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highly recommended |
Great Read 
I have never read anything by Jack Kilborn before. What a great book! Had a hard time putting it down. Started reading it on Saturday afternoon and finished it Sunday afternoon. Fast paced and great characters! I will definitely look for more of Kilborn's books!
Great to read before I put the lights out!! 
Well,
I wasn't afraid...but I can safely say that any character in this book definitely felt that word chill through their bones.
Creative, good writing...anything that I can get through I consider a really good book or I just won't finish it. My biggest dilemma will be which one of his books to read next. The characters were very real. It was nice to feel like you actually knew these people at the end.
It'll grip you
The plot of this novel focuses on a handful of citizens of the town of Safe Haven, Wisconsin, and how they survive (and sometimes don't) atrocities that have come to their area.
The action kicks off on page one and keeps rolling throughout the story, so readers will not be bored. Just remember that this is a horror novel and there's some pretty grotesque stuff to be found here. And this isn't one of those nice little horror novels where everyone survives and everything turns out fine. In fact, the body count is pretty high over all.
If you're looking for a new horror author to try, Jack Kilborn is your man. His writing is tight, he has interesting characters and he doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the gross stuff.
To tell the truth, however, Jack Kilborn doesn't exist. Okay, actually he does, but Jack Kilborn isn't his real name. It's another name for mystery writer JA Konrath, best known for his Jack Daniels series of police mysteries, which contains some pretty gruesome stuff in itself.
Not too bad but not great either 
You've probably already know what the book is about, considering there are already over a hundred reviews of the book on Amazon. So I'll just skip straight to the meatier part of the review for you to sink your teeth into, which are my thoughts and feelings about the book.
I was first introduced to J.A. Konrath by stumbling onto his blog through another blog, Kindle Nation Daily. Naturally, I got intrigued and curious about his books and decided to read his debut novel, "Afraid", under his pseudonym Jack Kilborn on my Kindle.
Upon completing the novel, I had mixed feelings about "Afraid", though the pros outweights the cons of the book. While the book was written as a horror, along with some certainly very tense moments, I felt that the book wasn't set out to scare you. It didn't really play on your fears deeply. It didn't make you look around with a feeling of paranoia. What served the book as a horror was the gratuitous violence and gory; and yes it was a tad too much. There were a few times where the violence and the gory made me wince and cringe with disgust, it more often evoked "what-the-hell!" moments from me. However, Konrath brilliantly created an atmosphere where you feel real empathy for the victimized main characters and you feel afraid for them.
As for the story, Konrath successfully was able to move the story, without any slowing down or drawing out a scene too much. That is definitely a plus for me. I despite reading books where I'd get so frustrated with the narration not getting on with the story already. I found the prose very easy to read, the story flowing with very little bumps and at the same time it showed that Konrath handled the English language rather masterfully. However, the story was laid out with so little mystery, making the turns of events very predictable. Don't get me wrong, there were a few twists that caught me by surprise and they were definitely worth it. I suppose with so many horror and suspenseful movies and books out there, certain scenes and actions have become rather cliche. You knew these things will happen just because you have seen them before. Nevertheless, the story was so well written where it just kept getting me more and more curious that I kept on wanting to find out what happens next.
I have enjoyed horror books in the past but with all the gratitous violence and gory where I felt served the story with very little purpose, it is simply not my style. Afraid was not a bad book at all and I didn't feel I've wasted my money on it, I probably will give Konrath's other horror novels a pass if they continue to be written in the same vein.
Now, I have read and enjoyed a sample of J.A. Konrath's latest offering, "Shaken", I eagerly look forward to trying out his mystery Jackie Daniels books!
UPDATE: I just have read a sample of "Trapped" which is an upcoming Jack Kilborn novel, to be released in Winter 2010. I have to confess: I want to read this one!
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK? YOU WILL BE . . . Welcome to Safe Haven, Wisconsin. Miles from everything, with one road in and out, this peaceful town has never needed a full-time police force. Until now . . . A helicopter has crashed near Safe Haven and unleashed something horrifying. Now this merciless force is about to do what it does best. Isolate. Terrorize. Annihilate. As residents begin dying in a storm of gory violence, Safe Haven's only chance for survival will rest with an aging county sheriff, a firefighter, and a single mom. And each will have this harrowing thought: Maybe death hasn't come to their town by accident . . .
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afraid
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