Stolen Tongues - Lives Up to the Hype
There is a Facebook group that I’m a member of titled Books of Horror and it’s filled with people who love to read horror and pass around recommendations all the time. I pay attention to the posts and sometimes pick up a book I see a lot of people have enjoyed. A few weeks ago there were a few posts about Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell. I’d never heard of the book before but thought the cover looked cool and kept scrolling. The next day I saw another post about the book along with a quote “one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever read.” You know this got my attention. Suddenly there was a groundswell within the group. Each day there were more posts about the book, people saying they loved it and claiming it was one of the scariest books they’ve ever read. Once I read this enough times, the decision was made, I had to pick it up and see what all the fuss was about and if it was as unsettling and scary as everyone said it was.
The worry of course with this kind of constant recommendation, is that the book couldn’t possibly live to to the amount of hype surrounding it. I’ll never be the kind of person who will say a book is scary. I don’t read horror because it’s scary. I read it because it’s unsettling. I read it because it’s creepy and because there are scenes that stick with me long after I’ve finished the book and that they have characters and a setting that feels real when I read it. Those are the criteria I use when reviewing a book and Stolen Tongues checked all of those boxes for me.
Blackwell dabbles in meta-fiction by naming the protagonist Felix Blackwell. In the story, Felix visits a remote cabin in in the middle of winter in a place called Pale Peak with his soon-to-be wife, Faye. While there Faye contends with a bout of unsteady sleep that involves sleepwalking and talking in her sleep. This is something that she’s dealt with on and off throughout her life. While at the cabin however, strange things start to happen to both Felix and Faye which they couldn’t easily explain. There are some creepy scenes at the cabin to say the least. They get freaked out by everything going on at the cabin and decide to end their stay early. But when they get home the creepy events (and the sleep walking) continue. Felix sees Faye deteriorating and takes it upon himself to unravel the mystery that seemed to begin at the cabin. He begins to dig in Faye’s past looking for answers and find only more dark secrets. I don’t want to give too much more away, but this book was, for me, all about the creepy scene factor.
The visuals and uneasiness starts right from the prologue and continues throughout the book. That sense of the dread, the knowledge that something is wrong but no one in the story can figure out what or how to stop it makes this book a fast read. As the reader, I wanted to know the answer to everything and I also wanted to see how creepy and uncomfortable Felix the author could make the book. I think he certainly achieved his goal. This was a book the creeped me out which is hard to do for someone who reads as much horror as I do. Highly recommend.
Strong 4/5 on this one.
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