PASSING THE TORCH
by L.L.
Sanders
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB
Mesa Kingston's first
memory of burying a corpse was at eight years old. Back then it had been the
carcass of a large lizard her dad found that they buried in the backyard of
their isolated cottage. At age fourteen, the body of a young lady accompanied
the reptile's remains, and ever since, an accumulation of female bodies began
to grow. Now, the only way Mesa can stop the haunting screams of the dead is by
drowning them out with flames. Or is there more to the blaze than even she can
perceive?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt
The wailing sirens grow louder as they approach, making the
singed hairs on my arms stand up as anticipation prickles beneath my skin.
Strands of my hair blow against my face, tickling my nose and briefly reminding
me of the life I was willingly leaving behind. No more fussing over which
shampoos and leave-in conditioners were best suited for my hair, no more being
embarrassed when the manicurist added the dull-pink nail polish to my nails
that unintentionally blends with my natural skin tone, no more ordinary life
for an ordinary girl.
But have I ever been an ordinary girl with an ordinary life,
or was my urge to be normal greater than my reality? That question was too
obvious to answer, and I would've chuckled at the ridiculousness of it at any
other time.
Now as I walk farther from the cottage along the narrow
trail—worn and barren from the years of traffic—I'm hit with a devastating
realization … I can still hear the agonizing screams.
No matter how much or how long I try to shut out the noise,
I fail. Nothing helps, not a thought, a memory, not even the smell of burnt
wood in the air can distract me from the noise. Each tactic eventually leads me
right back to the screams.
I grab the wire of the makeshift fence with one hand, the
fence my dad had built to separate our property from the rest of the desert. It
didn't matter much. Our cottage was the only structure for many miles, built by
Grandpa decades ago near a remote lake. Even so, erecting a fence and creating
a yard may have been Dad's attempt at being normal too.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MY REVIEW
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm still speechless...
Wow, this is a short story, but so powerful, the amount of emotions left me drained, I was all night rolling in bed, thinking how many young girls are dealing with situations like this one? Heartbreaking.
The Author develops this situation in a really respectful and tasteful way, I enjoyed how the chapters take us back and forward, is really a page turner. If I could, I'd give this book ten stars.
Highly Recommended.
*I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review*
Wow, this is a short story, but so powerful, the amount of emotions left me drained, I was all night rolling in bed, thinking how many young girls are dealing with situations like this one? Heartbreaking.
The Author develops this situation in a really respectful and tasteful way, I enjoyed how the chapters take us back and forward, is really a page turner. If I could, I'd give this book ten stars.
Highly Recommended.
*I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review*
AUTHOR Bio and Links
The L.L.
stands for Leslie Lee. I write erotic romance and post-apocalyptic/dystopian
fiction under Leslie Lee Sanders.
But horror
and thriller fiction is what I grew up on, what inspires me, and what began my
pursuit to authorship. I’ve written many short scary stories since the 6th
grade. Now they’re much more mature in general, thanks to the wide range of
emotion and experience I’ve encountered over the years.
I’m a huge
fan of horror and psychological thrillers in every fashion, including movies,
books, art, campfire tales, etc. Some of my favorite stories are those that
twist at the end or are ambiguous with deep societal or morality themes. This
includes dystopias like Hugh Howey’s Wool, psychological thrillers like Shutter
Island, and popular and classic horror/romances like V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in
the Attic, my favorite.
All my ideas
start with a twist, which is exactly how most of my stories end.
FACEBOOK:
https://www.facebook.com/lls4sanders
TWITTER:
https://twitter.com/LeslieLSanders
WEBSITE:
http://llsanders.com/
AMAZON BUY
LINK: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TNTLTZY
GIVEAWAY
$10 Amazon/BN GC and 3 PDFs of PASS THE TORCH
Thanks for hosting me today & for the great review! I'll be checking in all day to answer any questions and respond to comments. Thanks for your interest in Passing the Torch!
ReplyDeleteReaders, let's discuss ... Do you enjoy stories short enough to read in one sitting but deep enough to stay with you long after?