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Birth-Rite
Accept The Power or The World Will Burn Nine-year-old David Ryan is in mortal danger He has a deadly secret that is unknown even to himself. But there is someone that does a relentless killer born of hatred, who draws upon dark powers to destroy God’s chosen ones. As David grows into a troubled teenager, he has to confront the truth about himself to have any hope of stopping the malignant spread of evil that is engulfing his small town. He must accept his birth-rite, or the whole world will burn.
400 pages, Paperback
First published July 12, 2021
About the author
Anthony Steven
6 books21 followersMy first book, Catechism, is now available on Amazon and Goodreads. It is a paranormal thriller, set in the UK and the first book in a series about Nick Ballard, a psychic, who teams up with Detective Chief Inspector Kate Garvey to hunt serial killers.
Inside Catechism, there is also a link to my website and a free story to download in e-book format.
I live in Cheshire, England, with my wife, Mary. I work for a charity and am also a psychotherapist. I mainly write in the horror/thriller genre, and apart from the Nick Ballard series, plan to release a horror novel in the near future.
It’s pretty ironic that I write this kind of fiction, as I'm the first person to look away during a horror movie when the scary parts come on. This dates back to childhood, when I hid behind the sofa from the Daleks and Cybermen in Doctor Who. There was also Hammer House of Horror movies to contend with and I found the Dracula series and The Masque of the Red Death particularly chilling.
Inside Catechism, there is also a link to my website and a free story to download in e-book format.
I live in Cheshire, England, with my wife, Mary. I work for a charity and am also a psychotherapist. I mainly write in the horror/thriller genre, and apart from the Nick Ballard series, plan to release a horror novel in the near future.
It’s pretty ironic that I write this kind of fiction, as I'm the first person to look away during a horror movie when the scary parts come on. This dates back to childhood, when I hid behind the sofa from the Daleks and Cybermen in Doctor Who. There was also Hammer House of Horror movies to contend with and I found the Dracula series and The Masque of the Red Death particularly chilling.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 30, 2021
I’m not even sure how I got on this author’s mailing list but I’m on it and he was offering this book free for one day only so I grabbed it. And now I have read it and have no idea how to review it 🤷♀️.
I think it is supposed to be horror but, as usual, I didn’t find it scary or horrifying or even gruesome. It seemed to be about the eternal battle for control of the world between good and evil, if you believe in such things. Which I don’t, so I had a kind of problem taking any of it seriously. You know God and the devil battling it out for hearts and souls through their agents on earth.
The writing was fine but for the first half of the book at least I had a bit of trouble following the story. It jumped around time wise a lot and new characters were thrown into the mix with merry abandon. In the second half, and after we focussed on the mid 70s, it became much easier to follow and some of the earlier action made more sense. The story flowed well enough and by about the 75% mark I was finally invested in the story and keen to see it through to the end. It wasn’t a given until that point.
It wasn’t a bad story by any means, but I didn’t think it was great either. So, in a total fence-sitting cop out, I’m giving it 3 stars. I don’t know what else to say about it. People who enjoy paranormal or supernatural type horror would probably enjoy this a lot more than I did. I do appreciate the free book from the author though and I wish him every success with it.
I think it is supposed to be horror but, as usual, I didn’t find it scary or horrifying or even gruesome. It seemed to be about the eternal battle for control of the world between good and evil, if you believe in such things. Which I don’t, so I had a kind of problem taking any of it seriously. You know God and the devil battling it out for hearts and souls through their agents on earth.
The writing was fine but for the first half of the book at least I had a bit of trouble following the story. It jumped around time wise a lot and new characters were thrown into the mix with merry abandon. In the second half, and after we focussed on the mid 70s, it became much easier to follow and some of the earlier action made more sense. The story flowed well enough and by about the 75% mark I was finally invested in the story and keen to see it through to the end. It wasn’t a given until that point.
It wasn’t a bad story by any means, but I didn’t think it was great either. So, in a total fence-sitting cop out, I’m giving it 3 stars. I don’t know what else to say about it. People who enjoy paranormal or supernatural type horror would probably enjoy this a lot more than I did. I do appreciate the free book from the author though and I wish him every success with it.
January 21, 2022
So this is the type of book that did take me a little while to understand and get to grips with at first due to going between different times and characters but after awhile I adjusted to the authors writing style and could feel the book flowing better for me.
The start of the book is absolutely like nothing I have read before , it is a very graphically descriptive read the images the author describes are definitely painted in your mind. I found it much easier to read during the day which is exactly what you want when reading a book like this!
I don't want to say too much about the plot as it will ruin it , but it is written in a way that does grip you and propels you to read on. It was overall a great read!
I will say there are some points that might be triggers for some people due to some abuse so bear that in mind!
The start of the book is absolutely like nothing I have read before , it is a very graphically descriptive read the images the author describes are definitely painted in your mind. I found it much easier to read during the day which is exactly what you want when reading a book like this!
I don't want to say too much about the plot as it will ruin it , but it is written in a way that does grip you and propels you to read on. It was overall a great read!
I will say there are some points that might be triggers for some people due to some abuse so bear that in mind!
January 31, 2022
This was my first introduction to Anthony Steven’s writing and I was very impressed.
The story itself is a familiar tale of good vs evil, The Powers of Light vs The Powers of Darkness etc, etc.
However, I felt that this was the framework that Anthony Stevens hung the story on to bring something much more prescient to the tale of good vs evil.
We initially get the prologue which recounts an ancient text of Uriel, the Archangel coming before God to allow several of his brethren to enter the world of man. However, whilst several of them remained true to the Lord, most of them turned away and instead worshipped the Prince of Hell, Beelzebub, and thus becoming fallen ones.
The story then moves time and setting to the bedroom of a disabled girl who is being kept in abhorrent conditions by her fundamentalist Christian parents in the early part of the 20th Century. Obviously, the girl does not see the way of the Lord as being one that is particularly a nice one to follow and upon being visited by one of the fallen instead turns to the dark side. She is ‘saved’ from her meagre and cruel existence by one of the Fallen and subsequently a child is born, Gabriel Hernshaw.
Gabriel is then brought up by his aunt and his uncle, a reverend in the church, after his mother dies in childbirth. Similarly, Gabriel’s upbringing is not one that you would call a happy childhood, and we follow his descent into evil.
Meanwhile, interlaced with the tale of Gabriel, is the tale of David Ryan, a ten year old boy that is brought up in the early 1970’s with his abusive father, and a catholic mother who misguidedly believes that she must remain in this abusive relationship due to the ‘social and traditional’ rules.
In the first part of the book, the story flits between points of view and different times, highlighting the stories of the three main protagonists; Gabriel, David and a priest named Jean who’s story is an off shoot of his contact with the evil Gabriel in World War Two.
The story isn’t an easy read as it contains themes of abuse, sexual assault, racism, sexism and does use some derogatory language associated with certain time periods. However, I felt that these were not done in an exploitative manner and encapsulated the themes that the author was highlighting.
As I have said, the story moves between these timelines and doesn’t really settle on a linear progression of the story until the final act. Initially, this can seem a little disorientating as there does not seem give the reader that comfort of a lateral progression. However, what it does do is give a good background to the convergence of the storylines in the final act and the reason why things happen they way they do.
Now, I want to go back to my earlier point of the fact that it is a familiar story, but that I felt that this was a formula to hang something much more prescient to the tale. For me, I felt that there was a much deeper aspect of social commentary running underneath this story of good and evil. Horror is a particularly good genre for this, and whilst it can seem that in the surface of the story there is the tale of the fantastical, underneath horror can be used to scrutinise society as a whole, and with Birth Rite, I felt that this was very much at play here.
How many times have you heard the saying that things were better in my day etc, etc. What Birth Rite does is that whilst at times it does give a nostalgic look to the seventies in general, and growing up in a northern town in that period, it also focuses its lens on the not so good aspects of the time period as well.
It highlights the casual racism and violence of the period, the toxic attitudes towards women, and that there was a lack of support for victims of domestic abuse. In this it highlights the fact that really ‘it wasn’t much better in my day’ and these things existed despite what every one says.
In addition to this, it can shine a light up to where are we now in all these things, and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from that one!
In terms of the book itself, when it comes to the final act of the book, it becomes a typical good vs evil scenario, which I must say that I enjoyed, it was fun.
Now, as I have said, the first part of the story is a little disorientating, and I did tend to wonder where the story is going, but found that it did start to bring the story together in the second part and reached a satisfying conclusion in the final part of the book.
If you like this review, you can generally find me hanging around my blog site www.fantasybooknerd.com
The story itself is a familiar tale of good vs evil, The Powers of Light vs The Powers of Darkness etc, etc.
However, I felt that this was the framework that Anthony Stevens hung the story on to bring something much more prescient to the tale of good vs evil.
We initially get the prologue which recounts an ancient text of Uriel, the Archangel coming before God to allow several of his brethren to enter the world of man. However, whilst several of them remained true to the Lord, most of them turned away and instead worshipped the Prince of Hell, Beelzebub, and thus becoming fallen ones.
The story then moves time and setting to the bedroom of a disabled girl who is being kept in abhorrent conditions by her fundamentalist Christian parents in the early part of the 20th Century. Obviously, the girl does not see the way of the Lord as being one that is particularly a nice one to follow and upon being visited by one of the fallen instead turns to the dark side. She is ‘saved’ from her meagre and cruel existence by one of the Fallen and subsequently a child is born, Gabriel Hernshaw.
Gabriel is then brought up by his aunt and his uncle, a reverend in the church, after his mother dies in childbirth. Similarly, Gabriel’s upbringing is not one that you would call a happy childhood, and we follow his descent into evil.
Meanwhile, interlaced with the tale of Gabriel, is the tale of David Ryan, a ten year old boy that is brought up in the early 1970’s with his abusive father, and a catholic mother who misguidedly believes that she must remain in this abusive relationship due to the ‘social and traditional’ rules.
In the first part of the book, the story flits between points of view and different times, highlighting the stories of the three main protagonists; Gabriel, David and a priest named Jean who’s story is an off shoot of his contact with the evil Gabriel in World War Two.
The story isn’t an easy read as it contains themes of abuse, sexual assault, racism, sexism and does use some derogatory language associated with certain time periods. However, I felt that these were not done in an exploitative manner and encapsulated the themes that the author was highlighting.
As I have said, the story moves between these timelines and doesn’t really settle on a linear progression of the story until the final act. Initially, this can seem a little disorientating as there does not seem give the reader that comfort of a lateral progression. However, what it does do is give a good background to the convergence of the storylines in the final act and the reason why things happen they way they do.
Now, I want to go back to my earlier point of the fact that it is a familiar story, but that I felt that this was a formula to hang something much more prescient to the tale. For me, I felt that there was a much deeper aspect of social commentary running underneath this story of good and evil. Horror is a particularly good genre for this, and whilst it can seem that in the surface of the story there is the tale of the fantastical, underneath horror can be used to scrutinise society as a whole, and with Birth Rite, I felt that this was very much at play here.
How many times have you heard the saying that things were better in my day etc, etc. What Birth Rite does is that whilst at times it does give a nostalgic look to the seventies in general, and growing up in a northern town in that period, it also focuses its lens on the not so good aspects of the time period as well.
It highlights the casual racism and violence of the period, the toxic attitudes towards women, and that there was a lack of support for victims of domestic abuse. In this it highlights the fact that really ‘it wasn’t much better in my day’ and these things existed despite what every one says.
In addition to this, it can shine a light up to where are we now in all these things, and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions from that one!
In terms of the book itself, when it comes to the final act of the book, it becomes a typical good vs evil scenario, which I must say that I enjoyed, it was fun.
Now, as I have said, the first part of the story is a little disorientating, and I did tend to wonder where the story is going, but found that it did start to bring the story together in the second part and reached a satisfying conclusion in the final part of the book.
If you like this review, you can generally find me hanging around my blog site www.fantasybooknerd.com
February 1, 2022
This was extremely unusual split over three books as such but in one. Don’t be put off by the prologue. The way this was written kind of made me hope that it wasn’t written in this way throughout and thankfully as I began to read my mind was put to rest. Obviously when you read the elements of the book do relate to the words you read in the prologue and you have a moment when you think ahhh that makes sense now.
I did find this book quite difficult to read as some parts made me feel uncomfortable but I think that’s what the author intended the reader to feel. I liked the way that the parts remained modern to read and wasn’t caught up with old style historic wording as you would normally expect for 1922.
This book is extremely gripping due to the eerie darkness of the contents. I really enjoyed the time lapse of the stories of multiple characters until you learn to follow the main story line. This book did make me nervy and I did freak myself out a lot as the descriptions made me feel like I was hearing things around my own house. It was gorier than anticipated too with things that happened that threw me miles off as I didn’t expect the twists and turns.
Although a slow read, it certainly had moments where the pace felt quicker at the right times. It was unique with the evil embedded. I don’t think I’ve read anything like this before so I did appreciate it more than I expected to when I started. Big huge thanks to zooloosbooktours and the author for this opportunity to read this.
I did find this book quite difficult to read as some parts made me feel uncomfortable but I think that’s what the author intended the reader to feel. I liked the way that the parts remained modern to read and wasn’t caught up with old style historic wording as you would normally expect for 1922.
This book is extremely gripping due to the eerie darkness of the contents. I really enjoyed the time lapse of the stories of multiple characters until you learn to follow the main story line. This book did make me nervy and I did freak myself out a lot as the descriptions made me feel like I was hearing things around my own house. It was gorier than anticipated too with things that happened that threw me miles off as I didn’t expect the twists and turns.
Although a slow read, it certainly had moments where the pace felt quicker at the right times. It was unique with the evil embedded. I don’t think I’ve read anything like this before so I did appreciate it more than I expected to when I started. Big huge thanks to zooloosbooktours and the author for this opportunity to read this.
January 25, 2022
Horror used to be my genre of choice but I’ve kind of strayed from the path a little over the past decade so I was excited to join the tour for Birth Rite and re-discover my love of horror.
Birth Rite is not for the feint hearted and if you do find some things difficult to read about, I’d recommend checking out the content warnings first. For me the horror was found in the thoughts and behaviours of mankind but to be fair those things have always terrified much more than things that go bump in the night.
The first part of the book is almost like a string of individual stories that you know are linked but you are made to wait to see how and why. The violence is graphic and dark but was well written and appropriate to the story. It evoked such anger and emotion in me.
The characters were well developed and very vividly portrayed via their actions. Some characters I was rooting for and wanted to offer safety, protection and help. Others made my skin crawl and hair stand on end – giving me goosebumps every time they appeared.
This is the ultimate battle between good and evil and those who chose a side to stand firm with. It’s terrifying, gory and so bloody enjoyable (don’t judge my dark side).
Birth Rite is not for the feint hearted and if you do find some things difficult to read about, I’d recommend checking out the content warnings first. For me the horror was found in the thoughts and behaviours of mankind but to be fair those things have always terrified much more than things that go bump in the night.
The first part of the book is almost like a string of individual stories that you know are linked but you are made to wait to see how and why. The violence is graphic and dark but was well written and appropriate to the story. It evoked such anger and emotion in me.
The characters were well developed and very vividly portrayed via their actions. Some characters I was rooting for and wanted to offer safety, protection and help. Others made my skin crawl and hair stand on end – giving me goosebumps every time they appeared.
This is the ultimate battle between good and evil and those who chose a side to stand firm with. It’s terrifying, gory and so bloody enjoyable (don’t judge my dark side).
September 7, 2021
I loved this book! It was so well written and a real page turner. It's a nice mix of the supernatural and horror and the story and characters are engaging. The story takes a little while to get going but stick with it and you'll be rewarded with a great read!
I recommend everyone give this book a try - you will not be disappointed!
I recommend everyone give this book a try - you will not be disappointed!
April 27, 2022
Brilliant
This author just keeps getting better couldn't put this book down I don't do spoilers just read it you want be dissapounted
This author just keeps getting better couldn't put this book down I don't do spoilers just read it you want be dissapounted
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews