Title: Ceremony of Flies
Author: Kate Jonez
Genre: Horror, Dark Fiction
Age Group: Adult
Rating: 3 stars
Purchase: Amazon
Review copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Two petty criminals find themselves inextricably linked when a stop at a roadside bar leads to murder.
On the run and out of options, they reluctantly rescue a stranded boy and his dog from a lonely crossroads in the Mojave desert and decide for the first time in their lives to do the right thing.
But this one selfless act unleashes a terrifying onslaught of demonic trouble as they struggle to save the boy—and themselves—from an evil far greater than they ever imagined.
In Ceremony of Flies, showgirl Kitty makes a run for it after accidentally killing her boss. She befriends Rex, another criminal, and together they head for Mexico. They run into a young boy, Harvey and his dog, and decide to commit a good act and help out the boy. But with a trail of corpses on their back, their new little family might be in peril from the start. When they find themselves inthe middle of a demonic onslaught, Kitty and Rex struggle to save themselves and Harvey.
I found it ironic that the one good act Kitty and Rex commit – taking care of Harvey – is the act that ultimately leads them down the path of destruction. Kitty is an interesting narrator. She has a solid dose of dark humor, and as she started killing more, some kind of madness took hold of her, resulting in some interesting character development and plot.
However, the story wants to combine two genres – noir thriller and supernatural horror – and the execution isn’t always perfect. It felt like the story wasn’t sure where it wanted to go. And while I liked Kitty’s voice and humor, I didn’t connect with her, nor any of the other characters.
The writing was solid though – as I’ve come to expect from DarkFuse authors – and the pacing flowed well. Overall, not a bad read, but the ending was disjointed and left too many things open.
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