Feeding the Void

by Morgan K. Tanner

The void is hungry. It must be satiated. With flesh.

The pulsating abyss in Jeffrey's basement has been offered sacrifices for generations. The responsibility of being its loyal servant is precious. Or is it a curse?

As a child all Jeffrey wanted was his father's love. But the rumbling, ravenous void was always the most important thing.

Jeffrey eventually learns the truth of this magical and malevolent force beneath the floorboards of his family home. When the power is passed down to him he struggles with the burden of this monumental undertaking.

Is he willing to continue the family tradition, or will his new-found responsibility be his undoing?

191 pages, Paperback

Published October 29, 2023

About the author

Morgan K Tanner is a writer, drummer, and golfist currently residing in the English countryside. The idyllic surroundings make it an ideal place to write, drum, and hide the bodies. The busy sound of the typewriter is perfect to drown out the hum of the antiquated torture equipment.

When not writing or inflicting pain and suffering on his numerous victims, he indulges himself in all things horror and metal.

He is the author of An Army of Skin, The Mind's Plague and Other Bites of Brutality, and The Unbeliever & The Intruder; a Short Sharp Shocks! Book.

You can praise or indeed abuse him by visiting www.morganktanner.com or find him on Twitter @morgantanner666 , Instagram @morganktanner , and TikTok @morganktanner

You can also join the mailing list to receive a free story (for starters) http://eepurl.com/dgTmgX

Reviews

[Brendon Lowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feeding the Void is the first book I have read of Morgan Tanners and I went into it blind knowing nothing of the premise.

We start off following Jeremy a young kid living with his sweet mother and mean and distant father. His father is a Doctor who has little time for Jeremy and spends all his free time in the basement where Jeremy is forbidden to go. One day Jeremy decides to sneak a peak and his whole life changes forever as an unspeakable terror enters his reality that can never be forgotten.

The second part of the book follows Jeremy and his wife. Jeremy now lives in the house he grew up in spends more and more time in the basement. He needs to attend to the darkness that lurks within, the void which calls to him, the void which needs to feed.....

I ended up really enjoying this. I honestly thought it was a young adult novel at first whilst reading the beginning of young Jeremy and the interactions with his mother and father and not really knowing what was happening in the basement or what monsters lurked behind the closed door. The second half however drops you into some gnarly descriptions of death, body mutilations and insanity. The ending is great as well and left me feeling satisfied.

Overall a very good horror book that is a quick read and well written, paced and descriptive. It has made me want to read more from the author for sure.

[Stitching Ghost · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I would have liked this one more if it had committed to a point of view instead of shifting between them. I really enjoyed the ending though.

[Yvonne (the putrid Shelf) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Feeding the Void is bracingly original. An unsettling story with an ending that genuinely had me shocked and chucking in equal measures.

Feeding the Void…what are the first images to pop into your head when you say those words? For me personally, I imagine a depressed soul trying to find something, anything to fill the emptiness that they feel, whether that be with food, addiction, or adrenaline. Do they bungee jump, take chances? That’s where my mind instantly goes, I didn’t suggest for a moment that it was a happy go lucky vista.

I am a sucker for a horror that examines the blurring lines between the occult and the worst horror of all – humanity. BUT…

Feeding the Void is different from a lot of those kind of horrors.

Feeding the Void builds its own path.

Feeding the Void is a creature that seeps into everything you do.

Can you tell that I enjoyed this one?

Morgan K. Tanner is one of those authors that go that bit deeper. A story about a black void hidden in a kid’s basement…sure. A void that feeds on the bodies supplied to it by the father…well now you’re talking. The author slips into your mind, holds your brain in the palm of his hand and squeezes, he doesn’t stop until you acquiesce to the images he’s so painstakingly created. The plot is good, but Tanner’s superlative skillset make the story so much more.

How much do we know about people we pass in the street? Virtually nothing, I know the idea that we could be sharing buses, bathrooms, and taxis with a potential murderer but that’s just it- we don’t anyone, not truly…I mean they could be hiding a bloodthirsty void in their basement.

Feeding the Void is very cosmic horror-y. It reminds us that power corrupts. Jeffrey watched his father become consumed by the void and in turn so does he. He lost his mother to it and now he has lost all sense of self. He is drunk on the knowledge that he is now the protector of the void. Nothing will stop him – not even the pesky relationship with his wife and unborn son. As long as the void is still hungry, he will keep providing bodies. None of the characters were even remotely likeable but that’s exactly why I liked this story so much.

[Steve Stred · Rating 3 out of 5]

Huge thanks to Morgan for sending me a digital copy of this one!

I’ve read a bunch of his work and love how brutal and bleak he goes so I was excited to dive into his newest creation!

There’s always something so intriguing about fiction that involves that all-encompassing term ‘the void.’ We all immediately think of this shimmering, moving, amphibian-esque textured, slightly sentient ‘thing’ that fills up space and ingests what gets too close. But there are so many unknowns and it is always the unknown that draws us in.

What I liked: The story follows Jeffery, first in childhood, and then as an adult. As a child, he has a loving mother, distant and standoff-ish father, and a basement he’s not allowed to go down into. He’s warned of a finger monster by his father, a way to try and keep him in his room at night, which works until his mother tells him its all a story and Jeffery visits the basement.

Morgan then takes us to see Jeffery as an adult, fully addicted and within the clutches of the thing that resides on the wall in the basement and takes over for his father and feeds it, ensuring all of its desires are met. We also meet a woman who has struggled with endometriosis, who falls in love and unexpectedly finds herself pregnant. And Morgan keeps the tensions high as those two worlds collide.

The ending, as most often in these types of stories, doesn’t fully close and will keep you wondering about the unknown…

What I didn’t like: I’m not a huge fan of POV shifts and this one goes through a few, first from 1st person POV for part one and then from our different main players once Jeffery is into adulthood.

The biggest thing I found with that POV shift, is with the opening being the POV of a very young child, the first section felt very young-reader. I wondered a few times if this was closer to feel to Morgan’s The Snuggle Zombies than to An Army of Skin. It continued to feel a bit horror-lite as it progressed and ultimately we don’t get much more than what Jeffery does to satiate the void.

This could’ve made for a very nerve-jangling short story, but in it’s stretched form, it becomes thin in some areas.

Why you should buy this: If you’re a fan of Tanner’s break-neck speed of story telling, then you’ll be salivating over this one arriving, especially as it’s been a short span since his last proper foray into longer horror. Jeffery is a maniac that runs the show and his progression into such a dark mental place will pull readers along.

[Brooklyn Attic Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again I come across a very well-written novella of pure evil. This time in the form of a...can I call this cosmic horror??

The story is gritty and paints a very grim life. Of course, as I read, I learned more about this strange household which harbors a basement filled with digits and a black hole. Loveless marriage is the least worst thing in this house! Then halfway through I learn it's generational. Join the club, Jeffrey. Generational horror...is that a new sub-genre and if not, can we make it so?

Like any novella, there is an underlying of mystique to the story in order for it to make sense (the story lost some brownie points here but not stars). Like where does the hole go when the cops go to investigate? Also, I 100% thought the grandfather will pop back up. And a woman who has her period 3 weeks out of 4 weeks? She would literally pass out from blood loss. No woman would ever endure 3 weeks of cramps and be like "oh no, i don't want to bother a doctor with my cramps". That part could have been written a little better, haha. And the end left me with even more questions but that's a good thing, no?

A lot freaky *ish happens in this book, so don't let my few comments deter you from this sick read.

I really enjoyed this book, thank you for writing it. And Thank you to Book Sirens for an advanced copy in exchanged for my honest review.

[Milt Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having never read anything by Michael Tanner before, I was intrigued by the synopsis and decided to give it a go. It's a very entertaining book, if you can handle the very strong YA vibes of the first part. The YA aspect is obviously intentional, I believe, and meant to recreate the atmosphere of fear found in children's books about monsters in the closet and similar terrors. It works, at least it did for me, and I enjoyed young Jeffrey's mysterious adventures in the basement. However, the second half proved quite ambitious and it did deliver the kind of horror I was after! Tanner's writing skills shine when he deals directly with the central mystery of the novel. Give this one a try, you won't regret it.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Nikita Hosking · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot was intriguing and the book held my interest throughout the whole story. It wasn’t exactly fast paced but moved along well. I got confused on a few chapters when the characters voices changed around. But once i realised what was going on it was a good read.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Kenneth Guimond]

every reason to place the moral standards of right and wrong in the human conditions which morally relates to discrimination on showing a lack of improper use in critical standards to procedures of thought you know?

[Luka Jae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hooked me in from the very beginning.

[Aditya Sundararajan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a well-paced story that hit the right notes in terms of the horror's cosmic nature and its unyielding grip over the lineage of sons that the protagonist, his father, and presumably their forefathers have been part of. It scratched a very specific itch that I've had when it comes to horror that deals with the trope of a twisted worship of a god/demigod without devolving it into a standard cult or ritual sacrifice. Be it the closed-knit nature of its cast, or the disturbing body horror incorporated into the "worship" rituals, the story struck a balanced dance that I thought was neat, regardless of whether the author intended it that way.

The character motivations did leave me feel lacking toward the latter half of the story, especially certain decisions the adult Jeffrey or his aged dad take. Lydia had enough of a personality and voice to feel like a real person, and though I wish she had a little more agency in how the story's end works out for her, I did like the cyclical, karmic nature of the turn of events in the end. I also wanted a little more depth and exploration of Jeffrey's psychological dilemma with respect to his desires with the Void and how he went about the rituals. There were little glimpses now and then, which I enjoyed, but I wanted more meat to that bone for his dementedness to fully sink in and appreciate how deep he'd been corrupted from the innocent kid we saw in the first part. The final "twist" or punchline was something I did predict, so I liked that it did not overstay its welcome but offered just enough glimpse into what could happen next in the story.

On the whole, a riveting read that I recommend- some clever choices of setup and plot with the characterizations taking a little bit of a backseat.

[Elle Sie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this on the hot new releases chart for occult horror back in November last year. I hadn’t read Tanner before but will certainly check out more of the author’s work as I enjoyed this different sort of psychological horror. It followed Jeffrey, who in the first half of the book was a boy living in fear of a dark, gaping maw that seemed to live off the energy of the people in the house – or more. After a good and creepy start the story slowed down somewhat with more of the day to day lives and worries of the family. I admit there were a few times when I wasn’t sure if I might keep reading, but the story really picked up pace again in the second half. I enjoyed the body horror and pregnancy/infertility woes weaved into the gory horror and also the ambiguity of what Jeffrey, now grown up, would do. Nice cyclical ending too. I think this book could almost work as an allegory for depression in families with the all-consuming maw feasting on the next cycle of dysfunction.

[Sarah Budd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow this was a really dark book that I devoured so quickly! This story had so many layers, secrets hiding other secrets in one of the darkest families you'll ever come across!

Feeding the Void follows the tale of a young boy, Geoffrey who live sin awe of his distant and enigmatic father whilst his mother lives in fear. As the tale progresses we find out why his father spends all his time in the basement.

This was a really thrilling read with a haunting atmosphere of dread and foreboding! Can't wait to read the next book from Morgan K Tanner!