Title: Hellbound
Author: Su Halfwerk
Genre: Horror, Short Story Collection
Publication Date: February 2012
Publisher: Double-Dragon Publishing
Rating: 4
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One-way ticket to Hell.
Bart is a greedy morgue attendant with money on his mind. He gets more than what he bargains for when he chances upon a pain-letter, one he must pass on or bear the consequences of his inaction.
Stan is a chiseler, a fake medium, preying on his unsuspecting clients’ earnings through bogus channeling sessions. When he meets mysterious Joanna Stark, he believes her promises of powers beyond his comprehension, powers blessed by the Netherworld.
Jenna gives up her old life and career to settle down as Troy’s loving wife. He is a God-fearing man who will consent only to marriage. Except fate maps a different ending to their love story, a conclusion that takes them both down and never up again.
Bart, Stan, and Jenna are destined to go on a long and abominable journey that sinks them below their expectations and forces them to endure pain and anguish beyond their worst nightmares.
On the paths leading to the depths of Hell, their sins don’t matter!
Hellbound is in fact a collection of three short stories that deal with hell, in one way or form. In the first short story, Bart is about to enter his own personal hell after finding a Pain Letter on the corpse of a boy who allegedly commited suicide. According to his friend Moe, Pain Letters are the real deal. After some investigation, Bart begins to believe what Moe’s been telling him all along…But by then, it may be too late.
In the second story, Stan, a man posing as a medium, finds himself suddenly able to see ghosts. Unfortunately the ghosts he sees and now channels are completely different from the ghosts he has supposedly been speaking with for months. Some of them are vengeful whereas he portrayed them as forgiving, others are angry, but all of them are equally scary. When not only Stan’s business but also his own sanity begins to suffer from the ghostly apparitions, he decides he must confront the source of them: a strange woman named Jo. But Jo has a story of her own. She died, and now wants to be resurrected. Being a powerful necromancer, she has the power to do so. The only catch? If Stan wants to help her, he has to become a warlock. And that might not be half as pleasant as it sounds at first…
In the third and last story, Jenna sacrificed everything for Troy, the man of her dreams. However, after a loveless marriage lasting seven years, Troy doesn’t only hit her, he’s just about ready to leave her for another woman. In order to take revenge on Troy and get her old life back, Jenna decides to get in touch with her old employer: Lilith.
I was pleasantly surprised with all three stories. Not only are they interesting, they’re also very different from each other. In the first one, I immediately felt sympathetic towards the main character because he gets thrown into an awful situation and can’t do much about it. In the second story, I didn’t like the main character, Stan, that much because he makes a living cheating on people. However, by the end of the story I did begin to like him. Jenna was probably my favorite character though. Although she gave up everything for love, when it came back to bite her in the end, she didn’t hesitate to take revenge.
If you want to read a fun, quick, but scary and disturbing book, look no further. Hellbound is the ideal book to read at night, when the roads to hell are easier to find than during the daytime. For everyone who liked some twisted stories, this is definitely an excellent choice.
Giveaway
One lucky winner will get an eBook copy of Hellbound and another winner will receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Participating is easy: just leave a comment on this post and fill in the Rafflecopter widget below!
Majanka, thank you so much for a wonderful review and for having me here today. You’re wonderful!
I hadn’t heard of this book before but it sounds really interesting! Thank you for the review.
Hello Su,
Thank you for having this stop on your “Hellbound” Tour fixed so we may enter your giveaway for an eBook copy of “Hellbound” or a $25 Amazon Gift Card.
I thought your tour was alot of fun, you’re probably tried of seeing me following you around. LOL I hope you have much success with your recent release. “Hellbound” sounds like a Fantastic Read.
I would very much appreciate to be included in your giveaway. Thank You.
Take Care & Best Wishes,
PaParanormalFan (Renee’)
paranormalromancefan@yahoo.com
I would
Great review. I can’t wait to read this book