Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.
But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…
Book Reviews Blog: Brother
Within These Walls introduced me to indie author Ania Ahlborn. While impressed with this first outing with Ahlborn, it didn’t leave me with much of an impact. Still, her writing intrigued me enough to pick up another one of her novels, Brother. Surrounded by backwoods brethren hellbent on wreaking terror and havoc for both their amusement and survival, Michael Morrow is in a sort of conundrum. Michael, however, wants out, but his sociopathic bother, Rebel, makes it a point to show him who’s both and keeps Michael at bay like an obedient dog.
Brother reminded me of the Tobe Hooper classic, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Only there were no chainsaws and no Leatherface. We still get the backwoods family, a matriarch in “mother” as opposed to grandpa in Texas, manic siblings, and the terror they manifest upon their prey. The novel opens with a bang with the introduction to the Morrows’. Right away, Ahlborn sets the mood. It gives the readers exactly what to expect from the family amid an interaction with one of their victims. Going into this book blind, I had no idea what to expect and was taken aback by what the author had in store. To say that the book’s opening was captivating would be an understatement.
Brother has a little bit of everything to satisfy your appetite if you’re into murder, suspense, thrills, mystery, gore, and cannibalism. It is not in line with watching a horror movie that prides itself on the blood and guts that usually has its audience oohing and awwing all in the name of fun. No, Brother depicts what I would imagine to be a true-life portrayal of what it would be like to be kidnapped, violated, and terrorized with the notion of knowing that you are living your last hours alive. These emotions from the victims, and the aggressors, spew out of the pages of Ahlborn’s writing.
Don’t be put off by what seems to be a brooding and dark description of the book. While it is true that our journey resides with our anti-hero, Michael, who is at the behest of his brother, Rebel, there is an underlying sense of humanity underneath his character that is screaming to get out and escape the horror that is his family. I felt the conflict with Michael and the frustration that he felt spilled out of the pages right up to its thrilling conclusion.
Within These Walls gave me a sneak peek into author Ania Ahlborn. Brother made me an instant fan. Ahlborn set the bar with this one, and my only hope is that her other novels can either meet or exceed my expectations because it would be difficult to surpass Brother. The novel is scary, but not in the way ghosts and things that go bump in the night can creep you out. No, Brother is scary in that it is more real in that there can be people out there like the Morrows – they can even be your neighbors.