An exhilaratingly chilling ride…
Moore delivers a brilliant tale of dark horror about a young girl whose life turns upside down after she meets an enigmatic stranger. 18-year-old Rory is looking forward to college and a musical career after graduation when her mother decides to walk out of her marriage of two decades, leaving her husband and daughter in limbo. Struggling to collect funds for her tuition fee, Rory begins her job at a local store and meets Thomas, a blind man with an enigmatic past. An unfortunate incident leads Thomas to discover that Rory’s touch enables him to see. But that’s just the beginning of a series of shocking secrets that Rory learns about her own self. Moore’s writing is lyrical, balancing on the knife-edge between all-out gore and dark fantasy as he drives his characters to come to terms with their inner darkness while trying to deal with the traumas of the past. He does a good job building suspense, making the constant voices around Rory a palpable, threatening presence. The tension builds to a shocking and yet heartening finale, leaving the reader with a feeling of gladness for the couple. This novel works both as a chilling horror and as biting commentary on the current environmental crisis initiated by humanity’s failure to recognize the ramifications of climate change. Along the way, he touches on the subjects of family ties, friendship bond, marriage, alcoholism and domestic violence, and the questions of identity and self-discovery. Dark and unsettling, the novel will stay in readers’ minds long after they turn the last page.
Ballad of the Dead
A Modern Fairy Tale
By D.N. Moore
Pub date November 19, 2020
ASIN B08NXRBPRG
Price $2.35 (USD) Kindle edition, $8.61 Paperback
