I was provided a copy of this book for free as part of Macabre Mortis book club’s October Indie Tron! Thank you so much to Steph for organising, and thank you A. M. Wiley for providing your book!
Spooky season prevails all throughout Autumn and Winter for me; how could it not? Darker and colder nights, Samhain is upon us, and I keep with the Victorian tradition of reading ghost stories over Winter.
I started my Halloween reading early in October with The Heart Taker by A. M. Wiley this year. A thrilling and gory horror set in a high school, following would-be investigative journalist Jack as he explores the recent grisly murders that took place at a neighbouring high school, all sharing one odd, grisly aspect. The victims’ hearts were removed.
Jack reads as what you’d get if you dropped Holden Caulfield in the middle of Jennifer’s Body, and it makes for an entertaining read. Truthfully, I didn’t like him much at first. He’s not terrible, just a typical teenage edgelord type. He’s intelligent – but very aware of it, and uses this to his advantage, stirring up drama in the school paper with his controversial opinion pieces. Much to the chagrin of his paper’s editor, Deb, who wants him to work on an investigative piece covering the mysterious deaths of the other high school’s students.
Then we meet Delilah. A new transfer who everyone is intrigued by. The demon-in-disguise begins working against Jack, claiming victims and gaining followers as she goes, aside from The Guardians, a nerdy group that runs another paper focusing on the supernatural. Working together, Jack, Deb, and the Guardians manage to discover the truth behind who Delilah is and behind a much deeper mystery in the town.
Jack definitely grew on me and had some great character growth throughout the book. I went into this expecting the book to end up in my “good for her” category of books. But while Delilah was likeable and conniving, the way the plot developed had you rooting for Jack and his group to come out on top.
It’s well-paced, suspenseful and a genuinely good spooky read for the season. About 3/4 of the way through, I started to suspect who was really behind all the goings on, and was extremely vindicated to find out I was right. There are quite a few fun little references to other classic horror stories in the book too, such as Jack living on Elm Street. The misdirection with the Headmistress was a nice touch too, until close to the end I couldn’t decide if she really was in on the scheme or was a red herring all along.
My only slight criticism would be that Delilah started out as a great villain, but ended up a little lacking in dimension when you find out she’s a demon merely sent after certain victims by the cult that seems to be a dark undercurrent in the town. I would have liked to see her have more motive and agency as a villain, with more backstory, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
Themes and Tropes:
- Supernatural horror
- Suspenseful
- More to the town as it seems
- Mystery
- Gory
- Strong FMCs
- Surprise! It’s a cult all along
Content warnings:
- Gore
- Murder
- Grisly deaths – hearts removed
- Grief
- Sexism (Jack’s early façade)
- Violence
Rating:
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