A Blackened Heart, A Blackened Soul by John Ward

Evil walks among us. It watches. It waits.

John Tinsley’s life was shattered as a child when he lost his mother in a tragic car accident—but that was only the beginning. From that moment, a dark entity marked him, one intent on destroying everything and everyone he loves. Haunted by visions, hunted by shadows, and carrying the scars of his childhood, John must now confront the darkness as an adult, facing a malevolent force that has followed him into every stage of his life.

A Blackened Heart, A Blackened Soul is a gripping tale of supernatural horror and psychological suspense, chronicling one man’s lifelong battle against a being determined to consume his life, his love, and his very soul. Will John survive, or will the darkness finally claim him?

 

John Tinsley was 8 years old when he was traumatized by the car accident that killed his mother and left his father paralyzed. Struggling with his grief, he is not afraid at first when he is visited by an entity that has taken on the appearance of his mother. It seems comforting to him, until it's too late.

Having enjoyed one of the author's middle-grade horror stories, I was excited to see what he would do with his first adult horror novel, but for me, this was just an OK read. I did not hate it. I did not love it.

The multiple points of view were heavy on narration and I would have preferred a little less. Young Johnny's narration bothered me the most. An 8 year old's mind doesn't use phrases like  "being eager to right the ship"  or "trying to be more upbeat." It just felt so unnatural to me, like he was a much older man instead of a little boy. It left me feeling disconnected from this character the most out of all of them. I only truly cared about the dog.

There were some well written scenes with the demonic activity, and heartbreaking developments with grandma and Johnny's dad, but even part 2 of the book that skips ahead 25 years to an adult Johnny still had more inner dialogue than I care for. Some passages felt unnecessarily long. For example, if a character drives somewhere, I don't need to be told they put the car in park when they arrived. I don't want to nitpick over a long list of reasons why this was not for me, so I will just say that you may enjoy this book more than I did. Lots of people loved it.

My thanks to Crystal Lake Publishing for the e-ARC