Creed by Trisha Leaver Published by Flux on November 8, 2014
Pages: 264
Format:eBook
Source:Copy provided by publisher for review, via Netgalley
Three went in. Three came out. None even a shadow of who they once were. When their car breaks down, Dee, her boyfriend Luke, and his brother Mike walk through a winter storm to take refuge in a nearby town called Purity Springs. When they arrive, the emergency sirens are blaring and the small farming town seems abandoned. With no other shelter, they spend the night in an empty house. But they soon discover that not everything in Purity Springs is as it seems. When the town's inhabitants suddenly appear the next morning, Dee, Luke, and Mike find themselves at the mercy of the charismatic leader, Elijah Hawkins, who plans to make Dee his new wife. Elijah's son, Joseph, offers to help them escape . . . but the price of his help may be more than Dee and her friends can bear.
Well. I can’t say that I liked this book, because that would imply that I didn’t want to run screaming from it. And let me assure you, I did want to run. Because holy crap, this book was messed up. Obviously, there is a reason I am saving this review for Halloween, because this is the perfect Halloween book.
When Dee, Luke, and Mike got stranded and end up in Purity Springs, honestly I wanted to yell and scream at them. Seriously guys, take a long walk, a jog, camp in the damn woods, but do not stay in this creepy hellhole! I mean, I get why they do, it is kind of human nature to seek shelter and other people when you are lost, cold, and alone. But obviously, the reader knows it’s going to be bad news from the start.
So, cults. Cults fascinate me endlessly. I could watch Investigation Discovery shows about cults all day. So finding out this book had a cult aspect was quite appealing to me. It isn’t just straight up horror or gore, it has an intriguing psychological element to it as well. When we are introduced to Elijah (who seriously may be the most heinous, disgusting villain I have read about to date), there is absolutely no question as to why these people don’t ever defy him.
I don’t want to give too much about the plot away obviously, but there were a ton of twists and turns that I absolutely did not see coming. And the atmosphere in this book was so bleak, I could just feel it. I needed to watch a few episodes of “Friends” when I was finished with Creed just to fall asleep. The authors painted a very vivid picture of Purity Springs, and it certainly wasn’t pleasant. Creed was also an incredibly fast-paced book, very easy to devour in one sitting, because I needed answers.
As for the characters, Dee was just so broken to begin with that her circumstances became overwhelmingly tragic. Mike and Luke didn’t leave a huge impression on me, but just their misfortune of stumbling upon this place made them sympathetic. As for Joseph, I never knew what to make of him. I kind of felt that it was more fitting that way, since he grew up around such vile behavior, how could he be anything but a mess? I didn’t really feel a huge connection to any of the characters, even Dee, but I did feel for them.
Creed is definitely the most horrifying book I have read in a long time, and quite possibly ever. The dismal atmosphere was palpable, and for better or worse, I was sucked into this world completely. If you like to be thoroughly creeped out and disturbed, then you’ve found the right book.
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You had me at; you wanted to go running and screaming from it! I don’t like being scared in real life, I went to Halloween carnival, and the people that worked there who were walking around in clown and zombies masks trying to get all up in your face to freak you out, totally freaked me out! But, I love scary books and movies, as long as I know I’m not alone in the house while I’m reading them. I love to be creeped out by a book and I think I will definitely have to pick this one up! And the whole cult aspect definitely intrigues me… What can I say? I like to be creeped out and disturbed. =)
Great review!
I am the same way! I HATE being scared in real life (I actually talked about that in my Halloween post!) but books are SO fun! Movies are okay sometimes, but not if they’re too gory!
Eeh, I don’t knooooow. I HATE CULTS. But I love creepy. So this makes me very torn. It’s on my goodreads wish-list at any rate and hopefully my library will listen to my silent pleas for them to buy all the books on my goodreads (what? not that impossible…right?) and then I’ll get to read it someday. x) The cover is freakishly creeptastic, that’s for sure.
I think your library should listen to you. I mean, you are pretty much the best book recommender EVER. Your library should be glad they have you as a resource, and buy any book you want!
See, it’s good to hate cults! Cults are bad. This one is led by a VERY bad man. And the cover is pretty great- actually, the cover is less creepy than the book, which is kind of saying a lot!
I honestly don’t remember last time I read horror story.
This one sounds so intriguing, I’m adding it to my tbr list.
Great review!
Thanks! I don’t read horror very often, but this one sounded too good to pass up 😉
Oh man, now I really want to read this (I’m a bad person, aren’t I?) it’s just, I’m pretty uch the same when it comes to cults, they’re twisted and weird shit but they are interesting to read about. The last cult one I read was Spiders by Tom Hoyle which wasn’t as twisted as I hoped and didn’t make much sense (which you kind of expect anyway, but it didn’t make much sense even for a cult book) because it was pretty short, maybe if it was longer it would’ve developed it a lot better. With ones like these I wouldn’t be too bothered about not having a connection to the characters. Uhm, last really scary one that actually scared me, Say Her Name by James Dawson, I’ll run away from anything Bloody Mary but you know when you just HAVE to read it, even though you know it will probably scare the crap out of you? Yup. I love scary books, but they just don’t scare me that much, which is why I prefer thrillers and psychological ones compared to straight up horror.
If you’re a bad person, then so am I, because I LOVE reading about cults! There’s something so completely twisted, and I want to like, psychoanalyze these people. I really want to read Say Her Name. It sounds really messed up, I saw it on a few Top Ten lists this week, and now I kind of have to have it!
Nope, no thanks. I like sleeping at night. I prefer psychological scary to gore scary, but this one looks too creepy for me. I’m glad you liked it though. That’s quite the trick making you feel for characters you didn’t necessarily like and probably a good thing for a book where not everyone’s going to survive. I wonder if they’ll make this into a movie one day.
Hahah no judgment here! There are a lot of things I am too scared for too, so I understand 🙂 And now that you mention it, this would make an amazing movie! I really hope they make it into one, I think it could be really great!
I’m totally fascinated by cults too. There’s something so interesting about them. Now I feel like I need to read this creepy book!