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johnlynchbooks's review
4.0
The festering ones by S.H Cooper is a damn fine novella.
Faith has spent her childhood being told that the disappearance of her father caused her to hallucinate the actual events of it. Eventually, she gives up on tell others her story and tries to move on, until the passing of her mother reveals that at least someone else believed her. She decides to find out what really happened.
I had a blast reading this book. I love creature features and I love cult stuff, and this blender elements of both. This book is really weird, but in a great way. There are gods, other realms, creatures. All fun stuff.
I found this book randomly on my kindle, now I’ll be on the lookout for S.H. Cooper.
3.5 rounded to 4 for goodreads
Faith has spent her childhood being told that the disappearance of her father caused her to hallucinate the actual events of it. Eventually, she gives up on tell others her story and tries to move on, until the passing of her mother reveals that at least someone else believed her. She decides to find out what really happened.
I had a blast reading this book. I love creature features and I love cult stuff, and this blender elements of both. This book is really weird, but in a great way. There are gods, other realms, creatures. All fun stuff.
I found this book randomly on my kindle, now I’ll be on the lookout for S.H. Cooper.
3.5 rounded to 4 for goodreads
stephanieluxton's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
This book is about Faith, who witnessed her father get taken by a spider like humanoid on a mountain as a child. Now she's an adult and wants to discover the truth about what was on the mountain. This leads to the discovery of a cult and some otherworldly entities. And that all sounds like a brilliant storyline but I just didn't like how the author chose to write it. If this was written in a way that slowly built tension and fear of the unknown until the epic reveals and action, it would have been excellent and really scary. Instead we got a very short novel that heavily relied on exposition and telling rather than showing. We didn't have time to care about the characters which were flat. We weren't scared of the weird things happening because the characters didn't seem all too scared. Then the book just ends and almost seemed unfinished. Excellent example of a brilliant idea without a brilliant execution.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Gun violence
Moderate: Kidnapping, Body horror, Blood, Suicide, Death, and Child death
soolooee's review
5.0
Absolutely loved this book. I love Cooper's stories from the NoSleep podcast and purchased this book a while ago but just recently got around to reading it and I couldn't put it down.
howlinglibraries's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
The Festering Ones kicks off with a bang, following our main character Faith as a child who's just been forced to sit helplessly by and watch her father get dragged off by some ungodly creature in the woods. Years pass, nobody believes Faith, and she grows up to try her best to forget what she saw — until her mother passes away, and her mother's belongings include documents that stir up old memories and questions for Faith. Naturally, she's always wondered what happened to her dad, so she sets off on a mission to discover the truth.
I love cult-themed stories, and this story in particular had some interesting twists surrounding the cult that I really enjoyed. The descriptions of the creatures are a lot of fun, and I was certainly kept in suspense a lot of the time. That said, the characters felt a bit flat to me (though I did love Sasha, who I kept picturing as Cybil Bennett from the Silent Hill movie) and I found myself a little frustrated with how many questions I was left with in the end. If there's ever a sequel, I'll be first in line to pick it up because I would LOVE more answers, but as it stands, the ending felt unreasonably abrupt.
Despite the loose ends left untied, I definitely recommend The Festering Ones for a quick, fun read, especially if you like cult horror, and I can't wait to read more from S.H. Cooper!
I love cult-themed stories, and this story in particular had some interesting twists surrounding the cult that I really enjoyed. The descriptions of the creatures are a lot of fun, and I was certainly kept in suspense a lot of the time. That said, the characters felt a bit flat to me (though I did love Sasha, who I kept picturing as Cybil Bennett from the Silent Hill movie) and I found myself a little frustrated with how many questions I was left with in the end. If there's ever a sequel, I'll be first in line to pick it up because I would LOVE more answers, but as it stands, the ending felt unreasonably abrupt.
Despite the loose ends left untied, I definitely recommend The Festering Ones for a quick, fun read, especially if you like cult horror, and I can't wait to read more from S.H. Cooper!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Violence, Child death, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Pregnancy, Mental illness, Suicide, Cancer, and Death of parent
icameheretoread's review
4.0
This is, legit, the most Lovecrafty thing I have read since reading ....well, Lovecraft. I loved it. Faith had an amazing head on her shoulders. Evil cults summoning monsters from other worlds? Yeah, okay, I'll go suit up with camping equipment. She was bad ass.
I wonder if this is going to be a series, because I could use more Faith and Janice. I look forward to more from Cooper.
I wonder if this is going to be a series, because I could use more Faith and Janice. I look forward to more from Cooper.
micahcastle's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
bloodinthesigil's review
4.0
Totally loved the cosmic terror in this book! I really hope there are more on the way in this universe!!
motherhorror's review
4.0
Well hello there, S. H. Cooper. What an impressive debut novel.
THE FESTERING ONES, at first blush, sounded like it was going to have too many ideas and not enough pages.
Creature-Feature? Check.
A mysterious cult? Check.
Cosmic Horror? Check.
I was skeptical that such an ambitious plot could be squeezed into less than 200 pages and still manage to strike that necessary balance of character development and pacing.
About 30 pages in, I was hooked. The protagonist, Faith York, is an assured, determined woman on a mission. I feel like Cooper gave her both personality and authority. I liked her immediately.
I love that trope where some kind of tragic event from the past forces a person to go back to the scene of the "crime" and do some research or solve a mystery or exact revenge. Do you know how the kids from IT have to return to Derry and fight Pennywise again?
LIKE THAT!
This book wrestled with that trope pretty well and in some unique ways. I feel as though there is more to this story--the last page ended very abruptly (**if this does have a sequel or it's part of an intended series, maybe "Book One" could be added to the title in order to set up the right expectations for the reader?) and left me wanting more closure.
I'm leaving out some descriptions of the cult and the creatures because they're best left for reader discovery moments but I will say this: I hate eight-legged *anything* so I was sufficiently creeped out.
I hope there is more to come, S. H. Cooper certainly has my attention.
THE FESTERING ONES, at first blush, sounded like it was going to have too many ideas and not enough pages.
Creature-Feature? Check.
A mysterious cult? Check.
Cosmic Horror? Check.
I was skeptical that such an ambitious plot could be squeezed into less than 200 pages and still manage to strike that necessary balance of character development and pacing.
About 30 pages in, I was hooked. The protagonist, Faith York, is an assured, determined woman on a mission. I feel like Cooper gave her both personality and authority. I liked her immediately.
I love that trope where some kind of tragic event from the past forces a person to go back to the scene of the "crime" and do some research or solve a mystery or exact revenge. Do you know how the kids from IT have to return to Derry and fight Pennywise again?
LIKE THAT!
This book wrestled with that trope pretty well and in some unique ways. I feel as though there is more to this story--the last page ended very abruptly (**if this does have a sequel or it's part of an intended series, maybe "Book One" could be added to the title in order to set up the right expectations for the reader?) and left me wanting more closure.
I'm leaving out some descriptions of the cult and the creatures because they're best left for reader discovery moments but I will say this: I hate eight-legged *anything* so I was sufficiently creeped out.
I hope there is more to come, S. H. Cooper certainly has my attention.