When Slumber Falls

by S.D. Hintz

3 witches cast spells on a town breeding an ancient evil.

172 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 13, 2012

About the author

S.D. Hintz has published 5 short stories, 1 poem, and a novel this year — Vigilance & Vengeance (novel) by Solstice Publishing (late 2017), Bellows by Dark Alley Press in Ink Stains, Volume 4, Housecall by MacKenzie Publishing in the Two Eyes Open anthology, Temporary in The Misbehaving Dead collection by A Murder of Storytellers, The Devil’s Embrace in the Beautiful Lies, Painful Truths antho by Left Hand Publishers, Collingwood in the Scarlet Leaf Review, and Aspects of a Rose in the Cold Creek Review. He is the former Editor-in-Chief of KHP Publishers and extremely active on social media.

Reviews

[Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this book because of the cover. It's really pretty. I wasn't sure what to expect so some things came as a shock. I have some mixed feelings about this book. In some ways, it was great but in others it was not so good.

The good things: eerie, creppy, well written, and pulled me in from the first page with some pretty believeable characters it had me reading well into the night. The idea that they used objects for their magic was cool and an interesting idea. And so was the cursed tattoo.
I would have liked it if Murray was a bit older just because he might have been more relatable if he wasn't 13 years old.
Now the bad things are mostly just personal.
My biggest problem was Grandma Anna.
Grandma Anna flops from being a grumpy old lady to a fun grandma in a matter of seconds.
And locking him the cellar? Really? Suprising, yes, but also kind of stupid, Who would do that if they loved their grandson? And Murrey! "The cellar was mild on the punishment list". Oh my word! What kind of kid is this? I think being locked in the cellar by your grandmother is very, very high on the punishment list! That's solitary confinement, people! The kid didn't even think it was that crazy! He was okay with it!
Also, when you tell a 13 year old kid, don't go in this room, he's going to go in the room! And giving him a list of chores that he has to have done by noon? Jeez, what kind of grandma is this? And then she feeds him all his most hated food? Not cool. And then the next morning she's all nice and sweet grandma again? And he didn't even think twice about it? She goes from, Your such a liar to Let's listen to what he's got to say. And when Havlock chops down her roses, she won't call the cops because their ten minutes away? Really? Ten minutes?

Ending was pretty massive. It was a pretty great ending. All in all, this book was pretty good.

[JenniferJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Giving this two stars is not my way of labeling it a particularly bad story. It actually had the potential of being a great story but I feel alot went unexplained and it just had too many holes like Murray's moms death has left him with nightmares but it doesn't give us but a mention or so about any of what happened nor why his grandmom has a room he is only allowed in when the door is open and just many other instances that I would have liked to of read more about.

Murray was a lovable character as was Cab and I even liked Grandma although she was about as weird as the rest of the neighbors.