Inside the Mirrors

by Jason R. Davis

It begins with death...

It begins with change...

It begins with...

When Rob Alletto left Chicago to be a small town police officer, he expected things to be different. He wanted a safe community for his family and a place to get away from his demons.

What he found was Standard, a small town with its own demons. His neighbors are changing around him. A strange man has been appearing in mirrors, a reflection when no one is there. People claim that they have seen him, but are they succumbing to madness?

Yesterday Rob Alletto moved in. Today he must find what lies Inside the Mirrors...

Genres: Horror

245 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 23, 2009

About the author

Jason R. Davis is an Alumni of Columbia College Chicago who has continued on to be an author, event organizer and filmmaker. He is the founder of The Chicago Horror Film Festival and author of the zombie apocalypse series, "Invisible Spiders." Jason spends much of his time promoting and working to develop independent artists and hosts a weekly podcast, "Shriek Speak." For more information please visit jasonrdavis.net

Reviews

[AudioBookReviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

My original Inside the Mirrors audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

I'm not going to lie, this book didn't do it for me.

It seemed to be made up of all the bits  I don't personally like of Stephen King's work. When it comes to ghost stories, especially ones using plot devices like evil entities stuck in mirrors, I love the symmetry of the cliche and the comfort of hearing a familiar story being retold. In this case though, it felt like 7 hours of narration leading up to a 'yeah, there's a ghost stuck in the mirror' which seemed a little unnecessary, given the title of the book.

The premise is that a family move from Chicago to a sleepy town in the Midwest, the father, Rob, is a police man and is recovering from injuries sustained in course of duty (cos, y'know, meth labs). Their idyllic new home isn't as wonderful as it first appeared, the men of the town are coming home from work and murdering their families before committing suicide.

Ok, there's no need to go into a huge amount of detail, I'm sure you can guess the whys and wherefores of this particular story.

The one thing that did particularly bother me about this story is that there was an enigmatic native American woman who appeared from time to time to delivery ominous warnings to the main character. It might just be my own personal sensitivity but it does get under my skin when native people are used as cheap stereotypes in stories.

On the positive side, the audio for this book was pretty good in both sound quality and choice of narrator. I'm not sure that I could have found the motivation to finish the book if it wasn't for Darren Marlar who kept the story flowing at a decent pace.

This isn't by any means to say that you shouldn't read or listen to this book, if you're a fan of American ghost stories and horror, this may very well be right up your street.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

[Derick Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won the book from Goodreads.
This was a fantastic book. Great horror story, it has that woderful creepy atmosphere. The charecters are all well rounded and move well through the story. I can't say enough good things about this book.

[Ambar Rodriguez · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disclaimer: Author has a great book called Bookmail. Please give it a chance. Tastes differ. | My true review score for this book is 2.5 stars, however, GR took off the .5 star option. This book started off with promise to be such a fun and devastating story. The prologue itself was great at drawing me in. There were times the author would contradict himself. For example there is a scene where a pastor mentions a woman not having any family and then a few pages later, the same pastor says the woman has family out of state. I feel the story was disorganized in the way it was told as well as well as the logic used behind why the supernatural events were occurring. More than halfway through I was thinking to myself to “get to the point.” There is also blatant transphobia in the beginning of the book that was completely unnecessary. The character was a prostitute & the fact that she was trans didn’t lend anything to the story other than proving both Rob and his young, new partner are a**holes. I do think the author did an amazing job at describing the truly horrific scenes of the book. My favorite scene being Samantha and her husband’s death. I’d been reading that scene in a restaurant and I’m sure anyone who saw me would’ve known I was reading something disturbing. The concept of this story was great. I only wish it had gone in another direction. Personally wouldn’t read again.

[The Reading List (Megan) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot-line for Inside the Mirrors was solid and quickly drew me in. You can always tell if a horror novel lives up to what it claims if you can't stop thinking about it days after you've finished reading. Inside the Mirrors is the kind of horror story that would make a wonderful movie. It's horror in its purest form and relies on a serious creepiness factor, restless spirits, and good old fashioned psychological turmoil to scare the crap out of you. It's the kind of story that really gets under your skin and once it's there, it's hard to forget.

The Allettos were easy to relate to; just your average middle class family trying to survive in spite of the failing economy. Rob's determination to keep his family and the town safe, despite his failing back and recent stint in the hospital, felt very realistic without the over-the-top hero vibe that many horror and urban fantasy novels are known for.

Davis also does a good job of making sure all of the pieces of the story come full circle at the end, leaving nothing unexplained or unaccounted for.

I just wish the final novel was edited a lot more closely, otherwise I would have honestly given it five stars. It's been a while since I've read a good horror novel that makes me second guess just whether or not it's safe to close my eyes when my head hits the pillow.

Inside the Mirrors is worth a read and definitely worth the subconscious mirror fear that's sure to follow.

Read the full review and summary on my blog: http://readinglist-m.blogspot.com/201...

[Deedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book.Darren Marlar did a fine job with narration. A police officer gets hurt in an odd meth bust.People are seeing shadows in mirrors.A man returns to the town where he grew up,where his father murdered his mother and tried to kill him.He comes back in an odd way.Personalities are changing,but all into the same people,over and over.Can Rob save his family?We'll see!
This audiobook was provided to me at no cost for a fair and honest review.