{"id":7692,"date":"2020-06-16T18:54:51","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T22:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/?p=7692"},"modified":"2020-06-17T10:21:43","modified_gmt":"2020-06-17T14:21:43","slug":"book-review-stranger-still-by-michaelbrent-collings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/book-review-stranger-still-by-michaelbrent-collings\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Stranger Still by Michaelbrent Collings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Stranger Still\u00a0<\/em>by Michaelbrent Collings (\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a> )<\/p>\n

Written Insomnia Press, 2020<\/p>\n

ISBN: 978-8615415890<\/p>\n

Availability: Paperback, Kindle<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two ordinary people (young newlyweds, of course) are abducted by a psychopathic torturer-killer who plans to take them somewhere and make mincemeat out of them, for his own fiendish pleasure.\u00a0 You’ve seen or read that plot a million times, probably more.\u00a0 \u00a0It takes a writer with the skill of Michaelbrent Collings to take an old plot, jazz it up with a few twists, and make it seem totally new.\u00a0 Chalk this one up as another success for him in the horror\/thriller genre.\u00a0 If you’ve read Collings before, you know exactly what you’re getting into.\u00a0 It’s the usual rocket-sled ride of excitement. Each chapter is a dopamine hit that leaves the reader wanting more, leading to another chapter\u2026and another\u2026and another\u2026 until you’re done with the book and start waiting for him to publish another one.\u00a0 It’s a good thing he writes fast!<\/p>\n

Danielle and Alex Anton are a newly married couple, driving across the remote highways of America on their honeymoon, when they are waylaid and abducted by Sheldon Steward. \u00a0This Sheldon is no lovable dork like the one on The Big Bang Theory. <\/em>He is a sociopath of the highest order, with zero concept of right or wrong, and is equally adept at dealing pain or using chemicals to prolong agony.\u00a0 However, Sheldon has made the mistake of abducting Danielle and Alex in view of the central character of the book, a man (or is he?) known as\u2026 Legion.\u00a0 Legion is a sociopath also, but he’s like The Boondock Saints, <\/em>he only “kills for good”. With his ability to withstand pain and destroy enemies in seconds (often in a wonderfully bloody way), Legion makes John Rambo seem like a sissy-pants.\u00a0 Legion’s abilities are on full display in the first chapter, when he intercepts a convenience store stick-up.\u00a0 One of the robbers is shot dead, the other gets her jaw ripped off.\u00a0\u00a0 As noted earlier, when Legion teaches people the error of their ways, it’s usually quite messy.<\/p>\n

The basic thread of the story is Sheldon and Legion on a collision course, but as always with a Collings novel, there’s a slew of curveballs in the plot.\u00a0 Without giving away the rest of the story, it involves the Russian Mafia and meth labs, plus Alex Anton may not be quite the person he seems.\u00a0 It adds an edge of unpredictability to the story, and keeps the reader guessing while turning pages.\u00a0 That’s what makes horror\/thriller novels by Collings so much fun; they never stay on the straight and narrow path.\u00a0 They always veer off to add new elements, and that’s what keeps the reader hooked.\u00a0 Add in all the quirks of his characters that keep them from seeming mundane, and the whip-crack speed of the writing, and you have a book that’s hard, if not impossible, to put down<\/p>\n

Like Stephen King and the tag team of Doug Preston and Lincoln Child, Collings is truly remarkable for two reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. he produces a high quantity of output (seems like he gets out at least one a year)<\/li>\n
  2. it’s always high quality<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There aren’t many authors like that, they’re hard to come by.\u00a0 Collings is one.\u00a0 When he releases anything new, it’s a red banner day, and this book is definitely cause for a red banner.\u00a0 \u00a0Highly recommended.<\/p>\n

    Note: this book is a sequel to his 2014 novel Strangers<\/em>, but it can be read as a stand-alone.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Contains: profanity, graphic violence.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Reviewed by Murray Samuelson<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Stranger Still\u00a0by Michaelbrent Collings (\u00a0Amazon.com ) Written Insomnia Press, 2020 ISBN: 978-8615415890 Availability: Paperback, Kindle   Two ordinary people (young newlyweds, of course) are abducted by a psychopathic torturer-killer who plans to take them somewhere and make mincemeat out of them, for his own fiendish pleasure.\u00a0 You’ve seen or read that plot a million times,<\/p>\n

    Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1178,2243,4118,4469,4470,3502],"class_list":["post-7692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-human-horror","tag-michaelbrent-collings","tag-serial-killers","tag-stranger-still","tag-strangers","tag-thriller-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7692"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7697,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7692\/revisions\/7697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monsterlibrarian.com\/TheCirculationDesk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}