Book Review - American Coven by Amy Cross

Apparently this is a collection of eight books, I'm glad I read it as a single collection as I think it would have been frustrating to have read it in smaller sections and that's the mark of a good story. The story follows two main threads, the first fifteen years in the past. This thread follows three young women who have been kidnapped and kept in a locked basement.

The second is set in the present and events are unfolding which mirror those of the previous thread. Both parts are well written and intertwine with each other. It can be tricky to pull off combining different timelines, especially in a way that builds like this one does.

Even more impressive is that the modern thread is told in the present tense. I often find it off putting reading in the present tense, but here it is an effective technique. To complete the hat trick we have constantly shifting perspectives between the chapters. Here it betrays the serial nature of its original format as on occasion the shift is jarring. For the most part it adds to the story though.

My one major complaint about the book is that it doesn't really delve into the mystery at the heart of the tale. There is a truth in there to be sure, as the story wrapped around it is superbly crafted. As well as this the book suffers from one of my pet peeves and that is padding. I really don't enjoy reaching the end of a story with another 15% remaining on the Kindle. If I want to read more then I'll buy another book!

Those points aside this is a good read, the writing is solid, the pacing is good and if you enjoy a horror story with a supernatural bent then this is well worth checking out.

Click on image to buy from Amazon

He kidnapped three women and held them in his basement.

He thought they couldn't fight back.

He was wrong...

Snatched from the street near her home, Holly Carter is taken to a rural house and thrown down into a stone basement. She meets two other women who have also been kidnapped, and soon Holly learns about the horrific rituals that take place in the house. Eventually, she's called upstairs to take her place in the ice bath.

Over time, however, Holly learns about a mysterious power that exists in the basement, and which the three women can use as they struggle to escape. When they finally manage to get through the metal door, however, the women have no idea that their fight for freedom is going to stretch out for more than a decade, or that it will culminate in a final, devastating demonstration of their new-found powers.


Click here to buy American Coven from Amazon (and it's a decent horror read)