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Assimilation
They’ve only visited her in dreams… until now.
Kercy Powell loves spending summers at their secluded island cottage in Ontario; a place where her birth defects and wheelchair are never on display. Just before her eighteenth birthday, Kercy is shocked to learn her mother sold their island paradise, offering only this grave warning, “Don’t ever go back there!”
The ensuing years bring Kercy a miraculous metamorphous, making her wheelchair unnecessary. Upon her mother’s death, she inherits the family fortune and buys back her most treasured getaway. Kercy is soon plagued by old nightmares; strange beings who visit in her sleep. One night, two men boat out to her cottage and try to assault her. She manages to escape, only to witness the unholy cries of her attackers being savagely killed.
The inexplicable murders trigger a visit from Special Agent Mallory, a cagey FBI officer who is only interested in how the two men died. But Kercy has no idea, until she comes face to face with her “protectors,” creatures who live beneath the deep, icy waters of Georgian Bay. And while they’ve rescued her before, Kercy can’t shake the notion that their intentions are nefarious.
[CONTENT Intended for adult readership and contains scenes of violence, sexuality, aliens, and language that may be uncomfortable for some readers.]
[TRIGGER Rape]
Kercy Powell loves spending summers at their secluded island cottage in Ontario; a place where her birth defects and wheelchair are never on display. Just before her eighteenth birthday, Kercy is shocked to learn her mother sold their island paradise, offering only this grave warning, “Don’t ever go back there!”
The ensuing years bring Kercy a miraculous metamorphous, making her wheelchair unnecessary. Upon her mother’s death, she inherits the family fortune and buys back her most treasured getaway. Kercy is soon plagued by old nightmares; strange beings who visit in her sleep. One night, two men boat out to her cottage and try to assault her. She manages to escape, only to witness the unholy cries of her attackers being savagely killed.
The inexplicable murders trigger a visit from Special Agent Mallory, a cagey FBI officer who is only interested in how the two men died. But Kercy has no idea, until she comes face to face with her “protectors,” creatures who live beneath the deep, icy waters of Georgian Bay. And while they’ve rescued her before, Kercy can’t shake the notion that their intentions are nefarious.
[CONTENT Intended for adult readership and contains scenes of violence, sexuality, aliens, and language that may be uncomfortable for some readers.]
[TRIGGER Rape]
338 pages, Hardcover
Published October 30, 2025
3 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 23, 2025
Trigger Warning: Lots of SA
Don’t get fooled by the Horror label of this book. ‘Assimilation’ is just a lowkey SciFi thriller/mystery with aliens.
The way it starts, it hits you right in the feels. That childhood yearning for a parent's love and care is palpable, but here’s the twist: the father's cruelty is almost understandable. His wife told him she was impregnated by aliens for the "greater good" and demanded he accept the hybrid child. Honestly, how is any sane person supposed to handle that? While the book attempts a weak, brief redemption arc with the "zombie daddy" figure later on, it felt completely underdeveloped, sort of ‘let’s not forget about that missing father I wrote about at the beginning of the novel’.
Diving into the details:
Kercy loves the water, and in her undying love for the submarine life, she drowned several times believing she could breathe underwater. Her mother saved her every time. It was interesting to read about her ability to see colors much better, see more life under water, a foreshadowing of her real nature. Pretty obvious she was something else.
Kercy suffered tremendously ever since she was born. She was born prematurely at seven months, she came into the world with strange webbing between her fingers and toes, with a strange shape of her head, with a defect on her ear. She suffered many surgeries to look human and as she matured, she grew stronger and managed to walk on her own legs, finally escaping the wheelchair she was glued to for her entire adolescence.
Close to her eighteenth anniversary, she has a very strange dream about three amphibious creatures coming into her bedroom at night. In the nightmare two creatures hold her down, while the third one inserts an instrument inside her. Later on we learn that she had been probed and a tracking device has been implanted in her.
A huge fight between her parents follows, and her father leaves home. Unable to go on with the difficult life, her mother decides to sell the cottage they lived in, much to Kercy’s anguish.
And just like that, we switch to 12 years later, with Kercy’s father still missing and her mother dead and so she inherited all her fortune. This allowed Kercy to buy the cottage back from the couple who initially bought it from her mother.
She has an established life now as an adult and a boyfriend (Gerald) who loves her very much.I can't help but notice how afraid she was to lose Gerald when he had to go back to New York for two weeks. She's afraid of being abandoned like she was by her father (quite relatable).
The following days, while Gerald is away in New York, many events occur, including the introduction of a special FBI agent (Mallory) and Kercy’s friend (Cindy). Quite repetitive I must add. And around this time in the book, the story went from 5 stars to 3.
--> It was all about spending time with Cindy, doing the same thing every day, boating, sunbathing, drinking, eating, talking and working on her doctorate which again I could live without all those details about evolution– didn't really brought any value to the story, especially when we were craving for the horror for the creepy aliens.
--> One day she decides to go for a dive and drowns (again), she wakes up in her bedroom naked with no memory of how she got there. Jacob, her neighbor's grandson, said he saw her floating at the surface of the water and she was dead. For five minutes he CPR’ed her. Evidently Jacob knows way more than he's letting on. She suspects that's why he showed up exactly when she needed help in the water.
--> Another night, a couple of men try to sexually assault Kercy and while she fights them off, she escapes only because one of her attackers is killed by the aliens and she uses the distraction to kick the man on top of her.
--> A second night, another group of men enter her cottage to sexually assault her and Cindy, ending up with those guys killing her friend and them being killed by the aliens (again).
I was promised Horror and scary Aliens, instead I got Kercy’s tedious autobiography mixed with an excessive focus on sexual content, assault themes, and men and/or aliens desiring to rape Kercy and Cindy. The entire subplot involving local thieves who apparently rape as a hobby? just felt like filler to set up the aliens as saviors, offering absolutely no meaningful contribution to the plot.
It didn’t help either that Kercy’s attitude during the interrogation changes 180 degrees, her snarkiness is absolutely unnecessary and unbelievable considering how traumatized she was and acted not minutes or days ago. Suddenly she's a comedian. I know people process trauma differently, but this girl processes it differently in the span of a few seconds. While I loved her character for half of the book, she became almost insufferable by the end. The way she talks to Jacob and bashes at his theories is just disgusting considering she is a scientist and should keep an open mind (especially when she sees those things herself). But no, she turned against the guy that saved her and tried to help her on many occasions.
Near the end, Cindy evidently comes back reanimated by the aliens to talk to Kercy and get her to see their underwater world, apparently some distant, different dimension, to make her understand the aliens’ entire plan…Whatever, at this point nothing made sense anymore. The final third of the book was a trainwreck of ridiculous, predictable twists: reanimated friends, obvious hybrid family reveals (both Kercy’s and Jacob’s), and a nonsensical "benevolent" alien agenda to mutate humans for underwater life. The plot threads were so unbearable, I was honestly laughing while skimming pages just to finish.
If you’re looking for horror and aliens, steer clear from this, try something else. If you’re into a weird, mysterious story about some alien species doing tests on humans, then this might be your cup of tea.
Many, many thanks to Lonnie Busch, UBiQ Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is a voluntary review, reflecting solely my opinion.
Don’t get fooled by the Horror label of this book. ‘Assimilation’ is just a lowkey SciFi thriller/mystery with aliens.
The way it starts, it hits you right in the feels. That childhood yearning for a parent's love and care is palpable, but here’s the twist: the father's cruelty is almost understandable. His wife told him she was impregnated by aliens for the "greater good" and demanded he accept the hybrid child. Honestly, how is any sane person supposed to handle that? While the book attempts a weak, brief redemption arc with the "zombie daddy" figure later on, it felt completely underdeveloped, sort of ‘let’s not forget about that missing father I wrote about at the beginning of the novel’.
Diving into the details:
Kercy loves the water, and in her undying love for the submarine life, she drowned several times believing she could breathe underwater. Her mother saved her every time. It was interesting to read about her ability to see colors much better, see more life under water, a foreshadowing of her real nature. Pretty obvious she was something else.
Kercy suffered tremendously ever since she was born. She was born prematurely at seven months, she came into the world with strange webbing between her fingers and toes, with a strange shape of her head, with a defect on her ear. She suffered many surgeries to look human and as she matured, she grew stronger and managed to walk on her own legs, finally escaping the wheelchair she was glued to for her entire adolescence.
Close to her eighteenth anniversary, she has a very strange dream about three amphibious creatures coming into her bedroom at night. In the nightmare two creatures hold her down, while the third one inserts an instrument inside her. Later on we learn that she had been probed and a tracking device has been implanted in her.
A huge fight between her parents follows, and her father leaves home. Unable to go on with the difficult life, her mother decides to sell the cottage they lived in, much to Kercy’s anguish.
And just like that, we switch to 12 years later, with Kercy’s father still missing and her mother dead and so she inherited all her fortune. This allowed Kercy to buy the cottage back from the couple who initially bought it from her mother.
She has an established life now as an adult and a boyfriend (Gerald) who loves her very much.I can't help but notice how afraid she was to lose Gerald when he had to go back to New York for two weeks. She's afraid of being abandoned like she was by her father (quite relatable).
The following days, while Gerald is away in New York, many events occur, including the introduction of a special FBI agent (Mallory) and Kercy’s friend (Cindy). Quite repetitive I must add. And around this time in the book, the story went from 5 stars to 3.
--> It was all about spending time with Cindy, doing the same thing every day, boating, sunbathing, drinking, eating, talking and working on her doctorate which again I could live without all those details about evolution– didn't really brought any value to the story, especially when we were craving for the horror for the creepy aliens.
--> One day she decides to go for a dive and drowns (again), she wakes up in her bedroom naked with no memory of how she got there. Jacob, her neighbor's grandson, said he saw her floating at the surface of the water and she was dead. For five minutes he CPR’ed her. Evidently Jacob knows way more than he's letting on. She suspects that's why he showed up exactly when she needed help in the water.
--> Another night, a couple of men try to sexually assault Kercy and while she fights them off, she escapes only because one of her attackers is killed by the aliens and she uses the distraction to kick the man on top of her.
--> A second night, another group of men enter her cottage to sexually assault her and Cindy, ending up with those guys killing her friend and them being killed by the aliens (again).
I was promised Horror and scary Aliens, instead I got Kercy’s tedious autobiography mixed with an excessive focus on sexual content, assault themes, and men and/or aliens desiring to rape Kercy and Cindy. The entire subplot involving local thieves who apparently rape as a hobby? just felt like filler to set up the aliens as saviors, offering absolutely no meaningful contribution to the plot.
It didn’t help either that Kercy’s attitude during the interrogation changes 180 degrees, her snarkiness is absolutely unnecessary and unbelievable considering how traumatized she was and acted not minutes or days ago. Suddenly she's a comedian. I know people process trauma differently, but this girl processes it differently in the span of a few seconds. While I loved her character for half of the book, she became almost insufferable by the end. The way she talks to Jacob and bashes at his theories is just disgusting considering she is a scientist and should keep an open mind (especially when she sees those things herself). But no, she turned against the guy that saved her and tried to help her on many occasions.
Near the end, Cindy evidently comes back reanimated by the aliens to talk to Kercy and get her to see their underwater world, apparently some distant, different dimension, to make her understand the aliens’ entire plan…Whatever, at this point nothing made sense anymore. The final third of the book was a trainwreck of ridiculous, predictable twists: reanimated friends, obvious hybrid family reveals (both Kercy’s and Jacob’s), and a nonsensical "benevolent" alien agenda to mutate humans for underwater life. The plot threads were so unbearable, I was honestly laughing while skimming pages just to finish.
If you’re looking for horror and aliens, steer clear from this, try something else. If you’re into a weird, mysterious story about some alien species doing tests on humans, then this might be your cup of tea.
Many, many thanks to Lonnie Busch, UBiQ Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is a voluntary review, reflecting solely my opinion.
October 26, 2025
Lonnie Busch does it again! Assimilation is incredible!
November 30, 2025
Assimilation tells the story of Kercy, a fragile and often isolated young woman whose life is split between the harshness of her family and the eerie beauty of the Soshone Islands. The calm of her summers fractures when she hooks a grotesque, severed limb in the lake, only to be visited that same night by strange beings who invade her room and her body. That moment becomes the axis of her entire life, leading her toward hidden truths about her parents, her own biology, and the horrifying forces lurking beneath the water. The book follows her journey from isolated child to self-possessed adult as she navigates love, danger, loss, and the long shadow of whatever visited her that night.
Reading it pulled me around emotionally in ways I didn’t expect. Some sections felt tender and slow, almost sleepy with the warmth of summer afternoons, then suddenly the story lurched into fear and chaos. I kept feeling this knot in my stomach because the writing toys with dread in such a quiet way. Busch’s descriptions of water and landscape are gorgeous and simple. They gave me a sense of calm. Then he ripped it away with scenes so bizarre I actually had to pause. The alien encounter scene hit me hardest. It felt weirdly intimate, almost like watching someone relive a trauma they barely understand. It made my skin prickle because it blended dream logic with physical detail in a way that felt too real.
But the part that stayed with me most wasn’t the creatures. It was the messy and painful bond between Kercy and her parents. Her father’s coldness stung every time he appeared. Her mother’s love felt too thin in some moments and heartbreakingly fierce in others. The whole time, I felt this quiet anger building under the surface. He disappears early in the book, yet his absence keeps shaping her life like a bruise that never fully heals. By the time the story reaches its later chapters, where Kercy reflects on the ruins of her past from adulthood, I felt this soft ache for everything she carried that nobody helped her set down.
Assimilation struck me as a story for readers who love emotional tension mixed with strange, unsettling mystery. Assimilation blends the emotional depth of The Girl with All the Gifts with the eerie, slow-burn dread of Annihilation and the intimate character focus of Room, creating a story that feels both tender and terrifying. If you like atmospheric fiction with sci-fi elements woven into human pain, or if you enjoy stories that linger in your mind, this one will absolutely grab you.
Reading it pulled me around emotionally in ways I didn’t expect. Some sections felt tender and slow, almost sleepy with the warmth of summer afternoons, then suddenly the story lurched into fear and chaos. I kept feeling this knot in my stomach because the writing toys with dread in such a quiet way. Busch’s descriptions of water and landscape are gorgeous and simple. They gave me a sense of calm. Then he ripped it away with scenes so bizarre I actually had to pause. The alien encounter scene hit me hardest. It felt weirdly intimate, almost like watching someone relive a trauma they barely understand. It made my skin prickle because it blended dream logic with physical detail in a way that felt too real.
But the part that stayed with me most wasn’t the creatures. It was the messy and painful bond between Kercy and her parents. Her father’s coldness stung every time he appeared. Her mother’s love felt too thin in some moments and heartbreakingly fierce in others. The whole time, I felt this quiet anger building under the surface. He disappears early in the book, yet his absence keeps shaping her life like a bruise that never fully heals. By the time the story reaches its later chapters, where Kercy reflects on the ruins of her past from adulthood, I felt this soft ache for everything she carried that nobody helped her set down.
Assimilation struck me as a story for readers who love emotional tension mixed with strange, unsettling mystery. Assimilation blends the emotional depth of The Girl with All the Gifts with the eerie, slow-burn dread of Annihilation and the intimate character focus of Room, creating a story that feels both tender and terrifying. If you like atmospheric fiction with sci-fi elements woven into human pain, or if you enjoy stories that linger in your mind, this one will absolutely grab you.
October 17, 2025
Author Lonnie Busch is incredible at instantly sinking his teeth into readers. From the very first chapter we get a sense of the family dynamic, our main character’s flaws, and the mysterious island surrounded by water. Hooked on the line, we begin to understand Kercy’s fascination with water and the brilliance she sees under the surface. In a family of wealth, it’s Kercy that fascinates our malleable minds as Busch quickly reels us in.
Creating haunting imagery and fantastical characters, Busch’s writing comes alive. Despite the wild beings within and the creepy descriptions provided for them; they each feel so alive. Emotionally invested in Kercy’s plight, Lonnie’s stories wrap readers in a chilling embrace, blurring dreams from reality. Readers follow Kercy as she matures from wheelchair bound to fatherless, strong and walking to motherless, and finally back to the cottage she was so fond of all those years before, before her mother abruptly sold it and warned her never to return.
Now, as Kercy’s life begins to fall apart, the creatures begin to invade her waking moments, and her worst fears come to light. In this emotionally fraught, perilous read, Lonnie has readers entranced by the events playing out on this secluded island. The community she thought was safe and the peaceful, waters she thought she loved, have drawn her in, in unimaginable ways.
The mind of Lonnie Busch fascinates. Any time he graces the pages with another of his vivid tales, readers can be certain they are in for the ride through the night. Losing sleep over the haunting happenings within while simultaneously being unable to take your eyes off the page, his imagination, breadth of range, and mysterious characters enchant, entice, and enthrall page after page.
According to Merriam-Webster, assimilating when used as a verb, means to take in, to absorb, or to alter by the process of assimilation. That’s exactly what happens each time readers pick up a book by Busch, we assimilate into the world he portrays on the page as we’re altered by characters, the beings, and the fascinating series of events that play out. Using fantasy driven concepts to reflect on humankind, Busch urges readers to think deeper, ask more, and reflect on mankind’s atrocities for what they are. No stranger to wicked tales, Busch shows us once again his extraordinary ability for crafting new and wholly immersive worlds that suck us under.
Creating haunting imagery and fantastical characters, Busch’s writing comes alive. Despite the wild beings within and the creepy descriptions provided for them; they each feel so alive. Emotionally invested in Kercy’s plight, Lonnie’s stories wrap readers in a chilling embrace, blurring dreams from reality. Readers follow Kercy as she matures from wheelchair bound to fatherless, strong and walking to motherless, and finally back to the cottage she was so fond of all those years before, before her mother abruptly sold it and warned her never to return.
Now, as Kercy’s life begins to fall apart, the creatures begin to invade her waking moments, and her worst fears come to light. In this emotionally fraught, perilous read, Lonnie has readers entranced by the events playing out on this secluded island. The community she thought was safe and the peaceful, waters she thought she loved, have drawn her in, in unimaginable ways.
The mind of Lonnie Busch fascinates. Any time he graces the pages with another of his vivid tales, readers can be certain they are in for the ride through the night. Losing sleep over the haunting happenings within while simultaneously being unable to take your eyes off the page, his imagination, breadth of range, and mysterious characters enchant, entice, and enthrall page after page.
According to Merriam-Webster, assimilating when used as a verb, means to take in, to absorb, or to alter by the process of assimilation. That’s exactly what happens each time readers pick up a book by Busch, we assimilate into the world he portrays on the page as we’re altered by characters, the beings, and the fascinating series of events that play out. Using fantasy driven concepts to reflect on humankind, Busch urges readers to think deeper, ask more, and reflect on mankind’s atrocities for what they are. No stranger to wicked tales, Busch shows us once again his extraordinary ability for crafting new and wholly immersive worlds that suck us under.
October 31, 2025
As the book introduces us to Kercy — a wheelchair-bound teen surrounded by her wealthy but dysfunctional parents in an isolated Canadian cottage, it winds its way from a ‘close encounter’ thriller that bends into a Sci-Fi epic of alien experiments and violation. Kercy is visited by subterranean amphibious creatures in her bedroom. When she wakes up the next day, bleeding, her mother just shrugs it off as menstruation. The next day, her father disappears on the lake. Compounding a severe sexual trauma, she must stow away in her psyche so she can process her father’s disappearance.
Ironically, as Kercy grows stronger physically of her disability and mentally in academia, she pursues a PhD in Anthropology, seeking the understanding of how humans behave. And after a way into her adulthood, she returns to the cabin after her mother’s death with her boyfriend to have memories and revelations “flood” back to her.
And as the title suggests, as more revelations come to Kercy – will she assimilate with the beings from her haunting past and join them in the bay by the cabin?
The conclusion of ASSIMILATION by Lonnie Busch is a haunting, ambiguous ending that merges the novel’s themes of transformation, identity, and connection between human…and alien life. It suggests that assimilation is not conquest but evolution: a merging of species, consciousness, and identity, blurring the line between human and alien, science and myth, self and other.
In essence, ASSIMILATION closes on the idea that survival—and perhaps salvation—lies in surrendering the illusion of human dominance and embracing connection, however terrifying or unfamiliar it may be. The novel intertwines themes of alien contact, bodily transformation, parental betrayal, and identity. It reads as both a coming-of-age horror story and a meditation on what it means to be human—to evolve, assimilate, and survive when one’s very nature is in question.
Ironically, as Kercy grows stronger physically of her disability and mentally in academia, she pursues a PhD in Anthropology, seeking the understanding of how humans behave. And after a way into her adulthood, she returns to the cabin after her mother’s death with her boyfriend to have memories and revelations “flood” back to her.
And as the title suggests, as more revelations come to Kercy – will she assimilate with the beings from her haunting past and join them in the bay by the cabin?
The conclusion of ASSIMILATION by Lonnie Busch is a haunting, ambiguous ending that merges the novel’s themes of transformation, identity, and connection between human…and alien life. It suggests that assimilation is not conquest but evolution: a merging of species, consciousness, and identity, blurring the line between human and alien, science and myth, self and other.
In essence, ASSIMILATION closes on the idea that survival—and perhaps salvation—lies in surrendering the illusion of human dominance and embracing connection, however terrifying or unfamiliar it may be. The novel intertwines themes of alien contact, bodily transformation, parental betrayal, and identity. It reads as both a coming-of-age horror story and a meditation on what it means to be human—to evolve, assimilate, and survive when one’s very nature is in question.
October 12, 2025
ASSIMILATION
BY LONNIE BUSCH
Lonnie Busch is one of a half-dozen indie writers whose work I follow assiduously. He writes sci-fi that even I understand or at least he writes in a way that makes me wrap my head around his concepts simply because his characters are so strong you honestly want to see what happens to them.
Kerse, the central character of his new book, Assimilation, is really put through the wringer. She’s a young woman who had a torturous childhood because of many and severe birth defects, most from which she has recovered. Despite, or because of, this recovery, Kerse has lost much of her psycho-sexual and physical agency. Pay attention to the content warnings as Busch displays much art in descriptions of actions that are viscerally vivid and, occasionally, breath-taking and gut-wrenching. Caught between two forces—one upsettingly human, the other more enigmatic—Kerse is forced to heroic acts of self-preservation.
Without being tedious about it, the book definitely speaks to the realities of the world we live in and the false belief that if we could leave this messed up world behind, things will be better. Kerse must find a way not to be a mere pawn in an interstellar struggle. To say more would be to reveal surprises that are as fascinating as they are suspenseful. Suffice it to say that it’s a rollercoaster of horror and redemption.
Assimilation is a true page-turner. but—again—go in with your eyes open. Its ultimately extraordinarily satisfying because of the terror of the ride.
BY LONNIE BUSCH
Lonnie Busch is one of a half-dozen indie writers whose work I follow assiduously. He writes sci-fi that even I understand or at least he writes in a way that makes me wrap my head around his concepts simply because his characters are so strong you honestly want to see what happens to them.
Kerse, the central character of his new book, Assimilation, is really put through the wringer. She’s a young woman who had a torturous childhood because of many and severe birth defects, most from which she has recovered. Despite, or because of, this recovery, Kerse has lost much of her psycho-sexual and physical agency. Pay attention to the content warnings as Busch displays much art in descriptions of actions that are viscerally vivid and, occasionally, breath-taking and gut-wrenching. Caught between two forces—one upsettingly human, the other more enigmatic—Kerse is forced to heroic acts of self-preservation.
Without being tedious about it, the book definitely speaks to the realities of the world we live in and the false belief that if we could leave this messed up world behind, things will be better. Kerse must find a way not to be a mere pawn in an interstellar struggle. To say more would be to reveal surprises that are as fascinating as they are suspenseful. Suffice it to say that it’s a rollercoaster of horror and redemption.
Assimilation is a true page-turner. but—again—go in with your eyes open. Its ultimately extraordinarily satisfying because of the terror of the ride.
November 1, 2025
Assimilation by Lonnie Busch, while listed as science fiction genre, is, to the open-minded reader, more about possibility than fiction. The story follows Kercy Powell, a disabled and wheel-chair bound young woman, who from the very start exhibits something strange, something special. Her love of water, despite the danger it presents in her condition, draws the reader down the spiraling mystery, which Busch does a great job of creating. The strange creatures she encounters, and their bizarre activities, somewhere between reality and Kercy's dreams, mystifies and haunts us to turn the pages to find out who they are, why they are so interested in Kercy, and sometimes, we wonder if they are real at all - but they are. This is more than just a fiction story, it is a statement about our existence as a race and what will happen if we continue to destroy our world. Can we survive, and if so, how, and what roll do the strange creatures play in this scenario. A consuming read. Pull up the duvet, pour a large cup of coffee, and dive in. It does not disappoint.
January 1, 2026
Assimilation follows the story of Kercy Powell a disabled young child who spends summers with her parents on an Island in Georgian Bay where her life is overshadowed by things that go bump in the night, and by how many times she has been brought back to life after drowning in the lake outside their home.
This story turned out to be a combination of horror and sci-fi with mystery and many questions in need of answering about who and what Kercy may or may not be.
My first read of this author’s work which I found engaging and kept me wondering what was going on under the waters of that lake.
When Kercy is older and returns to the cottage her mother had sold with a warning for her to never return is when the secrets and mysteries begin to unravel.
Twists and turns, good writing, action and adventure, danger, and imaginative world building kept the story suspenseful and edge of the seat entertaining which built up to a revealing satisfying conclusion.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This story turned out to be a combination of horror and sci-fi with mystery and many questions in need of answering about who and what Kercy may or may not be.
My first read of this author’s work which I found engaging and kept me wondering what was going on under the waters of that lake.
When Kercy is older and returns to the cottage her mother had sold with a warning for her to never return is when the secrets and mysteries begin to unravel.
Twists and turns, good writing, action and adventure, danger, and imaginative world building kept the story suspenseful and edge of the seat entertaining which built up to a revealing satisfying conclusion.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
October 7, 2025
Yet another incredible story by Lonnie Busch, drawing you in from the get go, and with that underlying level of mystery, suspense and terror. I was immediately invested in Kercy’s story, and more importantly, her backstory. How did she become physically challenged? Why is she like that? Page after page, like a slow-burn, multilayered reveal, we learn the truth and why she feels compelled to drop into the depths of the underwater world, and why she feels more alive there. Assimilation has elements of paranormal, science fiction, and horror, but in the end, is a story about secrets and hidden truths, confronting unimaginable terror and brutality, and in the end, discovering that some things must remain shrouded in mystery.
January 5, 2026
WARNING: Significant content involving sexual assault and violence
This wasn't the book for me. The first half of Assimilation feels like a cross between a Hallmark movie and Law & Order: SVU, with just a hint of alien thriller. However, struggled to suspend my disbelief during the middle of the book; the FBl operates on Canadian territory where the RCMP would realistically have jurisdiction. The story takes a turn into "Sharknado" territory, feeling more like a Roger Corman Syfy original.
This wasn't the book for me. The first half of Assimilation feels like a cross between a Hallmark movie and Law & Order: SVU, with just a hint of alien thriller. However, struggled to suspend my disbelief during the middle of the book; the FBl operates on Canadian territory where the RCMP would realistically have jurisdiction. The story takes a turn into "Sharknado" territory, feeling more like a Roger Corman Syfy original.
October 5, 2025
Interesting but not necessarily my cup of tea.
A child born with multiple issues who becomes strong. But the mysterious creatures who watch out for her, are they friend or foe?
This is a hard book to read because so much emphasis was placed on what was wrong and horrible.
ARC Reader
A child born with multiple issues who becomes strong. But the mysterious creatures who watch out for her, are they friend or foe?
This is a hard book to read because so much emphasis was placed on what was wrong and horrible.
ARC Reader
October 7, 2025
The book was really good but it was creepy at the same time. This one was a mix of horror and Sci Fi leaning more towards horror. I enjoyed reading it even though I'm not much into horror books.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews