Title: House of Rain
Author: Greg F. Gifune
Genre: Dark Fiction, Horror, Supernatural Horror
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 4 stars
Purchase: Goodreads, DarkFuse Publications
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for honest review.
Gordon Cole is a tired and lonely old man. A troubled Vietnam vet and recent widower, he does his best to survive in an increasingly dangerous neighborhood while drowning in the nightmares of his horrific past and struggling with the death of his beloved wife Katy.
And then the whispers begin calling to him from the shadows, terrifying visions stalk him relentlessly, the sounds of angelic singing haunt his every waking moment, and everyone in his life seems to be conspiring against him for reasons he cannot yet understand.
As the rains come, soaking down the city, Gordon realizes he must face his past, and solve a dark mystery that has haunted him for nearly fifty years. Who was the mystifying woman he met in a bar all those years ago? What happened in that seedy motel they went to?
As Gordon searches for answers, something within the mounting rain watches and waits, offering Gordon deliverance from his nightmare. But the keys to Heaven and Hell come with a terrible price.
Welcome home, Gordon.
Welcome to the House of Rain.
This is a story of darkness, loneliness and hidden agendas, an interesting take on what it means to grow older and learn to live with mistakes in the past. Gordon has lost the love of his life, his wife Kathy, and is struggling to survive. Old, the days of youth long gone, violence around him increasing with every heartbeat. The city isn’t the world he came to know and love anymore – it’s a dark and cold place. His past has finally caught up with him, and he’ll have to come to terms with what happened that faithful night, over fifty years ago…
This book is less horror than it is dark fiction, but I didn’t really mind. The evil haunting Gordon, the past breathing in his neck, is about as real and horrific as it can get, a sign of dark demention, of what our own mind can do to us. Gordon isn’t a very sympathetic character mostly because we know he must’ve done something wrong. The story leaves us guessing though, and the more read about Gordon the more divided his personality becomes. On the one hand, he’s this supposedly friendly old man who still misses his deceased wife. On the other hand, he’s a man bent on destruction, who wants to take revenge on a bunch of stupid kids for killing a homeless man.
The story is dark and unsettling, the premise not an easy one. The writing was all right, but it was truly the plot that moved this forward. An interesting novella, ideal to read during a rainy night.
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