Heaven's Peak: A Gripping Horror Novel Kindle Edition

My usual reading is done with lights off and tv on low. Our kits are playing in the next room adding to the atmosphere of this book. An enjoyable experience. Wow. And now it started thundering outside. More atmosphere for this end of book. A spine tingler for sure. Thank you for writing. (Yes it's February and it's storming outside and will turn to snow by morning and freezing temps.) I will look for more of this author's work.

I really liked this story. It's very creepy but mild enough that I feel I could read this to my son. A good YA book for sure. But I'm about 60% of the way through and debating if I want to continue due to a few careless mistakes.When I say it needs a better editor I don't just mean for spelling and grammatical errors (not that there isn't a good handful of those) like most people do when saying that. There's just a few inconsistencies and misused phrases that could have been done better. I'll give a couple of examples:At one point a boy becomes infected by this evil spirit and attacks his mother and his abusive father. His father is on top of him trying to fight him and the boy kicks him off, at which point the author says "he kicked him off like a sack of potatoes". That is just not how that phrase is used. Should have been that the boy kicked him off and he dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes. Then he's searching for his father who's hiding upstairs and the boy dismisses the closet as a hiding place, thinking that his father is too fat to get in there. Then, in the very next paragraph, he checks the closet. There is also a big blizzard coming throughout the book and Kevin is sure that it means something else horrible is going to happen? Why does he think this? No idea. He just does. There's absolutely no explanation for it. Such oversights and poorly worded lines slowly began to mount as the book went on.Another problem I have with it is the insta-love between Kevin and Sofia. Shortly after they had just met, he strokes her face to comfort her. The next time, he holds her like they're already together and she just goes along with it. Then they're planning how to go investigate the disappearances of their respective siblings and, after saying how she thinks his plan is crazy, she cries "I just want to protect you and find my brother". None of this made sense. These two were perfect strangers who just happened to have both lost a sibling to this mysterious being.I would like to reiterate though, that the story overall is great. The author has excellent ideas and definitely succeeded at creating some creepy imagery. It just could have been done a little better.

The best part of the book is the details laid out by Mr. Estrada. He paints a bleak picture with his words. One that is dark and ominous. You never quite learn exactly who or what the creature is but, in the end it does not really seem relevant.If you're a fan of Pennywise the Dancing Clown then you will like the story and the premise. The creature could truly be one of his offspring.I would have given it a 5 Star but, it needs a little more in the story concerning the background of the creature. A small prologue describing its history would have really sealed the deal for me. Still a good read overall and I look forward to further works by the author..

The storyline captures the reader very effectively. The only thing that was a problem was that the editing of grammar and vocabulary could have been a bit better.

I read through the whole thing and I was really disappointed, since this story had potential. Since reading long reviews is tedious, I’ll shorten my critiques.-Poor sentence structure and repetitive descriptions/phrases. Every time the masked man comes around the author has to mention that it looks like the mask is connected to his face, and point out his black attire. Every. Single. Time. It got annoying and repetitive really quickly. And wording was confusing at times too.-Quite a few typos and pronoun errors that could’ve been avoided had the author hired some proofreaders or just proofread his work. It takes away credibility for me when I find typos.-At times it felt was if this book was straight up ripping off the video game “Heavy Rain”. A main character in there is named Norman Jayden (Norman James, in here), and there are several scenes that mimic scenes in that game, especially police department scenes. I also felt a lot of things were taken from “Stranger Things” as well.-Absolutely no character development or personality with any of the characters. Everyone talks the same and has no depth. I couldn’t have cared less about the main characters. No individuality.-The fact that everyone is Christian seems to possibly be a push of views on the reader. Also, no strong female characters? They’re all helpless.-If you’re gonna create a fictional town, such as Stephen King’s Derry or Salem’s Lot, make the towns iconic and like-able. King makes his towns real in the reader’s mind. The culture, the characters, the geography. I didn’t feel or see any of that with Heaven’s Peak. The town was just, well, the town. The town needs to be developed and it’s story needs to be explained more. Which brings me to my next point.-Why in the H E double hockey sticks is the ending the way it is? There’s absolutely no context or explanation for anything that happened. No idea what the black goo is, no idea what and where the masked people are from or how they turn into them. Nothing. And the mines? Yeah, we never figure out who or what is running them. Just because you have some cool ideas doesn’t mean you just leave it at that. Expand on them and actually give some context to them. Again, not a well thought out story. Terribly unfinished.-We didn’t get to know nor care for Jenny much (same could be said for James) so why should I care that he’s gonna take care of her? Not to mention it’s just a bad way to end the story.-Zero chemistry romance. Seriously, Kevin and Sophia(?) had absolutely no chemistry and no character to help it. Could’ve been left out.-The author chooses to tell rather than show, which leads to quick chapters due to lack of figurative language (when there is some, it’s weird) and detail and character building. The author will say “so and so walked out to their car” instead of showing the journey to said car and the people they encounter and whatnot, if that makes sense.-No explanation for why the town went mad.-I feel like James would’ve been sent to the small town to help with one missing persons case, not to just figure out what’s going on. Don’t they always have a goal, the FBI?-Children and teens don’t talk THAT proper.Overall, this story needs a lot of work. I think with enough time, proofreaders and development, this could be a really good story. Unfortunately, it’s really not as of now.4/10

Liked the beginning didn't like the ending needed more information on the happenings after the mines to fill in the gaps

I read a lot of horror, science fiction and dystopia. This is different from the others, with characters you love or hate. I found myself staying up late at night to read "just a little more." Very entertaining.

Heaven’s Peak is the place Kevin has been dragged to, the place he must now make his home. After the death of his mother, his father is hardly fit to parent any longer, preferring the company of a bottle of alcohol over the company of his children, and so Kevin must step up to look after his younger sister, Jenny.But Heaven’s Peak already has a history of people going missing. A girl in one of Kevin’s classes, Sofia, is the older sister of a young boy who went missing recently. And when Kevin sees what is really behind the kidnapping, the night when he comes home to find his sister gone, he knows he can’t simply sit back and let the police deal with it. Sofia’s brother hasn’t been found yet, and the police absolutely did not believe Kevin when he described the humanoid monster that took Jenny. There is nothing left to do, but for Kevin to find Jenny himself.Kevin is a flawed character. He is not a hero, who knows exactly what needs to be done to move forward, although others may view him as such a strong person. His only goal is to find Jenny, no matter what he has to do, but he also drags Sofia into things she is not comfortable doing. She is desperate to find her brother, but she would rather not put herself in dangerous scenarios, and Kevin rarely sees things from her point of view. He also struggles with sanity as he learns more. There is no way a sane person would claim so surely that a monster is behind the disappearances, but Kevin cannot deny what he saw.Other than Kevin and Sofia, this book also gives the perspective of FBI agent Norman James. I love books, whether thriller or horror, that give the view of the people who are supposed to be investigating the case, as well as those who are doing it of their own accord. James is one of the only officers who seems to be actually trying to find any of the missing people, he finds himself in a force of officers who don’t appear to care, and he is the only person who believes Kevin may be telling the truth when he talks of monsters. James is a character I really enjoyed reading about. He is focused, and gets incredibly frustrated when he is treated as inferior and the people around his don’t take things as seriously as they should. He is stuck within a corrupt group, and as you read, you too become more and more frustrated. He doesn’t have what he needs to properly move forward his investigations, and things fall apart without the proper protocols and dedication.The monsters themselves are difficult to talk about without giving away important parts of the plot. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that they really are monsters, for this is a horror book with supernatural elements. They are incredibly unique, I have not come across anything supernatural fiction with monsters such as these before. The author has done a wonderful job in making a new kind of horrific being, which is just as scary as any mythical or supernatural creature I have read about before. I have read some reviews of this book, and quite a few have described this book as missing some key details. However, while some may say there was an air of incomplete about this book, with a lack of explanation about the creatures, such as why they were taking people, or how they came to be, I actually liked the way the author left out these details. At no point does the reader know any more than any of the characters, so you are drawn more into the story, desperate to find out more, and for the truth to be revealed. By still not revealing these details at the end, you are left feeling incredibly uneasy, not sure if the characters are safe or not. It is incredibly difficult to explain without giving away the ending, but the author has certainly succeeded in writing a book that is full of suspense!I did really enjoy reading this book. There is intrigue and suspense all the way through, which makes it next to impossible to put this book down. Like the last book I read by this author, I stayed up late to finish reading, as I simply had to know what was going to happen, and whether Kevin was going to be able to find Jenny. If you like monsters and unease, this is certainly the book for you.

Some of the grammar is not the best - I am not sure if it is because the story may have been translated from another language and some of it has been lost in translation but, that aside, it's a cracking read and I was immersed from the start. It's very creepy and at times I was up quite late reading it (probably not the best story to read before bedtime). The approach to the end was gripping and I just had to finish it. I don't want to say too much and create any spoilers but the end did have me thinking 'Yes, but have they all gone?'. Of course, that may have been the intention of the author. You will have to read it to see what you think.

Downloaded this as it was free, read in one sitting. Interesting story but it has an air of incompleteness about it. Without giving the game away, the origins were not provided or explained, leaving readers hanging.There was an offer to download another story so I did. It too was incomplete, with the story simply coming to a stop in the middle of the action, suggesting the author makes a habit of it.Readers like stories to be complete. If there is a sequel (or several sequels) then things can be left hanging to be dealt with later in the extended series. But to leave the end hanging in a standalone novel is simply irritating.

I liked the book in general. The story was interesting, the idea for the 'creatures' was good and made a change from the typical horror villains, but it just didn't feel like it was finished. For one, it opened up a lot of questions and then didn't answer any. Why are the mines really closed and why did he lie? Where did the creatures come from? What are they actually doing?There were also just some minor inconsistencies with the writing, and an overall feeling that this could have been a lot better if the author just took some more time to plan it and actually tie up some loose ends.

This book wasn't what I was expecting and I was enjoying it until I was almost to the end when I found out what the outcome was. I'd still like to read other books by this author as I enjoyed his other book Madhouse that I'd previously read.