Wow! What a spooky story this turned out to be!



A small backstory:

Lance Metzger needs to break away from the city life as he feels that he cannot seem to gather his thoughts for the book he is writing so he is drawn to an older home that sets on Lake Superior.

As time wears on Lance feels that he might be losing his mind as he sees shadows flit here and there in the house along with a feeling that there might be something lingering around him.



The more Lance stays in the house the more he feels that something isn't right. Lance tries to do some digging into the history of the house which leads him down a road of bad history that is somehow tied to his family roots. What he finds out about the house and its past is almost enough to unravel his mind as when the ghosts of his past comes forth Lance will have to fight for not only his survival but his soul as well!

Thoughts:

The beginning of the book was a rough read as the story opens up with a German concentration camp and during the first few chapters of the book there is child abuse/torture scenes that were tough to read about and I was wondering when the haunting was going to start as this book is suppose to be a "supernatural thriller" and there was no supernatural anything in the beginning parts of the book.

But the author, Joe Hart, was not done with me yet as he weaved this story around me drawing me into a suspenseful mystery bringing the story to a slow crescendo and then the last half of the book I was racing through the storyline as a haunting was slowly brewing which the last half of the book was steeped in ghosts along with a deep mystery that surrounded the character, Lance.

I usually give up about the 30% mark on books that are not doing much, but though this one started out with a slow buildup I just decided to hang in there to see where the author was going to take me and I am so happy that I stuck it out as the spookiness of the haunting just kept me awake nights trying to see what was going to happen next!

This book was one of the best ghost stories I have read in awhile as I love how the suspense and mystery slowly worked its way up to a full blown haunting. I have read this author before so I was already aware of his work and after reading this great book, I will be pursuing more of his books! Giving this one five "Ghastly Ghost" stars!

For more thoughts on this review, please see my blog:
https://booknookretreat.blogspot.com/2021/07/lineage-by-joe-hart.html ( )

review to come...beginning was just depressing...middle half was scary as hell (kudos to the author for making me JUMP while reading a BOOK)...ending weakened it a bit... ( )

OK, my 4-star rating may be a little inflated, but I'm judging this book for what it is, not comparing it to War and Peace. It's a horror novel, a ghost story -- and I love ghost stories -- independently published as an e-book by the author. It's one that kept me turning pages and even seemed to have some Big Picture thematic ideas. It is quite violent at the beginning and, as I expected, at the end. The violence at the beginning demonstrates the brutality of evil people. The violence at the end . . . well, it's a horror novel. But it hit a few themes and chords beyond a typical mindless gore fest. And the middle was absolutely creepy, don't-read-it-alone-at-night creepy.

In the prologue, set in 1945, we meet a sadistic SS officer in charge of a concentration camp. Then, as the body of the story begins in 1990, we meet Lance, the child of a brutal, sadistic father and a victimized mother. We get a concrete look at how cruel evil people can be.

Lance somehow survives his childhood and becomes a famous horror author. He has always kept the mental demons at bay with his writing, but as we re-encounter him in 2012, he has been struck by writer's block -- and nightmares of his father. He is inexplicably drawn to a big, empty house on the shores of Lake Superior. As he moves there, stranger and stranger things begin happening. And, eventually, it all seems to be tied to secrets in his family lineage. You can sort of see what's coming . . . but not all of it, by a long shot.

OK, true to its genre, this got a little outlandish. But it was good enough that I suspended disbelief and got caught up in the story -- and plan to keep an eye on this author. He writes pretty well -- maybe well enough that we'll see him writing for a major publisher someday. ( )