Book Review: Dark Halls by Jeff Menapace
**This one made Kim’s Top 10 of 2020, but we ran out of days to have it posted, so fittingly her review for Dark Halls is our first review of 2021! **
Dark Halls
Author: Jeff Menapace
Published: October 31, 2019
277 Pages
Reviewed By: Kim
Kim’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Highland Elementary has a dark and disturbing past. . .so disturbing that locals ultimately burned the school to the ground.
Years later, Pinewood Elementary is the future, and for new teacher Ryan Herb, a chance at a fresh start. But the townspeople don’t believe that rebuilding the school and changing its name is enough. They believe that whatever evil inhabited the halls of Highland still dwells at Pinewood.
Ryan is a realist and isn’t the type to be affected by local lore. But when Ryan begins to experience horrifying visions of past tragedies, he starts to question his own beliefs. Something in the school is reaching out to Ryan for help, a potentially lethal request as something else – or someone else – in the school is keen on keeping the evil therein very much alive.
Can a skeptical Ryan unearth the origins of the evil’s true source and put an end to it? Or will he, like many before him, become a permanent resident of the school himself?
Rife with supernatural terror and intrigue, ‘Dark Halls’ blurs the lines between horror and mystery – a whodunit that, when solved, proposes the even greater question of: How do you stop it?
Kim’s Review:
Creepy AF! I was attracted by the cover, which I didn’t include in the 2020 tournament cuz I knew no one else shares my love of the creepy horror covers. Then the description pulled me in and was it worth it!! I was creeped out from the beginning! Barely 20 pages in and I was scared. Spirits appearing, kids with abnormally large smiles and white eyes, murders and suicides, a haunted school … is anyone really surprised that I read this book? (Shout out to Alana for getting it for me for Christmas!) I wouldn’t call the story predictable, even though I guessed the identity of the villain relatively early. The easy reveal was in exchange for an engaging plot and crazy atmosphere! I’d even say the ending is considered open, yet I was happy and fulfilled with it! I read this book quickly and easily and it held me till the very end! I would absolutely recommend Dark Halls to anyone looking for a good horror book!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
