This is a good one! It is a story that utilizes some old tropes, but that
doesn't take away from the quality a reader will encounter when they pick this
one up. It is most certainly appropriate for the season (Halloween). I would
recommend this book for those who enjoy horror, science fiction, and government
conspiracy tales. There are also other elements to this such as a strong young
adult feel.
While there are plenty of twists and turns, I have to admit the ending was
completely unexpected for me and had me smiling for days after I read it.
Mainly, I just found this to be a very captivating story that included great
character development. The world-building was great, and I was deeply engaged
all the way to the end.
The sleepy little town of Cedar Mills is like many Midwest towns. It has a
high school where kids contemplate their futures and prepare for post-high
school plans like going to college or entering the workforce. But the town also
has a history, and it is a dark history. When one young man strikes out on his
own to investigate an old building buried deep in the woods, he doesn't make it
out of the woods. Local law enforcement is not allowed to investigate, so the
task of getting answers falls to the boy's best friends and a demoralized
ex-cop. What they find is a bottomless pit of horror and a decades-old
government cover-up that has been under the noses of the people of Cedar Mills
the whole time.
One of the main strengths of Cedar Mills is the great characters we
get to know as the tale unfolds. They are all believable people in an
unbelievable situation. The point of view in the story switches from character
to character where their back stories unfold.
High school student Jake Evans is the best friend of the deceased teenager.
He has a plan to go to college, and he should be a successful student. He is
loaded with tenacity, and he's pretty smart. But he needs more professional
help to solve the mystery. That is where Tom Dalton comes in. Tom is an ex-cop
turned private investigator. He looks like an old hippie and is often
underestimated. He knows how to get the job done.
There are other supporting characters in Cedar Mills, some of whom
provide the main characters’ motivation for their actions.
Then there are the evil and scary characters. One such is a monster that can
dismember people with almost no effort!
My favorite plot point and a main theme in this tale is how long the
conspiracy has been going on and how oblivious everyone seems to be until the
death of the young man who wants to do an interesting story for his school
newspaper. Even after the boy's brutalized body is found, it takes Jake, Tom,
and the other kids to form a kind of new family. Jake blames himself for the
tragedy and is driven by his need for retribution and to provide closure to
those suffering losses.
What I take away from Cedar Mills is to remember that everything
should be questioned, no matter how unpleasant the answers may be. The real
monster in this story is that people were willing to just move on instead of
learning where it all began.
Cedar Mills is a great sci-fi/horror story that will chill the reader
to the bone. It is also simply a fun story written with traditional tropes with
an updated style. The author does a great job creating visuals with words. The
woods on the outskirts of town are spooky enough without the roaming monster,
but the horror really ramps up when the entity makes an appearance. There are
some trigger warnings to be considered before picking up this book. There are
scenes of extreme gore and graphic violence. There are also graphic
descriptions of murders and children's deaths. With those things in mind, I
would recommend this to those readers who enjoy a story that is built around
suspense and horror with an element of sci-fi.
Oh, and did I mention an incredible (at least for me) plot twist at the end?
Yeah, there's that too.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Well, there it is...
Qapla!
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