The Groomer

I just finished The Groomer, and I'm not sure how to feel. It's a very well-written book, highly detailed, and for me, what makes a book stand out is its ability to suck me in and how vividly I can picture whatever I read in my mind. That being said, it's a really hard read and it's definitely not for the faint of heart. I'm most certainly not, and I had to put it down several times.Also, it's a horrible and heartbreaking theme, and knowing that these things happen in real life makes it even worse. I really appreciated the epilogue, and I'm tempted to read another book by this author.

The book itself was good. Not a twisty thriller but held your attention. I caution anyone who is thinking about reading this book to tread lightly. It’s not for the faint of heart and is full or graphic gore including adults and children. Some parts rough to get through and only getting through them because I’m not a quitter. I’ll gladly go back to the psychological thrillers I typically read and leave books like this to those who find them interesting.

This is such a messed up book. Well written, but incredibly disturbing. If I was the parent I would do the same thing tbh.

Going into this book, I knew it would challenge me. This was my first read in this more extreme genre, and first time contemplating putting down a book because of the content. But not because the writing itself was bad, oh no. But because it was GOOD, and interesting, and visceral and I felt sick knowing this type of thing really happens.To readers contemplating if they can handle the contents, you don't have to wait long to find out. If you can make it through the first ten chapters, I urge you to continue on.*****Spoilers ahead!!*****Rest assured that the bad guys get what's coming to them. This book isn't gore for the sake of gore. It paints an awful picture of our reality and a giant wake up call for your children's online safety. And despite our reality, we are rewarded with a father's vigilante justice in such a beautifully sad way that we never get to hear about in real life.****End spoilers****I seriously contemplated my rating, but gave 5 stars in the end. I enjoyed the story telling method and the writing style. I even devoured the book in one sitting. I just had to remind myself that my rating has nothing to do with the subject matter - and five stars doesn't mean I enjoy reading about child SA. But Jon Athan was able to make me feel real horror, and in a damn creative way.

This book is very graphic and detailed. I can’t even put the horror into words. I stopped reading in chapter 3 because it made me violently ill. After being assured by online readers that it eased up, I continued on hoping there would at least be justice in the end. Overall the ending nearly made sense. It would have been better if someone took action on the piece of information revealed at the end. I think I’ll stick to police procedural.

this book was really good and hard to put down because it was just super detailed with the writing style, and it really shows you how people can be truly evil. you can’t trust anyone online and must be very careful these days. the ending was not what I was expecting but it definitely made my heart feel heavy cause it’s horrible to know that there are real people out there who do these things :(

This book has scarred me. If you have an issue with gore, child violence, child death, graphic descriptions of death, do not read this book. If you want to be able to sleep at night, don’t read this book. If you want to not hover over your child 24/7 terrified of the world, do not read this book. There is no good guy in this book, only evil. There are chapters that made me nauseous, I love horror books but this was an extreme that I would not recommend to anyone. (Potential spoiler if you really want to read this) There is a part of this book that describes awful violence against a toddler and I almost stopped reading. There is just pointless fruitless violence that I feel is almost unbelievable.

This is the 2nd book, I've read by Jon Athan...WOW...what a great read! I loved this book. It was well written, with a great storyline and believable characters and lots of blood, and violence! Exactly how a Extreme Horror novel should read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great extreme horror story, with lots of emotion. I recently purchased 32 of his books, and cannot wait to read them all! His extreme horror stories, are dark, twisted, violent and extremely disturbing, but always so good, and nearly impossible to put down, once started 😳!! He is definitely one of my favorite Extreme Horror authors and I'll continue to follow and read many more of his books. I also luv the fact, his novels are getting a bit longer, with a little extra meat attached to them....P.S...Awesome book cover!

BOIII did I find out why everyone's so upset. I've been nervous from start to finished and absolutely devoured this book.I really "loved" (you know what I mean) the seperate chapters that told a whole different story of another child. That was TRAUMATISING.Could not recommend it more, but probably going to cry in a corner now.

I asked on Facebook "what is the most disturbing book I can read" and this popped up quite a few times, so obviously purchased it. WOW! GRAPHIC, DISTURBING, HARD TO READ, bare with the first couple of chapters as it is horrendously disturbing if you have children but I was glued untill the last page! Fabulous book!

This was an extreme insight into these preferences of people. Well researched and extremely detailed. I’m glad I pushed myself through the reading.

Wow this book is definitely not for the faint hearted. Very disturbing and people should definitely check the content warnings before continuing with this read.As a parent reading this was like an absolute nightmare. If you push aside the disturbing bits (which is a lot) This book really just shows the love of a parent and how far he would go to find his daughter.