This was a fast paced haunted tale and a quick read of an abandoned farm!

Set in 1979, three sisters, Elizabeth, Kari, and Sara are living their lives on a farm with their parents. The youngest sister, Sara along with her sister Kari, find a dead body floating in a stream not far from their house. From then on, life will never be the same for the three sisters. Sara befriends a man that calls himself "Death" who is responsible for missing bodies in the area. Little does she know that befriending him will cause consequences to her family.

Modern day, Paula Ridley along with her father have bought the abandoned farm and as they settle in, Paula is convinced that the farm is haunted. Noises, creaks, and thumps are heard in the house. Paula has always been interested in ghosts and hauntings, so she is delighted when she realizes that the farm is haunted. She decides to investigate on her own to find out what she can of why the farm is haunted. Paula starts a chain of events that takes her down a long road of finding out the truth of the three sisters that once lived on the farm.

Thoughts:

Author, Amy Cross, really throws in all kind of things in this book as it not only involves a haunting, but there is a dash of science fiction brewing in the book too.

A word of warning though to readers: there is some torture and gore in the book, so if you cannot handle it, then you better not read it. Otherwise, if you like that kind of thing, then by all means pick up this book. Giving it five stars for keeping me glued to my kindle. ( )

The few books I've read by Cross haven't been "sleep with the lights on scary" but she can write a creepy, atmospheric ghost story that reels you in from page one and doesn't let up until the end.

I had originally planned on rating this 5 stars but after pondering over the couple of issues I had with it, I felt like 4 stars was more appropriate. The first thing that bothered me was that we were given the impression that Paula is a child, maybe very young teenager, still enrolled in school, yet the language she used (gd-d&mn this & gd that) and the way that she talked to her dad and acted wasn't very reflective of a young child. Then she was sleeping at home by herself and hanging out all night long with the snowplow guy who was a lot older and out of school already. So there was a definite age conflict going on.

Then we come to Jonah... Jonah supposedly had multiple brain surgeries over a period of 20 years and had over 1/3 of his brain moved, yet his memory and ability to walk, talk and speak was not effected. That didn't come across as very believable to me.

Plus in Chapter 21, one of the sisters, Elizabeth, shoots Jonah. The author writes-

"Elizabeth fired, blasting a hole in the man's chest and sending him thudding back down into the muddy ground."

Then in Chapter 23, the author writes-
"Screaming, Elizabeth dropped the still smoking rifle as she fell to her knees. She put her hands over her face, as if to hide from the horrific sight of the dead man in front of her, whose head and neck had been blasted away.
As Elizabeth continued to sob, Sara watched from a little further back. There was blood all over her, along with pieces of bone and brain matter that had been sprayed across her when the man had been shot."

Then toward the end we find out Jonah is alive and well. The author tells us he was shot in the shoulder and he's out and about, talking, walking and starting fires like he didn't jusr die several chapters ago. So what is he- dead, alive, shot in the shoulder, shot in the chest or shot in the head?? According to the author, he's all of the above, which I think is a huge plot hole that needs reworked.

If you can overlook those details it is a very entertaining ghost story and I had a lot of fun reading it as a buddy read with Marie. : ) ( )