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S79: The Horror in the Swamp

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Salesman and father Robert Tolliver’s life is about to change. He was traveling through Louisiana and a few missed turns, a few hours later, he finds himself facing a horrible fate. All Robert knows is that he is stuck in an abandoned military bunker in the wild swamps of Louisiana. There is something stalking his every move, a scary horror look unlike anything he has ever seen.

S79 The creature in the Bunker, The Horror Novel of the Swamps.

Will Robert survive the living nightmares and make it back home to his wife Julie and his daughter Lillie? Will he uncover a bigger horror mystery that the small town of Montegut had been hiding for years?

★★★★★ "S79 has a super fun plot. You’ve got swamps, abandoned military base, science experiment gone wrong, conspiracy theories, urban legends, pitch dark atmosphere, snakes, gators, rednecks, revenge, and a pretty epic creature." - Aimee M.

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 5, 2019

48 people are currently reading
153 people want to read

About the author

Brett Schumacher

8 books107 followers
Brett Schumacher is a horror writer and narrator for the "Creepy Ghost Stories" YouTube channel. His favorite themes are cryptids and isolation.

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5 stars
56 (45%)
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24 (19%)
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Peter.
4,101 reviews806 followers
October 7, 2022
Robert receives a promotion in his job with a condition. He has to settle a deal on buying land with a Mr Washington in a rural area of Louisiana. Right in the middle of nowhere, in the swampland. When his car brakes down and he's abducted by two thugs and brought to a deserted bunker things turn bizarre. Was this a secret laboratory? What specimens did the military experiment on? This questions cross his mind when he's moving through a hostile environment. Will he get out of this maze alive? The story evolved like a computer game. There were many eerie shocking moments and allusions. The ending was a bit open. Somehow Robert seems to have changed... solid, entertaining horror novel with modified monsters chasing the main character and some violent revenge. Recommended!
Profile Image for Latasha.
1,358 reviews438 followers
September 29, 2020
3.5

I requested this audio book in exchange for a honest review.
This was a fun adventure! Robert is on a business trip when he gets lost somewhere in Louisiana. He stumbles across a rough looking gas station and IGNORING HIS GUT INSTINCT! decides to ask for help. That is when everything goes wrong. He is beaten and robbed and dumped in some room while his captors talk about him being a sacrifice. To what?
The story moves along quickly. I liked Robert and wanted him to escape this nightmare. He is really thrown against all odds but i kept cheering him on.
alligator-wrestling.jpg
Near the end, Robert goes to some really dark places and we see the effect this whole ordeal has on him. I wouldn't say this is a happy ending ( i don't mind that!) but is definitely worth a read or listen.
This book is narrated by the author himself. I enjoyed his narration.
Profile Image for Wine of Ages.
245 reviews53 followers
December 12, 2019
* I received a copy of this book from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review *

This was a fun read. Although I imagined something different happening I wasnt disappointed. There was enough suspense to keep me wondering and worrying about what was going to happen next. The monster was pretty cool too. The ending I didn't love so much but I'm guessing a person pushed far enough to the brink would be capable of that.
Profile Image for T.
36 reviews
January 16, 2020
Quick Horror Read

Well written. Fast paced. Although I enjoyed the end, I want more. Hopefully there will be a sequel. Would make a great short horror movie.
Profile Image for Nicole Fall.
79 reviews4 followers
July 17, 2020
This book was so different from what I usually read... I tend to keep with psychological horror or serial killer/stalker/crime type genres and shy away from monster horror. Usually I find that monster horror is drab and predictable with no real believable plot - this book however, really hits a believable stride and just keeps going. It kept my interest till the end and (yay!) does not end on a cliffhanger. It's a good, solid read for a monster horror.
(Disclosure: I was given an ARC in return for my honest review)
Profile Image for Ami Morrison.
769 reviews26 followers
December 1, 2019
Originally posted on the book blog Creature From the Book Lagoon.

* I received a copy of this book from BookSirens in exchange for an honest review*

Wow! This book is pretty much everything I want in a creature book! Seriously. This author – whom I had not heard of before- is one I will be keeping an eye on. It is extremely obvious that Brett Schumacher is a lover of creature features and horror in general. This book absolutely nailed the genre. I always hate when you read a horror book (or watch a horror movie) and you can totally tell the person who wrote it has no idea what a horror story even is, and the book /movie is just terrible because of that. It makes it feel extra special when you run across an author like Brett. His love for horror really shines in this book.

S79 has a super fun plot. You’ve got swamps, abandoned military base, science experiment gone wrong, conspiracy theories, urban legends, pitch dark atmosphere, snakes, gators, rednecks, revenge, and a pretty epic creature. Every time I thought I had the plot predicted, I was caught off guard by another little twist I hadn’t seen coming. A great ride from the first page to the last.

S79 didn’t have a ton of violence (well, at the very end it had more) or kills, but it had a lot of great tension built up throughout the story. It takes a while before you see or find out about the creature, but there is all this tension built up because it’s dark, the main character is trapped in maze of a building, and he keeps hearing something following him. Stalking him. The author gives us lots of chills because you (and the main character) know something is out in the dark hallway, but all you hear are footsteps, or nails tapping on the wall, or a insect like chittering. It is a great build up to the big reveal of the creature. A very WTF creature.

I absolutely loved how the main character did his best to be logical throughout his ordeal. So many times in horror stories you are constantly face palming because of the stupid decisions the characters do. Not with Robert! He was no Macgyver or boy scout or anything. He couldn’t repair a car and he didn’t always do the best choice possible… but he worked with what he had and it felt very believable. It felt like what an average person would do in these sort of situations. I really liked that because he wasn’t totally stupid and flailing around, but he wasn’t too smart for the situation either. He used common sense and it was a perfect balance to the character.

Robert did go on a bit about his wife and daughter though. Normally I hate that, but the author did a really good job with balancing it out as well. The main character brought his family up, but didn’t dwell on it for long and instead used them as motivation to get out and get revenge. It worked so much better then just having the character crying about it the whole time. instead

This was a very quick read. I flew through it. Great tension, great build up. Atmosphere was perfect. I was sad to see it end so quickly. The very ending did feel like it left us hanging a little bit. Not like a set up for book 2 sort of feeling, no… all monsters were dealt with. It was more like… well, what about his injuries, did Robert go to the hospital? Did he ever get to call his wife? How did he get home? What about his job/ promotion? So, not really a cliff hanger per se… but I was totally dying to see what happened after the final page! What happened to Robert? S79 didn’t necessarily need an epilogue with the follow up answers. Those answers could have all been given with Robert’s inner thoughts dealing with it. All he really said is that he wanted to go home, but no follow up. He was car less, far from home, and injured badly. I don’t know. *Shrug* Maybe it’s just me? It wasn’t super bothersome or anything… just… curious as to what he did after that final page, you know?

Overall, this was a very enjoyable book. Quick read with lots of tension and atmosphere. Great premise, setting, and main character. I wished we got to see what happened to Robert after facing the bad guy, but the ending didn’t hurt the book. I was just curious as to what happened after. I liked S79 a lot, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what this author does next!
Profile Image for BirdieTracy.
38 reviews
July 20, 2021
Hard Core Survival

Robert Tolliver, wife Julie, and daughter Lilli move to Louisiana where Robert is given a proposal by his boss that could lead to a lot more money. Unfortunately and unbeknownst to Robert, the unknown is a long evacuated military area where research of the horrifically immoral kind was done. It’s obvious that everyone left in a bloody hurry a few decades before. Except for one.

The writing is strong and makes sense- no last moment saves or supply caches that just happen to contain machine guns or bombs. Robert is on his own to live or die.
Profile Image for Hannah Mc.
256 reviews18 followers
January 2, 2020
We start this story off with our main character Robert having to go on a business trip to secure a promotion he’s been after at work.

Rather predictably Robert goes into the wilderness and finds himself in a sticky situation. No matter which way he goes he is lost and can’t find his way back.

Suspenseful and descriptive, Robert tries desperately to navigate around the deserted bunker he finds himself stuck in with some kind of monster.

A satisfying conclusion with some horror inducing monsters and fights, this book was an easy going read.

Profile Image for Sandra Burns.
1,807 reviews42 followers
November 20, 2019
Awesomeness!

This was a great read. Man moves to Louisiana, for his job. He had to take a trip to meet a client. He got lost, beat up, and thrown in a building. The building was in the swamp.
Profile Image for Lorna Teasdale.
6 reviews
March 1, 2020
A very thrilling book from start to finish! I read this book in a day as I could not put it down! Was very different to what I expected but I enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommend if you like Stephen king!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
212 reviews
October 13, 2021
The title sounds like a 1950’s sci-fi thriller typically shown on a Saturday afternoon horror-fest tv channel. And indeed, while reading the book I could fondly envision it as one of those B movies I used to enjoy watching in my youth.

It is the early 1990’s, and tired of the crowded cities and rising crime in Chicago and Scranton, Pennsylvania, (Scranton?!) Robert Tolliver relocates his family to a sleepy residential town near Thibodeaux, Louisiana when his employer, Morrison Enterprises, opens a second branch down there. Not long on the job he is offered a promotion, but as a condition of the promotion he is required to meet with a local land owner the next morning in an attempt to convince the owner to sell some of his property to Morrison Enterprises. The meeting is to take place in Montegut about 30 miles away. What should have taken no more than a couple of hours drive turns into a more than 14 hour road trip through the isolated areas of the swampland. After becoming lost in the dark and then stranded due to mechanical failure of his car, Robert runs afoul of some of the backwater low-life’s who rob him and leave him for dead locked up inside an abandoned, sealed-up, partially underground military facility located out in the swamps. Robert soon finds out that horrendous experiments had been conducted within that facility and that something from the experiments still survives there; Something that has become an urban legend for the locals.

The majority of the book reads like a dungeon crawl as Robert slowly and carefully explores the dark corridors and rooms of the research facility seeking a way out while trying to avoid having contact with the rats, poisonous snakes, alligators, and the “something else” that is locked in the facility with him.

The fear factor begins long before Robert begins to think there is something strange locked in the abandoned facility with him. The author did a superb job of painting the imagery and creating the right sensation to make you feel like you were right there experiencing what Robert was experiencing. Most books that I read I feel like I am merely an observer outside of the story looking in on it. In this tale I felt like I too was out there lost on those backroads in the humid swamps. . . in the dark . . . with the sensation of fear slowly rising up in me; Fear of the inhabitants there, both animal and human . . . and of something else. A good choice for the Halloween season.
Profile Image for Ryan.
493 reviews13 followers
June 28, 2020
Minor spoilers

“Not a good feeling to be out here facing a monster all alone and helpless, is it?”

Robert Tolliver is a fish out of water living in Louisiana, and when a promotion materializes at his firm, he’s optimistic that life will improve for him and his family. There’s just one catch...he has to finalize one more contract before he can advance in the company. It’s a short journey to get the paperwork signed (It’s 1991, after all), and Robert makes a few bad decisions along the way-not asking for directions in the South being one of them-that eventually gets him kidnapped, locked in a bunker with a hybridized monster, and facing off with some evil reptilian creatures in the murky swamps of the bayou.

I’ve disclosed quite a few plot spoilers in the first paragraph, but I have also spared some of the more startling and horrific discoveries that can be found in S79. The novella has various storylines that intertwine quite well with Robert’s overall quest for survival. He’s a determined, fetching and fierce character, and we root for him until the bitter end.

Booksirens provided a free e-ARC for my feedback on this publication.
Profile Image for Otis Doss III.
380 reviews4 followers
August 11, 2021
With a little work this could've been a 5 star read.

The story was great. That's not the issue. The problem was that the editing was horrible. Now, I can forgive a few editing issues. I only spent 99 cents. What should I expect, right? However, the number of and type of errors in this book crossed the threshold. For example, "they're" when it should be "their"? Come on, that's ridiculous. Did anyone proofread this? Also, the tense would change within a paragraph. Again, something an editor should've caught.

I had other non-grammar issues, such as descriptions of the setting (in particular within the "facility") or events that I found to be confusing. Now that could be my issue, but if I had been reading this as an editor, I would've pointed those instances out to the author so he could clarify things.

I hope I was just unfortunate and got an early edition. Hopefully these changes are fixed in later (or newer) editions. It really is potentially a good book, because despite the issues, I did enjoy the story.
Profile Image for Magnolia .
12 reviews1 follower
April 27, 2024
A very interesting, different but captivating read

At first I thought the book was a little cringe (prologue and chapter 1) but after reading more it became easier to read. I’m not used to third person reading so it took me a while.

The world building, the detail and the overall story was amazing. The pitch dark atmosphere definitely added to the heightened feelings. I read while listening to some thunder and rain sounds. Definitely recommend that too.
I was eager to keep reading, and as the reader, I was full of suspense and worry and anticipation for Robert. It was like reading about a horror film, or a horror game, hiding in little lockers away from the creature, battling and fighting to find a way out of the abandoned military base he was so wrongly locked in.

The ending though ?! My oh my.
I definitely need follow on book.
Highly, highly recommended

(Would make an awesome film too !)
Profile Image for Marie.
58 reviews1 follower
September 22, 2020
It was interesting

*SPOILERS*

The book was a really cool concept and I liked Robert but the editing was horrendous and there was a part that didn't make sense with the story. Robert was beaten up, robbed and dumped in the monster lair because he was being used as a sacrifice so the monster would stop eating the other citizens. But then at the end when Robert goes to get his revenge the thugs were talking about never having seen the monster and wondering if it was real, yada yada. It didn't make sense.
Profile Image for Kaili (Owl Book World).
275 reviews19 followers
August 13, 2020
OK so I was expecting a monster but not one like what was in the book. This book is pretty creepy and keeps you on your toes! I can't help but to really like how it ended because I didn't expect Robert to step up!
Profile Image for W. L..
Author 2 books5 followers
September 8, 2021
Not Awful Not Amazing

Overall the story wasn’t that interesting and seemed kind of slow moving. I think the most satisfying part is definitely the end of it all.
5 reviews
October 31, 2021
Read This Now!

Exceptional! Started out well and just kept picking up steam. Great twist and turns, literally had me on the end of my seat..couldn’t put the book down!
73 reviews2 followers
August 14, 2021
A scarey ride

I would have given this a five but for the terrible editing. I found myself breathing heavily through the entire and throughly enjoying the justifiable end.
173 reviews
February 12, 2020
When I was young, there was an old black and white movie called THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON. It scared the ever living daylights out of this 8 year old girl! This book gave me the exact same feelings... I'm not sure if that s a good thing, but it made for one cool story. Of course, the creature is a totally different animal, but still gave me the willies. And, it's not very nice to scare a 72 year old woman to the point that I kept turning on lights, peeking around corners, and checking back over my shoulder! Of course I'm exaggerating but it really is a great scary story. The thing is, I could actually see the government doing something like this...NOW THAT'S REALLY SCARY!!

I received an ARC of this book, but want to leave this review to get other readers to experience how I felt some 64 years ago. ;)
372 reviews
November 29, 2019
I received a free copy of this book from the author. I had the opportunity to review or not.

An ordinary man in an extraordinary place. Robert Tolliver was a salesman. He had recently moved to Louisiana where he expected to live an ordinary life working and moving up the ladder of success. His first step in his goal was to make a sale of land for his company enabling them to move along the path to success. But life changed for Robert when he found himself lost on the way to his first successful step.

When Robert’s car broke down in a desolate swampy area, he found himself on a path so out of the ordinary it became a battle between life and death. As Robert walked away from his car into the unknown, he became aware of the dangers in the swamp. But swamp creatures were not the only dangers in Louisiana. Humans could also be dangerous. Humans could also put you in danger. And two gas station mechanics were exactly those two humans.

Robert found that out for himself. Those two humans beat him, robbed him and took him to the Horror in the Swamp. What in the world was this deep labyrinth that the humans dragged him to. Where was he? How was he supposed to get out? Even more frightening, what was in here with him? You have got to read this book! It is scary, thoughtful, and human. Well-written, well plotted, and just perfect. Do you like scary books?
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews

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