PACT
My second release was PACT (Aug 22). As I did with Obsession last week, I will review and analyse this story to see how it has aged, consider if there is anything I would change, and generally share my thoughts, all in the spirit of celebrating the book birthday of my latest horror tale, RED, later this month.
REVIEWERS BLOG
A huge thank you to Janie for this review, which sums up Pact beautifully.
“Confused and drunk, an elderly man struggles to uncover the source of his fear and dread. Something lingers in the essence of his home, and constant memories of his deceased wife hover at the edge of his memories. They were supposed to try to communicate with each other after one of them had died. Who could be knocking so steadfastly at the edge of his fading consciousness? It will take a vampire of human flesh and soul to decadently unravel the truth. What is your deepest desire?”
BACKGROUND
After writing Obsession, I was supposed to get stuck back into my Novel… but I ended up playing around with another concept which was on my mind… and PACT was born. I initially wrote Pact in the third person to try and practise a different writing style, but after a re-read, I decided that I had to go back and change it to first person present, and I am so happy I went with this decision. PACT was the first story I sent off for Beta Reading, and I must thank the fantastic Silja Evelyn for a sterling job with this.
RECEPTION
On Goodreads, Pact currently has 22 ratings and 15 reviews, with an average score of 4.64.
On Amazon, Obsession has 15 ratings, with an average of 4.5
Pact remains my highest-scoring story, which is fascinating, as I never had high expectations for this one.
MY HONEST THOUGHTS
I read through PACT recently, and diving back into this nasty little tale was a lot of fun. I feel delighted with the story's flow, and I think my pacing was spot on with PACT, with events occurring and being unveiled at just the right moment. The atmosphere was unsettling and creepy, and I loved William's character development as he came to terms with the truth behind his memory loss. Although PACT is not my favourite piece of work, I can see why many readers enjoy this story. Overall, I feel the writing within PACT is an improvement over Obsession, but I would like to know your thoughts.
WHAT NEXT?
I believe PACT is a genuinely original story, and I haven’t read anything quite like it. I have a sequel in mind called MEAT, but I have no realistic time frame for release. If, however, PACT reaches 50 ratings on Amazon and Goodreads, I will drop everything and place all my focus on the sequel.
IN CLOSING
PACT is my highest-rated story, but after re-reading it, I still do not know the magic formula. I couldn’t be prouder of this story, which often gets overlooked in favour of Obsession. If I had to rate PACT, I would place it (slightly) above Obsession, just because of the flow and originality of the story. I am overwhelmed by the response to this novelette, and I would like to offer a huge thank you to all who have checked this one out.
Yours in horror,
Daniel Lorn
Yours in horror,
Daniel Lorn