The Possessed

Sinister Spirits, Book 2

By: Kirk Kilgrave

Narrated by: Charity Spencer

Jocelyn doesn't believe in the supernatural, but she senses that something is in her home.

When her mother and sister begin using a Ouija board to contact their dead father, Jocelyn worries that it may lead to horrible consequences. Like the footsteps outside her bedroom door late at night. Or the pounding on the walls. Maybe, even the reason why her sister is trying to ruin her life.

Jocelyn finds a rational explanation for every strange incident until logic breaks down and sinister events ratchet up, convincing her that an evil entity has infested her home. With the help of a pair of paranormal investigators and a priest, Jocelyn hopes to defeat the malevolent entity before it destroys her family.

But, what Jocelyn doesn't realize is that this demon has more nefarious plans than she could possibly imagine. And it's eager to set them in motion.

Author's note: All of my novels stand alone, but characters from one book often cross into the others, culminating in a climactic battle of good versus evil in the seventh book. Listeners will get extra satisfaction from reading phase one of my Haunted Universe - Sinister Spirits - in the sequential order.

©2018 Steven Slavick (P)2019 Steven Slavick

Seriously Spooky with Great Narration!

I really enjoyed this solid horror novel. It's a very entertaining and seriously spooky tale of possession, and it centers around a young woman's relationship with her family while fighting a demon who is intent on destroying her life. The alcoholic mother as portrayed by the (stellar!) narrator, Charity Spencer, was especially nuanced, both in written detail and in performance. And as difficult as it must have been to voice twins, Ms. Spencer's wide-ranging vocal and acting abilities made it abundantly clear which character was speaking at all times. I highly recommend this audiobook -- but not while home alone at night!

Oh boy.....where to begin.. Oh yeah!

Before I get to my review, I want to speak about a line early on in the book that was so dumb that was my first clue that I don't believe Mr. Kilgrave had an editor. The story has two twins, Noel and Jocelyn, the latter being the narrator. Jocelyn mentions that, and I'm paraphrasing here, Noel was so pretty that she could get any guy--single, married, gay, straight. I mean... seriously? He had to put gay in there? I understand what he was trying to do and emphasize that Noel is VERY pretty, but I assure you, as a gay man, no matter how pretty a girl is, I would not entertain the idea of going after her. He could've left it out or found another way to describe how pretty she was. The only pass I can imagine giving him is that the book was in first person and that was Jocelyn's thought-process. But, even thinking like that, it makes me disrespect and find our narrator to be an idiot.

THE POSSESSED tells the story of Jocelyn, who takes care of her alcoholic mother after her father passed away and in a lot of ways takes care of her twin sister Noel. The book starts out with the twins hearing banging on the wall behind the washer and dryer; since Jocelyn works fixing these kinds of things in houses, she does her best to identify the cause. She has no luck and then the rancid smell enters the house. Eventually, Jocelyn's boyfriend freaks out when she comes to visit, because Jocelyn apparently accused him of raping her and, knowing that she did not do it and after watching the video his students took, she knows it is her sister, who would never do something like that under normal circumstances. The story devolves into Jocelyn learning about possessions and getting help from two people she finds on the Internet.

This books bugged the crap out of me. I gave it two stars, because it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read in my life, but it was pretty bad. While Jocelyn is researching into the paranormal, there are obviously signs that Kilgrave did very little research. One, bad smells are used VERY often by the demonic (AND IN BOOKS ABOUT THE DEMONIC!!!) and it says she went through every site and book and that was never a sign of a haunting or demons. She also says that all the people she found on the Internet who specialized in the demonic are charlatans; that, I believe, but I also know there are people like Ed and Lorraine Warren. Despite what you think of these two, they are respected in that field, so I'm sure there were people she could find. I just think that there were clues about Kilgrave's lack of knowledge on this subject.

As far as the storyline goes, it was okay at the absolute best. I finished it, because it was one of those books that you just get through. I won't be recommending this one and will not read another book by this author. Maybe he will improve, but this was not an example of a well-written horror novel--nowhere near.

THE POSSESSED will receive a D+ on my grading scale. I could get through it, but there is no way that I would read it again or say that another person should read it. As far as narration, I won't say that Ms. Spencer was bad, but there were certain words that made me wonder why she was saying it that way. It is possible she is Candian, but that is a WILD and RANDOM guess. There were quite a few, but the only word I can remember her pronouncing strange was the word 'infiltrated.' It's hard to describe in text, but the best I can describe is pronouncing it like: in-FILL-trated and putting way too much emphasis on the 'fil' part of that word. There were at least a dozen more that gave me pause, but I got through it. Ms. Spencer wasn't bad, but she wasn't great, so I will give her a C- on my grading scale. She had her issues, but she did a better job reading the book than it deserved.

Horrible.

I do not enjoy giving bad reviews, but, I must give my honest opinion. This is the second and last book that I'm listening to by this author. Like the first book, The Presence, this story too is very disappointing. The main character was such a weak, naive, and uninteresting girl. If I were Jake, I too would do what he did. And only a short time together, he should have told her butt off. Everybody has a pass, that could have been discussed at a later time. plus she had to many insecurities. Also, there were to many unnecessary details. I wanted to not finish this book so many times, and the only reason i didn't was the fact that Chairty Spencer was doing a phenomenal job trying to save this story with her narration. Other than that, this story sucked and this book will be returned.