In STOLEN TONGUES by Felix Blackwell, a young couple travels to a remote cabin, where they are terrorized by voices calling out in the night. The situation gets worse when the woman starts whispering back in her sleep. Originally a contest-winning story on Reddit.com’s horror community NoSleep, this horror novel delivers all the creeps and then some.
Stephen King once categorized horror as being horror (grotesque), gross-out (gore), or terror (chilling). He identified the third as being the most powerful, and I’d agree, as it taps into fear of the unknown, and it fires the imagination. The scares in STOLEN TONGUES almost entirely stem from this type of horror, and Blackwell pushes the pedal to the max.
The story starts with the couple being under siege at the cabin and escaping, only to discover the creature has followed them. The creature is pretty well drawn, with its own strange habits, customs, and lore. The effects it has on Faye, the protagonist’s fiancee, are beautifully creepy. I had a lot of fun with it, though it comes in for a very long landing that had me a little impatient, but that was just me, I’m a bit jaded.
I liked it so much I ended up picking up the prequel that Blackwell later wrote, titled THE CHURCH UNDER THE ROOTS, which goes even deeper into the weird lore. I liked that one a lot too.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, the author hasn’t written anything since then, and he said on a podcast that he has anxiety issues and that his sudden success gave him an extraordinary amount of stress. I can absolutely relate. Readers can be beautiful rays of sunshine or absolutely cruel. I know of one author whose second novel completely took off, only for him to suffer near collapse, and another who ended up quitting Big Five publishing and sticking with self-publishing under a pseudonym.
It’s unfortunate, as Blackwell is clearly a talented writer, but maybe he’ll return. Until then, I’d recommend these novels, which offer some great scares.
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