#BlogTour – #BookReview #TheDarkGame by Jonathan Janz @jonathanjanz @annecater @flametreepress #RandomThingsTours

~ calturner

For my second post of the day I’m delighted to welcome you to my stop on the blog tour for the fantastic The Dark Game by Jonathan Janz, which is published today. Thank you to Anne Cater and Flame Tree Press for giving me the opportunity to be a part of this tour.

About the book:

Ten writers are selected for a summer-long writing retreat with the most celebrated and reclusive author in the world. Their host is the legendary Roderick Wells. Handsome, enigmatic, and fiendishly talented, Wells promises to teach his pupils about writing, about magic, about the untapped potential that each of them possesses. Most of all, he plans to teach them about the darkness in their hearts.
The writers think they are signing up for a chance at riches and literary prestige. But they are really entering the twisted imagination of a deranged genius, a lethal contest pitting them against one another in a struggle for their sanity and their lives. They have entered into Roderick Wells’s most brilliant and horrible creation.
The Dark Game.

About the author:

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Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard, which explains everything. Brian Keene named his debut novel The Sorrows “the best horror novel of 2012.” The Library Journal deemed his follow-up, House of Skin, “reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story“
Since then Jonathan’s work has been lauded by writers like Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Tim Waggoner, Bryan Smith, and Ronald Kelly. Novels like The Nightmare Girl, Wolf Land, Savage Species, and Dust Devils prompted Thunderstorm Books to sign Jonathan to an eleven-book deal and to give him his own imprint, Jonathan Janz’s Shadow Side.
His novel Children of the Dark received a starred review in Booklist and was chosen by their board as one of the Top Ten Horror Books of the Year (August 2015-September 2016). Children of the Dark will soon be translated into German and has been championed by the Library Journal, the School Library Journal, and Cemetery Dance. In early 2017, his novel Exorcist Falls was released to critical acclaim.
Jonathan’s primary interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children, and though he realizes that every author’s wife and children are wonderful and amazing, in this case the cliché happens to be true.
You can learn more about Janz at http://www.jonathanjanz.com.

 

My Review:

Jonathan Janz isn’t an author whose books I’m familiar with, although I have to admit I’ve been hearing a lot of positive buzz about him from other bloggers over the last few weeks! But when I received the invitation to be a part of the blog tour  for his latest book, I was so intrigued by the premise that I couldn’t resist!

Ten writers are invited to a writing retreat with one of the most famous and successful authors in the world, Roderick Wells. But is everything all as it seems? Or have they unwittingly entered into a dark and dangerous game that they may not come out of alive?

The Dark Game is a fantastically twisted horror story that holds you in its thrall from the very first page. It’s a dark thriller with some genuinely gasp out loud and shocking moments, the creepiness manifesting itself in ways you would never expect. Although it isn’t as gruesome as I expected, it does have plenty of scary, dark and gory moments that I’m sure will keep even the most hardcore horror fans happy.

The strong characterisation of this eclectic group of writers was definitely a plus point for me, and I especially loved the fact that each writer invited to the retreat had their own story to tell, something that I thought gave this tale an edge and made it more interesting to read.

This is a book that feeds into our fears and the secrets we keep, secrets that each character is desperate to hold on to. But Roderick Wells and his Dark Game have other ideas. As the tension builds and the game gets underway, the writers slowly come to realise exactly how much is now at stake.

Jonathan Janz is obviously a very accomplished horror story writer and The Dark Game kept me gripped from beginning to end. It may have been my first read by this author, but I enjoyed this book so much that I will definitely read more by him in the future.

A dark and twisted story that kept me on the edge of my seat throughout. Anyone who enjoys a good horror story with plenty of scares and shocks along the way will love The Dark Game. Highly recommended.

The Dark Game by Jonathan Janz is available to buy now: Amazon UK

Check out what these other awesome bloggers have to say:

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Published by calturner

Welcome to my reading and writing blog. You will find posts on all aspects of reading and writing here - from author and book recommendations to book reviews. I hope you enjoy your visit.

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