Name: Ashlyn's review of Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey
Item: Head Like a Hole
Rating: 0.5
Author: Ashlyn

Andrew Van Wey

When you bury your past, make sure that it's dead. It's the mid-nineties. Grunge and flannel are fading as the Spice Girls and Hot Topic conquer the malls. Cherry gloss glistens on the lips of the youth. Modems hiss as America comes online. And in a fog-drenched cove at the edge of New England, something terrible awakens when a fisherman reels in a gruesome catch: the remains of a young woman. Remains still pulsing with furious life. For Megan Monroe and her friends, this is how their nightmare begins: a wet whisper over their shoulder, a dark hand reaching out from the edge of their sight, and a name clawing at the back of their minds. A young woman scratched from their memory. To stop this devouring terror, Megan will need to mend broken friendships and reassemble her fractured past, for what stalks them hungers to remake itself in their image... piece by bloody piece. Dig into the haunted past with Head Like a Hole, a novel of malignant secrets, shattered friendships, and twisted bodily horror.

A Novel of Horror

Head Like a Hole

Amanda Autumn Berrey

And yet, as I revisited the nineties while writing Head Like a Hole, I had to fight my desire to look back on the past with a love-drunk gaze.

Writing Head Like a Hole became a time capsule project, one that taught me as much about my own mind and memories as it did about the shattered psyche of poor Megan Monroe.

“Nah, you were fine. I just…” “You caught feelings.” “Yeah, I had a few.” He glanced down and wiped a glass. “And maybe I still do. But I guess that depends, doesn’t it?” “Depends on what?” “On what happened to my car.”

“Oh, he said a bunch of things, according to the witnesses. Things that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Some film student got it all on tape. Then our pal Louis took a leap off the sorority with a rope tied round his neck. Gave himself a long drop too, popped his noggin free like a cork.”

She turned to see June walking down the stairs, one checkered Keds after the other. Something seemed to shift and slither beneath her shearling jacket. When she turned, Cindy felt that warmth turn to a fierce itch under her skin. That wasn’t June. Or, rather, that wasn’t June’s head on her body.

She made it as far as her desk before her feet stopped on their own. Something sat upon her bed, a thing that didn’t belong. It was a dirty tarp bundled into a mound and twisted together at the top like a hastily wrapped present. It was crinkling and slowly coming undone. Yellow twine slid through the holes, pulled from within.

While she shuffled off to another room, he listened to a few minutes of Murder, She Wrote, trying to guess the episode based on the body they found. He marveled at how Jessica Fletcher’s beloved Cabot Cove saw more murders than Pablo Escobar’s Medellín.

“You have excellent technique, Ms. Monroe. You’re more skilled with a brush than many of the artists on these walls. But tell me, what do you see in these paintings? What do you feel?” Megan swallowed. “I see bravery.” “Yes, precisely. They are brave. We must be fearless, as artists. We must confront what truly scares us.”

Once, when they were tipsy and frisky in bed, he had asked her which personality he was inside. She laughed and bit his shoulder and cried quietly later.

I thought this was supposed to take place in the nineties. Tesla was founded in 2003

“Blue Tesla, black Range Rover, black Tesla, blue… Subaru. Here we go.”

Will every section be titled as a song from that era

Ashlyn

Gave this a go on audible, and the narration by Tom Jordan was pretty solid.

I could tell within the first few chapters of this one that the writing felt a notch up. It read professional, with a clear voice, and wicked fast direction. The POVs and twirling timeframes keep you on the edge of your seat, and I was hooked to it in a way that I haven’t felt lately. While I’ve finished some other reads in between/since, I think this one started pulling me up out of the kind of slump I was forming. The Goosebumps-esque (but adult) cliffhanger chapter endings certainly helped.

A successful podcaster is looking into a mysterious past with sparse notes found in his uncle’s journal. Strangely, the story unravels itself, and other than him being a clever character and the vessel for some of the backstory, he wasn’t really a necessary character. But on the few occasions the story slows down, he gets the ball moving again, so it works out fine.

A story of mistrust, mistreatment, jealousy, and deceit, Head Like a Hole, is a powerhouse of revenge and regret. Not without its supernatural elements, the novel morphs more than once on what the reader can expect. Kind of like mixing the murder mystery side of a slasher with something tainted like the Ring or the Grudge. The novel has more than its far share of characters, but there are a few that have pretty flat desires/actions. The author does a pretty solid job of reigning it in to close it all up though. And I will definitely check out more by the author.

C. J. Daley 

Gave this a go on audible, and the narration by Tom Jordan was pretty solid.

I could tell within the first few chapters of this one that the writing felt a notch up. It read professional, with a clear voice, and wicked fast direction. The POVs and twirling timeframes keep you on the edge of your seat, and I was hooked to it in a way that I haven’t felt lately. While I’ve finished some other reads in between/since, I think this one started pulling me up out of the kind of slump I was forming. The Goosebumps-esque (but adult) cliffhanger chapter endings certainly helped.

A successful podcaster is looking into a mysterious past with sparse notes found in his uncle’s journal. Strangely, the story unravels itself, and other than him being a clever character and the vessel for some of the backstory, he wasn’t really a necessary character. But on the few occasions the story slows down, he gets the ball moving again, so it works out fine.

A story of mistrust, mistreatment, jealousy, and deceit, Head Like a Hole, is a powerhouse of revenge and regret. Not without its supernatural elements, the novel morphs more than once on what the reader can expect. Kind of like mixing the murder mystery side of a slasher with something tainted like the Ring or the Grudge. The novel has more than its far share of characters, but there are a few that have pretty flat desires/actions. The author does a pretty solid job of reigning it in to close it all up though. And I will definitely check out more by the author.

Some of the body horror scenes were creepy, but overall this is an unrewarding book. Don't be fooled by the blurbs - this is decidedly 

 cosmic horror. Also, I don't have the capacity to suspend disbelief enough to accept that radiation works the way Van Wey describes. 

Some of the body horror scenes were creepy, but overall this is an unrewarding book. Don't be fooled by the blurbs - this is decidedly not cosmic horror. Also, I don't have the capacity to suspend disbelief enough to accept that radiation works the way Van Wey describes. 

Ashlyn &
Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Ashlyn &Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey

Reviews

Highlights

Join the club

Ashlyn &
Head Like a Hole by Andrew Van Wey