Every so often a book will come along that leaves a mark. For me, CREATURE by Hunter Shea is one of those books. We meet Andrew and his wife Kate who suffers from autoimmune diseases that keep her from doing basically anything that isn't getting up to get a drink or use the bathroom; anything more, and she finds herself in excruciating pain. Andrew decides to surprise Kate with their dream getaway to a beautiful cabin, deep set in the woods of Maine. Health issues aside, everything seems great... Until they soon realize they're not alone.

This book had me hooked from the very first sentence. To say that is rare when it comes to me is an understatement. I won't lie, the very real subject matter during my read was an incredibly hard pill to swallow. I lost my mother to cancer in 2009, 17 days after giving birth to my first child. Her struggle was short and horrifying. I saw things I'd not wish on anyone, and worst of all I saw her in pain. Because of this, I could empathize with Andrew and him having to watch the person he loves most in the world live through so much pain and suffering and everything that comes along with it.

CREATURE gave me everything I could ever ask for as far as books go. Likable characters, humor, an amazingly written pet (oh how I adored Buttons), moments that sent shivers down my spine, and some that made my heart beat a little faster in my chest. I haven't enjoyed a book so thoroughly in a very long time. I can say that I've read some absolutely amazing stuff this year, but CREATURE takes the cake for me hands down.

Thank you to the publishers for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Creature was a strange read for me and honestly thought the summary would have made the book much better than what it was. It seemed to have a good plot to it at times but it really seemed to drag out in terms of the story itself.

The last few chapters really made the story but overall this wasn't a book I'd say I enjoyed reading.

For those of you who enjoy creature feature, cryptid horror, and, well, Hunter Shea, prepare to be pleasantly surprised by this brilliant departure from the B-movie popcorny fare that makes up much of the giant-monster genre. Kate, suffering from genetic auto-immune disease, spends her days in pain, and in a haze from the myriad medications prescribed. In her periphery, she routinely sees a lurking shadow only for it to disappear when she tries to view it head-on. What is that? Is it the drugs? Is she being watched? Her loving husband Andrew is both a full-time office worker and Kate's full-time caregiver. Feeling the need to escape their entrapment, the couple rents a cabin on a remote Maine lake, hoping the change of scenery and pace will ease their hardships. But, Kate's condition does not improve. Add to that the animal screams heard at night, the rocks rhythmically thrown at the house, and the dead animals littering the surrounding woods. Something is out there, and it wants to keep the couple imprisoned for reasons yet unknown to them. This is a gutsy book, well executed, blending the extreme emotions related to living and caring for chronic conditions while compounding that with the extreme fear felt when in an extreme horror situation.

This is actually a love story. Yup, a Hunter Shea love story. So, of course, that means that something will go absolutely wrong. Not in the usual kind of love story way, in a more bloody way. This is also a book that demands patience. Pretty much all the action, all the carnage happens at the end. But, there are, of course, hints along the way that something is wrong that something WILL GO wrong.

The star of the book is for me, is not any human, it's Buttons or But-But that he's so lovey called by his humans. This adorable old beagle is the one that I worried most about while reading the book. It is a horror book, and God knows that no one is safe, especially not pets when it comes to horror books. So, I had some moments of angst for poor But-But...

As a horror book is this not as scary as THE JERSEY DEVIL, my favorite Hunter Shea book. However, the author's note after the book explains why this is such a personal book for Shea. The knowledge that the theme of this book is very personal for the author made me look back at the story with much more understanding. That is why I wrote that this is a love story. The heart of the story is the love between two humans (and a dog) and the knowledge that time is limited for their love.

I will end this review by saying that I have had a couple of days to reflect on the book and I've come to the conclusion that had I read it with little less hope of being really horrified or creeped out had I perhaps liked the story a bit more. Part of what made me a bit disappointed was that I figured out the twist quite early on. And, that just took away part of the enjoyment for me. The horror part did just not rock my boat.

Creature is a heartfelt horror tale from the wonderful writings of Hunter Shea.
As wild as this story gets at times, there is a hell of a lot of truth and honesty buried in deep.
When I got to the Afterword section it really hit home just how much this book must have taken to write.
You've done yourself proud, Hunter.
You really have.
Five stars plus, dude.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for an honest review.
I really don't know what to say about this book. I didn't really like or dislike it, but it definitely will stick with me for a long time. Aside from the horror aspect, the author paints a clear picture of what is like for a caregiver and for the one being taken care of, and that is a horror all its own. It was disturbing and sad, especially the last scene.

It’s hard to use the word “enjoy” to describe a reading experience which is unflinching and rather uncomfortable in its dealing with autoimmune and chronic pain issues, but there is something incredibly real and engaging in this story by Hunter Shea.

The characters and their relationships feel like they could easily exist in the real world, and perhaps this is in part due to his own close connection with the subject matter, and the fact that his wife has her own host of autoimmune issues… so he’s been through his own private horror story on the subject

Some of the events were easy to predict and it was just a matter of waiting for the characters to catch up, but not in the incredibly frustrating way in which some books handle this, but other elements surrounding these predictions still kept this reader guessing.

On the one hand this is a story that looks unflinchingly at the struggles and emotions in a relationship where one partner deals with a chronic condition, inviting the reader into their lives. On the other hand, it’s a horror story (both body horror and other) that pulls absolutely no punches, and delivers one heck of a ride.

This was my first time reading Hunter Shea, it will not be my last.

I liked this book from the very first page. It’s a horror story, but it’s also the story of a marriage and tenacity. Definitely not just “in your face” horror, but horror with a deep story and meaning beneath it.

It centers around Kate, a very sick woman, and her caretaker husband. He decides to surprise her by renting a cottage in the woods of Maine for the summer. She’s too sick to enjoy it for the most part, but things get even worse when they start hearing noises in the night, and seeing signs of destruction in the woods.

This is slow building horror at its finest. Little things like strange noises start to become big things like dead animals and rocks thrown at the cottage. Eventually, the creature of the title reveals itself, and it’s not what you might expect. I felt genuinely creeped out while reading at night, and enjoyed the tension and suspense while the horror was building.

I really enjoyed this one and will definitely read more work by Hunter Shea. I would highly recommended this if you’re a fellow horror lover!

*also reviewed on Goodreads and Amazon

I Was Terrified, But Couldn't Put It Down

Creature is very well-written by a talented writer who really knows his craft. He also knows the horror of being helpless in the face of a loved one's suffering. He's spun a tale of supernatural horror that so riveted me that I kept turning the pages through the break-neck climax and finished it in one sitting.

I felt sympathy for the characters right away.

The woman is fighting constant agonizing pain from autoimmune disorders that have her in a death grip. Their formerly happy life together has become very grim.

Her devoted husband surprises her with plans for a stay in an idyllic lakeside cottage for the summer. He hopes the peaceful, natural setting will allow them both to recharge their batteries.

If it can't heal her, he hopes the change of pace will ease her mind and strengthen her spirit -- and his own. But, he doesn't know about the strange, shifting shadows that surround her when she's alone at home, especially at night.

At the lake, she's relieved to find that the shadows have been left behind. The place offers just what he hoped it would, and they begin settling into a happy new routine.

Until they discover that there's something more substantial and menacing than shadows waiting for them in the midst of all that natural solitude.

I have been big on the horror train lately, so I decided to request this book by an author I've never read before when I saw one of my Goodreads friends review it.

The story follows Kate and her husband Andrew as they head off to a remote cabin in Maine for some much needed R&R. Due to Kate's chronic illnesses, her body is constantly wracked with pain, and her activity is incredibly limited. I can't imagine living like that. I think much of the horror in the book derived from her descriptions of the various pains and ailments she suffered- I kept cringing as I read. I hadn't known about the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome prior to reading this book, and I can't imagine how difficult life must be for people who have it.

The descriptions of Kate's experiences are visceral and detailed. The story is intriguing and creepy and disturbing. Definitely an entertaining read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the eARC!

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Flame Tree Press. Opinions are my own.
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Review
4.5 Stars to this. I read this and enjoyed it the entire time, and then I read the afterword and it hit home just a little bit harder. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for the ARC of Creature!
The author has a way of creating such full characters, that are well-rounded and unique, that it made me wish this book was longer and had a larger cast, just so see who else we would get to meet.

Kate and Andrew both have such strong and separate emotions, getting to be in both of their heads throughout this book was a real treat.

It's a slow burn thriller that gets pretty gruesome at the end, and I loved it. I will definitely be looking forward Shea's future works, and now I need to catch up and read some of his other books!

The pacing keeps you on the edge of your seat, and trying to figure out who is toying with them in their getaway house is intriguing. I highly recommend this to anyone who is in the mood for a fall read, or a good thriller, as long as you're alright with a bit of gore near the end. I loved this, and can't wait to read more of Shea's work, and need to find myself a physical copy for my shelves.

Kate and Andrew have suffered through a great deal. Kate has a litany of auto-immune diseases which have, along with the treatments, beaten her body down. She spends nearly her entire days sleeping and watching television. Every move is an effort for her and when she does too much, the result is days without energy to move. Andrew has a job he doesn't really like in order to provide good health insurance for Kate. While they can argue and fight it out like any normal couple, the two are undeniably close. After a particularly bad treatment, Andrew goes into work and pulls off a miracle: he takes a 3 month leave of absence from work and reserves them a cabin on a lake in Maine. But someone or something is hiding in the woods. Andrew finds a lean-to and scores of dead animals that don't seem to be killed by 4-legged creatures. Rocks are thrown at the cabin and night, and there is an inhuman screaming coming from the woods. Is it a fox or injured deer? Or is something else lurking in the dark and watching them?

This is the 10th book I've read by Hunter Shea. I absolutely love his creature features, and have enjoyed all of his books thus far. <i>Creature</i> however was completely different than any of his other books. And it was fantastic. While there is a creature and a nasty one at that, this is really a story of love, marriage, and illness.

Hunter Shea puts the reader in Kate's head and makes me feel her pain - every little bit of it. Her treatment, her pain, her frustration all come alive. The amount of detail and depth was huge. Before reading the Afterword, I had already decided that the author either had an auto-immune disease or was close to someone who does. Through the details of her ordeal, Kate really came alive.

But this was not (just) a book about a sick woman. There is also a real, horrifying creature stalking the cabin. But things aren't always what they seem. And there are varying definitions of horror.

Although a bit of a departure from his usual work, this was really well done.

Hunter Shea delivers a real gut punch of a novel that’s equally moving and terrifying with Creature. Described in the afterward as Shea's most personal book - and inspired by his own fears as a husband to someone with an auto-immune condition - it tells the story of Kate and Andrew, a loving couple, who in an attempt to temporarily escape the constant pain and dread of Kate's own health struggles decide to rent a secluded lakeside cabin for the summer. But soon the serenity is disturbed by an unseen presence in the woods that seems to be zeroing in on the couple.

It's a monster novel that delves much deeper than the usual "things that go bump" story line with richly crafted characters that leave you floored long after the final page. Shea introduces the threat of the monster slowly, letting the horror creep in on the periphery before an emotionally-charged final act. A must read.

I can probably say that I've reviewed more Hunter Shea books on my blog than any other author and for good reason. One, the man's writing is prolific. I seriously don't know how he finds the time to write so much. Two, he writes such action-packed creature features which are always fun. However, I had a feeling when I picked up "Creature" that I was in store for something outside of the norm. And I can honestly say that what I read solidified Shea as one of my favorite three horror writers.

"Creature" starts out introducing us to Kate, her husband Andrew and their beagle Buttons. I have to mention Buttons because that little dog was the cause of much anxiety for me throughout the whole book. Anyone who reads a lot of horror knows pets don't stand a fighting chance. Kate is seriously ill and has been for years, suffering from an autoimmune disease and everything else it triggers. Andrew works hard to provide for the family and care for Kate. Wanting to something special, he takes a three month leave of absence and rents a cabin in the Maine woods as a surprise for Kate. Little do they know when they arrive, something else is waiting for them.

I found "Creature" to be a very character-driven book. I loved Andrew and how hard he worked to take care of Kate. I also loved that he certainly wasn't perfect. I also loved the relationship between Kate and Andrew. It clearly was forged from love and adversity. We also get to meet Kate's brother and his wife and they are a fun addition to the horror in the woods. I must also say that Shea did a good job of making the woods/cabin a character in and of itself. Especially since it takes some time for the reader to put all the pieces together.

"Creature" does provide plenty of action in the end and once again, Shea is not afraid of blood and gore. However, this book carries so much more. If you are going into it expecting Shea's creature-feature type books, then you might be disappointed at first. However, give it a chance because you might find a horror that is much more scarier - real life.

Creature by Hunter Shea
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have three ways to describe this novel:

Body horror, metaphor coming alive, and it's a deliciously painful romp.

AND it hits uncomfortably close to home for not just the author, whose wife is going through a long-term illness in too many similar ways, but for almost all of us. At least, I assume so. Enough of us either know or have been through family members sliding down that horrible slope to make this part of the novel truly harrowing all by itself.

But here's the best part: there's a lot of love between these two. He takes her off to a cabin retreat for 3 months while she's going through her decline, and in a lot of ways, it's just another familiar SK Maine cabin horror setup. Or, to me, I was deliciously reminded of Evil Dead.

But no worries, Hunter Shea pulls off a very tight and emotional body horror that leaps out of the confines of that particular horror category drives the great characters down into a particularly difficult hell.

It's all about the choices, man.

This is the second longer Shea novel I've read after a long stream of novellas that are just plain great. The thing about the longer ones is this: he tends to write sympathetic characters in them. The shorter ones are where we can cheer for every death. But this one? I kinda love everyone. It's just that kind of ride.

A very decent horror, and while it relies on a number of cliches to start off, the author, as always, has full command of his arsenal and knows exactly where to diverge to great effect. :)

This was quite different from the other Shea stories I’ve read so far. For one, it was much longer (novel length); for another, as we get to know in the afterword, this is deeply personal for the author, adding additional heartbreak.

We follow Kate, a woman with an auto-immune disease as well as various other afflictions, and her husband Andrew. They decide they need to get out of New Jersey for a bit after all the illness-related horrors they’ve managed to get through together so Andrew takes a leave of absence for three months and takes his wife to a cottage at the shore of a lake in Maine.
Anyone ever having even only heard of Stephen King must now hear all alarm bells going off. *lol* It’s no different with Shea.
What starts as a three-month vacation in a beautiful and remote part of America quickly turns into a living nightmare.

Another thing making this quite different from other Shea stories is that at least at first the horror here is Kate’s physical and mental situation. The poor woman can sometimes barely get up to use the bathroom, let alone shower. Moreover, she’s constantly catching other illnesses because she no longer has a real immune system to speak of. Thus, she spends her days in a daybed, watching the outside world, unable to participate.

The characterizations were done incredibly well. All in all, I loved the almost claustrophobic feel of Kate's days and nights as well as not knowing what was real, what was imagined and what could be supernatural, IF there was something supernatural - after all, she did take incredible amounts of drugs that can result in hallucinations.

I might prefer the b-movie-like shorts by this author (or maybe also longer ones, I have yet to read one of his longer creature features), but this was done very well and I was appropriately creeped out while simultaneously feeling for Kate and Andrew. Knowing that this story is deeply personal for the author only makes me appreciate it more.

I am a fan of Hunter Shea and immensly enjoyed his cryptozoological books as well as his Mail Order massacre novellas. This book is different than his other books, he uses time to build the atmosphere and the characters. While I struggled through the slow pacing the story of this eoman, trapped within her own body and mind from her pain and her medication made this all too real, and I found my self reading on to find out what happened to her. If anything Creature shows us how versatile Hunter Shea is and how he is able to reinvent himself.
I would like to thank Flaming Tree Press and Net Galley for the advance copy of the book.

I’ve read a lot of books from Hunter Shea, if you follow my blog you’ll often see his reviews. I really have a great time reading his crypid and monster stories. Creature was a very different book from what I typically see from Hunter Shea. It had a different voice, feel and overall vibe, and I dug the shit out of it. I was immersed in this story right off the bat, and every detail of Kate’s illness and her horrible journey couldn’t have felt any more realistic, and the creature was terrifying and awesome. I didn’t know where the story would take me for most of the book. But, when I saw where it was going I thought ‘holy crap, Hunter just took this horror story to another lever’. Kate was an amazing character and I loved her and the strength she showed as her body continued to rundown. It’s hard to say too much without spoiling it in some way, so I’ll let you see how it all shakes out. It was easy to see the love, sweat and tears Hunter put into this book, and this is most likely the best damn book Hunter Shea has written and I can’t recommend it enough.

WOW!

CREATURE is NOT your typical horror story, but an emotional mix of a real life affliction of chronic pain and misery....AND a threatening monster that comes to call.

A good portion of the novel is a deeply emotional ride depicting the struggles of a devoted man who is determined to give his ailing wife her dream vacation at a beautiful lake in Maine....but all does not go as planned.

"The meds made her imagine things that would send Stephen King running for his blankie and his momma's breast.".....

Heavily character driven from the get go, the dreaded evil in the woods slowly creeps into the storyline not making its presence known and intentions understood until the last quarter of the book....but show its disgusting face it does with ear piercing screams and unsettling noises that rock the house......then things turns deadly.

Hunter Shea brings to the reader a powerful kind of Fear and Dread you can hardly imagine in his new novel as he takes us on a journey to the dark side.

(Best wishes to Hunter Shea and his wife as they fight the CREATURE within.)

Many thanks to Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for the arc coming September 6, 2018.

Review: CREATURE by Hunter Shea


CREATURE is difficult going, because the experience of living vicariously through a protagonist who suffers autoimmune diseases is not only terribly painful even to read, I can't even stretch my imagination to accommodate this level of suffering. That applies to the suffering protagonist and to her dedicated caregiving husband. I can't imagine suffering in such agony, for months, years, decades. I just longed for the characters' misery to end.

That aside, the Horror here is about as implacable as it gets. It's horror of a failing physique, horror of a mind wigging out, and external horror, which eventually proves to be very horrifying indeed.