Helltown (World's Scariest Places)

I chose to read this book because I love the author Stephen King. This book was listed as being as good as one of King’s stories. The book started out slow and did not catch my interest. I closed this book multiple times but decided I would try to finish it hoping it would get better.The author bounced throughout this book. There would be an interesting chapter but the next would focus on a character and their background. Later in the book he introduced more characters that threw me off. I couldn’t understand why they were added or their purpose until I moved further into the final chapters. The ending shared nothing of what happened to the character named “Beetle” or the co-character introduced around the same time. Instead, the ending went to an entirely different scene.I will try reading more books by this author in hopes they turn out differently than “Helltown” had.

I began with Suicide Forest which I loved, then The Catacombs, which wasn't as good, then this one, Helltown. Really? A lot of stupid people, doing stupid things. Take the seven people going to the covered bridge in Halloween, even though they're grown adults going in to the woods on an Autumn evening, the West costumes and the women wear heels??? What about the red necks, hanging out with a doctor, really? They practice black masses together, raping and killing and worshiping satan. Ok. The doctor and his red neck brothers all went to a private school, growing into Satanists and one is a fully educated doctor while the others are retarded rednecks. BTW, the authors words, not mine. It was a silly book, not much made sense, and it was a disappointment.

I enjoyed this tale just as much as the others in this series. This one is a little more violent and deranged than Suicide Forrest and Catacombs. I personally enjoy those types of horror stories. The darker, violent, and depraved the better. This was not that bad on those levels, even a mildly horror enthusiast would enjoy it. I appreciate that each book is a stand alone and has nothing to do with each other. My favorite so far is Suicide Forrest. I think it is important and says a lot when an author can write in a series and not force you to purchase additional books just to get to an ending. Their writing and story telling alone should be enough to encourage additional purchases. That being said, I have read most of Mr. Bates' books and will continue to do so.

I couldn't finish. Not because of violence like some other reviewers, but because this is poorly written and some parts just don't make sense. This author would benefit from a good editor.A kid's head crushed by a radiator falling over? Skull fracture, maybe, but not a B movie head pulping. I quit where the character who is an RN reflects on giving handjobs to make nursing school money instead of even once assessing her friends who were involved in a rollover car accident. Maybe that character should go back to giving handies. Maybe the author should, too. Certainly can't write. It doesn't help the flow of this book when these All-Americans think and speak like Londoners. Not many Americans would use the word "bloody" as a curse word. Also, we reflect fondly on eighth and eleventh grade, not Grade 8 and Grade 11. There are many more even in the fraction of the book I read.

I have really enjoyed the other two novels by Bates that I have read and assumed I would like this one as well. Plus the actual Helltown is only about 30 minutes from where I live, and I have heard most of the lore associated with the township. This book attempts to combine several of the urban legends and results in a disjointed storyline that appears very haphazard if you don't recognize them. The hearse, school bus, snake, satanic church, cry-baby bridge, mutants, and end of the world road and others are all part of the local myths. The characters are all very dislikeable, unbelievable and immature for their well educated, college-aged selves. The dialogue is stilted and fake as are the events linking them in the story. There is a lot of misogyny towards women as well. I was very disappointed in this book and hope Bate's other books are not like this.

Jeremy Bates has quickly become one of my favorite authors. His books are so easy to read. It took me a little longer to get through Helltown than the others. It didn’t seem to have that same easy flowing-ness I love about Bates, but it was still very good.This book is filled with brutal, dark, and graphic content in typical Bates fashion, including brief mentions of animal abuse, rape, necrophilia, satanic rituals, and animal consumption of human corpses. The story itself is very interesting. Bates clearly does a lot of research on these places and Helltown was no exception. It wasn’t as fast paced as I like and expect from Bates and it was unnecessarily wordy. I also felt there were too many characters to keep track of and I never really felt connected to any of them.If this is your first Jeremy Bates book, try Suicide Forest beforehand. It was my first book by the author and remains my favorite. Also, if you do not enjoy stories that include very descriptive, dark, and disturbing content, Bates is probably not the author for you.

I'm a very very big fan of Jeremy Bates, particularly the previous two "World's Scariest Places" novels he has written so this book was a bit of a disappointment to me. I think this differs from his usual writing style - a big build up of the characters, spooky descriptions of real life places that make you feel like you're there with the characters, etc. - in that it just starts off all guns blazing allowing no time to get to know the characters and really care about what they were going through. I honestly felt like I knew the 'baddies' more than the 'goodies' and were more interested in them than the poor innocent bland characters that were being killed in various barbaric ways.The writing is still good, the description (when there) does paint a vivid picture but as a World's Scariest Place book, I just think it really lacks the build up and suspense I have come to expect to make it a really great, creepy, factual, page turning horror. If you're a fan of gore this is definitely a good read and overall I wish I could give it a few more stars as I have done for the others.

I read most of 'The World's Scariest Places' books and have enjoyed them all. But this one is so unbelievable and with each chapter not continuing from the previous one (i.e. different happenings to different people), it makes it very difficult to remember where the continuation of a previous chapter ended, especially if one only reads for 15 minutes or so at a time. Disappointing.

A group of students go away on a weekend trip looking for adventure. It is Halloween and they are going to place called "Helltown" It has a long history of hauntings, murder, devil worship and much more. They get more than they bargained for and encounter devil worshipers, giant killer snakes, backwoods morons in a weekend that will see onlytwo of them survive!This story has you on the edge of your seat, and wanting more. Brilliant.

Absolutely loved the film quotes on the chapters great characters story creepy and thrilling laugh out loud moments too only the second book I've read from this author and I have to say enjoyed both please buy and read for yourself you won't be disappointed .

Fairly standard horror fare, neither tense nor particularly horrific, however there is a decent start and the promise of satanic involvement will keep you turning pages. Very reminiscent of Richard Laymon in it's simplicity and focus on murderous characters. The final third is rather disappointing with a cop-out conclusion.Non-specific spoiler below, in regards to the genre of this book:Certainly horror, not supernatural, so don't be mislead by the marketing