Nine Eyes

by C.J. Waller

Welcome To Sinner's Wake... When a group of five documentary film makers go to the Highlands of Scotland to investigate the legendary Bèist an t-Sluic – the Beast of the Hollow – they think they're made. A drowned church, tales of a water demon that inhabits it, rumours of human sacrifice… it's almost too good to be true.

It doesn't take them too long to realise that it is. Because the God of Nine Eyes is waiting.

And it is hungry.

Genres: Horror

214 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 2, 2015

Reviews

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was my first reading experience with CJ Waller. The quality of the writing was there, the story was its own unique take on Loch Ness, and the characters, most notably Paul, had a good balance. Why the 3.5 stars and not higher, you ask? My biggest critiques focus around the overuse of the slow burn approach. Things didn't really pick up until near 70% in. Lots of repetitive and predictable situations with a heavy use of dialogue that could have all been trimmed down to make things flow a bit better. And that all made getting to the latter portion of the story a bit of a hard journey. And, again, I didn't think that anything was bad here, it was just a very long process. As noted earlier, I also really want to compliment the author for not just reverting to the general premise of Loch Ness and its infamous Nessie. They really took the time to craft a certain lore and wonderful atmosphere to this story. Paul's arc, the gloomy and doomy ambiance, and the unique creatures were the best parts here, while everything else was fairly generic and longwinded.

[Icy_Space_Cobwebs Join the Penguin Resistance! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: NINE EYES by CJ Waller

I found this horror novel totally engrossing, especially its Lovecraftian overtones, but also its delineation of the several protagonists' emotions against the suspenseful and secret-driven setting.

A small group of friends who fancy themselves investigators of lake monster legends (or debunkers) journey to a very remote village and loch in Scotland, the childhood home of one of the friends, who has lately been plagued by nightmares about the village and loch. It's not only the locale from which his father disappeared, when the boy was just seven...although he doesn't recall, and his friends couldn't know, the loch is a portal, one that must remain closed.

A real page-turner and nightmare inspiration!

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really nice little Cthulhu-esque horror story. I thought it was really well paced and set up in such a way that I could easily play it like a horror movie in my head as I was reading it. Most of the plot was a little cliched but in a good way if that makes sense, and I also liked the inclusion of a gay couple in the cast of characters. Definitely a good short read for the Halloween season.

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quiet town that goes through some stuff every once in a while. A lot of crazy in this place, as a group of young people discover when they go to investigate and video tape a loch that has a mysterious history. The people are interesting, but we don't get to know too muck about them, except that Brandon Decker if from this town, and that he is in a relationship with Paul. I don't feel like I really learned too much about the others and wish there had been more depth to those characters. I felt the bad guys were similarly underdeveloped. It could have been longer and told more of the history as well. However, there was a lot of atmosphere and action and suspense and I liked the creature and some of the gross gore and enjoyed the story. A quick read

[Luke Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a dark blast of horror. Isolation, secrets, old gods, a creepy as hell church and deliberate shades of The Wicker Man. Definitely recommended.

[Anadarko52 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Silly novel

This read like a bad made for TV movie. The characters were not likeable. The dialogue was poor. The plot was predictable.

[Jennifer Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely didn't see the ending coming.

[Matthew Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heart-thumping terror from CJ Waller. I enjoyed her earlier Predator X a great deal, and Nine Eyes is, if anything, even better. The remote Scottish highland setting plays host to a typically contemporary group of main characters - a bunch of amateur vloggers seeking out mysteries to solve. However, the setting becomes weirdly more remote even than it should be. The sense of foreboding is skilfully built as the team find themselves uncomvering more questions than answers. The central mystery of the drowned church - who drowned it and why? - comes to dominate, through the eerie diving sequences to the final, cataclysmic denouement. The author successfully keeps the reader guessing throughout, and to call this a page-turner wouldn't be doing it justice - I tore through it in a day and a half. Five easy stars

[Allan Mcdonough · Rating 5 out of 5]

CJ Waller has taken me from the highlands of Scotland to the depths of hell and back with this atmospheric tale that is so fast paced I forgot about time and finished it, breathless, in a few short hours. The imagery at times left me chilled to the bone, that sunken church will stay with me. And Sadie Decker, well let's not get me started about her...
The characters are great to say the least and their relationships will remind you of your own group of friends, very real and very complex. What starts as a fact finding mission about a local legend spirals out of control to the very edge of hell itself. A rip roaring read.

[Ami Morrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

A group of 5 documentary film makers go to a small town in Scotland in search of a local monster. The beast of the Hollow. It doesn't take them long to realize all is not well in this town. This story was very atmospheric. The author does a great job slowly building up the tension with each page turn. You really feel the suspense and you can't help getting swept up in it. A few surprising twists and turns at the end. I enjoyed this book a lot.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this story was quite interesting. I'm a fan of creatures, and anything from other dimensions just makes me giddy. If I had to have one issue with the novel, it was that there were quite a few errors in grammar and such, but not so much that I couldn't enjoy the story. Getting to the end of the novel and the twist within was well worth the journey.