Prey Without Ceasing

By: Andrew Franks

Narrated by: Kellen Boyle

Length: 2 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

This church is haunted.

For Dalton, the son of a preacher man, a longing to serve both his family and his God may be the thin difference between expectation and salvation.

However, when Dalton learns of his brotherʼs kidnapping by a sadistic witch, the unraveling of his familyʼs dark past becomes all too clear. Like a lamb to the slaughter, Dalton bravely wages war on the forces of evil that have plagued his family for generations and ultimately confronts his own destiny while his brotherʼs soul hangs in the balance. Fighting a war in the hellscape of his fatherʼs church, Dalton must challenge the sinister witch, a legion of demonic creatures, and the ghosts of his familyʼs past before Hell lays claim to its latest victim.

Ensnared in the confrontation of truth and the veil of a hidden past, Dalton learns that ultimately he is the key to abolishing the darkness inside the church.

©2021 Andrew Franks (P)2022 Andrew Franks

Fun

What a fun and quick read. The author pushes some taboo buttons, but in a way that doesn’t feel like malice, more like exploration of the dark imagination within a deeply religious context. I think this book would have been even better stretched out another 200-300 pages, to give its characters more depth together. Given how well it’s written, I’m sure the extra length would be worth the read. Also, the narrator nailed it with that thick southern draw and their ability to heighten the dramatic segments. Well done!

Left me emotional from the painful truth.

I’m still filled with so much emotion after reading (listening) to this extremely well written book. The details and imagery felt so real. This book left me wanting to cry with pain from the realism and also angry. Growing up in similar circles and knowing how people are, and how they can make you feel so discouraged and even confused. I don’t want to sit back and question everyone and everything that has happened.
Once I let my emotions settle I felt peace in those last words that Dalton said to God as he drove away.
Thank you for making the time to write such a heart wrenching book.

Eerie and Truthful

I felt anxious and claustrophobic for most of this book. I believe that was the author's intent and therefore, well done! I was raised in a Christian-principles home but we were not avid church goers. I went to a small, Christian high school like the one in the book. I also went to the corresponding church while I was in high school. There were times I felt the struggle like Dalton. I'm certain my struggle was nowhere NEAR the pressure he felt, yet I could empathize with him. It's that pinned-down, cornered feeling. It's wanting to do the 'right' thing but feeling a discord in what I was learning and observing in the church around me with my own deep intuition. The book brought back so many memories and emotions. Well written a f thank you for the journey!

Mesmerizing, Eerie Tale

Fantastic book! The story is incredibly original. The unique blend of spiritual elements and horror makes for an emotional, entertaining, terrifying journey!

Close to home

Having known the author, as well as his little brother and growing up with both of them for a long time, it really opened up my eyes things behind the scenes that I never knew certain things I didn’t know although the characters were changed. I was there, living part of the life with them. Awesome read definitely recommend anyone whether you know these stories or not.

Powerful And Relatable

Wow! Prey Without Ceasing by Andrew Franks is an intense Southern Horror! Well written, powerfully told, this story reached out of the pages and grabbed my heart with how much I identified with the horrors the young protagonist faced from my own childhood experiences! The horror built into the religious experience is shown so powerfully and effectively, but what also shows is the honest struggle a child faces in trying to makes sense of the world as one progresses into the world of adults. And without spoiling anything I have to say this book has one of the BEST closing lines in a book! Really relatable and an excellent read, ALSO an excellent listen if you enjoy audiobooks! Highly recommend and hope you give this book a read!

Excellent

This fantastic indie horror novella is now available on audiobook!! Excellent narration by a new name in the audiobook world: Kellen Boyle. Keep your eyes out for this author and narrator. They’re going places!!

Book review:
Fire and brimstone. This subject may be the most horror-inducing out there. Especially when eternal damnation is hung over a child’s head as a form of behavior modification. Prey Without Ceasing is a 100-page novella with themes related to spiritual abuse. The story combines horror elements to serve as a giant metaphor for the anxiety and responsibility related to the impossible standards set for young minds. It’s a lazy kind of teaching to use shame and guilt as a guiding light, but there are religious leaders highly skilled in the art. I know this on an intimate level. I swear this book feels like it was written for me, like Andrew Franks and I grew up together in the same Bible-belt Pentecostal church back in the day. This is exactly why books like this are so important… the reader is reminded that they are not alone.

Please note, based on my reading perspective this novella does not condone bitterness towards the church or the reverse expectation of perfection. It simply showcases how destructive it can be when one is placed under the religious leadership of the wrong person. In a community that is hypervigilant about what is being taught in schools, I pray they use the same energy to monitor their own house of worship. In this book, the reader sees the bad but there is also good. There is a perfect scene featuring our young main character and the children’s pastor which gives the reader hope that safety exists. Thank you, Andrew, for writing this story and being brave enough to share it with the world. Excellent book!

Fantastic Thriller

It’s not very often that I find a REALLY GOOD Christian fiction author but I’m looking forward to reading more of Andrew Franks after this! I loved this story from beginning to end. It’s a quick listen on audible with a narrator that really made you feel like you were inside the story. It made my 4 hour drive feel like nothing! The premise and plot are interesting. The characters really suck you in. And the intricacies and implications of religion in today’s world as a whole, they’re spot on and scary accurate to some of the things I’ve seen growing up in a religious household. Throw in some fantastical horror and you’ve got yourself an intriguing read that might just keep you up at night, scared to come out from under the covers.

Short and Snappy Christian Horror

This was definitely a book worth reading, and I related to portions of it so deeply that it was painful.

While I never experienced quite the spiritual turmoil (internal or external) that Dalton underwent in this story, I related to his struggles and doubts and attempts to live out his shaky faith on a profound level. I am incredibly fortunate in that my family was always wonderfully supportive. I was never yelled at or struck or judged and found lacking. My home, and my church, was always a safe space. But the internal struggles and questions Dalton was wrestling with? I’ve been there. I’ve felt that same guilty confusion as I tried to work out my own faith, live it out to the best of my ability, and deal with the stomach-churning disappointment that came anytime I fell short.

I am so, so incredibly thankful that I didn’t have the dad Dalton did. Pastor Gary was horrible. He’s the epitome of the legalistic, judgmental, hypocritical Christian that drives so many away from the faith. The minute things he chose to harp on, like light profanity in movies for example, don’t matter even the tiniest bit in the scheme of things. And yet Gary placed so much weight on these unimportant things that it threatened to crush the faith of his (very faithful) son. If I could’ve reached through the pages of this book and smacked him, I totally would have.

“I’ve seen a lot of kids grow up and walk away from God because of the way they were treated at church. They walked away because of the reckless way faith was presented to them.”

I loved the symbolism in Dalton’s nighttime visit to the church, how it looked rundown and decaying and infested by things that kept to the shadows. However, it still wasn’t without its beauty. Dalton’s “dark night of the soul” was tense, but the horror elements were a bit lighter (and more heavily symbolic) than I would’ve expected. I was reminded a bit of The Visitation and House, books that I loved as a teen.

Kellen Boyle did an absolutely fantastic job narrating the audiobook. He captured the feeling of living in the Bible Belt in the American South. His slight drawl was perfect for this story. Reading this was very nostalgic, as it reminded me of the Christian horror novels I loved so much in my youth, from authors like Ted Dekker and Frank Peretti. And, similar to those authors, there were times when the spiritual symbolism and message felt just a tad heavy-handed; it could have used as touch more finesse in the writing, but so could the books I loved from Dekker and Peretti and they were very effective. I also thought that it felt a tiny bit rushed, though I often feel that way about novellas.

I really enjoyed Prey Without Ceasing, and felt somehow seen by it. It was quick but still deeply thoughtful, and it brought me back to the time when my faith was young and sometimes shaky. Franks did a great job with it, and the audio version was superb. This is a book that I’ll be pressing into the hands of my cousins and others who have had a similar Christian experience, though I think that even those who don’t share that faith will find it fascinating.

Good Story

You can tell that the author has a deep rooted and complicated history with the subject matter. You feel it in the characters. The story is sincere and honest. The only complaint I have is the brevity. Please write more lol