BOOM bloggers, readers, authors, Grindhouse Press, and a special hello to you Matt Kurtz, the author of The Rotting Within.
Before I put my finger to screen for this review, I was in my kitchen earlier, making one of my favourite GnT mixers: Sipsmith London Lemon Drizzle Gin mixed with a Fever-Tree Tonic Water.
The Blurb
Fleeing an abusive boyfriend, Kenzie Moore and her two small children seek refuge at the Sunrise Bed & Breakfast, a secluded inn run by her estranged grandmother, Shirley. While there, Kenzie and her children promise to follow one simple rule: stay away from the third floor, where its bedrooms house a pair of reclusive old women. Though the inn seems an idyllic place to start anew, Kenzie quickly discovers something malevolent not only lives under its roof but moves within its walls.
When Shirley is called away and the kids are mysteriously stricken ill, a torrential storm further isolates the family and brings forth something out of the darkness, something whispering for Kenzie to "kill the children."
It all culminates in a terrifying game of cat and mouse, where Kenzie must battle both new and old demons while trying to prevent an unimaginable horror from taking place on the floors above.
The Review [No Spoilers]
I read the blurb, and it instantly drew me towards a dark cloud of dread. "A secluded Inn," I instantly thought of that house on the horizon in Jerusalems Lot. The fact that the inn is a place of refuge for a mum on the run with her two children, who then become "mysteriously I'll," I knew instantly that this was going to be a no holds barred book.
It also got me thinking: What truly scares you?... Us? Is it the disfigured-faced man with the bladed glove plaguing your dreams? Perhaps a Xenomorph from another planet? Or maybe, that crazed psychopath running around an abandoned camp in a ski mask? For me, it's fear of the unexplained. Those moments in the dark that concoct dread with anxiety. That fight or flight trigger, the body automatically responds to in a life-threatening situation. As I feared...this book triggered not only my evolutionary mechanism of flight or fight but a third response...fright!
The start of the book is no fairy tale. We already know about a mum on the run leading to the Inn, and the creepy old lady named Shirley, who is the current proprietor of the Sunrise B&B. However, the start of the book goes way back, giving the reader notion of foul play from forces beyond our comprehension, and where we are introduced to the hotels ONLY occupants; Miss Mysterio and Miss Manning, who just so happen to appear out of nowhere...as if they just walked out from the woods surrounding the Inn. They then book rooms 3A and 3B on the third floor as they like their, " privacy."
You learn that Kenzie is in fact Shirleys granddaughter, and is one of the reasons she reaches out to the Inn for refuge away from her abusive partner in the first place. Once Shirley gets acquainted with her never-before-seen granddaughter, is where things start to go from strange to malevolent. The hotel is their home, EXCEPT...the third floor...Try telling two curious children that.
Who are these two ladies that live on the third floor anyway? Does Shirley know them? How will their stay impact Kenzie and her two children? Will anything happen to them? Does Shirley have an agenda? I had so many questions racing through my mind and so had me glued to each page of this disturbing horror for answers.
Oh, just to add trepidation to injury, something lurks within the tree-line of the cold dark woods surrounding the hotel, and this is what freaked me out the most: A huge black spider-like thing that crawls like a crab with enormous hands, one of which has long quadruple-jointed fingers! So I ask you: Fight or Flight? Speaking of which, Kenzie, the mum who comes to the B&B, the dialogue between herself is outstanding. Matt puts you in Kenzie's shoes and forces you to act with her. Tremendous! Seriously I felt anxious for her, sorry for her, routed for her, and at one point I was like...Go on love! As a parent, how far would you go to save your children?
The Rotting Within is an intensely dark horror, with a detailed eerie world build, specifically around the Inn, and woods (BookEnz judders) that contain an unsettling ambiance. The characters all have souls, some darker than others but I will leave that for you to decide. A great horror novel that will leave you guessing till the very end...I was way off!
If I turned this book into a Gin & Tonic, this would be it's name and ingredients:
The Rotting Within - Matt Kurtz is available to buy on Amazon HERE
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