Review copy provided as part of The Invasion blog tour.
When I’m given the chance to read a new author I never know what I’ll find. I’m an avid reader and the odds aren’t always in my favor. This is one of those times I glad as hell I read an author I’ve not only not read before and one I’m not even familiar with. I sat down thinking it would be a great read based on the synopsis and the words of just one review. This book not only met my expectation but exceeded them. This is the kind of book you start and don’t put down, well maybe for a bit of sleep but not much else.
Brett McBean gave me something I really enjoy but don’t see often. It may seem small but it let me know he has a complete grasp how to layout his narrative. Page one has the floor plan of the house. He didn’t just make it for the sake of having a cool ‘map’ of where the story be occur. The story moves from room to room with complete accuracy while feeling free-flowing. Every room is described with such complete detail I could do a walk thru in my mind’s eye. He isn’t afraid to give us the map and worry we will hold him to it. He uses it as a tool to bring the story to life. The house is a character in of itself along with the family living inside. Then he adds another layer and the story takes place over one evening in the dead of night adding to the horror that occurs during the home invasion.
A young and crazy group of twenty somethings terrorizes the family torturing them one at a time. The isolation is both physical and psychological and in the dark environment plays with your mind. It makes the fear more real and far more terrifying with the known and unknown both waiting for you. This story is brutal and unforgiving from the moment of the break in to the minute the fear squad leave. The characters are easy to fall in love with and the antagonists are a special kind of crazy. They terrorize Debra and her house guests with no mercy and enjoy the torture in a way only a psychopath can. They torture and kill each house guest one at a time while filming each scene. No one is safe this night, not even the house is able to escape the brutality. This book had me engrossed and I couldn’t put it down. When I finished I thought it would make a great movie. The Invasion is filled with enough tension to make you anxious and love every minute at the same time. This book now sits on the short list of favorite reads this year.
Rating 4.5/5
Book Info
Length: 235 Pages
Publisher: Sinister Grin Press
Release date: May 15, 2016
To Purchase The Invasion Click Here
It was supposed to be a quiet end to a long day: five close-knit family and friends settling in for some much-needed sleep after coming together for an early Christmas party.
Instead, it’s the beginning of a shocking night of brutality when six intruders break into the sprawling residence of Debra Hillsboro, a middle-aged romance novelist with a fierce devotion to her loved ones and a strong kinship with her home of almost thirty years.
Armed with smartphones and a modern brand of madness, the intruders – an internet-age cult disconnected from humanity and addicted to causing fear and mayhem – have come to the secluded property for one purpose: to terrorize, and ultimately kill, everyone inside all while filming their heinous crimes.
Outnumbered and cut off from the outside world, the terrified occupants find themselves trapped in a fight for survival as a once place of safety is turned into a deadly maze of darkened rooms and forbidding hallways. On this sweltering summer night, they must somehow find a way to escape before the cult turns the beloved home into a house for the dead.
Praise-
“McBean’s voice is one that should be heard – a hint of Laymon and Koontz, yet distinctly his own.” —Brian Keene, author of The Rising and Terminal
“Brett McBean is as brash and brutal as a young Jack Ketchum. He visits the dark rooms inside us all.” —Scott Nicholson, author of The Manor and The Farm
“The Invasion, by Brett McBean, is a startlingly bleak home invasion story, but one that is wonderfully written. McBean relies on his characters and atmosphere to bring the biggest scares, along with the frightening threat of home invasion that many readers will bring to the reading all by themselves.” -Michael Patrick Hicks, author of Convergence
Brett McBean, Biography-
Brett McBean is an award-winning horror and thriller author. His books, which include The Mother, The Last Motel and Wolf Creek: Desolation Game, have been published in Australia, the U.S., and Germany.
He’s been nominated for the Aurealis, Ditmar, and Ned Kelly awards, and he won the 2011 Australian Shadows Award for his collection, Tales of Sin and Madness.
He lives in Melbourne with his wife, daughter and German shepherd.
Find out more at: brettmcbean.com
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