Genre: Horror
Publisher: DarkFuse
Publication Date: 7th July 2015
Pages: 190
MY REVIEW:
I received an advance copy of Devil’s Breath by Greg F. Gifune from Netgalley in exchange for an
honest review. Also this book is published by DarkFuse and you generally cannot
go wrong with anything they put out to the masses.
I have read a few things from Greg Gifune in the past. I
have loved every single one of them. It’s been a while but I was hoping he
still has that same dark and brooding writing style I loved previously. Man has
he still got it or what!
Stan Falk is living a life he would probably rather not.
He lives in coastal Sunset near Cape Cod. It’s a mundane life working as a
dishwasher in a diner and drinking nearly every cent he makes. It’s better than
his old life though. It was a dark, dark place that neither his body nor his
psyche wants to return to.
He wakes up one morning with the mother of all hangovers.
He can’t really remember what he did the night before. He seems to remember a
lot of blood and gets visions of horrific proportions. It must have been a
nightmare.
People tell him they saw him the night before but he
can’t remember. His bank account was emptied by someone. He really needs to
find some answers.
Unfortunately the answers he finds are not what he wanted
to find. It looks like he has entered a world unknown to many. A world full of
old gods and devils. A world full of darkness and evil. He’s been touched by
the Devil’s Breath.
Greg Gifune is a man that has a lot of books out there.
Each one is different in so many ways. The one thing that is consistent
throughout is the fact that his style of writing is superb. Each and every one
of these books is overflowing with a masterfully dark atmosphere that
completely immerses you in the particular story you are reading. If you were
handed a section of pages to read, not knowing who wrote them, you would
immediately know his style if you have read him before. Not many authors can do
that these days. This is what makes him an absolute master of this genre.
In Devil’s Breath there
are not many main characters to concentrate on. We have Stan, a troubled
individual with a past he would rather forget. We learn about this past as the
story goes on. It’s not pretty but it doesn’t put you off Stan as a person. If
anything it makes you like him more. Sophie is someone Stan works with. He starts
to get close with her but realises he is in trouble and doesn’t want her to get
involved. She proves to be a strong one that won’t take no for an answer. Duane
is a homeless dude that Stan gives food to sometimes. He seems to be a soft
sort of a guy but has a lot of secrets.
Then we have a host of other characters on the “evil”
side of things. I can’t tell you anything about these ones because I refuse to
tell you anything more about the story. Rest assured though, they are horrible,
horrible people.
The plot in this book again is quite unique. It has a few
different themes within the main plot that may seem familiar from other books
you may have read but they are all combined in a way that I have certainly never
seen before. You have mysterious old drugs that, when used in the correct way,
give you over to the devil. You have ancient rituals and worshipping of a
god/demon/devil that is part of everyday life but no one really pays attention
to. Apart from the people in the strange cult. You have signs all over the
world that are in everyone’s line of sight every day but no one knows what they
mean. You have crime and you have corruption. To top it all off you have
horror. Dark mysterious horror that Greg Gifune is so very good at writing.
This one switches between what is happening in real time
and flashbacks to what Stan can remember of the fateful night. In the beginning
this can be a little confusing because you are never really sure where it’s
going to go but as the story progresses, it becomes perfectly clear what is
happening. The thing I love about Mr Gifune’s writing and Devil’s Breath is that you believe it. There are elements in this
story that are fact but you lose yourself in the story so much that you end up believing
everything that is happening. That is what makes it so scary to me.
To summarise: A horrific tale of corruption and cults and
ancient rituals all culminating in a modern day horror for one man and you, the
reader. It’s Greg Gifune. Need I say more?
General rating:
★★★★ really good read.
Horror rating:
★★★★ creepy as hell.
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Book Synopsis:
In a dying coastal town near Cape Cod, Stanley Falk lives
a quiet and unassuming life as a dishwasher. A shell of what and who he once
was, Stanley is a man with a dark and violent past who does his best to forget
by drinking it all away. But one morning he awakens to find his meager bank
account emptied and his memory of the drunken evening prior wiped clean.
Vague memories and terrible nightmares of evil gods,
distant planets and a hideous room where torture has been practiced and blood
flows like water haunt his every waking moment. Something depraved is intent on
dragging him back into the same pit of darkness he’s fought his entire life to
crawl out of, and now there are others, in the shadows, watching his every move
and luring him closer to a truth beyond comprehension...beyond evil...beyond
anything he’s ever imagined possible.
You worship what you do not know.
Called "One of the best writers of his
generation" by both the Roswell Literary Review and author Brian Keene,
GREG F. GIFUNE is the author of numerous short stories, several novels,
screenplays and two short story collections (HERETICS and DOWN TO SLEEP). His
work has been published all over the world, consistently praised by readers and
critics alike, received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal
and The Midwest Book Review (among others) and has recently garnered interest
from Hollywood.
His novels include CHILDREN OF CHAOS, DOMINION, THE
BLEEDING SEASON, DEEP NIGHT, BLOOD IN ELECTRIC BLUE, SAYING UNCLE, A VIEW FROM
THE LAKE, NIGHT WORK, DRAGO DESCENDING, CATCHING HELL, JUDAS GOAT and LONG
AFTER DARK. Greg resides in Massachusetts with his wife Carol and a bevy of
cats.
He can be reached online at: gfgauthor@verzion.net
And
for more about Greg, visit his site or find him on social media:
Website - Facebook - Twitter - Goodreads - Amazon Page
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