Jack & Jill

You know it's saying something when you message the author after finishing it and want an answer to it all. I got that answer but I am sworn to secretcy.This is the third book I have read by this author and I am loving them all. They're just so cleverly written to the point my head is mashed by the end. I have to sit and ponder over them before I even review. They really make me think. They may be short descriptive horrors but boy are they hard to forget!Jack & Jill is both about the past and present. It's definitely a psychological read! Brutal. Dark. Descriptive. You will have questions after. But I loved it. I still have questions now. The author has written it in a way that the reader interprets what happens and their view over it all. Again clever. But I wanted more. Gripping. Thrilling. Fast paced. Page turner of a read. Gruesome ending. Highly recommend. A well deserved four stars from me.

'My flesh tingles, the grass whispers against my face. Dew wets my lips. I close my eyes and it is as if the world is moving and I am lying still.It goes on forever, dream-time stretching to delay the imminent horror.And then it comes.'This book is INTENSE! I never read a whole book in a day and even though this is a novella clocking in at just under a hundred pages I fully intended to take my time with it.However, over the course of a day I found myself coming back to it again and again to read a little more and before I knew it I couldn't tear my eyes away until I finished.This book gets it's hooks (or is that coat hanger hands?) into you and doesn't let go. And the ending! It gets dark. By which I mean darker than a dark place in dark town. I felt emotionally wiped out after reading this.Without giving anything away this book is about a married couple, Gillian and Chris, and their children. Gillian is suffering from nightmares, reliving horrors from her childhood and the death of her brother. The past is unravelling her current family life. Can she reconcile previous events and confront her own personal monster before her present life fully falls apart?This novella is the perfect length. The characterisation is realistic and immersive. The writing is spot on, both the descriptions and the scenes of dialogue. Marital and family problems are laid bare with brutal honesty.If you're thinking of reading this one then please be warned that there is a theme of child abuse in this book but the author is good enough that he doesn't have to explicitly show any abuse to keep you gripped by horror with this story.Did I enjoy this book? Enjoy seems like the wrong type of word. I don't even know what word I do need because I keep coming back to how INTENSE and DARK it gets.In that respect it's job done by the author and I have to give it ✨✨✨✨✨ 5 stars because this story will stay with me for a long while.

Kealan Patrick Burke's Jack and Jill is the bleakest of horror novellas, a view from within an unstable mind framing the fallout of trauma and abuse without sentiment or sugar-coating. It is not an easy read, nor will you find easy answers by the end which I feel is by design. KPB wants us to know what it's like to live as Gillian, the survivor of horrific childhood abuse whose traumatic nightmares are spilling over into her family life, where every facet of daily life is tainted by the past and discerning the lines between what happened and what is become increasingly blurred. For a short novella, KPD packs more nuance, character development and tension into it's brief pages than many big name authors do with entire tomes. A highly recommended novella, if you think you can handle the subject matter.⁣

“God sees all. My father’s words, echoing in my head. And God approves.”Gillian is haunted by nightmares of the abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father. It’s affecting all aspects of her life, she hasn’t been at work for weeks, her children are wary of her and her marriage is starting to fail. In her nightmares she’s chased by a figure she believes to be her father. For her first step on the road to recovery she visits her father, seeing him for the first time in years. Things go south from there.The book is dark and twisty and will leave you feeling a little unclean. Gillian is a very unreliable narrator, as her dreams spill over into her waking hours, but it’s hard not to be sympathetic to her plight. This little book packs a massive punch and I couldn’t recommend it enough.

This excellent novella from KPB deals with a particularly unsettling and horrific topic, Gillian is married with two kids and is plagued by nightmares of the abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father.Her nightmares and the fall out, place a tremendous strain on the relationship with her family and she decides to confront her issues head on, with a visit to the origin of all the pain.This story is distressing in places, very well written and completely consuming. Stand out parts for me were Gillian’s visit to her mentally ill and seriously deluded father, the visions she experiences as her nightmares blend into reality and the chilling nightmares themselves. When the past resurfaces in horrific circumstances, she decides to act in the most brutal way imaginable.Loads of quotes amidst some wonderful prose, here’s one that stayed with me.“I am twelve, John is nine, and we have not yet learned of death. Pain and horror, however, are kindred. They visit us nightly, and take away little pieces of our soul. We live in nightmare and escape during daylight.”Highly Recommended.

A very dark tale from Kealan Patrick Burke but one I really enjoyed! It deals with a lot of dark themes so please be careful there. But I really enjoyed it! Another great Burke and one I strongly recommend

You are never gonna be disappointed with Kealan Patrick Burke. His new novella is just as enjoyable as anything else he has written. I found this book deeply disturbing but fantastic at the same time. One chapter scared the absolute bejesus outta me. 5 stars again