Review: Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie

Author: Craig DiLouie
Publisher: Redhook 
Publication Date: January 2023

Fade to Black is the newest hit ghost hunting reality TV show. Led by husband and wife team Matt and Claire Kirklin, it delivers weekly hauntings investigated by a dedicated team of ghost hunting experts. Episode Thirteen takes them to every ghost hunter's holy grail: the Paranormal Research Foundation. This brooding, derelict mansion holds secrets and clues about bizarre experiments that took place there in the 1970s. It's also famously haunted, and the team hopes their scientific techniques and high tech gear will prove it. But as the house begins to reveal itself to them, proof of an afterlife might not be everything Matt dreamed of. A story told in broken pieces, in tapes, journals, and correspondence, this is the story of Episode Thirteen -- and how everything went terribly, horribly wrong.

Episode Thirteen is a "found footage" story about a crew of ghost hunters featured on a hit show called Fade to Black.  Married couple, Matt and Claire and their team are having success on the show.  Matt is the believer and Claire is the scientific skeptic.  In the thirteenth episode, they  head to a haunted mansion where a group of scientists disappeared in the 70s.  This is their story.

First, I think best way to consume this book is through audiobook.  It has a full cast of characters and sound effects.  It helped set the atmosphere of the house and the events that happen to the Fade to Black crew. I really enjoyed it. I liked the characters and found myself rooting for all of them. I liked Claire's character the most.  With me being a scientist, I could identify with her skepticism the best. 

The book set up in typical "found footage" form.  Raw video footage and recordings are mixed in with media excerpts and journal entries. The "audience" is left to try to decide if it all really happened or not.  I  am a sucker for found footage movies, so I knew this was right up my alley.   I think this would make a fun movie.  Do they make it out alive?  You'll have to read to find out.  I highly recommend this one.

Review: The Children of Red Peak by Craig DiLouie

Author: Craig DiLouie
Publisher: Redhook
Publication Date: November 2020

Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Craig DiLouie brings a new twist to the cult horror story in a heart-pounding novel of psychological suspense.
David Young, Deacon Price, and Beth Harris live with a dark secret. As children, they survived a religious group's horrific last days at the isolated mountain Red Peak. Years later, the trauma of what they experienced never feels far behind.

When a fellow survivor commits suicide, they finally reunite and share their stories. Long-repressed memories surface, defying understanding and belief. Why did their families go down such a dark road? What really happened on that final night?

The answers lie buried at Red Peak. But truth has a price, and escaping a second time may demand the ultimate sacrifice.

The Children of Red Peak was a recommended horror/thriller by my library. I'm always intrigued by cults, so it seemed right up my alley.  The book follows 4 adults who were the only survivors of a cult.  Years before when they were kids, the cult disappeared and the survived with no memory of what happened. Now an anniversary is coming up and the group is compelled to return to the mountain to finally figure out what happened. 

I had high hopes for this book, I was on board with it up until the last third of the book.  We get to see what happened a within the cult through each of the characters' perspectives in flashbacks.  I enjoyed those parts.  We get to see the buildup to how a small co-op community ended up becoming a doomsday cult.  We also get to see how the past has affected and shapes each character as an adult.  Where the book lost me was the amount of time it took for them to go back to the mountain.  Once they got there, I'm not even sure what happened.  I hated the ending.  I felt like I had no real answers after all of that buildup.  You all know I'm not a fan of ambiguous endings.  Maybe someone out there who has read it can explain to me what happened.  If you can ignore the ending, I would recommend checking out the book for the rest of it.