Author: Ania Ahlborn
Genre: Horror
Pages: Paperback, 221
ISBN: 9781612183664
Opening Lines: "The Saturn's engine rattled like a penny in an old tin can."
Rating
With nothing but the clothes on his back—and something horrific snapping at this heels—Jack Winter fled his rural Georgia home when he was just a boy. Watching the world he knew vanish in the trucker's rearview mirror, he though he was leaving an unspeakable nightmare behind forever.
"Now, years later, the bright new future he;s built suddenly turns pitch black, as something fiendishly familiar looms dead ahead.
"Surviving a violent car crash seems like a miracle for Jack's family, but Jack knows there's nothing divine about it. The profound evil he uncovered as a boy has finally found him again. The thing that crouched at his bedside with soulless eyes and grinning, razor-sharp teeth is back with plans for Jack and his angelic youngest daughter, and a chilling promise: I've always been here, and I'll never leave."
~ Jacket copy
Jack has never been one for telling people about his past. He ran away from home when he was 14 and did not have a desire to look back. His parents—definite white trailer trash—made sure he was fed, clothed, and had a roof over his head. However, according to him, that was about it. All he remembers is a turbulent childhood filled an old cemetery, a shadowy creature with a Cheshire Cat grin in the corner of his room, and his mother too terrified to sleep under the same roof. After running away, he was hopeful he had managed to outrun his life . . . Until now . . .
When Jack sees the glowing eyes in the middle of the road, he is forced to remember something he hoped was lost to the recesses of his childhood memories. Mr. Scratch—has Charlie calls him—decided to pay Jack a visit . . . Or finally prove that Jack was never truly able to run away when he was 14 years-old.
Ania Ahlborn has been on my radar for a bit; however, I never ventured into her books until Brother. Either the local libraries did not have copies of her books or I was too damn broke to buy them. After Brother, I was excited to finally dive head-first into her first novel, Seed. And I was not disappointed!
I am a bit of a horror aficionado. Every October, I find as many horror novels as I can and spend the entire month trying to terrify myself. Viking and my first movie date was Rings (it sucked), and we love watching Paranormal Files on YouTube as we fall asleep every night. Our favorite argument revolves around "who is better"—Freddy or Jason. So, at some level, Seed is very predictable. What Ahlborn meant as a twist, was not a huge surprise. However, she is a master when it comes to character development and descriptions! If not for her ability to create believable characters and use vivid details, this story would have fallen flat. At points, I half expected to see a shadowy figure lurking in the corner of my bedroom and every creek at me jumping during the day.
If you are looking for a good demonic possession story similar to the Omen, this book needs to be on your list. It is certainly not the scariest book I have read nor did it keep me awake at night, but it kept me reading when I needed to prepare my online classes . . . Oops!
