Customer Reviews

Writ in Blood: Serenity Falls 1

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Serenity Falls: Writ in blood is a great beginning to a series of books. I almost always avoid series fiction, as the books often get bogged down and the stories tend to be about word count not characters.
This is not true in the first Serenity novel. James A. Moore takes the threads of multiple stories and timelines and weaves a fast pasted, easily read tale of murder, revenge and the supernatural that spans centuries. His key good guy is believable and interesting. The "monsters" are also well thought out and believable. The addition of evil or supernatural powers does not suddenly make the bad guys brilliant or give them the skills of golden gloves boxers or black belt martial artists.

Over all Mr. Moore has woven a beautiful tapestry of earthy, very human characters that I am very interested in following. I will be snapping up "the pack" as soon as possible!

Originally posted as a single novel, Serenity Falls was recently released in a three volume mass paperback set. For fans of horror, especially those who enjoyed Stephen King back when he was writing books like It, Cujo and Salem's Lot, this is definitely something you'd want to scoop up. Unlike some trilogies, especially ones that were originally conceived as a single novel, all three books of the series have a different feel to them.

The basic premise deals with the small rural New York town of Serenity Falls. While Serenity Falls may seem like your prototypical small town, it has a history of violence and death that far exceeds most small towns.

Book #1: Writ in Blood

Book one intermingles three tales together to set the framework for the rest of the series. Part gothic horror, part paranormal thriller Writ in Blood tells the tale of Simon McGruder, local eccentric, who decides that a complete history of the town is needed. As he starts to dig into the towns past we learn about Serenity Falls horrible past. The first tale told starts during the colonial period when the town first was founded as a supply station for England and it's new world colonies. Albert Miles, a local man, is sent away to England on the mayor's orders. While he was gone he wife is left alone to fend for herself. An uncommonly beautiful women, stories began to swirl, first of visits by local gentlemen, later the stories expand to that of evil and witchcraft. Eventually, Sarah Miles is put on trial for witchcraft and tortured raped and eventually killed by the town's mayor. When he husband returns, he is obviously enraged. While the stories of witchcraft were unfounded in his wife, Albert Miles himself has a working knowledge of the dark arts. In his rage, he places a curse upon the town, written in rage and blood, that the town will never rest in peace, in life or death and that eventually, every soul will scream.

We then see how the curse has played out through the history of Serenity Falls. We see tragedies on small and large levels. We see husbands driven crazy, killing their whole family, women abducted and killed, never to be seen again, and one intriguing tale of a carnival and a few missing children. As with all tales in this book, it's ends in death and tragedy on a grand scale.

Intertwined with the history of Serenity Falls, we follow the tales anti-hero, the other than human demon hunter Jonathon Crowley, who we first saw in Moore other book, Under the Overtree, as he is being stalked by a demon that is leading him to Serenity Falls. Crowley is your basic sarcastic, yet harsh hero. Even serving as humanities protector, he seems to have contempt for humanity and it's vices. At times, it serves him well in this book, at other times, it's just annoying. It seems he is more interested in passing judgment of people than doing his job. Yet, when his job comes up, and he needs to physically take on one of the many ghosts, demons and such in the book, the story just takes off. One intriguing aspect of Crowley's character is that he is bound by certain rules that he must adhere too when dealing with both humanity and those beyond humanity. It adds an intriguing ethical subplot to the story.

All in all, Writ in Blood is a solid horror tale, full of intriguing characters. At times, the book reminds you of parts of It, especially the when King handles the history of Derry. In some levels, this first book is just an extended prologue to the tale that is to come, but it teases your interest just enough to pick up that next book.

The first book in the Serenity Falls Trilogy is one of the best horror novels i have read in a long time and it was a true treat to read. The plot centers obviously around a town called Serenity Falls and the events that have happened in the past. A local by the name of Simon Macgruder decides to write the history of the town and what he finds is not at all what he expected. The towns founding father's committed a awful act that set into motion a series of events that will haunt everyone who resides in town.

Along comes a man called John Crowley. Who is he and what does he do we are not sure. From what we can gather he fixes situations dealing with the supernatural and people who get involved in things that they should not delve in.He is called into the events of Serenity Falls by a phone call from a old student of his.A series of problems come up along the way and delay his arriving.

Let me say the character development is excellent and you generally have characters that you care about. Also John Crowley is one the best chracters ever in horror fiction. The anti-hero that you can't help but love. I reccommend this book to anyone out there regardless of what you read. You will not regret it. I can't wait for book's2 and 3.

Also for more John Crowley pick up Under the Overtree another great book by a wonderful author James A. Moore

Welcome to Serenity Falls.

You'l recognize it immediately if you've ever been to one of those small towns that seem somehow stranded in time. They are places that seem to define the word "quaint" in their very existence.

Of course, anybody who has ever read a book in this genre knows that once one scratches beneath the surface, Serenity Falls will no doubt reveal it's nightmarish secrets.

This is an interesting book which takes a most unusual approach in that one of our main characters is researching his hometown in order to write a book about past events. So every few chapters, we get a chapter from this character's book. And oh, the secrets he reveals! (Never mind that this book-within-the-book seems to write about things that there's no way its author could know.) For you see, Serenity Falls is no ordinary town, and the secrets that it holds are of the very, very nasty sort.

By the time one gets to the conclusion, in which a most shocking secret is revealed about a character whom we've come to know and... well, love might not be the right word, although we care about him and his fate... I suspect most readers will be thrilled that this is the first in a series.

Do not read this book expecting all of your questions to be answered. Do, however, expect that you will be glad you went on the ride. Save yourself a trip to the bookstore: Buy the entire series at once. You'll thank me later.

The back of this book makes its story sound very intriguing. The problem is, the back of the book is about all you need to read. I kept waiting for the plot to pick up, for the chills to set in, but they never did. Not only is Writ in Blood startingly not scary, it seemed as though Moore couldn't make up his mind on whether or not he actually wanted it to be.

The scenes with Crowley were as unlikely and fantastical as they were sarcastic, the characters shallow caricatures. Moore has some cleverness, and as a wry parody of horror, this might have worked, except that the little bit of wit was bogged down by confusion; Is this a creepy, subtle tale of small town evil or outlandish Buffy the Vampire Slayer? If the answer was intended to be "both," Moore doesn't pull it off. The chapters' three styles don't mesh well, his ideas are clever, but not orginal, and the characters, some interesting and some wooden, remain distant and impersonal. His writing style is short and sweet, but lacks feeling and intrigue, leaving me wondering if the rest of the series will be equally as dry. And well, this first installment is just not scary. And for me, that's an automatic disqualification from being termed good "horror."

sure I'll get some jackass sending me an email saying I was wrong and I owe him 6.99 now, But the fact of the matter is: If you are a fan of well thought out, character thick, epic horror novels such as Mcammon's Swan Song, or King's Salems Lot, or Straub's Floating Dragon. Well then welcome to your new favorite writer. I heard about James A Moore because this book (series) won a Bram Stoker award for best horror novel. So I figured I would check it out. Two months and three books later I was a fan. The thing to me that makes this series so impressive is it's depth. Moore goes all the way back to the beginning of this town to weave you the tale of how it came about to be cursed. The first book--Writ in Blood is a fascinating history lesson of this fictional town. Read these books in order. They are numbered so you can't screw it up. Writ in Blood #1, The Pack#2, Dark Carnival#3. His writing style will keep you turning the page and up late at night wondering what will happen next. Full of twists and turns and "oh thats creepy" moments. Enjoy them I know I did.

I just finished reading this last night and just wish I didn't have to wait for the next two. It is an excellent horror story with fantasy elements, very original piece of work.

It's sort of a combination of Steven King and Neil Gaiman. The horror and fantasy aspects of it mesh very well and the author creates a very believable world. I also liked the historical aspects of it.

Hardly.

Perhaps it isn't fair that I'd just finished Peter Robb's fantastically erudite "M, The Man Who Became Caravaggio" but I found Mr. Moore's sophomoric attempt at horror disappointing, to say the least. Its never quite clear, exactly, what he wants this book to be, and this lack of focus is the book's undoing. Witches, sorcerers, vampires, demons, evil townspeople, and one supernatural Van Helsing type character who drives a car which morphs to any make/year/model of his choosing are all thrown together in an unbelievable mishmash of writing that I'm hard pressed to believe a high schooler didn't pen.

"It was like watching a rabbit on amphetamines blast passed a sloth on Quaaludes".

Trite metaphor and similar typos (grammatical errors?) are found throughout the book.

To be fair, there are some genuinely disturbing moments in this book - but they are not enough to save this raucous mélange of uninspiring, predictable characters, video game-like monsters, and lackluster plot development.

I have been waiting for Moore to return to his quality of writing that he displayed with his book Under the Overtree and have been disappointed, until now. Smooth writing, very good story and development.... it's all here. Highly recommended. The second and third books are longer and just as good. Make sure you read them in order (unlike some idiots reviewing this book).

Looking for some good horror? You've found it. Serenity Falls has the trappings of classic horror tales like Salem's Lot, Wither, The Exorcist, and The Keep. Like those other books Serenity Falls first sets up the everyday life of the community in which it takes place before starting to reveal the horrors that lurk behind seemingly normal doors. I don't want to reveal any more about the story because I feel that horror is best left for the reader to discover at his or her own pace, and to give away details now would take away from your own enjoyment.

The only place where this book fails (besides too many typos!) is that it is only the introduction to the story. This book leads into the confrontations that will take place in the second installment, and I wish that the story had been published in one volume instead of being split into three.