Review: Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke

Here's a brutal little horror gem to darken up your day! 👿

Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke

Published January 2012

Dark Fiction  |  Goodreads  |  Amazon 

Source: Purchase with my own $

On a scorching hot summer day in Elkwood, Alabama, Claire Lambert staggers naked, wounded, and half-blind away from the scene of an atrocity. She is the sole survivor of a nightmare that claimed her friends, and even as she prays for rescue, the killers — a family of cannibalistic lunatics — are closing in.

A soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder returns from Iraq to the news that his brother is among the murdered in Elkwood.

In snowbound Detroit, a waitress trapped in an abusive relationship gets an unexpected visit that will lead to bloodshed and send her back on the road to a past she has spent years trying to outrun.

And Claire, the only survivor of the Elkwood Massacre, haunted by her dead friends, dreams of vengeance... a dream which will be realized as grief and rage turn good people into cold-blooded murderers and force alliances among strangers.

It's time to return to Elkwood.

In the spirit of such iconic horror classics as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Deliverance, Kin begins at the end and studies the possible aftermath for the survivors of such traumas upon their return to the real world — the guilt, the grief, the thirst for revenge — and sets them on an unthinkable journey... back into the heart of darkness.

My 2 Cents For Free!

I’m keeping this short and to the point (for a change) because I’m pretty sure I was one of the last people in the horror community to read this book but that’s nothing new for me. After hearing for YEARS that it was brutal I went in prepared and parts of it (mostly the beginning) were brutal but not as in your face disgusting as I feared. But I’ve read/seen some dreadful things and liked them so you probably can’t trust me on this statement. There is one scene, however, that I swear I could SMELL and you will know it when you read it and you will wish you had never entered that room but you will be helpless to stop yourself. So there’s your warning!

This is a story that begins after a final girl manages to escape what appears to be a run-in with Pinhead (alas, it wasn’t Pinhead but she’s a mess) and it follows the aftermath with some flashbacks to the awful event that set it all off. It’s also about a town filled with cowards and people who look the other way for their own gain and I suppose out of fear for their own safety. It will likely infuriate you. There’s your second warning!

Kin is very well written and its secrets will make you squirm. It is very character focused, which I always appreciate in any work of fiction, but it’s done so well here that you may start to feel a bit of empathy for one of the “Kin”. That’s your final warning! The rest is on you but I’d recommend reading it if you haven’t already.

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