This Monumental Occult Horror Will Have You in a Chokehold

In the twilight of March 21, 1955, eight people take cover in their local general store while a thundering torrent and flash flooding threatens life and livelihood alike. None of the eight are everything they claim to be. But only one of them hungers for human souls, flesh, and blood.

An overflowing waterway destroys their only path of escape. The tiny band of survivors is forced to confront themselves and each other when a peculiar stranger with a famous face tries to pick them off one by one.

Can the neighbors survive the predator in their midst as well as the 100-year flood that drowns the small town of Lost Hollow?

Or will they become victims of the night the townsfolk all remember as Hell Spring?

Amazon Synopsis

Overall Rating

5/5

Spooky Rating

4/5

Quick Take

Hell Spring by Isaac Thorne is one of those rare horror novels that takes off from the second page and doesn’t relent for the entirety of the novel. It is graphic, grotesque, and eerie in all of the best ways. Thorne’s novel deserves all of the five stars I gave it, and I highly recommend it for fans seeking a more extreme horror novel.

Tell Me More

Hell Spring follows eight people who are forced to take shelter in a general store during a flash flood. The story has elements of survivalist horror as the cast of characters are forced to figure out how to survive the flood, while also including supernatural and folk elements because there is one among them who hungers for human flesh.

The general air of the novel reminded me a lot of Stephen King’s The Mist, but Isaac Thorne made his story entirely his own. He pushes the limits of extreme horror in his descriptions, but unlike other versions of extreme horror I have read, Thorne’s descriptions are almost poetic. He is not blunt, and instead weaves words in such a way that creates vivid imagery for the reader. At times I had to put the book down because so much of the story was dark and intense.

While there are many elements of extreme horror throughout the novel, Thorne doesn’t rely on these to capture the reader’s attention. His cast of characters are authentic, and I found myself connecting to them throughout the novel. The horror elements of the story made me fearful for many of the characters, and I genuinely empathized with them. I was intrigued by the historical aspect of the story as well, and I could not put this book down.

I have to admit that I am often pretty critical when it comes to horror that features the extreme, but I simply could not find any faults with Hell Spring. It is a thrill ride I will not soon forget. If you are a fan of extreme horror with historical and survivalist elements, you must make this your next read!

Originally published at http://thehorrormaven.com on January 4, 2023.