by Samhain.  I'm so glad Flame Treet Press decided to add this to their February 2019 lineup.

Joe, Michelle, and their young daughter, Lily is a family that I grew to love and I would hate to see them harmed.

Janz is a wonderful storyteller.  Here he's talking about Lily...

"When she didn't nap she was more frightening than a terrorist on crystal meth."

The trouble began with an incident at a gas station when Joe intervened as a woman was beating her two-year-old son about the face because he wouldn't stop crying.  This led to charges against the mother and having her son placed in foster care. And that was just the beginning.

Some authors just have "it" and Jonathan is one of those authors.  Janz builds tension the way a construction worker puts up a new house.  The Nightmare Girl has great pacing and the scenes where  Joe exacts revenge on the "family" are violent and cathartic...

"The bit was a good one, a thick silver masonry bit, either a 5/8 or 3/4, and though its tip was wide and blunt, it bored into Axl's forehead without problem.  The skin began to swirl into bloody ribbons, the curls spinning around the bit like May Day streamers, and though Axl thrashed to be free of the drill, Joe had both the leverage and the brute strength to drive it relentlessly downward."

If you didn't get to read The Nightmare Girl when it first came out, rejoice in its re-release.  I can't give enough praise for this one. It gets my unconditional recommendation.

Published by Flame Tree Press, The Nightmare Girl is currently available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats.

From the author's bio - Jonathan Janz is the author of more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories.  His ghost story, The Siren and the Specter, was selected as a Goodreads Choice Awards nominee for Best Horror.  Additionally, his novel, Children of the Dark, was chosen by Booklist as a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year.  Jonathan's main interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children.