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A review by kieralesley
Rust: Season One by Christopher Ruz
4.0
Pleasantly surprised by this one! Indies can be super hit and miss and the premise for this one seemed simplistic. What indies are great for, though, is subverting your expectations.
Rust opens quite strongly, it's good a good hook and Kimberley was quite likeable. What made this book rate so strongly though was how it developed. Straight off the bat you've got a fish out of water tale, you've got a woman who's plucked out of her life and can't get home. No idea if she's dead or where is is or why she can't leave. The confronting scenes with Kimberley encountering her "life" in Rustwood are really well realised. Her characterisation is fantastic!
But Christopher Ruz takes it deeper. The small town quiet and the main character freaking out are a given and are well done, but it's things like strange ritual summonings and mutated bodies and our main sidekick having a mini cthulhu-esque creature living like a pet in his pocket that make this story interesting.
It's reminiscent of King with that small town juxtaposed with dark and weird happenings, but the originality here is all Ruz's own. There were lots of plot threads that aren't indicated by the summary (and which I won't go into for obvious reasons) and the pacing is pretty slick - there's a fair amount of nicely gory action and running around to make it a strong first instalment.
This book is deeper than I expected and I enjoyed it. It's a well-rounded horror book that has strong hooks that I can't wait to see develop in later instalments. It's times like this I remember that indie authors are sometimes worth giving a shot!
Rust opens quite strongly, it's good a good hook and Kimberley was quite likeable. What made this book rate so strongly though was how it developed. Straight off the bat you've got a fish out of water tale, you've got a woman who's plucked out of her life and can't get home. No idea if she's dead or where is is or why she can't leave. The confronting scenes with Kimberley encountering her "life" in Rustwood are really well realised. Her characterisation is fantastic!
But Christopher Ruz takes it deeper. The small town quiet and the main character freaking out are a given and are well done, but it's things like strange ritual summonings and mutated bodies and our main sidekick having a mini cthulhu-esque creature living like a pet in his pocket that make this story interesting.
It's reminiscent of King with that small town juxtaposed with dark and weird happenings, but the originality here is all Ruz's own. There were lots of plot threads that aren't indicated by the summary (and which I won't go into for obvious reasons) and the pacing is pretty slick - there's a fair amount of nicely gory action and running around to make it a strong first instalment.
This book is deeper than I expected and I enjoyed it. It's a well-rounded horror book that has strong hooks that I can't wait to see develop in later instalments. It's times like this I remember that indie authors are sometimes worth giving a shot!