Title: Devil’s Creek

Author: Todd Keisling

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BPF8JJ7G/?coliid=I1YQ33B6NJU2CG

Summary

About fifteen miles west of Stauford, Kentucky lies Devil’s Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices—a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god.

And like most legends, there’s truth buried among the roots and bones.

In 1983, the church burned to the ground following a mass suicide. Among the survivors were Jacob’s six children and their grandparents, who banded together to defy their former minister. Dubbed the “Stauford Six,” these children grew up amid scrutiny and ridicule, but their infamy has faded over the last thirty years.

Now their ordeal is all but forgotten, and Jacob Masters is nothing more than a scary story told around campfires.

For Jack Tremly, one of the Six, memories of that fateful night have fueled a successful art career—and a lifetime of nightmares. When his grandmother Imogene dies, Jack returns to Stauford to settle her estate. What he finds waiting for him are secrets Imogene kept in his youth, secrets about his father and the church. Secrets that can no longer stay buried.

The roots of Jacob’s buried god run deep, and within the heart of Devil’s Creek, something is beginning to stir…

My Review

5/5 Stars

The small town of Stauford has an ugly past. A religious cult. A lot of death. And six surviving children. When Jack’s grandmother, the woman who saved him from the cult as a kid, dies, he has no idea what’s in store for him back home.

A large portion of what the main characters dealt with was their trauma from their childhood. I thought that was an interesting and powerful theme choice. The way that some characters broke from the weight of it and the way that others used it to get stronger.

I read this for the 2024 Books of Horror brawl and put it off as one of the last books to tackle because I was intimidated by the size of it. Once I got into the story, I didn’t want it to end. It was an  epic beast that lowkey reminded me of The Stand.

Small town evil done right.