Book 2 of the Subdue series, Emerging, picks up where Dwelling (book 1) left off. The remaning members of the Suicide Squad are holding on by a thread. Johnathan is still haunted by his dead friend and has turned to the bottle to cope with it all while his marriage crumbles. Jake is losing his faith and is about to lose his job as a priest. Bobby is still homeless running away from the evil that he becomes every 30 days when the moon is full. And Maggie, poor sweet Maggie. For reasons unkown to her, she is compelled to purchase a house in Jotham that her and the other members of the Suicide Squad visited when they were kids. Also unknown to her, and the rest of the Squad, is why they all can’t remember the horrors that happened to them when they entered the house so many years ago. With every member’s sanity teetering on the edge, Maggie gets ahold of them and requests that they all come visit her at the Jotham house. Unfortunately, the evil that they can’t seem to remember still resides in that house on top of the hill and it’s waiting.
Emerging is more of the same good formula that made Dwelling such a page turner. The characters are realistic and flawed. Flowers’ descriptive storytelling has me feeling like I’m the sixth member of the Suicide Squad, but I’m stuck watching the horror unfold and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it to warn the others. That’s good stuff. The slow burn writing style reminds me of Charles L. Grant, and that’s not a bad thing. Some might say that the story bogs down in the middle with not much going on and they wouldn’t be completely wrong, but I’m ok with it. Again, I like how Flowers builds things up in anticipation of the payday at the end. Also, some might say that Emerging can be read by itself without reading book one, Dwelling, and I would disagree. Sure, you COULD do it, but why would you want to? This is a three-part story and you’d be coming in at the middle without fully knowing what happened to lead up to book two. No thank. I’m fully vested in this series and you should be too. If you haven’t read book one, do it. And once you’re done, grab Emerging and keep immersed in the horrors that the Suicide Squad have fallen into.
4 1/2 Red Eyed Demon Cicadas out of 5
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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Into The Macabre 