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Consumed
Aspiring author Ben Simmons hates imposing himself upon others, so when he breaks down in the small Rhode Island town of Kettering, he's forced to grit his teeth and lean on strangers for help.
It’s not all bad, though. His temporary host could not be more accommodating, and the local librarian quickly takes an interest in Ben, as well as the research for his next novel. Though unexpected, his short stay has the potential to be enjoyable. But when he stumbles upon the second murder in Kettering within a week, he realizes his presence in town might actually be life-threatening.
Ben soon finds himself torn between leaving as soon as he can and his feelings for the alluring Ellen Hornsby. However, the longer Ben stays in town, the more questions he has. Who is the killer? How are these murders connected to similar crimes committed thirty years before? And why haven't the townspeople done anything?
As Ben’s list of allies grows, so too does the threat that haunts the people of Kettering. Together, these individuals must set aside their differences and find the killer before the body count climbs any higher, but time is running out.
Something is in the woods, something hidden among the shadows that grow ever longer with winter's approach, and it's hunting all of them.
It’s not all bad, though. His temporary host could not be more accommodating, and the local librarian quickly takes an interest in Ben, as well as the research for his next novel. Though unexpected, his short stay has the potential to be enjoyable. But when he stumbles upon the second murder in Kettering within a week, he realizes his presence in town might actually be life-threatening.
Ben soon finds himself torn between leaving as soon as he can and his feelings for the alluring Ellen Hornsby. However, the longer Ben stays in town, the more questions he has. Who is the killer? How are these murders connected to similar crimes committed thirty years before? And why haven't the townspeople done anything?
As Ben’s list of allies grows, so too does the threat that haunts the people of Kettering. Together, these individuals must set aside their differences and find the killer before the body count climbs any higher, but time is running out.
Something is in the woods, something hidden among the shadows that grow ever longer with winter's approach, and it's hunting all of them.
344 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 23, 2014
38 people are currently reading
992 people want to read
About the author
Aaron Mahnke
27 books1,320 followersOne of the most successful podcast producers in the world, Aaron Mahnke began his career in 2015 with the launch of Lore, which went on to become a breakout hit.
Aside from racking up over 450-million downloads to date, Lore was adapted for two seasons of television on Amazon, and as a three-book set from Penguin Random House. Aaron has also toured extensively, delivering his trademark storytelling experience to thousands of people across the country.
In 2019, Aaron also published his first comic book series, Wellington, through IDW. And in 2021, he launched the first of a new slate of fiction podcasts, beginning with the breakout hit Bridgewater, starring Misha Collins, Melissa Ponzia, Karan Soni, Alan Tudyk, and Tricia Helfer.
Aside from racking up over 450-million downloads to date, Lore was adapted for two seasons of television on Amazon, and as a three-book set from Penguin Random House. Aaron has also toured extensively, delivering his trademark storytelling experience to thousands of people across the country.
In 2019, Aaron also published his first comic book series, Wellington, through IDW. And in 2021, he launched the first of a new slate of fiction podcasts, beginning with the breakout hit Bridgewater, starring Misha Collins, Melissa Ponzia, Karan Soni, Alan Tudyk, and Tricia Helfer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
December 5, 2015
Let me compare and contrast this book with Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot. First, because they're very similar books in terms of intention, plot and tone. But second, because I want to explain how one book can work while another falls flat, even if they're alike on paper. Plus, Aaron Mehnke slipped in references to King already, so it's fair game.
Both books are about novelists named Ben that comes to a small New England town and meet murderous supernatural creatures. Both Bens assemble a ragtag team of allies (and love interests) to fight the monsters. Both emerge victorious, after some tragic losses... or did they?
But while 'Salem's Lot helped relaunch the vampire genre for modern audiences, I predict that Consumed is destined to be ignored, apart from a few .99 cent sales through Amazon Kindle Deals. But why?
Stephen King is a master at creating rich, detailed characters usually in just a few paragraphs. The characters in Consumed didn't seem real at any point in the entire novel. It didn't help that all the characters talked like they were teaching a preschool class, explaining everything to the tiniest degree. One of the worst examples of this came when Ben told the librarian love interest that he wrote historical fiction, and then preceded to explain to her what that was. A librarian. And then the librarian love interest responded with "I know what historical fiction is, for I am a librarian." And she was being sincere, and not snaking at a douchenozzle man-splainer.
The stakes in Consumed also felt really low for the main character. In 'Salem's Lot, the vampires targeted Ben personally, torturing him by going after his people. It was a sick game for them and made Ben desperate and scared the heck out of readers. In Consumed, Ben could have left the town at any point to get away from the monster. He kept asking himself why he didn't just leave and I was all "yeah, why don't you?" Mehnke set up a situation where Ben's car was busted, but that's a pretty poor excuse to stay where life is on the line. There was the budding, one-day romance with the librarian, but that seemed slim too. Basically, Ben didn't have a reason to be there, he didn't have a reason to fight a monster, he didn't have a reason to risk near-certain death. So the reader was left going "meh." If the main character of the story had been Jack, an ex-Army guy who's grandmother was killed by the monster sixty years ago, that would have made so much more narrative sense.
There are a limited number of plots I the world. Even more limited when you want to wrote in a genre like horror. But the same basic plots can have wildly differing results. So in conclusion: Go read 'Salem's Lot.
Both books are about novelists named Ben that comes to a small New England town and meet murderous supernatural creatures. Both Bens assemble a ragtag team of allies (and love interests) to fight the monsters. Both emerge victorious, after some tragic losses... or did they?
But while 'Salem's Lot helped relaunch the vampire genre for modern audiences, I predict that Consumed is destined to be ignored, apart from a few .99 cent sales through Amazon Kindle Deals. But why?
Stephen King is a master at creating rich, detailed characters usually in just a few paragraphs. The characters in Consumed didn't seem real at any point in the entire novel. It didn't help that all the characters talked like they were teaching a preschool class, explaining everything to the tiniest degree. One of the worst examples of this came when Ben told the librarian love interest that he wrote historical fiction, and then preceded to explain to her what that was. A librarian. And then the librarian love interest responded with "I know what historical fiction is, for I am a librarian." And she was being sincere, and not snaking at a douchenozzle man-splainer.
The stakes in Consumed also felt really low for the main character. In 'Salem's Lot, the vampires targeted Ben personally, torturing him by going after his people. It was a sick game for them and made Ben desperate and scared the heck out of readers. In Consumed, Ben could have left the town at any point to get away from the monster. He kept asking himself why he didn't just leave and I was all "yeah, why don't you?" Mehnke set up a situation where Ben's car was busted, but that's a pretty poor excuse to stay where life is on the line. There was the budding, one-day romance with the librarian, but that seemed slim too. Basically, Ben didn't have a reason to be there, he didn't have a reason to fight a monster, he didn't have a reason to risk near-certain death. So the reader was left going "meh." If the main character of the story had been Jack, an ex-Army guy who's grandmother was killed by the monster sixty years ago, that would have made so much more narrative sense.
There are a limited number of plots I the world. Even more limited when you want to wrote in a genre like horror. But the same basic plots can have wildly differing results. So in conclusion: Go read 'Salem's Lot.
May 6, 2016
The concept of this book is solid. It really is. The passages that are aimed to be creepy did just that, but the rest just was too much to handle. The dialogue was so forced that I felt like I was reading an episode of 7th Heaven, and I had to draw the line when there was some random anti-Internet rant in the middle of a passage for no reason. I love the podcast, I really do, but I'm gonna steer clear of his fictional writings.
December 31, 2014
Fun, creepy tale of a writer in New England. Read it in the dark for more fun.
May 18, 2016
I love Aaron's podcast. This book... not so much. The only reason I am giving it two stars instead of one is because at some points it was so bad it was good.
July 18, 2016
Really 3.5 stars- more polished than Indian Summer. Definitely Steven King- esque... Small NE town, insular communities, inexplicable horrors and strange going ons, outsider comes in, etc. but that's ok- these are all archetypes that work! I like how Manke delves into local lore. Story and characters could be more fleshed out, a lot of this felt rushed. One chapter was exceptionally great, in which he explores the history of one character in detail.
January 3, 2015
Try reading this in bed, in the middle of the night next to someone that lightly snores randomly. I dare you.
The prologue grabs you instantly. Then the characters and story are rounded out nicely. The ending left me on edge the entire time.
Folklore is woven nicely into the story making for a very fun read.
The prologue grabs you instantly. Then the characters and story are rounded out nicely. The ending left me on edge the entire time.
Folklore is woven nicely into the story making for a very fun read.
July 19, 2015
Not bad
I liked the book overall, but at times it was overly wordy and the dialogue was cringy. His podcast, Lore, is fantastic however. I highly recommend it.
I liked the book overall, but at times it was overly wordy and the dialogue was cringy. His podcast, Lore, is fantastic however. I highly recommend it.
June 29, 2017
Spoilers ahead
I found this after being a long time listener of Lore. I think I will just stick to Lore. It feel like he was inspired by the Stephen King formula- a small town in New England, the main protagonist is a writer from out of town who stumbles upon something mysterious.
You know the drill.
The problem is nothing in this story actually drew me in. The characters were all one demensional and the dialog was painful. When a character sees a body that has been mutilated and just says 'That's awful!' it really kills the scene.
Also, it felt like the first 80% of the book was an introduction where not much happened and then the story had to very quickly tie up.
Like I said, I love the Lore podcast, but I don't think I will read any more of his fiction after this.
I found this after being a long time listener of Lore. I think I will just stick to Lore. It feel like he was inspired by the Stephen King formula- a small town in New England, the main protagonist is a writer from out of town who stumbles upon something mysterious.
You know the drill.
The problem is nothing in this story actually drew me in. The characters were all one demensional and the dialog was painful. When a character sees a body that has been mutilated and just says 'That's awful!' it really kills the scene.
Also, it felt like the first 80% of the book was an introduction where not much happened and then the story had to very quickly tie up.
Like I said, I love the Lore podcast, but I don't think I will read any more of his fiction after this.
November 8, 2016
I REALLY love Mahnke's podcast LORE.
That said, if you can't say something nice… :)
That said, if you can't say something nice… :)
February 1, 2018
I really liked the story a lot. I would have given it at least a 4 star rating but I had some issues with the writing. I lost count of how many serious spelling errors there were. I was averaging about 1 every 20-25 pages in the beginning and kept thinking surely it would get better but it didn’t. Then as the book got more exciting I was finding more and more spelling errors. It’s like he got excited and in a hurry to write it and then never went back to edit his writing. The dialogue in the beginning seemed a little forced at times. I think he wrote the middle and ending first and then had a hard time getting the rhythm for the beginning of the book. It wasn’t bad, but some of the conversations just seemed to use more dialogue than would naturally be used in the situation. The story as a whole was creepy and enjoyable. I just had much higher expectations since I was already a fan of Aaron Mahnke’s amazing podcast and he even has a show on amazon. The book just wasn’t as polished and professional as his shows.
December 24, 2019
Gets better as it goes—the last third or so was good. Mahnke is a good storyteller, but this could have used some more development.
August 31, 2015
Like many other readers, I came to Aaron Mahnke's fiction after listening to his podcast, "Lore," which I love. I must say, I am glad I followed that trail.
Aaron Mahnke's novel does not provide the fear and terror that a reader of Stephen King might expect; it's a different kind of scare. Cozy, like sitting in your favorite armchair with a cup of tea and a great book, comfy and relaxed, and BAM! something smashes into the window, scaring the bejesus out of you! Reading this, you'll end up with tea all over your lap, and your book tossed to the floor in fright. Be careful. While 'Consumed' was not quite what I expected (honestly, from the title, I'd suspected a vampire novel), it was a worthwhile read, and had me on the edge of my seat. I honestly cannot remember the last time I reacted this way to a horror story. I will definitely be reading more of his fiction. But maybe not while drinking a hot cup of tea...
Aaron Mahnke's novel does not provide the fear and terror that a reader of Stephen King might expect; it's a different kind of scare. Cozy, like sitting in your favorite armchair with a cup of tea and a great book, comfy and relaxed, and BAM! something smashes into the window, scaring the bejesus out of you! Reading this, you'll end up with tea all over your lap, and your book tossed to the floor in fright. Be careful. While 'Consumed' was not quite what I expected (honestly, from the title, I'd suspected a vampire novel), it was a worthwhile read, and had me on the edge of my seat. I honestly cannot remember the last time I reacted this way to a horror story. I will definitely be reading more of his fiction. But maybe not while drinking a hot cup of tea...
November 14, 2021
I honestly had such high hopes for this book given how amazing the Lore podcast is, but the writing was so disappointing. It was the perfect example of what not to do re: 'show, don't tell' and being self published the formatting was all over the place with huge gaps at the bottom of pages and quite a few spelling errors. Part of the plot was ripped entirely from Stephen King's IT, so much so that the characters' reference to 'Derry, Maine' wasn't so much a nod to him and more of the nail in the coffin for the similarities in the 'every 30 years this random thing comes and kills people and everyone ignores it but us' plot device. The dialogue was painful at times, the opposite of naturalistic, in general it felt like the book talked down to the reader far too much which was a real shame. What would have been suspenseful reveals (like the fact that Jack's grandmother was killed by the monster 30 years ago) were over-explained to an embarrassing degree, as if the author had no faith that the reader would get there on their own. I took a guess that the creature was something like a wendigo 2 chapters in, and gave up reading at chapter 13 and skipped to the end to find out. It takes a lot for me to give up on a book, but unfortunately this was one of those books.
March 11, 2018
The first Aaron Mahnke book I've read and it did not disappoint. The creepy evil factor was something I hadnt read before, which I love reading most; something that's not in every horror story. It had me guessing up till the end.
What drew me to this book was that it is a creepy read, because I need some creepy in my life. Aaron has that aspect pegged with lots of experience from Lore, his podcast. With this book being self published, it wasn't horribly written with misspellings every other sentence, all likely aspects of self published books that often lead my interest south. (Thank you for not driving me insane, Aaron!)
Something I did get bored with was that the characters all seemed too agreeable with one another, even before they pulled together to fight off the evil. More conflict would have added a little something extra.
Overall, interesting story with pleasing characters and a unique evil. 👍
What drew me to this book was that it is a creepy read, because I need some creepy in my life. Aaron has that aspect pegged with lots of experience from Lore, his podcast. With this book being self published, it wasn't horribly written with misspellings every other sentence, all likely aspects of self published books that often lead my interest south. (Thank you for not driving me insane, Aaron!)
Something I did get bored with was that the characters all seemed too agreeable with one another, even before they pulled together to fight off the evil. More conflict would have added a little something extra.
Overall, interesting story with pleasing characters and a unique evil. 👍
May 16, 2019
As with the other novel I’ve read from this author, this book is filled with typos. For example, “(he) freed one of the matchedsfrom the elastic band that held them together” There must have been over thirty times where words were spelled incorrectly or lacking a space between words. Maybe I’m being nit picky about that, but it really seems like his books are just sent out at first draft. The story is fine for a lazy quick read, but maybe not great if you’re looking for a thrilling read with interesting twists and detail. The bulk of the book sets up the ending slowly, but then the last few chapters are very quick paced and matter-of-fact. I wish that it had been a little longer and that it had given the characters a little more substance than just vehicles for the main character to be the hero.
October 22, 2018
This week, I’ve been listening to the podcast Lore which deals with how different myths, legends, and ways of thinking got their start. Highly recommend.
The host of this podcast also writes horror stories and this was the first time I’ve read a book from him.
I have to say that this was such an enjoyable reading experience that involves a small town, a writer as a main character, and a murder mystery with horrible results. I will say that the scares don’t happen often, but I was interested with the characters in their private lives and fear with this killer or potential monster in this wholesome town.
I can also see where Lore had a hand in inspiration for this book when certain background info is explained. This is pretty good if you like character driven horror.
The host of this podcast also writes horror stories and this was the first time I’ve read a book from him.
I have to say that this was such an enjoyable reading experience that involves a small town, a writer as a main character, and a murder mystery with horrible results. I will say that the scares don’t happen often, but I was interested with the characters in their private lives and fear with this killer or potential monster in this wholesome town.
I can also see where Lore had a hand in inspiration for this book when certain background info is explained. This is pretty good if you like character driven horror.
March 14, 2023
I really wanted to love this book…Aaron Mahnke is such a great storyteller and researcher! His other books and podcasts have been enthralling, so I’m giving this book 2 stars for props on getting out there and writing this first novel.
Knowing his style, this book focused more on his overarching research and messaging rather than focusing on character development or diving into the complexities of the love story. Unfortunately it felt forced. Worth the read as a fan, though! I was at least entertained for the majority of it 🤷🏻♀️
Knowing his style, this book focused more on his overarching research and messaging rather than focusing on character development or diving into the complexities of the love story. Unfortunately it felt forced. Worth the read as a fan, though! I was at least entertained for the majority of it 🤷🏻♀️
August 3, 2017
I love Aaron Mahnke for Lore, I now also love him for his role as an author. Consumed really consumed me, I fell into the book and it was like an episode of Lore. I can't wait to read more from Aaron as well as continue to be a loyal listener of Lore. I am also really looking forward to the new TV show for Lore also! Keep it up Aaron!
May 24, 2018
I love the world of Lore. This is not the world of Lore. Aaron Mahnke is a great story teller, I'm not sure that this translates to being a great writer. The story line was predictable and at times cliched, but it was a very easy read and I will read more Mahnke books... maybe Wendigo's just aren't my thing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 29, 2019
I had high hopes for this book, as I love Aaron Mahnke’s podcasts, but I was sadly disappointed. The characters were badly written, and unconvincing. I found a lot of the dialogue was completely out of place in certain situations, which felt jilting as I read it. I wanted to be spooked by the goings on in Kettering, but it all got a bit silly. Not sure if I’ll risk another of his titles.
September 7, 2017
Good horror
An excellent suspenseful horror story. My only quibble is the sometimes heavy handed anti-tech/social media attitude and the fact that literally every N.A. monster is either a Bigfoot or a Wendigo.
An excellent suspenseful horror story. My only quibble is the sometimes heavy handed anti-tech/social media attitude and the fact that literally every N.A. monster is either a Bigfoot or a Wendigo.
November 6, 2017
Not my favorite book I've read lately. Found it a little boring & not that believable. All the conversation and tiny details didn't build up enough interest to make me really care about the characters. I did like the creature/murders, but other than that it left me pretty unentertained.
September 15, 2018
I’m a huge “Lore” fan. I wanted more folklore in this book. I think exploring the history of the antagonist through flashbacks would have been brilliant. But dull characters, strange pacing and corny dialogue made this a tough one. I still love Aaron Mahnke though!
September 14, 2017
Second Aaron Mahnke book I read. Liked it. Satisfied with the ending.
November 6, 2017
A good read. The first half could be better but the second half was really good. It would probably be a good intro to supernatural thrillers.
November 22, 2017
Keeps you turning the pages.
Worth the read, fun time.
The characters are likable and I did not want it to end. I guess I will try another of hi books.
Worth the read, fun time.
The characters are likable and I did not want it to end. I guess I will try another of hi books.
March 18, 2018
Surprisingly good! Looking forward to more stuff from the author, I actually didn’t know he had fiction works, so it was a nice surprise.
May 10, 2018
From the creator of Lore, most accurate (insert spoilery cryptid type) tale I've ever read.
June 10, 2019
Good Supernatural Thriller, leaves you in suspense. Easy read.
June 2, 2020
Small typo errors that make you pause. A little bit predictable. Believable and good character development.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews