36674761During the 1980s, slashers terrorized America. With machetes and masks, these unstoppable killers stalked college campuses, quiet suburbs, and lakeside cabins.

Thirty years ago, Bobbi Metzger survived a massacre at her 16th birthday party. She spent decades putting her life back together.

Tonight, Bobbi will face a new killer: a high-tech slasher hell-bent on opening the doorway to an abyss of unimaginable horror.

How long can Bobbi survive this nightmare? What will she do to protect the people she loves? How much blood is she willing to spill?

Source Format Pages Publisher Genre Publication Date
R&R Book Tours ebook 412 Neoplastic Press Horror /  Thriller October 14th, 2017

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*My thanks to Shannon of R&R Book Tours for providing me with a copy of Mask Beneath Her Face in exchange for an honest review!* 

 

 

I have this weird relationship with anything-horror. The modern-day Hollywood horror movies just don’t cut it for me- they make me laugh rather than the hairs on the back of my neck rise. I mean, all these weird looking creatures? Yeah, whatever. But bang a door and I jump as if all the world’s sins rest upon my soul; bury a cleaver into a skull and I am fighting back the bit of ‘will I or won’t I gag?!’ Odd, I tell ya. Oh, and not to mention that in horror fiction the characters are mostly always eejits. They always have to open the door, go outside, look under the bed, open the box, etc… you know? But if they weren’t acting like this, the genre wouldn’t exist!

So, why, oh why, you may wonder, did I want to read this book? Book blogger recommendations truly do make a big impact. I came across a review of this book on Kim’s blog and thought- ahhh, colour me intrigued and cover me in gore! And as fate would have it, not long after, I was offered a review copy.

And that cover- isn’t it just a beaut’??? *hearteyes* (even though spiders are freaks and I hate them)

Right! Babble over… let’s move on to the actual review, ahoy!

Revenge was a mouthful of ashes, nails driven into one’s own palms.

On the scale of innocent to holy batshit crazy, I think I tip the scales towards the ‘lock me up‘ for loving this slasher horror book so wholeheartedly. It was a non-stop thrilling read- seriously– I just couldn’t stop turning the pages! It’s a whole lot of death, yes, but it’s done packaged so that chapter to chapter I was offered more and more intrigue. The story has paranormal slashers, but they felt so real.  There’s no freaking question about how bloodthirsty they were and that there was simply no stopping them. What made this book ultimately a complete joy ride were the characters and the humour. I swear to gods, I cackled like a crazy person in parts…

“I’m in town,” she said. “But way too tired to make it all the way to your place. Staying at a motel in Morrisville, near the airport.”

“Is it nice?”

She checked the nightstand drawer for a Bible, but found a pronographic magazine. Holy shit, with all the porn on the Internet, they still print magazines? 

“Nice? Oh, Jesse, listen, this place is swank. Super-classy. All the rats are wearing little tuxedos.”

She flicked through the magazine. No dicks. Pass. 

Mask Beneath Her Face 100% shows up to provide a full thrilling horror experience! Forget about the one slasher versus a few victims, this book delivers FOUR slashers! Holy hellfest! Imagine that! Each of those slashers is after their own… erm… specific brand of death and when I discovered one of the slasher’s own POVs included (a creepy wooden doll, no less) I squealed with delight.

Four slashers… in need of warm bodies…

Bobbi, Sam and Jesse are all survivors of past slasher attacks. We get their full stories of past and present and get to know them pretty well. I feel like I know Bobbi, Jesse, Sam on a very personal level and that is a sign of good character development. They all have their lives and issues and they are well past their teenage years. Yes, we are dealing with mature characters who have been there, done that and come away from their perspective massacres with lifelong personal issues. Bobbi loves her booze and pills, Sam has anxiety and breaks into sweats the minute he sees a doll, and Jesse hasn’t looked into a mirror for a long time. Broken and tired they have no respite until they are well and truly dead… but will that death come by the hand of a slasher or due to old age? Answer to this question in the book- I’ll be testing you on that in a few months! 😉 

And then we have Cristina. A young woman who has been through a very violent and abusive childhood and is now battling through bullying in the education system. Cris is not a pretty girl but she’s smart. Very smart!

Cris, Bobbi, Sam and Jesse consider each other close family, after all, they all have something violent and horrific in common, and the atmosphere in between them all is truly heartwarming.

Mask Beneath Her Face is more than blood spatters on walls and a mindless chase through houses and woods. The plot is blown into epic proportions as a determination to deliver revenge is revealed. And when I say epic, I mean epic– you can’t even imagine! The detail and thought process that went into this book seems to be a true work of an intelligent artist.

“Fuck you, dummy,” she gasped.

“Flattery will get you nowhere. I’m impervious to that kind of–“

“Pencil dick.”

His hinged mouth gaped open. “Okay, you’re dead.”

I am fairly certain that this book won’t be for everyone, BUT if you can do horror and if you can manage thrillers with a bit of gruesome detail, don’t hesitate to pick this book up. It really is more than just non-stop cleaver-in-skull. A wholesome reading experience with fully-formed characters, secrets and deceit, hopelessness and humour and a cracking ending!

Find Mask Beneath Her Face on Goodreads ¦ Amazon UK ¦ USA

Rafael-Chandler-photoAbout the Author

Rafael Chandler writes novels (Hexcommunicated, The Astounding Antagonists), video games (SOCOM 4, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, MAG), and tabletop role-playing games (Teratic Tome, Lusus Naturae). He’s a metalhead, a kaijuphile, and a gorehound.

Rafael Chandler on Website ¦ Facebook ¦ Instagram ¦ Goodreads