Decimate

by Christopher Rice, Karen Peakes (Narrator)

A desperate family confronts the mysteries that lie between life and death in this soul-gripping novel of supernatural suspense by Amazon Charts and New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice.

Claire Huntley and her brother, Poe, were on a midnight hike in Montana when the woods went wild. A blinding, devouring light and a rumbling pulse that blasted them off their feet left both kids with little memory of what happened. Their father insisted it was a violent extraterrestrial abduction; his wild obsession would tear their family apart in the wake of the trauma.

Fourteen years later, Claire, who’s battled anxiety attacks since that fateful hike, wants to heal her relationship with her brother, which has been damaged by his years of addiction. But only hours before their reunion, Poe’s crowded passenger plane plunges into the Colorado mountains. No one survives the fiery crash. In the midst of her grief, Claire accepts her estranged father’s request to join him in Montana, where he continues to investigate the paranormal force he believes altered his children down to their bones.

As they reunite, Claire’s anxiety attacks take on a new dimension. Is she experiencing hallucinations or visions? Is her brother’s presence in them a symptom of grief, or is she receiving messages from beyond life? The answers Claire and her father seek will take them on a breakneck journey deep into the Montana wilderness and the shadows of history, where they will unearth a secret force with terrifying implications for their family—and the world.

Duration: 14 hours 18 minutes.

Genres: Horror, Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Science Fiction, Paranormal, Fantasy

15 pages, Audible Audio

First published May 10, 2022

About the author

Christopher Rice is the recipient of the Lambda Literary Award and is the Amazon Charts and New York Times bestselling author of A Density of Souls; Bone Music, Blood Echo, and Blood Victory in the Burning Girl series; and Bram Stoker Award finalists The Heavens Rise and The Vines. An executive producer for television, Christopher also penned the novels Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra and Ramses The Damned: The Reign of Osiri with his late mother Anne Rice. Together with his best friend and producing partner, New York Times bestselling novelist Eric Shaw Quinn, Christopher runs the production company Dinner Partners. Among other projects, they produce the podcast and video network TDPS, which can be found at www.TheDinnerPartyShow.com. He lives in West Hollywood, California, and writes tales of romance between men under the pseudonym C. Travis Rice. Visit him at www.christopherricebooks.com.

Reviews

[Chelsea Humphrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decimate is Christopher Rice at his best. It's a mash up of genres, including Science Fiction and Paranormal Horror, while also exploring themes of the afterlife, grief, and dysfunctional family dynamics due to trauma and addiction. To say this book is epic would limit the grand scale of storytelling, but I'm not sure a word exists that can do this novel justice, so I'll just say that if you enjoy books that make you think, give this one a try. Chris is the epitome of creating a fictional, supernatural story that has you wondering if it just could come true.

*Many thanks to the author for providing my review copy.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

That must be one of the strangest books I’ve read and, even though I don’t think I fully understood it all, I did actually enjoy it. I’m not even sure what box you’d put it in - maybe speculative fiction? It is a story about the intersection of life and death but it also a story about the power of love.

Twelve year old Claire Huntley and her ten year old brother, Poe, are camping out with their dad when Poe decides to go off and explore one night. Dad is passed out drunk so Claire chases after Poe to make sure he doesn’t get himself into trouble. But trouble does come. The two children are suddenly knocked off their feet by a tremendous pulse of energy and blinded by a bright light. They really don’t know what hit them but it seems to have somehow ‘connected’ them.

Fourteen years later after Poe has put his substance abuse issues behind him he is on a plane to meet up with his sister again when the plane goes down in the Colorado wilderness killing everyone on board. Why then does Claire seem to ‘see’ her brother in window panes and mirrors? Why does her arm move without her volition and draw images of things she’s never seen?

Claire’s father asks her to come to Montana to learn the truth about that night many years ago. What they learn is a closely guarded secret that has has the power to change the world.

Even though I can’t begin to describe what happens, it was riveting reading. The pulse is a source of enormous power, some of which has gotten into the hands of a deranged man bent in revenge. The guardians of this secret madly scramble to separate this man from the ‘bloom’, a physical manifestation of the power, before he wreaks havoc in seeking revenge on those who have wronged him. The story raced to a very exciting conclusion. Many thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the much appreciated arc which I reviewed voluntarily and honestly.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A chilling novel depicting the intersection of life and death - maybe near-death experience, and what happened when an already horrible experiment goes even more wrong. This novel was thoroughly engrossing and sometimes violent. There was quite a bit of action and the story moved well. The author's imagination amazed me. I liked most of the characters and was drawn to their feelings during their experiences. You can read the blurb for the description of the story, so I won't go into that, but overall I enjoyed the book. I've read several of Christopher Rice's books and he has a great voice and I will continue to follow him. I first picked up one of his books because he was Anne Rice's son and I've always enjoyed her work, but I've found that Chrisopher's writings are varied and interesting in his own right.

Thanks to Thomas & Mercer through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on May 10, 2022.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF @ 61% ...

I've read half a dozen books by this author and greatly enjoyed all of them ... three 5 stars, two 4 stars, and a 3 star. This was dull as hell. Sorry ... not sorry. This just did nothing for me. Can hardly believe I stuck with it so long ... a testament to the fact that I've enjoyed other Rice stories so much. Not wasting any more time on this, though.

[Carole]

DNF It was not my kind of book and I will not be rating or reviewing. I’m sure most will enjoy this book.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I've realized about myself is that when I read sci-fi, horror, fantasy, etc., I'm good until we start to get deep into world-building or another reality.

For me, this book started out great. Claire and her brother Poe go on a camping trip and experience an event out in the woods in the middle of the night. That night changes them. Their dad is convinced it was a UFO and becomes obsessed about it. This leads to his divorce. Poe goes with his dad and Claire stays with her mom. The siblings have little contact but share a strong connection they believe is linked to the event. In times of great stress, each physically feels what the other does.

Poe, who has struggled in life, plans a visit to see Claire to reveal what he has discovered about that night. His plane crashes and he dies. Claire feels the moment of the crash. And then her brother begins communicating with her from beyond.

What follows is an intense exploration of death and the afterlife. There are people who know what happened that night and they have an interest in keeping it under wraps and in monitoring Claire and her continued connection with her brother.

Unfortunately, a dangerous man happened to be present after the plane crash and absorbed Poe's "bloom," giving him extreme powers that place anyone near him at risk.

The latter part of the book involves what amounts to travel into the beyond via the "memory-cards" of the deceased and a battle for control over "bloom."

The concept is very interesting. But the author lost me a little when it started getting too freaky. But that's just a me-thing.

[Maria Fledgling Author Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Does Where we start become Where we End?

Christopher Rice has left me incapable of describing his book, Decimate. I'm sitting here shaking my head, like I've lost my power of speech. But, of course, I'm going to try.

It is utterly pointless to try to recap the plot, as pointless as trying to describe quantum physics to a grade schooler. You'd have to go through the whole book; the curriculum, to understand anything I'd write.

The beauty of genetics is that, while strong traits are passed down, the new life expresses itself in it's own unique way. Such as it is with the genius of Anne Rice to Christopher Rice. The strong bones of prose shine through in clear and elegant ways, with a fantastical, hallucinatory imagination all the author's own.

Decimate was wholly unpredictable, each glimpse into the next scene misleads you into believing a plotline has been revealed. Like a magician who, while you were looking over there, suddenly changes everything in front of you.

Emotional exhaustion set in halfway through the book, remedied by jolts of adrenaline leaving me physically shaken. Because of the theme of the story, the ending is understandable but still disturbing. I loved every word of the book.

If you haven't read this, put it high on your list for 2023. It is a definite five star read and I highly recommend it.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm so sad that I didn't like this, because a new Christopher Rice book is typically an event for me. But this one had way too much going on and really confused the hell out of me most of the time.

This actually reminded me of a Stephen King novel in a lot of ways: aside from the science-meets-supernatural themes, it's got a sprawling character list, a kitchen-sink plot, multiple POVs, and a swollen page count. If that's your thing, you'll probably like this one (based on early reviews, I'm in the minority, just as I typically am with the King novels I read).

[Ray Palen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is beyond ironic that Christopher Rice would write a novel about the afterlife, a subject he confesses in the Acknowledgements page to being obsessed with. This is mainly because it was his own mother, the late, great author Anne Rice who he holds primarily responsible for his obsession with this subject. He fondly recalls that the minute he told her he was going to write a novel with this subject matter she sent him nearly every book published regarding NDE’s or Near Death Experiences.

The end result is DECIMATE, quite possibly the best solo effort of Christopher Rice’s career and an effective genre-bending novel that provide both chills and thrills to both old and new fans of his always impressive work. The action begins fourteen years in the past on a family camping trip in the woods of Montana that is about to go sideways in a very strange way.

Claire and her younger brother, Poe, slip away from the camp where their father --- described as a cross between Sam Elliott and Brad Pitt but not with their mental acuity --- is still lying. It’s midnight and their flashlights keep playing tricks on them. Just then, the earth under their feet begin to shake with the power of a quake and Claire feels her brother’s chest slam suddenly into hers. Both of their feet feel like they have left the earth –- they are both flying! Before they could wrap their minds around what was happening to them --- landslide, earthquake, something alien, --- they slam back into the earth. They are taken to the hospital for various tests. However, it is not the results of any test that will follow them for the rest of their lives --- it is the version their father tells everyone about what happened to his children that night that will.

In the present day, Claire is a schoolteacher who still suffers anxiety attacks over that midnight hike with her brother Poe fourteen years earlier. Poe, since that night, has fallen in and out of addiction and various treatments while trying to find his own answers as to what they experienced. He is flying out to see his sister after a long absence from any sort of family gathering. Maybe that is why Claire is so spooked when one of her students points out that someone wrote on her chalkboard the term: love you bear. Bear, was the nickname Poe always had for Claire but no one else knew that and who would have written it on her classroom chalkboard?

As Claire is dealing with that odd occurrence, she then has to come face to face with an absolute nightmare. She gets word of a plane crash in the area and soon learns that it was the plane in which Poe was traveling on to see her --- gone forever after plunging into the mountains of Colorado. Claire is mourning and processing all of this with her new stepsister, Melissa, and also recounting how she has always felt connected to Poe in a strange way that is indicative of the various ‘Bear’ messages found around her home.

Rice begins to introduce us quietly to other characters outside of Claire and Poe, but those who will have an impact on their story and DECIMATE in particular. One is an odd, ghoul-like character named Vernon whose mere presence and ability is both similar and contrary to our brother/sister team. The other characters are a clandestine team that seem to be operating behind the scenes, yet very aware of all these players --- kind of like they are playing a master Chess board from above and watching out for the results. Of that group, the obvious leader named Randy refers to something called Operation Clean Sweep and how that is a last resort for what they are witnessing. If it all sounds confusing, don’t worry --- that’s what makes DECIMATE so much fun and, trust me, it will all come together and reward you for your patience in spades!

Meanwhile, Claire receives a call from her estranged father requesting that she return to Montana because something is going to happen there that she cannot miss. Claire returns and along with her father --- who is even more bizarre then he was with his alien-abduction theories from the past --- and his ex-Margot, they await some sort of psychic message possibly from beyond, possibly from Poe --- or maybe something far larger. Also, that odd figure from the woods Vernon will converge on the event that is to come, as the climax of the novel begins to move all these characters in the same direction.

The trouble is, without tipping too much, is that all of the characters involved in the final act of this novel are not necessarily of this world or even from this plane of existence. There are certain characters who are able to channel and harness spiritual energy and characters from the afterlife --- think Claire and Poe --- and such bonds are unbreakable even in the face of the darkest evil. With DECIMATE, Chris Rice has written a novel that provides hope and even gives peace in the face of so much darkness and pain that we face every day in the living world. It is the most important work of his career, and he is writing at a time when, I believe, both he and his readers need it most.
Reviewed by Ray Palen for Book Reporter

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decimate is a very thoughtful imagination of death and what comes afterwards. It made me think about the ideas we have about death, aside from any religion based ones and I found the theory that drove the book quite interesting in the end. But yes, I am talking about a novel here! Purely fiction...

Clair and Poe Huntley take a camping trip in the mountains of Montana when they're kids. While their father is fast asleep in his tent, they go walk about trying to find a way to the "nearby" lake where they've been told they can see down to the depths of the planet because it's so clear. Claire is about to call it quits and drag her little brother Poe back to camp, when the ground shakes, an incredibly bright light blinds her, and the loud boom and sudden severity of the quaking ground toss both the kids around like tiny bean bags. She awakens in the hospital, her brother in another room. She can remember nothing of their ordeal. Nor can her brother. Her father's claims of ALIENS(!!) are met with disbelief and scorn as he had been drinking and was asleep when the calamity hit. No one else was witness to what happened. But what did really happen? Years and years later, Poe is coming to visit his sister for the first time since he got clean from drugs and alcohol. Claire is eager to welcome her little brother back, hopeful that this time it will all be okay and then... .another calamity. One that will change humanity.

After the opening chapters I was eager myself, to keep reading and find out the answers to what actually has happened! Decimate started at a good pace. Unfortunately for many people, it lost steam somewhere over the Rockies. The exposition of the Great Theory began. And kept going. Sadly, it wasn't until 60% of the book was done (according to my eReader) that the story launched back into action again. That is approximately 45% of a book to read where you're going to lose those who are not fully committed fans or reviewers determined to stick the landing so to speak. The last 40% of the book was action packed and moved at a nice clip, but it seemed, at that point, almost anticlimactic. Like I was just so glad the explanations were over that I would've welcomed a sudden sideways step into an old-fashioned Victorian tea party complete with ridiculous hats. The characters, apart from the kids' father and Claire herself, felt almost like sketches. Not fully fleshed out. There was some development, but not enough to keep me from thinking, "Who the heck do you think you are to do this, no matter what is going on?!" I think it might have worked better as a novella or essay contemplating death than an adventure/thriller type of novel about death and the hereafter.

Once I'd taken the time to parse my way through all the ideas of the book, I was glad I'd read it, and intrigued by the theory of the book. But I fear many won't take the time with it that it needs. It's not your typical horror, thriller or mystery at all.. Rice has put an awful lot of thought into his book. It deserves to have time taken with it. But I feel like it will not be given the time by any but his most ardent fans. I admit, I went into it as a first time reader of his work. And also as one who was looking for a fun ride. That is not what I got exactly. But in the end, it's a book worth reading. Just be ready for the explanations. I would love to say 'shorten them". But I am not sure that would be possible as what Rice describes is something that doesn't easily slide into the spaces created in our minds by early religious training (for many) or simply by cultural leanings. I'm glad I read the book. But I'm still not sure I liked it enough to buy it. I thought the ideas were good, but I'm not sure they work in a thriller type of tale (or a book being marketed as one).. Therefore, I'm forced to give it a 3 out of 5 rating. If, however, you do like Rice, and/or are willing to sit and think on what a book is talking about, and aren't in for just a quick thrilling read, by all means, get this book and read it! It is worth the reading and time taken on it. I do think it's not fully representative of the category of "thriller". I'd put it more in a literary fiction model myself, even though the thriller elements are present.

I do thank NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the Digital Review Copy of Decimate.

[Bookreporter.com Mystery & Thriller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Rice holds his mother, the late, great Anne Rice, primarily responsible for his obsession with the afterlife. The minute he told her that he was going to write a novel about it, she sent him nearly every book published regarding near-death experiences. The end result is DECIMATE, which is quite possibly the best solo effort of Rice’s career and an effective genre-bending book that provide chills and thrills to both fans and newcomers of his always impressive work.

The action begins 14 years in the past on a family camping trip in the woods of Montana that is about to go sideways in bizarre fashion. Claire Huntley and her younger brother, Poe, slip away from the camp where their father --- described as a cross between Sam Elliott and Brad Pitt, but without their mental acuity --- is lying. It’s midnight, and their flashlights keep playing tricks on them. At this point, the earth begins to shake with the power of a quake. Claire feels Poe’s chest slam into hers. Amazingly enough, they are both flying!

Before they can wrap their minds around what’s happening to them, they crash back onto the earth and are taken to the hospital for various tests. However, it’s not the results of any test that will follow them for the rest of their lives, but the version of the story that their father tells everyone about what happened that night.

In the present day, Claire is a teacher who still suffers anxiety attacks over that fateful hike. Poe has since fallen in and out of addiction and various treatments while trying to figure out for himself what they experienced. He is flying out to see his sister after a long absence from any sort of family gathering. Maybe that is why Claire is so spooked when one of her students points out that someone wrote on her chalkboard love you bear. “Bear” was the nickname Poe gave her, but no one else knew that. Who could have done this?

Meanwhile, Claire must come face to face with an absolute nightmare. Poe’s crowded passenger plane has plunged into the Colorado mountains, and there are no survivors. She is mourning and processing all of this with her new stepsister, Melissa, and recounting how she has always felt connected to Poe in a strange way, which is indicative of the various “Bear” messages found around her home.

Rice begins to quietly introduce us to some of the supporting players who will have an impact on Claire and Poe’s story. One is an odd, ghoul-like character named Vernon, whose mere presence and ability is both similar and contrary to the siblings. The others are a clandestine team that seems to be operating behind the scenes, yet they’re quite aware of everyone --- it’s like they’re playing a master chess board from above and watching out for the results. Randy, the obvious leader of this group, refers to something called Operation Clean Sweep, which is a last resort for what they’re witnessing. If this all sounds confusing, don’t worry. That’s what makes DECIMATE so much fun...and trust me, it all will come together and reward you for your patience in spades.

Meanwhile, Claire receives a call from her estranged father requesting that she return to Montana. Something is going to happen there that she can’t miss. Upon her arrival, they await some sort of psychic message. Could it be from Poe or perhaps something far larger? Vernon also will converge on the event that is to come, as the novel’s climax begins to move all of these characters in the same direction.

Christopher Rice has written a novel that provides hope and even peace in the face of so much darkness and pain that we face every day. It is the most important work of his career.

Reviewed by Ray Palen

[Tracy Wickman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this ARC for an honest review. OMG!!! This book is awesome! Christopher Rice KNOWS how to tell a story. I loved every word.
This story is about a brother and sister, Claire and Poe. When they were kids, they went on a camping trip with their father, and they were in an accident that changed them. What kind of accident? Well…you need to read the story. Because of the accident, their parents divorced. Claire lived with her mom and Poe lived with his dad. In their teens, Poe became addicted to drugs and started moving around. Claire became a school teacher. After their mother’s funeral, Poe finally got clean. He wanted to meet up with Claire to apologize his actions at the funeral. He didn’t make it…why…you have to read the book. I won’t say much else because I will give away too much.
This story takes you on a ride. Christopher Rice does a great job of having you feel empathy towards “the villain” of the story or was he just a product of what was done to him? You feel for almost all the characters.
I didn’t want to put the down the book. I highly recommend this book!

[Patricia Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Claire and her brother, Poe, were on a camping trip with their father. The one who is passed out drunk in front of the fire. Poe insists on going into the woods to explore and Claire reluctantly goes along even though it is pitch black and they have no idea where they are going.

In the next minute, the Montana woods explode. A blinding light and a pulse of energy knock them down the mountainside leaving them injured and not at all sure what has happened to them. Their father is screaming aliens and after that their mother divorces him and keeps Claire while their Dad keeps Poe.

Even apart they feel connected somehow. Something has happened to them and they both handle it by self-medicating and ignoring the whole thing. Until a tragedy occurs and Claire must return to Montana for answers.

This is a story of life and death. Near-death experiences taken to the next level. What does happen at the moment of death? And what happened to them as kids? The answers will blow your mind.

Always a pleasure to read Rice.

NetGalley/ : May 10th, 2022 Thomas & Mercer

[Dustin Spencer-L'Heureux · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book. I would give it more a 3.5.

I am an avid fan of Christopher Rice and found this book to be very entertaining. It is clear that he has a passion for near death/afterlife because the book is well thought out and researched. At times, I had difficulty figuring out what it all was but it came together in the end.

I am sad to hear that his mother never got to read this book, a book she apparently encouraged him to write.

Nice work Mr. Rice, I look forward to other books in the future.

[Bernard Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this gripping, science fiction technothriller, which digs deep into the unknown and mysterious territory of near-death experience and afterlife, it is hard for me not to draw the parallel with similar books of one of my favorite authors, Dean Koontz. By saying that, I want to give a compliment to Christopher Rice as I recall the most riveting and chilling parts of Decimate with contentment.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the concept of this one and the writing was very good, my lower rating is because I thought it was really convoluted and a little difficult to follow. That my be just my headspace as I read it while on vacation. The characters are interesting and the story is good, I just kept getting a bit lost from one sitting of reading to the next.

[Nicolette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very unique story!

[S.D. Hintz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read! I loved how different it was from Rice’s previous novels. And the characters and storyline were as engaging as ever.

[Elvenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poe and Claire had a life-changing experience in the woods when they were kids that sent them to the hospital. Not knowing what had happened destroyed their family and as adults they're still trying to live with the scars. But then one of them decides to take back the reins of their life and try to discover the truth behind the incident, a decision that will have many unexpected repercussions.

I found the premise intriguing and the story original and interesting, even if longer and less fast-paced and action-packed than I had initially expected.

The mystery made me want to keep reading but the focus on character interactions made me less inclined to pick the book, perhaps due to the quantity of characters introduced and how the story kept jumping from one to another, not making it easy for me to get really invested on what was happening to them.

The parts I enjoyed the most were those about Poe, who I found much more developed as a character than his sister, who I felt I didn't get to know at all.

I enjoyed how the story would sometimes jump to the past, letting me see how something had come to happen or why a character had ended being a certain way, because it would provide the historical info needed to put the plot in perspective without anyone having to stand in front of a white board and explain everything, but I would have loved suspense and a sense of danger for the characters in the main timeline as well. Also, I was left with the conviction they kept getting all the info they were after too easily!

I'll definitely be reading more books by the author.

ARC received from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decimate by Christopher Rice is a book that fits in different genres - science fiction, horror and general fiction.

"Claire and her brother, Poe, were on a camping trip with their father in the deep Montana woods when they were caught up in a great explosion of light. Was it aliens? Or a government project gone wrong?
Years later a plane crash gives a strange power to a young man with revenge on his mind. A group wants to stop him hoping that Claire's connection to Poe can help before it's too late.!"

Rice tells an original story about "near death experiences" and the connection between people after death. You have to pay attention because he's throwing things like "bloom" and "memory deck" at you.

This story is filled with characters wanting a second chance. Characters who are grieving for lost relationshipu. Characters who want to do the right thing no matter the personal cost.

Rice is great at thinking up wild scenarios and making the reader think "That might be possible" Fans of the Burning Girl trilogy should enjoy this one. Crazy story from Rice.

[Kristy Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first read by this author. Told in third person from multiple points of view, this story follows the breakup of a family after a near tragedy occurs while a brother and sister are camping with their father in Glacier National Park and their attempts to reconnect as adults. While the father tries to gain the attention of the media by complaining loudly about alien abductions, the story explores concepts of the afterlife and includes several side characters that have had near death experiences. When I discovered the truth behind their experience in Glacier, I was both horrified and intrigued. I found some of these ideas, especially the memory vaults, fascinating but I did wish that it was a little more atmospheric. Recommended to SciFi lovers interested in the connections between siblings and conceptual theories on the spaces between life and death.

Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for the free copy provided for an honest review.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind-Bending Scifi Action. This is one of those trippy books that has enough mystery up front to draw you in, a lot of exposition in the middle to make you understand what is coming, and a balls to the wall back third to show off all that you now know within the context of the original setup. At 440 ish pages, it may read a tad long to some, but I felt the length was pretty solid for all that it was doing here. And the ideas it discusses are intriguing in a vein similar to Marcus Sakey's Afterlife, where death... may only be the beginning. The backstory here was perhaps a well tapped a bit too often in the genre, particularly for anything of this form, and yet was still done well and was truly horrifying (though fortunately not too much of it actually "onscreen"). Overall the tale here was interesting and well told. Very much recommended.

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book!
I feel that Christopher Rice has really evolved as an author, the depth of this novel was much more than the first book I read by him.
A family was torn apart by an event that was beyond their understanding...
years later, they are given answers, but at a terrible cost, and too late to repair all the damage. How can they respond to those who had the answers all along?
Christopher deals with the darkness and confusion in people in an empathetic way. There is only one true villain in the entire book that I can think of, and we never really know enough about them to be sure that even they were really evil all along.
I hope there is more in this vein to come (though not necessarily a continuation of this particular story).

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

A camping trip turns into an extraordinary event that sends Claire and Poe to the hospital. Their father thinks it was aliens. Unfortunately a divorce divides the family, Claire goes with her mother and Poe with his father. Life goes on, the kids grow up. Another extraordinary event happens to Poe involving a plane crash. Then it gets weird. Really weird. This novel goes places you don’t expect it to. A thought provoking novel, Decimate by Christopher Rice, about near-death experiences. Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the ARC.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I’ve been a huge fan of Christopher rice since he wrote the snow garden. Which was his second book. This book being his latest book is by far the best one I’ve read to date! It takes you to a place that you wouldn’t normally go and then just when you think it’s done, it takes you even farther and brings it all over to the end! Which the ending is bitter sweet but a great ending nonetheless. I can’t wait for a new book from him now!

[Suzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let me preface this by the fact that I'm a huge Christopher Rice fan (and his mom's, of course). I was not expecting the dominant sci fit theme of this book however and struggled to get into it. I pushed through (and it was a lengthy 440 pages). Great characters but just didn't enjoy this one as I have his previous (yea, I know his mom wrote about vampires and witches and i soaked that up!)

[C.S. Shoemaker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whew! Decimate is quite a trip into a meta physical premise that is hard to describe without spoilers - but I’ll try. First, it’s evident to me Rice really pushed himself on a prose level - top notch. He understands story structure in a way a lot of authors seem to struggle with, but just as importantly, he knows that antagonists must be the hero of their own story. As for the premise of Decimate, it’s complicated, and if I found any weakness it’s in the perimeters of its world building. Logistically, it can be a little hard to follow, but I trusted Rice to see me through it. While I wavered back and forth regarding a rating, it was Rice’s climatic and rewarding finale that cinched a well earned 5 stars.

[Thomas George Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Rice surpassed himself in this suspenseful paranormal story. Claire Huntley and her brother Poe are the main protagonists. The story begins when Claire and Poe are children on a camping trip with their parents in Montana. While camping the two kids start out on their own mountain climbing. While out they experience a paranormal activity. Their father suspected it was a extraterrestrial kidnapping. His suspensions would later contribute to his divorce and his estrangement from his daughter for 14 years.

This story weaves in and out over decades as other characters are added to contribute to their experience with the paranormal.

Apparently Mr. Rice, too, experienced a near-death experience; which he most certainly added to his book.

[Jacques Coulardeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel is a full textbook about how we can author a novel that will be mainstream and hit parade stuff in our post-COVID-19 Nation. You have it all in this big thrilling novel by Christopher Rice who is reaching some real style of his own in this story, and storytelling is essential in life. So, let’s wonder what the secrets are.

First of all, it has to push roots into some dramatic historical events, here Hitler and Nazism, particularly the fate of science in Hitler’s Germany. Science and technology there had never been as important as they were then since the whole future of the conquest of the world had to depend on science and technology, and it nearly succeeded. Of course, we all know the horror of it. The grandfather of the family at the center of this novel is a German scientist from this time, recuperated by the US to avoid his moving to the USSR. He was thus installed in the US with his wife and practiced medicine in some far away city in some far away state, and he was tolerated in his own research there, though everyone could not but have known he was going on with the research he started in Germany that actually was on the verge of success in 1945 and was successful in the 1950s in the US. Capturing the energy of the human spirit that survives the death of the body as some energy that can be captured and then used, though no one really knows what it can do. The whole book is the description of this domesticated energy used by the people who can capture it and integrate it into their own bodies. And the testing subjects who have to die to provide their vital energy are easy to find in the US where every year tens of thousands of people just disappear, some for snuff experiments of this very sort.

Second, you need to base and found your story on some deep belief – in fact, an absolute blind faith – that there is an afterlife and that for most people that afterlife is wasted since the energy that survives death is just not used for anything, is just released in the cosmos, is just buried deep six feet under. Can do better, my fellow Americans, and Christopher Rice builds a phenomenal crisscross fabric of such beliefs. The Buddhist belief that in Nibbana, or Nirvana, an Enlightened person loses his/her body and becomes pure cosmic energy that merges into the universe. The Christian belief in resurrection into eternal life. The scientific public rejection of what they yet would accept in private and in confession: life is energy, energy never gets lost, wasted, or destroyed because it just transforms itself into some new or other forms. The democratic symbolism that such energy has to be blue, of course, and it goes around calling its Hee-Haw cry of shame. When you bring all these faiths together you have the true American non-confessional and non-affiliated universal and completely de-sanctified, de-sacralized, and even de-dignified religion that covers all faiths and none, all beliefs and none, all spiritualities and none. American series are becoming the Bible, the Quran, and the Dhammapada, all merged together, of this homogenized desupernaturalized religion for whom God has become a symbol of the fear of death.

Third, you need a good share of the growing pains of children in a society of immature permissiveness. Growing is alienation, the alienation that comes from nonchalance and that produces indifference, especially indifference to differences because growing makes you blind to differences, blindness that rejects all different people into the wings of real life, into the ditch of the road. Growing is many losses, one after the other, the loss of purity, the loss of virginity, the loss of innocence. Growing is depravation, the depravation that comes along with instincts, impulses, and passions.

But fourth, you need a lot of the growing pains of adults in a society where the Intellectual Quotient is going down, day after day, year after year among the adults who spend more and more years in schools and yet are less and less educated. Adulthood is pushing aside and flushing down infancy, childhood, and teenage as an unreasonable and irrational search for pleasure. Adulthood is accepting compromise, accommodation, and complicity in all the daily crimes and injustices of this world. Adulthood is the obligation to become greedy for the “riches” of our neighbors, ambitious to crush all competitors, overbearing to the point of shooting first and not even asking questions after. That’s the price to pay to the Guardians of the Galaxy for those who can pay to go and survive on bailed probation.

All that is in this novel, and a lot more.

The main character Poe Huntley is gay, hence sacrificed, killed, dead, and departed in a plane that crashes, no one really knows why. The suspicious circumstances are in phase with this young man’s death. But he will be reborn at the very end. His energetic spirit, his spirit of pure energy will take over his own estranged father’s body – only the body, certainly not the spirit, the mind, or the culture. The father’s spirit is lost, hence wasted, in the end just cremated by the transfer of his son’s spirit into his body. No mercy for him, for this father. No compassion nor forgiveness from the son.

The main character Poe Huntley was (along with his sister) transformed from normal to super-altruistically self-centered and they both assume this contradiction. The brother into being gay and hating his father. The daughter into being totally locked up in herself, close to autism, the Asperger’s type of course because she has to be superior. That happened when they were both under ten, maybe even under eight because they invaded a zone that sheltered – if we can say so – the Nazi invention of their grandfather, the vital-energy capturing machine that was transformed by this ability into a perambulating supernatural devilish contraption that could invade living beings, at least its collected energy could. And Poe’s thus surreptitiously augmented spiritual reality gets liberated from his body when killed in the plane, and it finds refuge in the seat in which the body was sitting. Typical Hinduism or primitive Buddhism: he got reincarnated in a plane seat. And a certain Vernon Starnes raids the plane wreck and takes away the seat because it radiates some blue light, and this Vernon is invaded by this blue light, by this spirit of this Poe Huntley. Vernon Starnes will finally be able to satisfy his vengeance.

Vernon Starnes is “autistic” from birth (at least we assume he is that because it could be worse). He is raised by his single mother and his uncle (his mother’s brother) Johnny Starnes who tortures him and finally violently beats him up one morning and probably – it is not clear in the way the aggression is described – rapes him out of spite for the handicapped child who is – according to him Johnny Starnes, an alcoholic – unworthy to live in this world. This makes Vernon furious, but his mother takes him away and decides to live on her own. His mother dies one day, and Vernon decides to decorate her face with the colorful stones she collects in the mountain and sells to make a living. The Sheriff locks him up till the coroner declares the child innocent and the mother’s death a simple heart attack. During those three or four days, the uncle literally takes the mother’s body away, mum-napped her in a way, has it cremated, and he will never tell Vernon where she has been buried. Then he is banned from the city of Spurlock by his uncle and three barflies of his alcoholic mates. If that is not traumatic, what is?

But what’s left after all that thrilling, suspenseful horror? A settlement of all accounts.

Fathers are horrible. The grandfather was a Nazi scientist experimenting on Jews with the technology he was devising to capture the energy of life in human beings just before they die. One of his testing subjects was his own wife. The next one, a father, Abram Huntley, abandons his children, or at least one of his children after his divorce. One other father is inexistant, Vernon’s father, Vernon, a fatherless child. And on top of that Vernon’s uncle is a child torturer and a child rapist. I don’t seem to have seen an allusion to him being Vernon’s real incestuous father with Vernon’s mother and Johnny’s sister, but that would perfectly fit in the picture, in this family-scape. Fathers can only redeem themselves or be redeemed in vengeance by sacrificing themselves or being sacrificed, Abram Huntley accepts to give his own body to his son’s spirit, for him to get back to life. Johnny Vernon is killed in the most gruesome way by his own nephew, who might be his incestuous son.

What about mothers? Not much better. The grandmother was complacent to her Nazi husband since she was a Nazi too, at least by neutral support. Her sister plays the direct collaborator of the husband, her brother. The grandmother provided her husband with the possibility to test his invention on her several times, dying thus and being revived, several times mind you. She blinds herself in the end. Poe and Claire’s mother divorced her husband Abram Huntley, and they share the children. Poe goes with his father. Claire stays with her mother. Agatha Huntley lives as pure energy residing in a tree stump in an underground cellar. She is the aunt of the younger children, Poe and Claire. Agatha’s sister, Catherine Caldwell married Kyle Devlin in politics, a convenient marriage for the husband first and then the wife. To be in politics in the USA you need to be “normal,” hence married to a person of the other sex. Pete Buttigieg has not reached such a lost city in Montana or around.

Now, what bout children?

Destroyed Victims! Disrupted Victims! Deranged Victims! We have to invent a new Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome for them, a PTSS of children. They all have been PTSS-ed even if at the end the author tries to bring two of them all back to some kind of balance or equilibrium, though Poe finds it funny ah-ah and exciting to openly try to sexually tease the male doctors sent by the federal government to study his case: after all, he died in a crash plane and took over his father’s body, and his father plainly disappeared. Even, Sherlock Holmes would find that suspicious. And that’s our world. The future is “Rapture” in this novel. Nothing to compete with Ray Kurzweil’s singularity. Nothing to compete with Z Nation’s apocalypse and Black Rainbow. Nothing to compete with John’s Book of Revelation.

Thus, this book is a phenomenal flashback backlash. Back to the Past of Nazi science that is said to lead to no Future… of what? Blue-tinted salvation! A cyan-tinted revival! An indigo-tinted survival! Out of the blue, the blue rinse brigade running around like a blue-arsed fly, goes off into the blue, screaming about blue murder on the blue day Poe was reborn under a blue moon!

Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

[Russell Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve been a Christopher Rice super-fan since his first novel was published. I reveled in each book, from his contemporary fiction to his gothic novels to his venture into science fiction with the Burning Girl series. When, as his alter ego C. Travis Rice, he journeyed into gay erotica, I still loved his characterization skills and his imaginative plot while not exactly liking the extended gay scenes. And I’m a gay man myself. So after that last experience with C. Travis, I was so happy to see the original Christopher had released a new novel, Decimate. Sadly, I found it a slog of a read. I know that many of Rice’s fans will love the book. I don’t quarrel with that notion. I even marvel, once again, at his inventive plot. I don’t know how anyone can create a world so different from our own and yet keep it fairly grounded in reality. I even extend kudos to Rice for growing and exploring as an artist. But I suppose I reached my limit with science fiction with the Burning Girl books, and this one simply went too far for me to accept it. And complicating my lack of enthusiasm for science fiction was that Rice used two devices I despise. First, he has pages and pages of passages in italics. I don’t like italics. I tolerate them when they are used sparingly. And here—and as a writer myself I understand this—Rice has passages that need to be distinctive from the general semi-linear plot. Understanding it and liking it, for me, are two very different things. But the most heinous thing for me is his usage of a plot device that has become very trendy indeed in movies and TV: the flashback. Storytellers no longer—and lumping them all into this category is ludicrous, but I see so often that I shall venture there—tell linear stories. Stories can be going along at a gentle or rapid pace and suddenly and often without warning, we are thrust back into the past. I fully understand why often a writer wants to gradually reveal motivations. But spare me from the pages and pages that interrupt the plot so I—the reader clamoring for explanation, apparently—can learn of “what came before.” Maybe I’m just not in tune with modern storytelling, but I find it jarring and distracting to have to wade through all that back story. So, I will still keep my proudly framed Christopher Rice autograph on my wall. But I will think twice or thrice or—what is that similar word for four times?—before purchasing a new Christopher Rice book. I mourn.