The Damned Place

By: Chris Miller

Narrated by: Daniel Caravetta

Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

A small town with dark secrets. A house hidden in the woods that holds horrors unimaginable. Four friends on summer break fighting off a group of bullies dead set on ruining their summer of fun. The little town of Winnsboro has buried its secrets beneath years of history and faded memories. But it’s about to be unearthed, releasing ancient creatures as a budding psychopath blooms.

Will they survive what comes for them - and possibly the world - or will the damned place end it all?

©2019 Chris Miller (P)2019 Chris Miller

loved it

Loved this story it put me in the mind of Stephen Kings IT! Will purchase the sequel

borrows a lot from other beloved works

it's entertaining and fairly well paced

there's a very long story that is told within the main story that is actually more interesting than the main story. I wanted more of THAT story.

there are obvious nods to Stranger Things and Stephen King's IT.

the comradery of the main characters is well done. you end up really caring about them...which is very important

i felt that the two bullies in the novel were completely unrealistic and unnecessary... like certain franchise films that try to crowbar in too many bad guys.

also the adults are not very believable

overall it's fun...but felt that it could've been better

Great Story

If bad narrators kick you out of books, Daniel Caravetta is one of the best out there, so don’t worry about that part.

Chris Miller puts together a creative, unique story with description that makes you feel like you are there watching everything happen. Great character building. You cheer for the heroes and hate the bad guys. The novel is over 500 pages, but never drags. You are always wondering what is going to happen next.

Full spectrum emotion wrenching horror. I loved it.

Where to start.. I have quite an affinity for horror, especially when the preternatural is involved. I have also read Chris’s other books and loved them so naturally I was more than stoked when this hit the ‘shelf.’

He really hit the ground running with this one. Unlike many typical horror novels written with little more substance than cheap flashbang and shock, in The Damned Place, the full depth and spectrum of the human experience is expressed. Thoughtfully scribed and totally riveting, the attention to even the smallest detail leaves the imagination wanting very little. I quickly became so immersed in this world of violation and revenge that I felt as if I could... no, should jump in and help save the day. I literally finished this book in less than a week. I could not shut it off. Still, I wish it wasn’t over.

I gave this book four stars (I would have done 3.5) instead of five for one reason alone. I’m a bit of a sensitive Catholic so the blasphemies and sexual content were a bit much for me. That being said, I absolutely cannot wait for Chris Miller’s next work. He is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors

prompt review

great story, great narrator, could have used more careful polishing from editor, to much swearing!

Amazing as a whole package, story could use work

I'll start with the good:

The performance that Daniel Caravetta gives is nothing short of amazing. I listen to a lot of audiobooks and can say that he is now among one of my favorite narrators based on this production alone.

He has a good range, reads dramatically while still being light and engaging, and performs great dialogue without getting too cartoony or overly annoying. He strikes the perfect balance between entertaining an informative. So I would say the audiobook as a whole is worth picking up just to listen to him.

All that said, the story itself has some pitfalls, but I'll go into those after getting through what all it does right.

One of the best things about this book is how it presents its ideas. The pacing and narrative all flow, with one exception, very well and keep you on the edge of your seat as you press on through this world of juvenile delinquents and blood-soaked beasts. The worldbuidling that is done through this process forms places in my mind I can actually imagine as real and how they function.

The descriptions of the pain, torture, and nightmare-inducing scenarios the kids in the book go through is done almost expertly, but there are some exceptions which I'll talk about later. In terms of the things that happen in the book, as in the story itself, it works very well and has a good ending where (spoilers) character deaths feel earned and like a cheap plot device.

Now for the not-so-good:

I'm not a fan of censorship, and there's none of that here, but some of the incest and underage sexual incidents verge on gratuitous. Part of me understands why the moments are in the story, but I think they would have gone a lot farther in terms of shock factor and additional creepiness by having less of it happen.

For example, there's a part in the middle of the book where a historical narrative is given to add some background to the story. A lot of the things that happen in it are meant to show a family's decent into complete depravity, but the number of incidents and how it occurs seems to happen to rapidly and intensely. Another describes one of the bullies dominating one of his family members, but it's brought up far too frequently to be effective as a narrative tool.

A few odd similes also took me out of the story. I can't think of any off the top of my head, but one was something to the effect of "they hunted for her like semen hunts for an egg," and that example isn't the only one of its kind. Odd word choices like "butt" instead of "behind" or "ass" kind of bugged me too, but I might be getting too nitpicky with something like that.

There is one part where a man is going out to fix a well pump for another guy, and the segment goes on just a little too long and doesn't have any place later on in the story. There are other examples of scenes that seem to go on for too long, or plot elements that don't go anywhere, but they don't detract from the story too much. They're just small things that could have worked better on the editing room floor.

Overall:

I hate that Audible makes it so you have to give star/number ratings for things. I feel like they don't mean anything and I spend more time trying to come up with what "the perfect rating" should be than I do on the actual review. That being said, ignore my star rating and pay more attention to what I've said. The nitpicks I have are more a preference, and the story is very much worth your time.

This is my first time listening to a book by Chris Miller, and after my time with this one, I think I'll read more. If his other books are anything like this one, I'm sure he'll have a good career ahead of him.

Very disturbing elements infused with violence and

Some very disturbing elements involving children, gratuitous violence, torture, and incest infused throughout the story along with a healthy dose of pure horror. I enjoyed this book for the most part, but the incest and sexualized violence against children took me out of the story a couple times.

The other part that I found to be a bit strange was that parts of the narrative were clearly mirrored off of Stephen King's "It". The author even references a scene from sir Pennywise the clowns tale in which the bully carves his initials into poor Ben Hanscom's chubby belly. I will say that the Damned Place definitely takes a departure from King's original, and it was enough to make me forget about the blatant parallels long enough to finish and enjoy this yarn.

An interdimensional evil eating machine that lives to devour flesh is terrorizing a group of preteens in the Damned Place, and I recommend you take a trip yourself and see the horrific world, but buyer beware...it's not for the faint of heart, or stomach.

Poor mans IT

Worth a listen but if you haven’t listened to IT Use the credit to buy the original.

repetitive stopped at chapter 65

The story was scary but got really repeitive. kept retelling scenes from different characters points of view. I get that it's necessary sometimes so you understand the character but.......sigh.....I just got tired of hearing about the same event 3 different times every time. I liked the narrator, he is good. I might try and finish later..... honestly I had a hard time listening to the last few chapters that I did. Stinks because I was REALLY pulled in until about chapter 45.....Lost Interest.

Hmm mm, but good

This is a pretty listen, but still it reminds you of "IT", but still good.
Now, I can't agree with the situation that one of the kids does to an adualt, that really just didn't need to be spoken of the number of times it was during my listen.