Review and Author QA: Forsaken

Book: Forsaken by Andrew Van Wey
Published by Greywood Bay; Sept 2011
335 pages
Genres: Thriller/Suspense/Horror
I received this title from the author in exchange for an honest review.
(This book counts as book two on my RIP reading challenge. See blog sidebar)
Disclaimer: This book contains a couple very graphic scenes involving animals, they’re short scenes, but again quite unsettling.

Synopsis via Goodreads: The painting loomed, large and foreboding. At a little over six feet tall and five feet wide, it wasn’t the strangest he’d ever seen, but close. A girl with a wounded, sack-like face; a boy with pinhole eyes and a cruel sneer; and a distant shadow peering out from behind a dying tree, all stared back at him.
Yet it wasn’t only the subjects that challenged him, but the note that came with the anonymous painting.
"Here in Art, Denial."
For professor Daniel Rineheart, these four words herald a riddle that sets off a surreal nightmare. Where objects from his past manifest in canvas and oil. Where painted clocks tick-tock away in the dark hours before dawn and a missing dog whimpers from between the walls. Where the painted subjects themselves leave the canvas to stalk the halls of his once quiet house.
And where all answers lead back to a blind artist and an impossible creation, one that threatens to destroy his family and devour his sanity.
FORSAKEN is a dark novel, a throwback to the haunted tales that slowly boil and get beneath the skin, sticking with the reader far after the pages are closed and the story's concluded. It's a dark tale that blends the line between the psychological and the supernatural, and challenges the reader to descend into a maddening world where past and present blend together, where the blind see far beyond the living veil, and where evil comes alive in oil and art.

I loved the synopsis, I was intrigued instantly. I love when books kind of mess with your head, which is exactly what this book does. There are a few gruesome scenes, but most what is really scary about this book is whether or not something is real or are the character’s eyes playing tricks on them.

The story itself is amazing. I was completely drawn in almost immediately. There is believability to about these characters that I really liked; they could easily be that family that lives down the street. The story had so many super creepy parts that I did not want to read this book before I went to bed. Even when I was reading this book in broad daylight, I was very jumpy, kept shifting in my spot on the couch and nearly died when my dog hopped on my lap.

There was a bit of a “whodunit” feel to parts of the novel and part of what I enjoyed about this novel was that it kept you guessing and there was so much to try to figure out what was going to happen next. Sometimes I was right, other times I was way off.

The pacing of the novel is great. It does flit from setting to setting quite a bit, but it works really well for this book. I feel that it’s one aspect of the book that adds to the creepy factor. I read this book in a few settings, but I think that it could easily be read faster (if you’re not a scardycat like me). Usually, I’m on the fence about thrillers, but I loved this one and I would read more like this one and more from this author.

Andrew Van Wey was kind enough to agree to an interview. You can read below. For more information on Andrew and his work check out his website here.

 

Q.  How did you come up with the idea for Forsaken?

 

FORSAKEN came about from an image: a man standing before a massive painted canvas that contained a decayed landscape.  Children and shadows and sickly trees among a vast field.  The image was beautiful, but spoke of rot and distortion. Everything was askew, from the children’s eyes and features to the canvas itself.  The more I thought about that image the more I realized that the man didn’t make the painting, but found it.  He was, like me, trying to discover the story behind it.  Who could create such a thing, and why?  Art tries to convey something, to speak to the viewer.  What was this painting saying? From there it grew organically.  The more this man searched for the answers, the more the painting reacted, transformed, grew.  The search for the artist behind it would be a search for a dangerous answer that could, ultimately, drive someone insane. 

Q.  There are some pretty graphic scenes involving animals and children. Were those scenes hard to write?

There’s kind of an old horror trope where you can’t harm animals, old people, or children.  Well, all 3 get hurt in Forsaken in one form or another.  Was it hard to write?  Absolutely.  I try never to do anything that’s just for shock and not for story.  But let’s face it: old people die, animals run off, and children get hurt.  I’ve taught for several years and find children to far more honest about mortality than adults. 

Q.  I loved the ending, it was almost a "gotcha" moment. Have you had mixed reactions to it?

None so far.  I’m sure I will.  That said, I think most respond positively because it was genuinely set up and not out of left field.  I hate an arbitrary twist for the sake of having it there.  Everything that’s set up is concluded, in one form or another.

Q.  Have you always written "scary" stories or have you explored other genres?

Scary stories interest me the most, whether it’s an element of the supernatural or the psychological.  I think there’s nothing scarier than going insane, and that doesn’t have a single ghost in it.  Most of my current stories tend to blend the two.  I’m interested in how normal, sane people react to situations that are supernatural.

Q.  This was a book I did not want to read before going to bed. Did you ever feel that way writing it?

Wow, that’s high praise indeed!  Absolutely, I felt disturbed writing it, no question.  Some of the creepiest scenes came about in the hours between midnight and dawn. I often ended out writing until the room was flooded with light and no shadows remained.  I tend to get my best work done at night, but unfortunately it’s also when I’m the jumpiest so I had spent a lot of days with dark circles beneath my eyes after.

Q.  Are you relieved knowing that your book will definitely scare some readers?

I hope, besides being scared, that they find the story enjoyable, the characters real, and the mystery intriguing.  I hope they read it again to see what they missed and what new puzzle pieces they can spot.  And besides that I’m very happy whenever I can spook a few readers with my words.     

Q.  What is your next project?

I’m wrapping up a novel for a Winter release, titled THE LOST COAST.  It’s a location based supernatural thriller set in a lighthouse 20 miles off the coast.  It’s about a glassmaker who creates a lens strong enough to pierce into the world beyond.  This lighthouse becomes a beacon for the dead and, like moths to a flame, the once-living return to the lighthouse, including someone very close to him.  I’m very excited about it, and I think readers will really get a kick out of the story and the setting.  

Q.  What would you like to say to entice readers to give your book a shot?

If they like the early works of King, Barker, and Straub, they’ll probably like FORSAKEN.  If they prefer vampires that twinkle, zombies that run, or want a gore soaked slasher, this isn’t for them.  I wrote this because growing up I loved books like The Damnation Game, Pet Semetary, and Ghost Story. I wanted to return to that type of horror.  Intelligent, atmospheric, mystery that blends the psychological and the supernatural, the real and the surreal, and takes the reader on a maddening journey into the unknown.

Q.  Anything random you'd like to share just for fun?

I’m always sharing random stuff at my blog, perhaps a bit too much.  I’m documenting every aspect of FORSAKEN, from the sales count to the costs to the ups and downs.  I’m a big believer in transparency and if any readers want to head over and tell me what a terrible hack they think I am, they’re more than welcome to.