Hell's Half-Acre

A Novel

By: Nicholas Nicastro

Narrated by: Aven Shore

Welcome to the bloody end of bleeding Kansas....

Based on true events, this unforgettable novel tells the story of the Bloody Benders, a family of grifters and thieves running an isolated feed store on the Kansas plains, boarding travelers along the Great Osage Trail.

Beautiful Kate Bender was mysterious and well-versed in the dark arts; Ma and Pa were quiet and foreboding, speaking in guttural tones; and young John Bender was thought to be insane. On land soaked with the blood of conflict, the Benders made their home. And one by one, prairie travelers began to disappear....

Rooted in history, this is a vivid tale of the Benders's origins and how they became some of the most horrific figures in early post-Civil War America.

©2015 Nicholas Nicastro (P)2017 Nicholas Nicastro

Bending to the benders

I like the story it was excellent, the narrator I thought didn’t quite have enough excitement to a voice but I guess it went with the times of the story.
I would highly recommend the story excellent.

Macabre Story of the Benders

Hell’s Half Acre, written by Nicholas Nicastro, is a fictionalized tale of the true story of The Bloody Benders, a family of serial killers living in Labette County, Kansas from around 1869 to 1871. The protagonist is Kate Bender who comes to be a part of the Bender family after her real father loses the 6-year old Kate to a better gambler named Clarity. Clarity takes Kate to live with Elmira, a woman he knows in some unsavory way. There are innuendos about the abuse that Kate suffers in Elmira’s care, but it is not developed in the story. Kate is apparently a replacement for Elmira’s lost daughter, although we never learn what happened to her.

As Kate gets older, she and Elmira hook up with John Bender, Sr. and his “son,” John Bender, Jr. and their bloody killing streak begins.

There is one point where Kate becomes Miss Professor Kate and does tarot readings, collecting a dollar per reading. She then evolves into a healer. There was not enough if any, explanation of how she went from a six-year-old replacement daughter to a twenty-something who knew how to read tarot cards and perform healings – nothing connected the dots for me. Also, there was no definitive explanation of why the family killed people – whether it was for money, or for the thrill. I don’t want to give away the ending, but I found it implausible. The idea of the ending was good but it needed more information earlier in the story to weave it in.

I didn’t view the book as a horror story, like a Stephen King book, but more a macabre story because of the cold brutality of the Benders. I enjoyed the story, and I didn’t realize it was based on a true story until after I finished the audiobook.

Aven Shores’ narration was nice for the voice of Kate, but it felt like all the men had the same voice. When I first heard Kate’s real father’s voice, I thought he was Irish, then realized it was supposed to be a German accent. She also uses the British pronunciation of the word shōne as shŏn enough that it distracted me because it seemed out of character for Kate to pronounce it that way. When a word seems mispronounced to me – I look it up and find it is a perfectly fine, as these two pronunciations are, so I try to get over it! Aven has a beautiful, melodic voice, that reminded me of Dakota Channing. Her voice is very soothing and I would like her to read me to sleep every night.

I’m not a fan of the use of music to differentiate between the prologue and chapters. It was only used twice and I was happy it stopped early on. I had a few technical difficulties in listening to the book. My copy randomly stopped and wouldn’t start again multiple times. Because I listened to it on something other than Audible, I couldn’t tell where I was in the book, and even though my mp3 player was set to return to the place I left off – it almost always took me back to the beginning. The copy I listened to also repeats chapter 4. These may be things that could have been repaired by deleting it and re-downloading, and this is the first time I’ve listened to an audiobook on something other than Audible so it may just be the app I was using.

Bottom-line: In chapter four when they are on the train, it is so expertly written that I felt like I was sitting in one of the seats on the train, experiencing everything the other passengers did. But there were also parts of the story that needed more development to fill in the gaps. Overall, it was a story that I’m still thinking about – I just wish there was a little more meat!

Audiobook was provided for review by the author/narrator/publisher.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog.

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Hell's Half-Acre

I loved this book!A young girl is traded in a card game and becomes part of a family of murderers.Based on a true story.Aven Shore was a terrific narrator.I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.'

A good read

I liked the fact that this was based on a true. I did feel sorry for kate!! Yes,yes, i know many won't agree. I couldn't believe the end about the old man. It was a twisted tale. Money and greed!! Now the narrator was not bad. Her voice was good. The only thing is she read almost as if to put u to sleep. Which she actually did to me a couple of times. I would recommend this read to someone who likes historical fiction or darker stories. It was interesting.

🎇 5 out of 5. Love It

Wow, Man. Well done Nicholas Nicastro, I love your interpretation of this family’s bloody murder spree. Listening to this story was like travelling back to a time and place when just surviving, an making ends meat was a dayly struggle, an beeing a immigrant trying to find your way in a new country when racism was a part of life would have been difficult enough. This book has a little of everything, an i especially love the ending. It was a real page turner LOL. I’ve been a true crime fan for many years, so naturally, when I read the summary I was intrigued.Nicholas’s decision to choose Aven Shore as the narrater for this novel was a real game changer. Aven has a Broadcast quality voice that is easy on the ears, and the fact that she was prepared to devote her self to the task of learning the accents needed to make this an awesome listening experience was for me the iceing on the cake. I hope you the reader and listener enjoy this story as I did. Thanks heaps to Nicholas Nicastro, Aven Shore, an everyone who made it possible to release this as an audiobook