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Madness at Madison Mall
Isaac Luna is a man with a troubled past. After serving several years in prison, he focuses his life on his daughter, Melanie, and their future. So, when he lands a job as a security guard at Madison Mall, he seizes the opportunity to set his life straight. However, there are two the mall has been abandoned for decades and it's rumored to be haunted. When a group of kids enter the building, Isaac is forced to follow them. While delving into the decrepit interior of the mall, he finds himself descending into the deepest, darkest crevices of his mind... This novel features some disturbing and cruel scenes.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 6, 2017
56 people are currently reading
172 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 15, 2018
I'm a fan of this author, but this book didn't work for me at all.
November 22, 2022
One of his tame books
Bit it was very good. Guilty conscience is a powerful weapon. This was a wild ride. Got to say I found another author i like now. He writes both a passion i like in authors. Its a quick read but worth it. I do not give spoilers aways but i give this book 5 cow heads out of 5
Bit it was very good. Guilty conscience is a powerful weapon. This was a wild ride. Got to say I found another author i like now. He writes both a passion i like in authors. Its a quick read but worth it. I do not give spoilers aways but i give this book 5 cow heads out of 5
December 23, 2019
A bit of a muddled mess...
Inspired by the likes of Silent Hill and The Shining, this book is the story of one man, forced to address and face the transgressions and crimes of his past when he takes a job as a night watchmen at an abandoned shopping mall.
The book is a bit all over the place and for me, doesn’t really work.There is little or no explanation for why the mall is haunted, or how it’s enchantment over the lead character’s mind works, and though I stuck with it to the end, I found this one more than a little disappointing.
Inspired by the likes of Silent Hill and The Shining, this book is the story of one man, forced to address and face the transgressions and crimes of his past when he takes a job as a night watchmen at an abandoned shopping mall.
The book is a bit all over the place and for me, doesn’t really work.There is little or no explanation for why the mall is haunted, or how it’s enchantment over the lead character’s mind works, and though I stuck with it to the end, I found this one more than a little disappointing.
December 24, 2020
Those forced to dwell in the darkness did not want to be illuminated by those in the light.
Finding himself isolated with his thoughts and strung out on his luck, Issac Luna saw himself at the edge of his life. Loss without a job and struggling to maintain relationships with his daughter; twelve year old Melanie and his current girlfriend Tracy Valdez, he was just a man with some bad luck behind him and a darkened future stained by his past. Haunting by the ghosts of a troubled life, he tried his damndest to place it all in the background, yet taking his first job in months would land him into a hell he never could escape. As the Stoney has been told countless of times, he came from an abusive and often times absent household containing an abusive father and an addicted mother. Struggling to find any sense of escape, to flee far away from the bruises and emotional scarring left behind, Issac was left with little places to run. When he was eleven years old, he heard the thumps in the middle of the day, and as he crept towards the master bedroom his biggest fears and dreams would unleash. His mother erratically kicking and pleading from the noose around her neck, her wrists slit and the drugs heavily weighing into her system. With a change of heart she no longer craved death, yet her son simply watched as she succumbed to suffocation and blood loss. Knowing he was only a savage beating from his father away from a life in foster care, he buried her death deep within the other sins of his life.
How could you explain madness when you didn't understand it yourself?
With unemployment simmering in his life, he feared the loss of his only daughter, Twelve year old Melanie as he trudged through his pathetic life. With little else to lose, groveling and begging turned in his favor as Lewis took pity on him and offered him a last chance of salvation. A job as a scurry guard of the abandoned and condemned Madison Mall, the largest of its kind in the country. With a haunting part of paranormal delights, he felt hesitation at the willingness to accept what he was so graciously offered. Deciding anything was worth a shot at that point, he watched the rest of his life slip into uncertainty. Following an angry and emotional phone call from his estranged girlfriend Tracy, she made the accusations of him causing both her miscarriages with the accident on the staircase. Wishing to please her and maintain his innocence, he maintained he didn’t know what she was talking about, even though his demons still haunted him. As his story progresses, he admits to the statutory rape of a consensual seventeen year old student, Karla Garcia when he himself was a twenty two year old teacher. Pleading his innocence of the harmless affair, his story was twisted by sins and evil as it was revealed he raped and coerced the young girl into an abortion. As she was haunted by the after effects, she too committed suicide and once again became a force of shameful thinking for him.
The cuts ensured she wouldn't wake up again. Tormented by her decisions and Isaac's selfish actions, she didn't want to return to the world of the living anyway.
The mall harbored sinister secrets and entities. It was not evil on its own, though. The structure served as a reflection of humanity's wicked ways – a realm of conscience. As long as mankind was sinful, the mall would remain evil.
Those forced to dwell in the darkness did not want to be illuminated by those in the light.
With his very first shift in the dead of night, he was quickly introduced to his partner for the duration, David Cho, and was given rather strict guidelines for the patrols. Never enter the mall, never venture into any other floors, and always wander in a pair, never alone. Finding suspicions in his new boss’s warnings, he saw the aura of the mall drawing him in, even amongst a the graffiti and vandalism. With entities rushing and giggling back and forth before his eyes, it wasn’t long until he spotted a group of Three teenagers (2 boys and a girl) plus a little girl in a white sundress and sandals sneaking into the dilapidated structure. With his partner in tow, Th way hesitantly entered the Haunted building, even as the illusions began warping Issac’s mind. Weakened by what he was seeing and hearing, as the voices and phantoms began materializing in front of his eyes. With the man’s sinister message playing on an unplugged television in Toy Harbor, David was left wondering if his partner was losing his sanity. Haunting by Bugaboo, a manifestation of his own drunken father, the creature was shirtless with a cow head over it’s own, and a sledgehammer and chain dragging behind it. With shadows playing tricks on his eyes and mannequins seemingly moving and talking on their own, he wanted nothing more than to find the children and leave the horrid place far, far behind him.
I know it was you.
As his hallucinations began forming shape around him, they discover together the teenagers hiding in wait. While his world continued to collapse as he sees illusion upon illusion of manifestations of woman he wronged in his lifetime, he sees one silver lining, the form of his daughter calling to guide him free. With their bodies horribly disfigured, and the words dripping like venom from their tongues, he finds his only way to stop it all, was to die at the hands of his very own boogeyman. As the story folds, he is struck in the skull with the sledgehammer in his old childhood bedroom. While Lewis and David wait for authorities, they know with sinking resolve he’ll never return from within those walls.
Finding himself isolated with his thoughts and strung out on his luck, Issac Luna saw himself at the edge of his life. Loss without a job and struggling to maintain relationships with his daughter; twelve year old Melanie and his current girlfriend Tracy Valdez, he was just a man with some bad luck behind him and a darkened future stained by his past. Haunting by the ghosts of a troubled life, he tried his damndest to place it all in the background, yet taking his first job in months would land him into a hell he never could escape. As the Stoney has been told countless of times, he came from an abusive and often times absent household containing an abusive father and an addicted mother. Struggling to find any sense of escape, to flee far away from the bruises and emotional scarring left behind, Issac was left with little places to run. When he was eleven years old, he heard the thumps in the middle of the day, and as he crept towards the master bedroom his biggest fears and dreams would unleash. His mother erratically kicking and pleading from the noose around her neck, her wrists slit and the drugs heavily weighing into her system. With a change of heart she no longer craved death, yet her son simply watched as she succumbed to suffocation and blood loss. Knowing he was only a savage beating from his father away from a life in foster care, he buried her death deep within the other sins of his life.
How could you explain madness when you didn't understand it yourself?
With unemployment simmering in his life, he feared the loss of his only daughter, Twelve year old Melanie as he trudged through his pathetic life. With little else to lose, groveling and begging turned in his favor as Lewis took pity on him and offered him a last chance of salvation. A job as a scurry guard of the abandoned and condemned Madison Mall, the largest of its kind in the country. With a haunting part of paranormal delights, he felt hesitation at the willingness to accept what he was so graciously offered. Deciding anything was worth a shot at that point, he watched the rest of his life slip into uncertainty. Following an angry and emotional phone call from his estranged girlfriend Tracy, she made the accusations of him causing both her miscarriages with the accident on the staircase. Wishing to please her and maintain his innocence, he maintained he didn’t know what she was talking about, even though his demons still haunted him. As his story progresses, he admits to the statutory rape of a consensual seventeen year old student, Karla Garcia when he himself was a twenty two year old teacher. Pleading his innocence of the harmless affair, his story was twisted by sins and evil as it was revealed he raped and coerced the young girl into an abortion. As she was haunted by the after effects, she too committed suicide and once again became a force of shameful thinking for him.
The cuts ensured she wouldn't wake up again. Tormented by her decisions and Isaac's selfish actions, she didn't want to return to the world of the living anyway.
The mall harbored sinister secrets and entities. It was not evil on its own, though. The structure served as a reflection of humanity's wicked ways – a realm of conscience. As long as mankind was sinful, the mall would remain evil.
Those forced to dwell in the darkness did not want to be illuminated by those in the light.
With his very first shift in the dead of night, he was quickly introduced to his partner for the duration, David Cho, and was given rather strict guidelines for the patrols. Never enter the mall, never venture into any other floors, and always wander in a pair, never alone. Finding suspicions in his new boss’s warnings, he saw the aura of the mall drawing him in, even amongst a the graffiti and vandalism. With entities rushing and giggling back and forth before his eyes, it wasn’t long until he spotted a group of Three teenagers (2 boys and a girl) plus a little girl in a white sundress and sandals sneaking into the dilapidated structure. With his partner in tow, Th way hesitantly entered the Haunted building, even as the illusions began warping Issac’s mind. Weakened by what he was seeing and hearing, as the voices and phantoms began materializing in front of his eyes. With the man’s sinister message playing on an unplugged television in Toy Harbor, David was left wondering if his partner was losing his sanity. Haunting by Bugaboo, a manifestation of his own drunken father, the creature was shirtless with a cow head over it’s own, and a sledgehammer and chain dragging behind it. With shadows playing tricks on his eyes and mannequins seemingly moving and talking on their own, he wanted nothing more than to find the children and leave the horrid place far, far behind him.
I know it was you.
As his hallucinations began forming shape around him, they discover together the teenagers hiding in wait. While his world continued to collapse as he sees illusion upon illusion of manifestations of woman he wronged in his lifetime, he sees one silver lining, the form of his daughter calling to guide him free. With their bodies horribly disfigured, and the words dripping like venom from their tongues, he finds his only way to stop it all, was to die at the hands of his very own boogeyman. As the story folds, he is struck in the skull with the sledgehammer in his old childhood bedroom. While Lewis and David wait for authorities, they know with sinking resolve he’ll never return from within those walls.
April 2, 2023
Not my favorite Jon Athan book but I was curious to see where it went, and it's not awful. But I feel like its the kind of psychological horror we've all kind of read or watched in some similar form before. It's fine, but the twists are obvious, tbh.
November 2, 2025
𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐚 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫?
A backlist title that I missed, MADNESS AT MADISON MALL is not the extreme splatterpunk style the author is known for. This one is a quieter psychological/supernatural thriller that's about facing the horrors we all try to bury.
Isaac Luna is a man with a troubled past. A former high school teacher who had a relationship with a student, he's served his time in prison and is dedicated to focusing on bettering himself to support his daughter Melanie. With the stigma of 'sex offender' on his file, it difficult for him to land a job, so when he finally gets hired on as a security guard at Madison Mall, he's grateful for the opportunity.
Curiously, Madison Mall has been abandoned for years, so he's not sure why he's been assigned to this particular location. He's told there is no real danger and that he would only be up against trespassing kids and the occasional vagrant. Unfortunately, something much more sinister is waiting for him inside the mall.
I've often read that your traumas have a way of making you face them. Isaac definitely finds that to be true, and because of some of his actions, I struggled to feel empathy for him. If you need a palate cleanser from the extreme, this one fits the bill nicely. I grabbed this from KU even though I have a print copy sitting on my shelf.
A backlist title that I missed, MADNESS AT MADISON MALL is not the extreme splatterpunk style the author is known for. This one is a quieter psychological/supernatural thriller that's about facing the horrors we all try to bury.
Isaac Luna is a man with a troubled past. A former high school teacher who had a relationship with a student, he's served his time in prison and is dedicated to focusing on bettering himself to support his daughter Melanie. With the stigma of 'sex offender' on his file, it difficult for him to land a job, so when he finally gets hired on as a security guard at Madison Mall, he's grateful for the opportunity.
Curiously, Madison Mall has been abandoned for years, so he's not sure why he's been assigned to this particular location. He's told there is no real danger and that he would only be up against trespassing kids and the occasional vagrant. Unfortunately, something much more sinister is waiting for him inside the mall.
I've often read that your traumas have a way of making you face them. Isaac definitely finds that to be true, and because of some of his actions, I struggled to feel empathy for him. If you need a palate cleanser from the extreme, this one fits the bill nicely. I grabbed this from KU even though I have a print copy sitting on my shelf.
October 10, 2020
Im gonna come right out and say that I hated this book. Although I didnt enjoy this novel I have to admit that I came into it blind and assumed that it would be another splatterpunk story, but in all actuality it was a psychological/supernatural horror novel - which is one sub-genre that I absolutely hate.
I personally didnt like this book, but if you're into The Shining, Shutter Island and that type of stuff you might thoroughly enjoy this one.
With that being said - Im not gonna give up on Jon Athan. I'll give him another shot 👍
I personally didnt like this book, but if you're into The Shining, Shutter Island and that type of stuff you might thoroughly enjoy this one.
With that being said - Im not gonna give up on Jon Athan. I'll give him another shot 👍
February 19, 2020
Love all his books!
I have read most of Jon Athan`s books and love his style of writing. This book was no different! It's a dive into one's own conscience, the guilt we force on ourselves and also hide. This book did not seem as deviant as some of his others, but I thought it was a good read! Keep up the great work Jon! Can't wait for the next one! Actually I already downloaded a sample of another of yours...
I have read most of Jon Athan`s books and love his style of writing. This book was no different! It's a dive into one's own conscience, the guilt we force on ourselves and also hide. This book did not seem as deviant as some of his others, but I thought it was a good read! Keep up the great work Jon! Can't wait for the next one! Actually I already downloaded a sample of another of yours...
October 26, 2022
While I thought some of the ideas here were interesting I felt like this was the weaker of Jon's books that I've read so far. A tale of two tones, the second half was more enjoyable whilst the first half was a little on the unnecessarily long side. I dug it generally but Jon had definitely improved as a writer since this release.
May 23, 2018
Not at all what I was expecting but enjoyable nonetheless. It is a bit rough around the edges, and it is a little repetitive but the characters and setting are very well written. Another good but unexceptional book from this author.
June 24, 2018
Not as good as his exttreme work but that just be my taste
This is a good psychological and supernatural HORROR story much like THE SHINING. Don't go into this expecting this to be an extreme book like many of his others because it's not
This is a good psychological and supernatural HORROR story much like THE SHINING. Don't go into this expecting this to be an extreme book like many of his others because it's not
March 8, 2019
A different kind of horror
Not one of your more "graphic" horror stories, but still very twisted. Nothing like facing the ghosts of your wrong-doings to make you quiver in your shoes!
Not one of your more "graphic" horror stories, but still very twisted. Nothing like facing the ghosts of your wrong-doings to make you quiver in your shoes!
September 2, 2025
Not the usual Jon Athan book. This on was more supernatural and psychological.
Isaac was recently released from prison. No one wanted to hire an ex con but he finally got hired to work security at an abandoned mall.
Isaac was recently released from prison. No one wanted to hire an ex con but he finally got hired to work security at an abandoned mall.
February 5, 2018
Bugaboo!
I always look for books with a mall setting and I was not disappointed when I found this gem! Spooky!
I always look for books with a mall setting and I was not disappointed when I found this gem! Spooky!
April 10, 2019
NOT A TYPICAL J. ATHAN STORY
I'm not used to such tame writing from Jon Athan so I was thrown off a bit by the lack of vile, disgusting, gore and sick twisted scenes. Jon explains why this story isn't typical at the end of the book.
The main character, Isaac is introduced as basically a good man with a string of bad luck...UNTIL Madison Mall makes us see just who Isaac really is. Paranormal and guilty consciousness is one hell of a mix.
I'm not used to such tame writing from Jon Athan so I was thrown off a bit by the lack of vile, disgusting, gore and sick twisted scenes. Jon explains why this story isn't typical at the end of the book.
The main character, Isaac is introduced as basically a good man with a string of bad luck...UNTIL Madison Mall makes us see just who Isaac really is. Paranormal and guilty consciousness is one hell of a mix.
June 15, 2017
Full review posted soon.
I actually owe Jon Athan three reviews now...
::hangs head in shame::
I actually owe Jon Athan three reviews now...
::hangs head in shame::
May 17, 2018
Really scary! I still think about this one. But I'm a sucker for books that take place either in abandoned spaces or in a mall. This was a perfect horror storm!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews