57284506The problem with the end of the world is that it’s a gradual process. It keeps getting worse. It tests you until you break, just to see if you can put yourself back together.

Caz and her father do what they must to survive the fall of humanity. Hunting when they can, and scavenging supplies from the derelict shells of a deserted city, they rely on each other to make it to the end of each day.

The end of each day. A time when darkness falls and the monsters responsible for the collapse of society emerge to hunt.

The Nightcrawler, Still Extant #1, is an explosion. The story starts with a literal bang and it echoes all the way to the end. Simply brilliant.

Fear guided every decision now. Fear and the need to survive.

The Nightcrawler

At its core, this story is about human resilience at the face of great adversity. That when you have lost everything, the world, the normalcy and safety – how will you survive? Will you have the mental strength to keep going? And that at times even though one may feel like they can never trust another human, no matter how close, the truth is, one simply has to keep moving until they find the person or people they can rely on to provide, and in turn, offer one’s own unique set of skills. It’s also about prejudices – the perception of certain people we may have based on their look or profession or their role in our lives. In the end, these superficial characteristics do not a human make. It’s something much deeper. And everyone has secrets that no one else knows.

I love how Sheppard kept the factor of terror zinging throughout the whole book. The moments of hope and elation of survival were delivered hand in hand with grim realizations and surprise twists. The danger that emerges at night is enough to raise the hairs and goosebumps, and as is expected, the humans, even after the world as we know it has collaped, will still remain humans, if not worse.

The Nightcrawler is a banger. It reads quick at only 146 ebook pages and you will be thoroughly entertained. If you do decide to jump in, brace yourself, it’s going to be a wild ride! I’m not going to mention the trigger or content warnings, because it’s horror. You can expect the nastiest of stuff. There is only one thing that can make my stomach turn in horror… and Sheppard included it in this story. When I realized that, I may have muttered: “Oh, you nasty bastard!” and that wasn’t towards the character, that was towards Sheppard. Haha! I had to take a few deep breaths to ‘get over it’… Anyway. It was a logical inclusion given the situation.

In the end, the story left me with a good feeling. There was the occasional banter, the rare moment of laugh out loud, the moment of human kindness when it matters the most. You could say, Sheppard has used humanity’s worst and the best to weave a tale of scariest monsters.

It also did not go unnoticed how each chapter accentuated inspiration from poems that have stood the test of time.

201289543The Kinsman is a tale of grief, loss, and personal redemption as one man’s search for family becomes a treacherous voyage within himself. Following the death of his childhood sweetheart, Steve embarks on a perilous journey to reconnect with the family he left behind.

With the world in chaos, and deadly creatures roaming the land, Steve rests by day and travels by night to find his younger brother. But will the man he finds bear any resemblance to the boy he left behind?

As the world crumbles around him, Steve’s sense of self teeters on the brink of collapse. With the clock ticking, and nothing left to lose, Steve will do whatever it takes to atone for the sins of his past and protect what’s left of his kin.

The Kinsman, Still Extant #2, was a wonderful surprise. And I can’t tell how it was a wonderful surprise, because god damned spoilers. You’ll just have to trust me on this one. Anyway, I finished The Nightcrawler and dove right into The Kinsman. My thanks to Sheppard for sending me a review copy! I think they’re best read in quick succession. This way you’ll really get the emotional impact. I know I did. The only problem is, story #3 is not yet published and I could easily read this series in weekly instalments.

Right off the bat, I felt that there was a different vibe with The Kinsman. I mean, Sheppard still delivers the same edge of the seat moments and things that make horror a horror. The characters are solid, like one can expect from a Sheppard book, but in The Kinsman, the prose, the writing somehow felt new. Fresh. More inspired and lyrical. Particularly when it came to setting the scene and describing the vistas through our characters’ eyes. I enjoyed this new feel a lot. Like, a lot!

Ohhh, I wish I could tell you exactly what made this book amazing, but god damned spoilers! It’s not bloody fair!

The Kinsman is set in the same collapsed society as The Nightcrawler. The dangers that come out in the darkness are the same, except in The Kinsman we get a way up close and personal look at them. The survival element is truly cranked up to the ‘go now or die’ and our main characters have to make decisions in the blink of an eye, determining their fates.

Again, Sheppard has used the external dangers to their utmost possibilities, as well as the human factor. In this story there is a focus on shoving aside personal turmoil for the good of another. Keeping it together for the sake of survival, because there is definitely a heavy layer hanging in the air over our characters that will surely crack at some point. And, boy, are those revelations going to be fighting for the number one spot over the deadly creatures.

It also did not go unnoticed how each chapter was a little tip of the hat to Johnny Cash music.

So, if you’re looking for your next horror reads, I am happy to suggest you check our P.A. Sheppard’s Still Extant series. That’s some reading that gives you more than escaping the terrifying. You’ll get to enjoy the best of people, the worst of people. And, you may also learn some survival skills in the process *taps nose.