Identicals

The main character, Jack, suffers from severe depression after his child was tragically murdered. To cope, he drinks A LOT. This heavy drinking makes him turn nasty towards the family he still has left and when things get as worse as they could get, he turns to attempting suicide. Instead, he is stopped by a creature offering him a deal to return back to his life before his daughter was murdered… as long as he can pay a debt back to this creature.

Wow, wow, wow. This book was incredibly creepy. I sped through it with ease because the story was so different than I expected and unlike anything I’ve read. If you’re looking for something with some horror and suspense, this is it.

I love horror and gothic books so this was right up my street. I really like it, it was dark and chilling with a suffocating atmosphere - in the best way. A really good read.

4.25 stars for horror genre

Wow this is a spectacularly creepy book, in the best way! I couldn’t put it down. Lots of suspense and depth.

After the death of his daughter, Jack has allowed his life to spiral. He's neglected his two sons and pushed his wife away. Instead of losing just the one family member, he's pretty much lost them all as he points the blame and wallows in grief. And then the unthinkable happens.

At the point of suicide, an old, creepy lady and a strange, small being enter his life. He's offered a pill to take that will take him back to before his daughter died. In return, he has to pay an unknown, high debt. After taking the pill, Jack gets his family back and all is amazing... until it's time for Jack to pay his debt.

There are definitely points where this book feels a little slow. The beginning especially and also there's a point where there are pages of pretty much repeats. I understand why the repeats are needed and also the beginning is trying to build a sense of how Jack is really not coping and pushing everyone away. I think I just personally prefer books that start in the action. But that doesn't take away from how good the book is, it's just a personal preference.

For me, what made this really, really creepy is the old lady. Especially the sexual scenes involving her. They are written in such a way that you genuinely feel grossed out. It sets you on edge. I don't think this book would have hit me in the same way without her in it.

After refusing to pay his debt, Jack is pushed back through trauma, even more severe than the original, over and over, his debt building. It's a dream of most people to bring back their loved ones but this book left me feeling like sometimes it's better to accept your grief than to go back. Jack wasn't a massively likeable character in the first half but you soon end the book feeling a lot of empathy towards him. You wish, for him, that he'd been able to grieve with his family, not against them. Sometimes, no matter how hard things are, you need to realise what you still have, no matter how much you're hurting.

What starts out as the downward spiral of depression, takes a turn when a strange little man approaches Jack with a strange little pill that can solve his problems. Only, when it comes time to pay the price, Jack balks at insanity of it all. Will he ultimately pay the price? Or will he ruin himself in hiding.

Kudos to this supernatural mystery/horror novel. It gave me chills and it made me think.

If you had the chance to bring back a lost loved one, but the cost was the death of an innocent person at your own hand, would you do it? This is the concept of the book, and I kept thinking "what would I do" throughout the book..

Jack loses his 5 year old daughter, and his life falls apart. Then is teenage son commits suicide - after reaching out to his father, who ignored his calls. He is then given the opportunity to go back in time but he has a very high price to pay.

Jack agrees to the deal, then backs out. Things spiral out of control leading to a series of different realities.- each worse than the last.

I loved the concept. I loved the world building and could just see the action. I could picture this as a movie, all filmed in the dark, because the whole book just had that feel. It was crazy, it was intense, it was chilling and dark and I really enjoyed it!

Thank you to the author #williambrennanknight the publisher and #netgalley for the ARC which did not impact my review.

The perfect horror book to wrap yourself around on a dark night! This book needs to be on your radar! I love it so much!

Identicals by William Brennan Knight is a terrifying and creepy read. The book starts at a slow pace but as soon as you reach halfway it picks up speed. The other half is amazing and literally gives you goosebumps. The most exciting things are the connecting dots between the characters which makes the plot more interesting. By the time I reached climax, it felt like a roller coaster ride. Also, The climax was totally different than what I expected.

I would like to give the book 4 stars. Thanks to BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for providing me an opportunity to read and review the book.

Creepy, tense, action-packed, imaginative, will be returning to the author for sure, especially if it's also supernatural horror

Many feel tragedy brings a family together but this isn’t the case for Jack Clausen’s family. A year and a half after tragedy strikes, his family is barely hanging on. His five year old daughter is dead and he copes by drowning his sorrow in booze and as a result loses his job. The final straw seems to be his oldest son dying from a drug overdose. His turmoil felt raw and real and you see how far this father will go to make things right. The question is can he repay his side of the bargain?

This book deals with multiple alternate realities and I do wish that each had been fleshed out a little more. The “identicals” felt a little lacking. Maybe I was hoping for a bigger bad than what we got. It was promising but fell a little short.

In summary, this book provided a fall into the supernatural without being overwhelmingly scary. Everything tied together neatly without leaving too many questions.

3.5 rounded up.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4739477398

What if you had to re-live a nightmare in real life expecting to get different outcomes? And what if those outcomes only got worse with each remake? That is what Jack Clausen is forced to re-live again and again for reneging on a deal that brought his daughter and son back from the dead.

Identicals is like the horror version of Groundhog Day. It is nightmarishly scary and a bizarre page turner.

The characters in the novel are developed enough. Though I wished that the supernatural characters were creepier and scarier than they were. Nevertheless, the author still did an excellent job in the portrayal of the unearthly beings as well as the human beings.

The plot was a little slow at times, but it just added to the suspense of the narrative. It still retained that unputdownable vibe as I managed to finish the book in a day.

I’d say if you’re a horror aficionado, Identicals is a should read. Four scary stars.

I received a digital copy of the book from BooksGoSocial through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

Identicals was more freaky. I would describe it more like the butterfly effect. The dad has to kill somebody to make up for keeping his daughter alive. But he doesn’t and the daughter kills people instead.
Got pretty freaky
4stars

Jack's world changes forever the day his daughter dies. A year and half later he is on the verge of taking his life when someone saves him, and tells him they can bring his daughter back. But if they do, he has to repay the debt. If he doesn't, the consequences will be bad. Jack doesn't listen, caught up in the moment of having his daughter back. Now Jack will realise the consequences of not paying his debt, and will understand who the identically really are...

Oh I loved this one! It was absolutely terrifying, heartbreaking, devastating. It pulled on so many emotions, and yet I couldn't stop reading. This author is incredibly talented, and has a way of writing horrors that make it all the more terrifying. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author!

Grabbed me right away. This is horror at its finest. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

So I've been putting this one off for a while as I've never been in a horror mood since I got the book. Honestly, I wish I'd read it sooner, it's the fastest I've ever read a book.

Normally I read before bed, and I get tired after a few pages so it takes me ages to read anything, but for the first time in a long time, I found myself glancing at the clock and seeing 2am blinking. I just couldn't put it down.

The story was fantastically written, I wasn't sure where it was going at first, but once I got into it, what a brilliant idea for a story. Honestly did not see this entire book coming.

Jack is a bit of an anti-hero and found him difficult to like at first, but by the end of the book I shed a few tears. Only 2 books have ever made me do this before, this is one of them.

Cannot recommend highly enough, my only slightly negative comment is that I felt WBK was holding himself back when writing about the gory/dirty stuff and could have been a bit more graphic with things, but this is personal preference.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review*

A great thriller - I would recommend it!