All Smoke Rises

Milk-Blood Redux

By: Mark Matthews

Narrated by: Lori Faiella

Length: 3 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Ten-year-old Lilly is the victim of a terrible house fire and a wretched family. Her father is an addict with mental illness, her mother was murdered and then buried across the street, and her uncle got her addicted to heroin.

Lilly's tragic story has been told in the book All Smoke Rises, and it may be true, for the author has broken into your house, and placed Lilly's body on your kitchen counter. He demands you hear the manuscript, before cutting his own wrists and bleeding out on your floor.

Now you have decisions to make, for her body may not be dead, and her family is coming for her.

©2016 Mark Matthews (P)2016 Mark Matthews

All smoke rises

What did you like best about this story?

This is a hard breaking story at the life of a drug users and the effects such behavior has on society and friends and family. It kept my interest from beginning to end.

Great Story

What did you love best about All Smoke Rises?

The perfect sequel to Mark Matthews urban horror tale of drug addiction and extreme dysfunction

What about Lori Faiella’s performance did you like?

Enjoyed her performance greatly

If you could take any character from All Smoke Rises out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I liked Crystal. Even though she was doing terrible things, she was doing them for the love of the two children, Oscar and Lilly

Any additional comments?

I was given a review copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review and this was it

Confused But Enjoyed

Any additional comments?

This book was very different, never read anything like it.

While I enjoyed the story, this book is a bit confusing throughout. I have a feeling that reading a paper copy as opposed to listening would solve this issue. It's a creepy tale that will satisfy horror fans who like character driven horror stories.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of Audiobook Blast.

Disturbing read that sticks with you

I listened to the Audible version of this book and utilized Whispersync by reading my Kindle when I couldn't listen. This book is really disturbing, and I think it will stay with me for a long time (a mark of a good book, in my opinion). Apparently, this book is a sequel, but I read this one without having read the previous book in the series. It didn't hamper my enjoyment one bit, but I definitely want to go back and read the other. This is a dark, paranormal, urban horror story that centers around addiction, poverty, child abuse, and more of the dark struggles in society. It is haunting, and will stick with you long after you finish reading it. As far as the narration goes, I thought it was decent. I wasn't blown away by it, and I had a couple times I had a hard time hearing it because the "voice" the narrator was using was so quiet. Still, it wasn't bad. Overall, great book (albeit disturbing), and I really want to check out the previous book in the series.

Stick with it, the ending is worth the horror

A psychiatrist gets a horrible shock as a former patient breaks into his home and kills himself in front of him. But before he dies, he reveals a terrible a secret, a burned and mutilated child and a manuscript that explains her origins.

Lilly was born into drugs and violence, forced to take heroin as a toddler and then abandoned to her psychotic father, her fate seems hopeless. She must take not only heroin to live, but from the blood of other addicts.

All Smoke Rises is a bleak allegorical tale of child abuse and the hopelessness of poverty and addiction. The listener is never quite sure what is real and what is imagined. Lilly doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but needs to feed to survive. She is too small to do anything on her own and watches helplessly as her father murders drug addicts to feed her. Without the required blood milk she lapses into a cruel dream-like state full of awful memories and ghosts. There is no death and there is no escape.

It is a disturbing story involving the ugliest parts of society, child abuse, drug addiction, murder, insanity and desperation. Through it all the listener has a sense of surreal otherworldly observation, what hope can there be for these ruined lives, drugs are the least of their problems and perhaps a necessary escape from the horror.

The story is performed by Lori Faiella who provides an excellent performance. The bleakness is well portrayed in her voice and tone. The characters are easily differentiated and sound true to our view of them.

Some listeners may be disturbed by having such a young child as a drug addict and abuse victim. It is critical to the story. Stick with it, the ending is worth the horror. If you like your horror mixed with the sad reality of desperation, you should enjoy this one.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

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

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What a Story!!

What did you love best about All Smoke Rises?

**** I was given a code by the author in order to use it to read the book and leave an honest review ****

Gritty. This book is an absolute mind-blowing story. I read this book while doing out patient physio for an accident, and found myself completely wrapped up in it as I worked through my exercises....so much so that I was able to block out the people around me.

The writing was well-paced, and very thorough. The author has an excellent way of painting a picture for the reader to imagine. That being said, due to the often unbelievable and horrifying nature of the subject matter, I can honestly say that if this book was made into a movie, there is no way I would watch it. It would be much too dark for me...

I had never heard of milk-blood before, but let me end this by saying, don't do drugs kids....not once, not ever! The fact that addicts will go to these extremes is heart breaking and beyond sad.

If you are looking for a scary, noir, and dark fast-paced story, I recommend All Smoke Rises. It will keep you turning pages.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Lily - such a deep soul for someone so young

Gritty Reality...Without Pity

The gritty view of reality in drug-ridden parts of the country that this book provides is unflinching and does not ask for pity. This is the way it is for a mother struggling to survive the death of her son, a father just trying to keep his daughter alive, and a therapist who tries to help any of them that she can. Is it all reality? No, there is some horror and paranormal thrown into the mix but in a super realistic way and the story flows so well I didn't even realize it was happening until afterward sometimes.

This is a story about what drug addiction can do to people, even smart people who want to escape from it, but don't have the means to do so.

It is dirty and real but not in a gratuitous way. Horrible things happen or have happened in this book and even as you root for certain characters and want to see them escape, you know that in the end it won't happen.

The narration by Lori Faiella was really spot on. She captured the feel of the book perfectly and gave voice to the somewhat dreamy quality and tone the book had.

I received this audiobook for free through Audiobook Boom! in exchange for an honest review.

Solid, powerful inner city urban horror!

The perfect sequel to Mark Matthews urban horror tale of drug addiction and extreme dysfunction, “Milk-Blood”.

I didn’t think it could get much bleaker than MB. I was wrong. Lilly is back. So is the heartbreak, tragedy and shear brutality. There are no rainbows and unicorns in this one and there shouldn’t be. It’s not that kind of tale. There is redemption here, but don’t expect to go tiptoeing thru the tulips after reading this one. Under the desk, curled up in a ball, sucking your thumb, is more like it.

It’s easy to get terrified by the urban inner city horror fiction that Mark brings to life with All Smoke Rises while I sit on my couch in a middle class neighborhood with my 2.5 kids and company car in the driveway. It’s easy to ignore the mental illnesses and addictions, the dilapidated living conditions and brutal realities kids born of addiction face every day. It’s easy to be desensitized and look away from the horrific living conditions and circumstance 40 minutes down the road from my little American dream. Mark shatters all that shit. Shatters it. That’s what Milk-Blood and All Smoke Rises do. That’s their job and they do it very well.

A Solid 4.5 Stars and Highly Recommended!

*I was given a review copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for an honest review and this was it.

P.S. I failed to mention the excellent quality of the audiobook of this one. Lori Faiella killed it. I sometimes struggle with women narrators and I don’t know why, but Lori was absolutely fantastic.

a horrifying tale

excellent story telling and very interesting tale and very well narrated as well. Thank you.

Sad story, but quite entertaining!

Where does All Smoke Rises rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

All Smoke Rises is probably in the middle or what I consider average of all the audio books I have listened too so far.

What did you like best about this story?

I iked the way the main character, Crystal, tried so hard to make up the tragic loss of her son, Oscar. She takes on the responsibility of Lilly who is in a similar situation.

Which character – as performed by Lori Faiella – was your favorite?

I liked Crystal. Even though she was doing terrible things, she was doing them for the love of the two children, Oscar and Lilly.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Drug use on a child? No No No. But what if?

Any additional comments?

Excellent narration. Good story line. Well put together.