I don’t buy many books, but when I saw Zombie Santa Claus and the good cause the proceeds from the sale of this short story was for, I had to have it.
I love the great cover for Zombie Santa Claus by Astrid Addams. This short story is horrorlicious and could be taken as a warning. Have all you parents been good this year?
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Zombie Santa Claus: Axe Murderer Edition
It was Christmas Eve and
the twins wanted to go and see Santa Claus. Mother wasn’t sure, but
they’d been so good lately hadn’t they? After all, what was the worst
that could happen?
Have you been naughty or nice? Be warned because the naughty will be punished and only the weak scream.
Have you said something you shouldn’t have? Be warned because Snitches get Gifted!
All author proceeds are being donated to Bacchus Residents Rescue.
“When the shit hits the fan, that’s when having a God to pray to or curse is really satisfying…”
No Hacket House or the town of Bramley showed up on the internet when Jane researched the offer for a live in caregiver, but the lucrative paycheck had her packing and moving. Maybe the lack of information should have been a warning?
There are clocks of every variety cluttering the house. What’s up with that? It made me think of my father in law. He loves tinkering with clocks and has them all over his house, but, they are not like these clocks.
The house sounds more like a mansion or museum, with twisting, turning hallways and hundreds of rooms.
Jane is running from someone and thought Hacket House would be a great place to hide. If she can’t find anything about the house and town, maybe nobody else could either. The reason she is running is even sadder than I anticipated.
The man she is there to take care of is in dire straits, uncommunicative. He has dementia (?), with hands like claws and his body stuck in the fetal position. Is it dementia? Is he being tormented? Haunted? And who…or what…is Nark?
As the secrets are revealed, I wonder about Jane and what will become of her. Looming clocks that seem to move on their own, shadows running from clock to clock, people in robes…
The Haunting of Hacket House is a creepy, deliciously spooky tale that kept getting creepier and creepier as I read. It would make a fantastic movie.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Haunting of Hacket House by Astrid Addams.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Some places don’t let go….
Offered a lucrative job at the mysterious Hacket House, Jane agrees to travel across country to live at the mansion. After all, a fresh start is just what she needs. Besides, the remote house is a long way from the past she is still running from.
Arriving at her new home, she finds a strange red house set in a wood of red, gnarled trees. The same trees used to build the house and the grandfather clocks that haunt every room and dark corridor.
Jane quickly realises that there is something very wrong at Hacket House and the village of Bramley.
Why is there a graveyard in the garden of Hacket House? Who are the people in hoods who haunt the house at night? What are they doing with the old man in the bed? Why is somebody moving the grandfather clocks? Who is the strange woman no one will admit exists? What are the shadows that scoot across the walls like cockroaches? Who is Erazmus Nark whose grave nothing will touch?
As the sinister behaviour of the village escalates and her own past closes in around her, Jane learns that just because something is dead, doesn’t mean that it’s gone.
