My Review:
What Hides Within
is a deft mix of darkest comedy, horror, suspense and psychological thriller. To enjoy it at its best, you need to suspend
disbelief and let your mind go with it on an epic journey. Jason Parent stories
are like that. They’re different, complex, challenging, but well worth the
investment of your time.
Imagine you were working at your usual boring 9-5 job and
suddenly one day everything changed. You heard a strange voice in your head and
you became aware that a tiny, almost transparent spider, similar to a black widow,
had taken up residence in the deep recesses of your brain. Does it – she actually
–want to kill you or become your new best friend? This happens to Clive who, until
that point, is a pretty normal kind of guy. Granted he lives with an eccentric,
introverted roommate called Kevin who demonstrates a strange fascination for
old re-reruns of Hannah Montana but,
apart from eating Clive’s food, he’s not too much trouble to have around. Okay,
he is a bit weird, but…
Meanwhile, somebody has begun causing explosions in the town.
People have been killed. Increasing numbers of them. Who’s behind these senseless
killings? It is up to Detective Samantha Reilly to find out and she is
determined to find the perpetrator.
Meanwhile, in Clive’s head, things are becoming increasingly
complicated. His arachnid companion – whom he calls Chester – will not leave,
despite her host’s best efforts and she is certainly not the easiest resident
to have around. One false move on his part and… I did say, she was like a small
black widow!
Clive is also becoming more and more concerned about his
roommate – to the point where he begins to follow him. What is Kevin up to?
With a strong cast of supporting characters, including a
young niece called Victoria who is mature beyond her years, What Hides Within is a multi—layered novel
that works because it is so well and convincingly written. In my review of his
short story collection ‘Wrathbone and
Other Stories‘, I described the author as being ‘a weaver of complex, macabre tales’. What
Hides Within provides further evidence of Jason Parent’s supreme talent for
doing precisely that.
But when a talking spider crawls inside his head, things
get a lot less ordinary…and people start dying.
Could an itsy-bitsy arachnid be behind the killing spree
terrorizing Clive’s community?
To evade a sharp detective and find a murderer among
friends, Clive must shake the cobwebs loose and piece together the puzzle of
his life, all without falling prey to a dark force beyond his comprehension.
A genre-twisting dark comedy, What Hides Within is an EPIC Finalist and Independent eBook Award
Runner-Up for Best Horror.
“I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes horror.
It will make you cringe. It will make you shudder. It will make you want to
take a shower. But you won't be able to put it down.” - Thomas W. Everson,
author of The Rain Experience Trilogy
About the Author
In his head, Jason Parent lives in many places, but in
the real world, he calls New England his home. The region offers an abundance
of settings for his writing and many wonderful places in which to write them.
He currently resides in Southeastern Massachusetts with his cuddly corgi named
Calypso.
In a prior life, Jason spent most of his time in front of a judge . . . as a civil litigator. When he finally tired of Latin phrases no one knew how to pronounce and explaining to people that real lawsuits are not started, tried and finalized within the 60-minute timeframe they see on TV (it's harassing the witness; no one throws vicious woodland creatures at them), he traded in his cheap suits for flip flops and designer stubble. The flops got repossessed the next day, and he's back in the legal field . . . sorta. But that's another story.
When he's not working, Jason likes to kayak, catch a movie, travel any place that will let him enter, and play just about any sport (except that ball tied to the pole thing where you basically just whack the ball until it twists in a knot or takes somebody's head off - he misses the appeal). And read and write, of course. He does that too sometimes.
Please visit the author on:
In a prior life, Jason spent most of his time in front of a judge . . . as a civil litigator. When he finally tired of Latin phrases no one knew how to pronounce and explaining to people that real lawsuits are not started, tried and finalized within the 60-minute timeframe they see on TV (it's harassing the witness; no one throws vicious woodland creatures at them), he traded in his cheap suits for flip flops and designer stubble. The flops got repossessed the next day, and he's back in the legal field . . . sorta. But that's another story.
When he's not working, Jason likes to kayak, catch a movie, travel any place that will let him enter, and play just about any sport (except that ball tied to the pole thing where you basically just whack the ball until it twists in a knot or takes somebody's head off - he misses the appeal). And read and write, of course. He does that too sometimes.
Please visit the author on:
for information regarding upcoming events or
releases, or if you have any questions or comments for him.
