Book Review | The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave by J.H. Moncrieff

The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave is a horror novella from J.H. Moncrieff.

Sometimes evil looks like a fuzzy teddy bear.

Still grieving the untimely death of his dad, ten-year-old Josh Leary is reluctant to accept a well-worn stuffed teddy bear from his new stepfather. He soon learns he was right to be wary. Edgar is no ordinary toy...and he doesn’t like being rejected. When Josh banishes him to the closet, terrible things begin to happen.

Desperate to be rid of the bear, Josh engages the help of a friend. As the boys’ efforts rebound on them with horrifying results, Josh is forced to accept the truth—Edgar will always get even.

It's catch up review time! I read The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave before summer took over and all things reading and reviewing went by the wayside.

It's probably obvious why I would want to read The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave. An evil teddy bear? That won't leave? Yes, please.

As a child, I had an exorbitant amount of stuffed animals. I was convinced they were all alive. As soon as I'd leave my room, they'd come to life and play all day and make sure to return to their positions so I wouldn't find out their secret. There's a reason I was so nice to all those toys. It wasn't really the sugar and spice thing, it was the fact that I didn't want them to kill me in my sleep.

The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave speaks to that place inside me. It was fun read, but it was also very nostalgic for me. It brought this feeling over me much the same way coming of age books do. It reminded me of some of the magic I lost when I became an adult.

That being said, this damn bear actually would kill you in your sleep. It has a Chucky thing going on with it. You think you are getting rid of it, but you're not. No matter what you do, it's not going to leave.

The childhood fears in The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave go deeper than just the evil teddy bear. Josh's step-father is abusive beyond knowingly giving Josh a toy that would terrorize him. It's heartbreaking at times.

If you are looking for a quick horror read, The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave is good way to fill your evening.

7/10 Recommended Read

Review copy provided by publisher

Book Review | Darkness Rising by Brian Moreland

Darkness Rising is a horror novel by Brian Moreland.

It’s all fun and games until...

Marty Weaver, an emotionally scarred poet, has been bullied his entire life. When he drives out to the lake to tell an old friend that he’s fallen in love with a girl named Jennifer, Marty encounters three sadistic killers who have some twisted games in store for him. But Marty has dark secrets of his own buried deep inside him. And tonight, when all the pain from the past is triggered, when those secrets are revealed, blood will flow and hell will rise.

Why did I read Darkness Rising?

The reviews. It's hard to pass up a new horror release that is getting great reviews.

The Strengths

I love imaginative horror. Now, there is a lot of gory slasher horror in Darkness Rising, too, but there is also some of that coveted original horror I don't find very often.

The main character becomes something awesome.

Love and light. I love when light is well placed in a horror novel. Light reminds us of how dark the darkness can be, and darkness reminds us of how much we need the light.

The Weaknesses

The characters were very immature. The college setting felt far more like grade school. It wasn't just the young adults, though, it was everyone. The killers, the victims, the bystanders, the coworkers. Unfortunately this spilled over into the horror, too, and it made a lot of the shock gore and drug use come off as annoying.

The exposition. The dialog in this book killed me. There is no way the characters (especially in the circumstances they were in) would have spent that much time telling each other information they would already know.

There was also a lot of inconsistency regarding the main character and the dark entity Cerulean.

Would I recommend Darkness Rising to others?

Yes. In the end, the good outweighed the bad in Darkness Rising. There were flaws for me, but some of the good was so good I'd recommend it to horror fans.

6/10 Good Read

Review copy provided by publisher