Oh my!! This book stole my breath with the number of bodies chopped and sliced. Slash was the perfect title for this book, it was really a slasher horror movie kind of a read.

5 years ago, Ashley survived a massacre only to be found hanging in the basement. Clues were left behind for the husband Todd which would lead him to the killer known as the Wraith. With the help if his friends, he went back to the Hayden Resort where it all started. A haunted place which longed for new blood.

My first book by author Hunter Shea, it took me time to get into the rhythm of the story as I had not read the earlier book. The story gripped me once the characters moved to the Hayden Resort. I couldn't even begin to guess who was the Wraith and I didn't even want to. I was gripped in the vortex of the plot and the killings.

Being a new fan of horror, I was pulled into this rollerncoaster ride of fear and macabre with characters who were strong yet flawed. I could read this in a single read, I couldn't let go of my kindle even if I wanted to.

Shea's writing was interesting as it explored the depths of the characters. The structures plot line amidst the fear and blood made this a scary, thrilling ride. Whoa!!

Hunter Shea’s new novel Slay works on very many levels and it is a rewarding experience in mystery, thriller and horror that does not give easy answers to the situation at hand. Through the power of his characterisations, motivations and extraordinary plot, this gives the reader a thrilling ride.

Starting with Ashley, we learn that she is a final girl due to a murderous rampage in a depilated run down summer resort that has been closed 30 years prior. All her friends have been murdered in grotesque ways five years earlier, and she is paying the price of being the sole survivor. On the page, we think that the author is going to give us a final girl scenario to carry us through the plot but after some hard decision from Ashley, we take a hard right turn into new territory that steers us into a new direction.

Ashley’s husband and friends have a mystery to unravel which leads them down a dark path that becomes treacherous and life threatening. As the mystery becomes abundantly clear towards its climax, the reader finds themselves on a roller coaster ride with a lot of surprises ahead.

The characters are very well drawn and personally, I think Shea is a very comprehensive author who is able to draw out the slightest personality flaws and use these to his advantage. His characters have emotional strength and weakness and these are well balanced with the backgrounds involved. It is very impressive that he doesn’t have characters added to the mix who become fodder which is the norm for a novel of this ilk but Shea is smarter than that and works his talent into these characters and their reasoning of why they are on the page.

There is a very interesting sub plot of the final girl groupies which sets this novel apart from the rest and this is the beginning hooking point of the plot. This is explored and with the use of podcasts and media to show how these fans connect was an interesting way to bring this to light.

The plot is strong and the way the plot changes direction three times makes this novel above par. He handles these changes in a natural realistic manner and he keeps this very tight. The reasoning behind the killings is smartly handled and we are left with folklore mixed with the realism which I think works very well. The information given does fit in well and probably better handled than what we normally give for a monstrous killer. The killer is the stuff that nightmares are made of and this is excellent asset to the novel.

Overall, this is great thriller, mystery horror novel is an excellent novel that fires from all cylinders in a fantastical way. The strong characters, plots and revenge aspect keeps it moving at a brisk place and one of the few books that I found hard to put down. When I did put it down, it haunted me until I came to the conclusion. The novel also spiked my interest in Hunter Slea as a novelist and I am very keen to start diving into his other work. This is a must read for anyone who has a love of this genre and will be rewarded due to the in-depth storytelling that can be found within these pages.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for a copy of Slash to read in exchange for an honest review.

The premise was a simple slasher with lots of killings and groups of unwitting (or witless) individuals who serve themselves up on a platter to get killed.

The Final Girl, Ashely, who several years earlier survived a resort massacre at the hands of a killer known as The Wraith, can no longer live with the pain and is found hanging by her finance Todd.

Greiving, Todd goes back to the resort in search of the truth about what happened that night and he and a group of friends get a lot more than they bargained for.

The story flows well and along with interesting and dynamic characters is a good read. For me though I felt it was lacking in originality and there was just that spark missing that drags me in to the story.

It's a fun read, gore filled and totally lives up to the title.

Enjoy!!

Fans of the slasher movie can rejoice. A tale of a group trying to survive against an unreal killer has finally been written by someone who obviously loves the genre. Hunter Shea creates real characters you can’t help but root for as they battle the Wraith in the ruins of a Catskills resort. He opens the story with a moving depiction of a final girl who had survived the Wraith’s earlier attack and lets readers see for once the survivor guilt of the heroine of the usual slasher story. Action, suspense, gore, and a touch of the supernatural all abound in this consuming thriller.

I’m quite nervous reviewing Hunter’s latest book Slash not because I’m scared he might kill me in another novel but because I’ve been waiting to read something of his for ages and never had the time to get my hands on one.

Man, did this thing freak me the hell out.

Other than Clive Barker and Edward Lee having a slight vibe to SLASH, Hunter is one of those authors who are more than comfortable going solo and wowing his readers. Even though this is a horror novel with plenty of gore and vulgarity that can rival any SAW movie, Hunter doesn’t even need any demonic entities or creepy monsters with five heads and eight legs to give you the jitters.

What really kept me reading (despite making sure my night light stayed on) was the suspense hovering about the characters as they fought their way through the Hayden Resort which, like any place that witnessed too much and stood for far too long, harbors some kind of inanimate attraction to all things dark and sinister.

I’d like to think of it as, “The Hayden keeps the dark things and lets them grow.”

The resort is in a state of severe dilapidation; graffiti covers the walls, rotten floorboards and walls are so fragile a baby could punch holes through them, and debris and all manner of gross and disgusting things not only litter the place but add to the stench of some of the enclosed spaces.

Under this thick layer of decay a mystery conceals itself which history itself tries in vain to conceal.

This is a perfect attraction for some urban exploration to take place.

Still dealing with a very personal and very recent traumatic event which I shall not elaborate otherwise you won’t have to read the book, Todd Matthews, our protagonist, launches into an investigation to uncover just what secrets the Hayden resort is trying to hide.

Strap yourselves in because you’ll be sending the author fan mail when you read what happens in the end.

Blood and guts splattered over the supernatural, Slash feels like a retro flashback to 80s Slasher b-movies.

This book is uncomplicated, very readable horror. The story moves along at a fairly even and steady pace, although I felt at some points I just wanted them to HURRY UP AND GET ON WITH IT. I couldn’t help but feel the way you do when reading or watching any type of slasher type novel/movie, and that's to constantly yell in your head (or out loud, I am not judging here) at the characters to JUST GET UP AND GET OUT OF THERE!! Just move! Don't go back to the hotel. You know, stuff that without that, there would be no novel to read. Anyway, with that accepted, I was pretty much here for what went down. And it goes down, make no mistake about that. There is a lot of gore, a lot of guts, and a nice spooky mythical twist at play that made this an enjoyable read for me.

The characters are okay, they feel like very typical characters and I didn’t feel any special bond to any of them, although I did like the girls and in particular, Sharon. I'm not overly sure why, maybe coz she's been through hard times and just wants to make a go of it. Maybe because she's vulnerable and doing everything in her power not to be. Maybe it's because I thought policeman Jerry was an asshole and I just wanted to route for the other side. You tell me.

Visually, the setting is brilliant, and I felt like I was there the whole time. It's a super spooky setting for a good slashing!

Slash gets 3.5 lower intestines from me, rounded up to 4. I am looking forward to checking out more of Shea's work!

Thank you to Shea, Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review!

Hunter Shea loves horror, and feels a certain affinity to the sub-genres of creature features, ghost stories...and the slasher flick! In this Scooby-Doo-story-in-reverse, a group of adult friends travel to an abandoned Catskills resort slated for demolition, where years prior, a serial killer nicknamed the Wraith killed a group of young urban explorers...one of who was the final girl that years later committed suicide. In the group, the girl's boyfriend and several of his closest friends who intend to once and for all end the reign of the Wraith. Loaded with 80's film-style gore, dismemberment, and a seemingly supernatural villain, Shea injects a bit of folklore into this solid bit of hardcore horror readers may not have encountered in the genre. Recommended!

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

I really wanted to like this book, for me, it just didn't 'do it' quite enough.

What I enjoyed: The gory nature when characters were slaughtered. He gave enough information to keep a good visual as to what was happening while it was happening. I also liked the characters' information and storyline(s). There was a nice build to where you could relate to the characters as the novel progressed.

What I didn't enjoy: The overall plot. It seemed to be too unrealistic to maintain much of an interest.

This book READS like an 80's slasher movie and I loved every minute of it! Hunter Shea knows how to shock his readers and this book PROVES it. I loved it!

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2 rounded up

Supernatural Splatterpunk for the strong-stomached.

Slash starts out a bit slow to set up the story (at first, I thought it was a sequel), but the last half of this book is non-stop action, gore, and supernatural-based horror. I kept picturing the Hayden Resort as The Overlook Hotel- there’s even a brief mention of Jack Torrance (the film version) at one point. I had some unanswered questions about the origins of the Wraith/bad guy, but this information might have been deliberately withheld for a potential sequel and/or prequel. This was my first time reading this author’s work and I look forward to checking out his other books.

Thank you, NetGalley, Flame Tree Press, and the author for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Love slasher films? Then you'll find plenty to sink your teeth in with this one.
Shea's forthcoming novel takes a well-loved screen convention and converts it for the page with a gore-drenched storyline in the spirit of the Friday the 13th series.
Ashley King is the sole survivor of the infamous Resort Massacre, a final girl living with the trauma of watching her friends being slaughtered by a mysterious killer, known only as The Wraith five years ago.
But when she is found hanging in her basement, it sparks her finance, Todd, to return to the scene of the murders to seek out the killer and try to unravel what really happened that night.
Like a good slasher film, it's an action-driven novel full of hack and slash kills and a fun final act twist.
Bring on the sequel.

Part of what I love about Goodreads is getting exposed to authors and books I would never have found otherwise. A big part of that has been being introduced to a whole genre of horror novels - Blake Crouch, Brian Pinkerton, Konrath/Kilborn, Jack Ketchum and others have been wonderful discoveries on this journey.

Hunter Shea is now part of this list. Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in trade for an honest review.

This book was like watching an 80s slasher movie...great gory fun with nonstop action and unexpected turns. The characters werent deep, but they did make me care about them and the interactions between the group of friends was hilarious.

I will definitely read more Hunter Shea books based on the delivery in Slash - I just may lose a few hours of sleep and have a few nightmares in the process.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

As always, Hunter Shea does not disappoint. I really enjoyed this book because of the gore, I always go into his books expecting it and wanting it. I thought it was an okay storyline, but I feel it was a little slow in some parts. However, the horror made up for that so I would still recommend it!

The back story to Hayden holiday park is a real stomach churner, the revelations left me with 3 different theories on how this book was gonna go and I'm pleased to say I was wrong on all three guesses. A whole new level of horror developed and I was bricking it! I kept forgetting to breath. The hunters become the hunted. It's dark, it's dangerous and there's nowhere to run.
I was pleased with the last page of Slash, I had quiet hopes something like that would happen.

I don't usually take note of this but there was a liberal sprinkling of grammatical errors and misspelled words throughout the ARC. Nothing a reader can't get past but enough to break my concentration and interrupt the pace of the story. I assume these will be corrected before release but for my own Slash reading experience they became a little jarring at times.

I also found the descriptions of the Wraith repetitive. Shea wrote them three separate times as if each was the first sighting despite using the same characters perceptions. Instead of clarifying or enhancing my mental image of the Wraith's appearance each depiction only reinforced what I'd already learned. This familiarisation took away a little of the tension I felt.

I loved the setting of Slash, the Wraith was a formidable antagonist with a great premise (no spoilers). I thought Todd made a believable character and his friendships were beautifully written. I can't say I was a fan of Sharon or Jerry but I think that was Shea's intention so they did their job!
The writing was atmospheric and I felt the impending doom and ratcheting tension from the second the group returned to Hayden until the bitter end.

I'll definitely be returning to Shea's work in the future.

I would rate this one as a 3 out of 5 ⭐️. It wasn’t terrible and it was fast paced with a lot of gore. I just wanted more out of several of the characters...and the story as a whole. Just seemed like a lot of random cool ideas, thrown together in a rather “choppy” way (pun intended ha ha) that didn’t quite work as well as I’d hoped. However, the author did a nice job of making the reader feel “in” the moment with the victims running endlessly from the “wraith” or “golem” or “Otto.” I was constantly thinking to myself “what on earth do you do?! There’s no escape. RUNNNNNN!” Worth checking out but I this might be more fun as a movie and I’d definitely watch it. 👍🏻😊 #slash #netgalley

Slash is just as it title promises a slashing, hacking, gory great time. As the body count rises the pages kept turning faster I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. Will definitely check out more from this Author.

I liked the slasher style in this book! I had to keep reading because I wanted to know more. This is the second book I've read by Hunter Shea and I'm looking forward to reading more.

SLASH hearkens back, almost longingly, to the slasher B-movie horror films of the 1980's, with its "crazed maniac massacre" settings and especially its "Final Girl" emphasis. So be prepared to expect a plethora of gore, splatter, and violence--because that's what crazed maniacs do, right? However, that's not all. There's a lot of delving into psychology: survivor guilt; post-traumatic stress syndrome; fear, rational or irrational, that "it's not over"; the psychology of the loved ones--family and friends. Author Shea also gives a compelling riff on history plus a strongly supernatural element (which also has a historical basis).

This was a good story but i wasn't blown by it. It's a slasher fic (the title should give it away to you) and it definitely captured that feeling well. The characters aren't ones you'll warm to straight away but you will definitely want to stick with them and see who survives. After reading this i'm very interested in reading more by Shea and will be looking for more of his work.

I finished reading this a couple of days ago and I’m still out of breath.

As the title alone will tell you, this is slasher fiction. Or slash and slice and dice and chop and oh my god why are there heads everywhere fiction! The body count is…immense.

It did take me a bit to like our characters. I found I liked our Final Girl most and wanted to have more of her in the story (the author does make that happen, but I wanted more, more, more).

However, once I got to know our characters, I was all in. I was also shouting at them not to go in the scary, scary place where people go to die, but, nope. They did it anyway.

Our baddie is…unexpected. I felt I wanted a little more about (how do to this without spoilers) the who and the why and the how – but I enjoyed the surprise.

And, as usual, Shea takes on an adrenaline-filled roller coaster ride of a horror story!

*ARC Provided via Net Galley