Hey Blogosphere!

Are you gearing up for spooky season? I don’t know about you, but I need all the creepy vibes I can get, so I’m back with another scary read!

Today I’m sharing my review of Churn the Soil by Steve Stred.

I’ve been following Stred’s blog for quite some time, but with a crazy book lover like me, my TBR was always so crazy I never got around to reading his works. Lucky for me I finally did some catch up on my TBR so I had to give this a go.

Let’s see how it went!

Blurb

Two hundred miles north of the town of Basco sits The Border. It’s a quiet, off-the-grid settlement, where the residents have developed a tentative agreement with those that live on the other side of the clearing.

But things are about to change forever.

As night falls, a teenage girl is brutally murdered as she flees across the clearing.
Now, it’s up to Basco PD officers Brown and Reynolds to find her killer.

But the truth is far worse than they could possibly imagine, and the more the officers uncover, the bolder the things beyond the clearing grow.

‘Under an icy snowfall…’
‘Under a clear, blue moon…’

North of The Border lies a land unseen by man. A land where things are ready and waiting… to feed.

Splatterpunk-Nominated author Steve Stred, who brought you ‘Mastodon’ and ‘Incarnate,’ delivers a pulse-pounding, high-stakes story where if the cold doesn’t kill you, the Forest Guards will.

GoodReads

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Bookshop.org

***Brief disclosure***

I am an Amazon affiliate and earn a tiny commission for purchases made through the Amazon links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

I had a good time with this read, but I didn’t vibe with it as much as I hoped to.

Graham Brown is a police officer in the small town of Basco. One day he gets a call to investigate a recent disappearance in a nearby area called The Border. Graham spent some time there as a child, and as he learns more about the strange place he’d all but forgotten, he embarks on a dark path that will change The Border and the town of Basco forever.

I’ve loved vampires since reading Anne Rice in high school, so when I saw this cover I just had to see what it was all about. I really enjoyed how different these vampires where from the standard expectation these days, very gritty and gory.

Graham is a good guy, something of a bro, but deep down he cares about people and that had me rooting for him the entire time. I also liked Nancy, Bruiser, and Patrick, as well as the strained relationship Graham had with his dad.

The plot started off with more of a crime thriller feel, but the paranormal and horror elements quickly arrive and make things even more complex and interesting. I enjoyed following along at the quick pace that Stred set, but by the end the story didn’t quite come full circle for me. I felt like there was something missing to the story, that extra oomph to make it unforgettable. I also wanted a little more insight on the perpetrator at large than what I got, but this was still a fun time!

I’ll definitely have to give another of Stred’s works a go sometime!

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. Like what you see? Leave a tip!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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