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Lucifer's Children

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From the author of FAMILY BUSINESS comes the next shocking installment of the Breeder Series -- LUCIFER'S CHILDREN.

A family tragedy thrusts Amanda into the foster care of the Henning family at the start of her senior year of high school. Amanda soon learns that the prestigious private school isn't what it seems. Monarch Preparatory School for Girls is a place plagued by rampant teen pregnancy, promiscuity, and violence.

Amanda is confused when Kat, who rules the school, befriends her. Perhaps more confusing, though, are her momentary lapses in memory, misplaced or moved objects, and instances of depravity taking place within the Henning household.

Unbeknownst to Amanda, Ceremonial Father conducts ritual sacrifice and blood orgies with a group of Satanists.

What is truly happening at Monarch Prep? Can Amanda make it to graduation? Most of all, what role will she play?

348 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2015

2 people are currently reading
193 people want to read

About the author

Brett Williams

365 books61 followers
A writer of fast-paced, nail-biting suspense, Brett Williams pulls no punches. Read him if you dare!


Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

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5 stars
11 (33%)
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9 (27%)
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
Profile Image for Kim BookJunkie ~ Editor & Proofreader.
2,138 reviews55 followers
October 5, 2016
STORY: 4 stars
PERFORMANCE: 5 stars
OVERALL: 4.5 stars


STORY:
"What the hell.."?
"Who thinks of things like this"?
"Where does he come up with this stuff"?
These are just a few of the thoughts that repeatedly crossed my mind while listening to this demented, deranged, totally bizarre yet immensely enjoyable audiobook which I received copies of (e-book and audiobook copies) in exchange for my honest feedback. Williams' books, including this one, always contain a healthy dose of shock value yet that shock value is not what makes this or his other books so great.

If you've read anything by Brett Williams, you already know that his writing is articulate, vivid, graphic, powerful and totally off-the-wall which, IMO, is what makes his books so compelling. In addition to all of that, LUCIFER'S CHILDREN contains a premise and plot that is absolutely one of a kind. Despite the characters and their storyline being totally unconventional and peculiar, somehow Williams was able to write LUCIFER'S CHILDREN in a way that's simultaneously realistic and believable. Brett Williams truly is unlike any other writer out there!

After reading all of this praise, anyone reading this review is likely to wonder why I did not rate this story 5 stars. The answer is simple: I didn't care for was the way this book ended. In my opinion, the ending was totally anti-climactic. After listening to hundreds of pages of intense, dramatic material I expected at least that much yet hoped for an earth shattering, powerful ending. Instead, the scene that closed off this remarkable book was a scene that I felt could've occurred at several points earlier in the book - there was nothing extraordinary about it. Basically, knowing what Brett Williams is capable of, I know he could've come up with a more powerful ending.

PERFORMANCE
This was yet another exemplary performance by narrator Joe Hempel.
Despite having a 100% masculine voice, Hempel is adept at creating realistic voices that blend seamlessly whether they are for female characters or Satanic cult leaders!
Most of the time, Mr. Hempel speaks with a natural, genuine sounding voice. While listening to his performance, I often forgot that I was listening to an audiobook, lulled by Hempel's voice in a way that allowed me to, "watch" the story take place in my mind. I've been lulled into this mind space before yet in many audiobooks, narrators occasionally become overly enthusiastic, suddenly changing their pitch or volume (which jars me out of that hard to reach, "movie theater in my mind"). Because he consistently keeps his volume, tone, cadence etc. at an even level, nothing like that came even close to happening while listening to this audiobook. LUCIFER'S CHILDREN is proof of what an incredibly talented narrator Joe Hempel is.
Profile Image for AudioBookReviewer.
949 reviews167 followers
August 9, 2017
My original Lucifer's Children audiobook review and many others can be found at Audiobook Reviewer.

Warning: Explicit, graphic sex scenes, pedophilia, rape, torture, incest, infanticide, and extreme language.

A pointless pornographic exploration of Devil worshipers and sexual perversion.

When Amanda’s foster family dies mysteriously, she finds herself in the home of the Hennings, her new foster family.  At 17, she only needs to last out her senior year, graduate and she can finally be on her own.  At first, the Hennings seem kind and generous.  Soon the awful truth is revealed about her home and the private all girls’ school set up by Devil worshipers.  Devil worship, adultery, pedophilia, incest, rape and worse, overwhelm the hapless Amanda.

OK, that’s the facade of a plot.  In reality, this is a pornographic exploration of Devil worshipers and perversion.  Hoping to find a point to it all, this reviewer listened to this thing to the end.  But there was no point.  It just ended as it began.  It was neither erotic nor titillating, the endless streams of perverted sex just flowed on and on repetitiously, without redeeming value or purpose.  A strong dose of restraint would have made this a far better book.  It’s not even good enough to be disgusting, just tedious.  It’s like watching a pornographic film hoping and expecting a good story to unfold.  It won’t and doesn’t here.  Whatever horror there might have been was lost in the uninteresting characters.  The listener doesn’t really care what happens to any of them.

Joe Hempel performs this story.  He does an excellent job considering the subject matter.  His voice is wonderful to listen to and his characters are easily discernible.  Hopefully, he got paid well.

If you are interested in listening to perverted sex scenes and pedophilia, this might be your cup of tea.  You only need listen to the sample to know what it’s about.  The whole thing is this way.  If the subject matter offends you, there will be no point even listening to the sample.

Not recommended.

Audiobook was provided for review by the narrator.
Profile Image for Johnny Strife.
Author 3 books1 follower
August 28, 2015
This is one of those rare books I burn through because I can't wait to see what happens next. From the very first page to the very last, it's a brutal assault on the reader's senses (and sense of morality). It takes a lot to shock me, and I must admit I was shocked several times while reading this. But despite the relentless horror there is also heart and humor throughout.
54 reviews
August 27, 2016
I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review via Audiobook Boom

Where do I begin.... I would like to start by saying, this book is absolutely NOT for everyone. I have an extremely high tolerance for disturbing and even I cringed. The story itself was good, I don't doubt that this kind of thing actually happens, however I'd like to live in denial and believe it doesn't. Though this story was just terrible, it was like looking at something disgusting and knowing you should turn away and not look but you can't help it, you have to look. That was this book...I had to keep listening, I had to get to the end I needed to know where this was going. When I got to the end, I was somewhat relieved that it was over and kind of surprised that I enjoyed this sick twisted story as much as I did. I'm almost embarrassed about the fact that I listened to it in its entirety.

Joe Hempel is an amazing narrator, and the fact that he delivered such a great narration given the premise of this book is awesome in itself. True talent, right there...kudos Joe!

So do I recommend this book? well after I Started listening to it I ran over to my co worker and asked if she got this book too, and she had. I don't know if she'll be able to get through it, but she's kind of like me....I like to be shocked, and if u tell me not to watch this, listen to this, read this, do this.. it makes me even more curious. So I leave you with this:

This book is not for the sensitive reader....this is not about wonderland, its about a very, very sick group of individuals and the things they did were horrendous! But as a book should do, it entertained me...I won't say I recommend, I will say listen at your own risk.
Profile Image for Lisa Lee.
573 reviews38 followers
August 23, 2017
Lucifer’s Children begins with this warning: “Themes contained within this text may be offensive to some readers. No apologies.” This can be viewed in the preview on Amazon. This is not part of the story. It is a warning. It is a valid warning. It makes readers like me go all, “ooohhh, aaahhhh, I call that bluff!” But that is because I read offensive material on purpose. I find daring content within a well-crafted story to be an entertaining literary achievement, because not all writers can pull it off. When an author can pull it off I am impressed. I enjoy it. It pleases me in a twisted way. Brett can pull it off.

One final warning, or delightful tease depending on who you are… One reviewer on Amazon gave this book a 1-star rating with this warning: “Explicit, graphic sex scenes, pedophilia, rape, torture, incest, infanticide, and extreme language.” This is true. These things are all in there. However, the rest of the person’s review was the rantings of a person who is not a fan of extreme horror, plain and simple.

Funny thing, it seems the warnings are the bulk of the review. Lucifer’s Children is all that the title and synopsis suggest in an explicit and well-crafted presentation. The story line is solid, the flow and structure are excellent, the character development is all it can be in such a story. Brett Williams is a genius of the extreme horror subgenre. If you like extreme horror, this is a gem. If you don’t, then move along because this will offend your delicate sensibilities.

Fun fact: there’s more. This is one book in a delightful collection called The Breeder Series. Yes, I have read them all at this point. I do like them all. This is my favorite.
Author 8 books9 followers
March 9, 2017
(Reviewing the audio version)

First things first: If you can't make it through the first chapter, do NOT buy this book! You won't like it. If you can, and you're intrigued, then maybe this might be for you. Maybe.

I'm going to hit the technical aspects of this first, because the story and plot will take a bit to go through. Brett Williams is a great writer. He's got a knack for sentence length and flow, organization, and description that's really awesome. The narrator (I listened to the audio book version) Joe Hempel is hands down my favorite narrator. Even though this is a book dominated by female characters, the voices he does for them are fantastic. You can tell which character is speaking by the way he does the voice, no dialogue tags needed. That is amazing!

The plot itself is... kind of weird. Amanda is an orphan, her parents recently died in a car crash. She goes to live with a foster family whose patriarch happens to be an administrator at the local private school, so she gets private school education for free. She's innocent, quiet, responsible, kind, friendly, and virginal. So you just know in a book titled Lucifer's Children that terrible things are going to happen to her.

There is a lot of sex and violence and swearing in this book. In addition, there's infanticide, incest (or psuedo incest, maybe), and wild orgies. There's also a church desecration scene. None of these are deal-breakers for me. I read horror. This is horror. However, there's three things which really held me back from really enjoying this book. The first has to do with how the book was written. At one point (spoilers incoming, but I will try to keep them light), Amanda is sort of... hypnotized or brainwashed. The book switches to the other personality present, Mandy. I think it would have been a lot stronger if we didn't actually SEE all the stuff Mandy did, but rather saw Amanda go back and forth. It could have been a way to create a lot of tension and confusion, as well as sympathy for the character. We would have been confused with poor Amanda until the big reveal.

The second thing was that... I got bored. Yes, there was sex and violence and naughty girls swearing and all sorts of other stuff, but it was just too much. After a while I just tuned it out because I didn't feel it added to the story. Now, the first third to half before things went really cray-cray was really good. It had a lot of tension in it and a lot of What the What?! in there too. Things were subtle, which made it awfully creepy to listen to. If nothing else, I would definitely recommend this book for the first half (or so). After that, until Amanda came back, I was just bored. All, been there, seen that.

The last objection is harder to quantify, but I feel the most important. I get bored during books all the time, after all (just start talking about the feasts George RR Martin starts going on about in his books, sheesh), and while I may see what *I* think is a better way to present the story, that comes down to semantics and personal taste. There's always different ways to tell a story, after all. No, this objection goes to the heart of the horror genre. It's a vital component which makes the horror genre what it is.

The story had no hope.

Think of all the horror movies you've watched. One thing, whether people live or die at the end, that makes a really good horror flick is hope for the lead character(s). We need someone to root for. We need a hero or a heroine, someone who rises above the challenge and fights the good fight, whether they win or they lose. We need a good foil for the evil we are presented. I love horror movies that end on a down note, where the killer wins, but one of the reasons why I love it is because I'm still kinda rooting for the good guy and it just happened in that case, evil won. I still believed there was hope for the hero or heroine to escape and win the day.

Not so here. I think it was when Mandy took over that I just knew evil was going to win. That's like a third to half of the book where I didn't feel I had anyone to root for, no one to cheer on. This is a book of mean people doing mean things for mean reasons. That might have actually been the reason why I disengaged from the book and got bored with it, and not the mountains of sex and depravity, now that I'm thinking on it. I like books when evil wins, but this was so overwhelming.

The writing was pretty good though. I'd say it's worth a check for you hardcore horror fans out there. Again, if you can't make it through the first chapter in the preview, just don't.
Profile Image for Todd Oliver.
697 reviews10 followers
March 22, 2017
Sick and twisted! If you're looking for something sick and twisted, you've found it! This is my second book by this author. Brett Williams is certainly and excellent horror writer. I would have given 5 stars but there were a few parts of the book I couldn't quite stomach. The brutal ritualistic killing of an infant for a satanic ritual was a bit too much for me. These sick people murder, rape, and sort of mind control young girls into being their sex slaves. I really didn't approve of the abundance of very young girls being used to pleasure grown men, but the story itself was good. Joe Hempel, as always, was excellent! He can be pretty damn creepy with the characters!
Profile Image for  Nancy.
1,288 reviews8 followers
October 9, 2016
This book was a horror filled, cult centered story revolving around characters, that as the author states, "Don't know they are in a cult." This extremely long audio book started off with a horrendous scene of infant murder all in the praise of Lucifer.
We are introduced to Amanda, a teen who is placed in a foster home after her parents are in a mysterious car crash and they are killed. Amanda is appalled at the sexual abuse and blatant disregard of laws and morals that her foster parents show for her young foster sister. She keeps her head down, waiting for he 18th birthday to move out. This reader prayed along with her that somehow she would make it through alive and would be able to get on with her life.
Questions arose while reading this story, what was Kat looking for in the office that day, were Amanda's parents really dead, why did Amanda seem to lose large chunks of her memories, and why did the book have to end the way it did? How could so many characters not do something to change the outcome of Amanda's story?
The story is written in such a way that even this extremely sensitive reader was able to keep hitting the play button just to see what would happen next. I am not a horror reader, and this books contents were sickening at times but I found I had to finish it.
Joe Hempel is an incredible narrator, his voice was perfect whether he was doing male or female characters, and his tone, pace, and speech were very well done considering this terrifying story line.
Would I listen to this story again, absolutely not. I lost a few nights of sleep being haunted by the images the author seared in my brain. I would definitely read other books by Brett Williams, only if they were not horror and more contemporary/comedy/suspense. Brett penned an incredible story, he must have one hell of a tortured mind to be able to come up with this story but I will never forgive him for how it ended.
So after 24 hours of consideration, this is my review of Lucifer's Children, that was gifted by the narrator for an honest review. I only chose to read this story because Joe was narrating, and he is my all time favorite audio book narrator. And, he thought I would enjoy the experience. Jokes on me, right guys?
Profile Image for Andre.
121 reviews7 followers
September 7, 2016
"This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast."

Ok, here we go.....
This book can be quite disturbing depending on your level of tolerance. I thought only Edward Lee could disturb me enough to feel nauseous reading a book. I guess I was wrong, Brett Williams managed to make me want to clean my mind with soap. I almost stopped the audiobook at the first scene, the subject was that intense. But I did get through it.
I don't want to give anything away, but I must mention that I have a hard time when newborn babies and young children find their way into horrific and/or graphic sexual scenes. So if you're like me this may not be your cup of tea.
Now, for the rest of you:
The plot is quite good. Mr. Henning scared the shit outta me. Kat is one of my favourite characters and she was mysterious enough to keep me guessing her real part in the plot. Cults and closed communities scare the heck outta me and this book covers those subjects quite well. I still wonder if this book could have been written without the parts that disturbed me, and I now believe that it would have been a weaker book without.
549 reviews6 followers
August 28, 2016
Heed this warning! Some will find this book objectionably disturbing, perhaps even disgusting. For those of us who can deal with the subject matter, this story has much unfulfilled potential. If it had been more fully developed, this could have been a good story. As it stands, the story is confusing with many unanswered questions.

I was surprised to encounter several blatant grammatical errors -- errors that should have been caught by a good editor. Joe Hempel faithfully read this story. He must be commended for his performance of this extremely disturbing audiobook.

The problem I have with this story is not its contents, but rather its lack of contents. There's just too much missing information. Inferior editing and awkward dialog put this book firmly in the realm of mediocre.

NOTE: I received a free copy of this audiobook in exchange for this unbiased review.
Profile Image for Michael Flanagan.
495 reviews28 followers
October 9, 2016
This book is not going to be for everyone...hell it's not even going to be for the majority. I have to admit I struggled through the first chapter but this is more due to a recent addition to the family more then being squeamish.

But I am glad I stuck with it as I was rewarded with a story that was engaging if not very disturbing. It has been a while since I have read a simple good ole Satanic Cult story. This one is disguised as an exclusive all Girls School that has a surprisingly high pregnancy rate.

The story develops along well but I found the finish felt a bit rushed to me. But that the only quibble I have about this book.
Profile Image for Jean.
912 reviews39 followers
October 16, 2016

Diabolical..Dark and Disturbing, so Be Warned.

If you like Horror Stories that could possibly be based on a True Story than this book and the author is what you will want to check out.

I couldn't help it.

I'll admit, I listened to this story.

Anything that may be about Cults or Devil Worshipers, I have to at least see what its really about because I'm curious about Cults and wonder "How in the World do People Really Get Caught" up in them???

This book was Dark and Disturbing, so, I repeat, Be Warned.


Joe Hempel did well with the narration.

Note:
"This audio book was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review."
Profile Image for Deedra.
3,932 reviews40 followers
October 28, 2016
Though this book had a great narrator,I hated it.It played out like a bad sy fy channel movie.Amanda is fostered by a cult of lucifer.She is 17 and just waiting to turn 18 to be on her own.The goings on and descriptions are gross.A sick minded teen could have written it.
I was given this book free for an honest review.
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