Brother
Paperback | Kindle Edition | Audio CD
Written by Ania Ahlborn
Gallery Books | Simon & Schuster
Release Date: September 29, 2015

Young Michael Morrow has a brother Reb, and a sister Missy, and two parents, Claudine and Wade. Their idea of family time is to snatch a girl, and torture her to death. They live out in the boonies, so the girls can scream all they want, but no one can hear them. Michael gets to take care of the bodies after his family is done. He also takes care of his sister, Missy, who doesn’t partake in this family bonding. Michael is adopted and feels bad about the girls, but his family loves him, or they would not have taken him in, right?

Ania Ahlborn, author of such horror tales as The Neighbors and The Shuddering, frightens us with her new tome, Brother.

This is another book I had a hard time tearing myself away, even though silly work and family responsibilities kept getting in the way. I got sucked in and lost time. Ania Ahlborn does a great job of making you feel sympathy for Michael, although he participates in his family’s monstrous acts. When he meets Alice and instantly falls for her, you cannot help but root for this underdog.

Don’t get me wrong, Ahlborn does not hold back on the gore. Her imagery is so precise, you actually feel pain in your gut as a character gets gutted. She also manages to surprise you again and again. Just when you swear one person will live, or one is definitely dead, she twists and turns on you, until you don’t know what to think. The book is riveting, and disgusting, and sad, and scary, and hopeful, and hopeless. It’s unbelievable.

Synopsis:

From the bestselling horror author of Within These Walls and The Bird Eater comes a brand-new novel of terror that follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional””and deeply disturbing””traditions.

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”¦