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White Harbor #3
A Hole in the World
CHOICES ARE MADE. CYCLES MUST CLOSE. THE END IS HERE.
Ignore. Forget. Postpone. Three words that will soon prove fatal. After the horrors of the First Night, a deceitful peace settles over White Harbor, as if brought forth by an unknown force. However, this is only the calm before the storm.
The Ritual of the Four Nights continues. Martha Lange strikes in a cruel, unexpected way, turning that peace into townwide panic. She will not rest until she has Peter Lange under her control. Freddie Parham, fueled by new power, continues his blood-soaked rampage, seeking revenge on Barry Giffen and his loved ones. Nadine Schaefer and Jess Cunningham each come across mysterious new players who hold a pivotal role before the end.
As White Harbor unravels, Mother watches, ready to deliver a reckoning that has been brewing for three hundred years.
GOD HAS AWAKENED.
Ignore. Forget. Postpone. Three words that will soon prove fatal. After the horrors of the First Night, a deceitful peace settles over White Harbor, as if brought forth by an unknown force. However, this is only the calm before the storm.
The Ritual of the Four Nights continues. Martha Lange strikes in a cruel, unexpected way, turning that peace into townwide panic. She will not rest until she has Peter Lange under her control. Freddie Parham, fueled by new power, continues his blood-soaked rampage, seeking revenge on Barry Giffen and his loved ones. Nadine Schaefer and Jess Cunningham each come across mysterious new players who hold a pivotal role before the end.
As White Harbor unravels, Mother watches, ready to deliver a reckoning that has been brewing for three hundred years.
GOD HAS AWAKENED.
648 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2024
2 people are currently reading
1 person want to read
About the author
Carlos E. Rivera
8 books34 followersAs an anxious, introverted kid growing up in Costa Rica during the 80s and 90s, I always felt like something of an outsider. My refuge was escaping into and devouring sci-fi, fantasy, drama, crime thrillers, and above all things, HORROR. For years, these books, movies, comics, and even video games became my life.
I dove into the horror-next-door of Stephen King, the ineffable cosmic abominations of H.P. Lovecraft, the disturbing atmosphere of Silent Hill, the dreamlike imagery of David Lynch, the sheer unnerving strangeness of Junji Ito, and many more; they got mixed in with my country’s folk stories and my own experiences, resulting in what I think is a peculiar blend that you, the reader, might feel is familiar but unknown. And isn’t that the foundation of horror? Doesn’t horror begin with something mundane that, seen from the right angle, seems a bit wrong?
I dove into the horror-next-door of Stephen King, the ineffable cosmic abominations of H.P. Lovecraft, the disturbing atmosphere of Silent Hill, the dreamlike imagery of David Lynch, the sheer unnerving strangeness of Junji Ito, and many more; they got mixed in with my country’s folk stories and my own experiences, resulting in what I think is a peculiar blend that you, the reader, might feel is familiar but unknown. And isn’t that the foundation of horror? Doesn’t horror begin with something mundane that, seen from the right angle, seems a bit wrong?
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 16, 2024
With "A Hole in the World," his third and final entry in the White Harbor Trilogy, Carlos E. Rivera shows himself to be a master of both spine-chilling blockbuster horror and highly traumatizing fiction! As with every series finale, the book is impossible to describe in a spoiler-free way, so I'm not even gonna try. It's obviously not a standalone (anything but!), it does not summarize what's gone before (that'd require a short companion volume to the series), it leaves absolutely nothing to chance. But it wraps up the story nicely, allowing the underlying cosmic horror elements to surface in disastrous and explosive ways.
The book starts hitting hard very early on, and never stops - even ten pages before the book ends, Rivera goes straight for the heart, breaking it in a million pieces by offering another scene of friendship, love, and companionship, one that literally cannot be. He has no problem tugging at one's heartstrings and stirring the strongest of emotions, whether via dropping a beloved character aside or rewarding an evil one unfairly. Both happen in this book, so the reader has to be prepared for an unexpected closure, a shocking turn of events, and many, many twists throughout.
As a finale, it delivers in spades. This is no joke or hype: the book is huge (it clocks in around 750 pages), it involves several timelines, has a very large cast, it's fast-paced and full of non-stop action, yet every little sweet detail counts - this is not your gradparents' horror trilogy, a trio of short novels you could easily summarize for a friend and read through in a week (if you put your mind to it). "White Harbor" is Rivera's lifework, and, man, does it show! The characters come alive as much through peril, risk, death and pain, as through affection, intimacy, and devotion; though enmity and betrayal have also a significant role to play as well, and surely the dreadful mother-son relationship determining the story in the previous two volumes finds its final expression here in the most disturbing of ways (triggers! triggers! triggers!). The reader has also to be prepared for gore, perversion, corruption, wickedness, and depravity. If the first volume was a sort of coming of age horror, and the second a non-typical small town horror tale, the third complements the other two by bringing into the surface the undercurrent themes of acquired, unresolved trauma, when love fails, either within the family or the world outside. In a sense, "A Hole In The World" is a love story, though one with a giant hole in the middle. If the promises of an eldritch god seems to you the reasonable way to fill it, then you'll certainly relate to the cult-leading Mother, the villain of the piece, and her attempts to use (and abuse) her son. If not, then you'll no doubt understand the son and his friends' attempts to find a different way to heal, sometimes forced to keep the hole open, other times to throw themselves into the abyss. Either way, with this trilogy you're in for a treat. I guarantee you a spectacular blast of a story, unparalleled in complexity and wild imagination.
This is the perfect trilogy finale I've read in years!
The book starts hitting hard very early on, and never stops - even ten pages before the book ends, Rivera goes straight for the heart, breaking it in a million pieces by offering another scene of friendship, love, and companionship, one that literally cannot be. He has no problem tugging at one's heartstrings and stirring the strongest of emotions, whether via dropping a beloved character aside or rewarding an evil one unfairly. Both happen in this book, so the reader has to be prepared for an unexpected closure, a shocking turn of events, and many, many twists throughout.
As a finale, it delivers in spades. This is no joke or hype: the book is huge (it clocks in around 750 pages), it involves several timelines, has a very large cast, it's fast-paced and full of non-stop action, yet every little sweet detail counts - this is not your gradparents' horror trilogy, a trio of short novels you could easily summarize for a friend and read through in a week (if you put your mind to it). "White Harbor" is Rivera's lifework, and, man, does it show! The characters come alive as much through peril, risk, death and pain, as through affection, intimacy, and devotion; though enmity and betrayal have also a significant role to play as well, and surely the dreadful mother-son relationship determining the story in the previous two volumes finds its final expression here in the most disturbing of ways (triggers! triggers! triggers!). The reader has also to be prepared for gore, perversion, corruption, wickedness, and depravity. If the first volume was a sort of coming of age horror, and the second a non-typical small town horror tale, the third complements the other two by bringing into the surface the undercurrent themes of acquired, unresolved trauma, when love fails, either within the family or the world outside. In a sense, "A Hole In The World" is a love story, though one with a giant hole in the middle. If the promises of an eldritch god seems to you the reasonable way to fill it, then you'll certainly relate to the cult-leading Mother, the villain of the piece, and her attempts to use (and abuse) her son. If not, then you'll no doubt understand the son and his friends' attempts to find a different way to heal, sometimes forced to keep the hole open, other times to throw themselves into the abyss. Either way, with this trilogy you're in for a treat. I guarantee you a spectacular blast of a story, unparalleled in complexity and wild imagination.
This is the perfect trilogy finale I've read in years!
August 24, 2025
I should probably sleep on this one for a night before reviewing, but my god, all the thoughts swirling in my head... There's so much I want to say, I do expect to miss some thing and have to come back and edit this later on.
But I have to give serious, undeniable props to the author on several fronts. The sheer history of White Harbor that he's built up, as well as the mythology around the religion and the god, and the town of White Harbor itself, and the main players, The Vigilantes, as well as the cast of secondary characters.
And, of course, the horrors. This is a horror trilogy, and all of the above would be wonderful, but if the horror fell down, then it'd be all for naught.
But there's still more. As far as I'm concerned, what this entire trilogy—but especially this final novel—hinges on is the characters and their interrelations. They're so well done.
I'm just gonna state it as plainly as I can: Carlos E. Rivera can fucking WRITE.
This trilogy is absolutely brilliant and, without spoiling anything, I can tell you that, just when you're sure which way it's going to go, Rivera pulls the rug out from under you... multiple freaking times. I thought I was a mean guy with my characters, but Rivera is bloody merciless. It's impressive, it's real, and I absolutely loved every single page of this book.
This.
This is how you finish off a horror series.
Mr. Rivera, I applaud you.
But I have to give serious, undeniable props to the author on several fronts. The sheer history of White Harbor that he's built up, as well as the mythology around the religion and the god, and the town of White Harbor itself, and the main players, The Vigilantes, as well as the cast of secondary characters.
And, of course, the horrors. This is a horror trilogy, and all of the above would be wonderful, but if the horror fell down, then it'd be all for naught.
But there's still more. As far as I'm concerned, what this entire trilogy—but especially this final novel—hinges on is the characters and their interrelations. They're so well done.
I'm just gonna state it as plainly as I can: Carlos E. Rivera can fucking WRITE.
This trilogy is absolutely brilliant and, without spoiling anything, I can tell you that, just when you're sure which way it's going to go, Rivera pulls the rug out from under you... multiple freaking times. I thought I was a mean guy with my characters, but Rivera is bloody merciless. It's impressive, it's real, and I absolutely loved every single page of this book.
This.
This is how you finish off a horror series.
Mr. Rivera, I applaud you.
January 10, 2025
The overall storyline of White Harbor and its malevolent past is what pulled me into this series. The final chapter to the trilogy is by far the longest, not to mention the most gruesome and violent. Picking up right after the town blackout, many citizens are going about their business as if nothing was wrong, while others prepare for more chaos from “Blight Harbor,” the evil world connected to the town. The series brings back characters from the previous books, although you don’t want to get too connected to anyone (let’s face it… NO ONE is safe!). Peter Lange appeared to be the main protagonist coming into book three. However in the finale, we have more of an “ensemble cast” with others getting more in-depth scenes. Plus, Peter has seemingly become content with his mother’s atrocities, and is not the likable guy he once was. Martha Lange (and her minion Freddie Parham) are two of the most vile villains I’ve ever seen, and their evil sides show more than in either of the first two novels.
Overall, the plot is fantastic, and the author is a talented storyteller. There is so much going on, though, which makes it hard to follow at times. From my perspective, I would have preferred either a heavy edit of the material, or cutting it into two separate books. Many times, the descriptions and lengthy monologues were unnecessarily prolix. Honestly, this could have been a five or even six book series. But as it is, it tells a terrifying story. If you want to become entrenched in a trilogy of books featuring horrifying monsters and cataclysmic happenings, give it a try!
Overall, the plot is fantastic, and the author is a talented storyteller. There is so much going on, though, which makes it hard to follow at times. From my perspective, I would have preferred either a heavy edit of the material, or cutting it into two separate books. Many times, the descriptions and lengthy monologues were unnecessarily prolix. Honestly, this could have been a five or even six book series. But as it is, it tells a terrifying story. If you want to become entrenched in a trilogy of books featuring horrifying monsters and cataclysmic happenings, give it a try!
July 21, 2025
Wow! Just wow!
This book was amazing. If you've read the first two, well then, you must already be invested.
This book goes haaaaard. Like, the most messed up things from book 2? Make it 11 out of a possible 5.
It made me shudder, gasp, and cry out.
I loved it!
I plan to reread the series again in the future. I read the series via ebooks but, I love paperbacks. So, I want to read them again that way.
This book was amazing. If you've read the first two, well then, you must already be invested.
This book goes haaaaard. Like, the most messed up things from book 2? Make it 11 out of a possible 5.
It made me shudder, gasp, and cry out.
I loved it!
I plan to reread the series again in the future. I read the series via ebooks but, I love paperbacks. So, I want to read them again that way.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews