The Con Season

A Novel of Survival Horror

By: Adam Cesare

Narrated by: Joe Hempel

Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Horror movie starlet Clarissa Lee is beautiful, internationally known, and completely broke.

To cap off years of questionable financial and personal decisions, Clarissa accepts an invitation to participate in a "fully immersive" fan convention. She arrives at an off-season summer camp and finds what was supposed to be a quick buck has become a real-life slasher movie.

Deep in the woods of Kentucky with a supporting cast of B-level celebrities, Clarissa must fight to survive the deadly game that the con's organizers have rigged against her.

A demented, funny, bloody, and strangely poignant horror novel from the acclaimed author of Tribesmen, Zero Lives Remaining, and Mercy House.

©2016 Adam Cesare (P)2016 Adam Cesare

Gripping, Edge of the Seat-Thriller

What did you love best about The Con Season?

A fascinating story full of horror and strong characters. It kept me wanting more and the story was solid and full of surprises.

Have you listened to any of Joe Hempel’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Great, stellar performances by Joe as always. Loved the narration.

Any additional comments?

"This review copy audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost."

Mostly filler, a little thriller, and some killer.

The Con Season: A Novel of Survival Horror by Adam Cesare is an enjoyable short novel which doesn't quite live up to the promise or expectation based around its core idea. Gathering a bunch of B-list celebrities in the middle of the Kentucky woods for a fully immersive fan convention and forcing them to fight for their lives to survive should make for an exhilarating read.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much exhilaration in the book, even once we reached the climax. The beginning of the book sets up the pieces by exploring the motivations behind the protagonists and antagonists. While the running commentary about conventions, fandom, and life as a B-list celebrity is entertaining, its not the reason folks are picking this book up. Cesare spends too much time on the commentary and tries to pass it off as building characters. Since the majority of the B-list cast of characters is in the same position, their commentary runs together making them feel less like individuals and makes them run together.

The team of principle antagonists I felt were the strongest characters in the novel. Rory was the stereotypical sadist murderer, Teeks was the mastermind behind the whole operation, and Kimberly was an enjoyable in a Harley Quinn type of way.

Once all the pieces are setup and the action is about to ramp up into the actual survival horror situation, the book unexpectedly closes out to a rushed conclusion. The epilogue was an interesting idea leaving the reader to make up their own mind about what happens at the end.

Deliciously twisted

Adam Cesare is a brutal cold-blooded killer. He creates wonderfully wicked characters, then scares the sh*t out of them. And you.

Fan Con with a Deadly Twist

Any additional comments?

This book is pure fun. From the characters themselves, to the setting (fan cons), to the plot as a whole, this story is survival horror at it's best (with a solid dash of silliness to even it all out). I was at times surprised and always interested to hear what came next. Hempel does a tremendous job, as always, and Cesare is masterful.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Survival Horror at it's Best!!

Where does The Con Season rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is in my Top 20 for all the audio books I have listened to so far. It was a great short story with an excellent narrator.

What did you like best about this story?

The story was very well done and you kept guessing through out the whole thing as to what could happen. Some parts were obvious and meant to be and others were not to and kept you guessing and made it really fun.

What does Joe Hempel bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Mr Hempel really brings a story to life. He is just an amazing narrator and doe a super job with all the different characters.

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

Fan Conventions taken to the extreme

Any additional comments?

"This review copy audiobook was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge via Audiobook Boom."

3.5 stars to the story, awesome narrator!!

After having read two other books from this author in the past and fully loving them, I was excited to give this one a go as well. I honestly didn't enjoy this one as much as the other two. I am impressed by how much gets packed into these shorter stories. The reader is given a good bit of information about the characters, which is something that usually gets lost in shorter books. Yet somehow, I still managed to get a bit confused towards the end about who was who. Joe Hempel was the narrator of the audiobook version, and was perfect as usual. Anything that this man voices is automatically more much more enjoyable!
Although this one wasn't my favorite, I will certainly be checking out more of Adam's work in the future. If you are a big fan of the "b movie" horror I recommend this book, and highly suggest the audiobook version.
*This audiobook was provided at no cost. These are my thoughts regardless of that fact.

Wonderful twist on The 80s Slasher

Wonderful twist on The 80s Slasher, Horror Cons, and Summer Camp. Adam Cesare obviously knows his horror and subverts the genre in a very fun way.

Joe Hempel is a blast to listen to as always.

Bloody fun

If you enjoy horror cons and classic slasher films this is for you
Excellent narration from joe hempel he’s one of the best
Hopefully we see a second book highly recommended
I received a free review audiobook and voluntarily left this review

This isn't your typical Con

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes and i did. There were some predictable parts but there were some that were great shocking moments

What other book might you compare The Con Season to and why?

I don't know but i did enjoy this book

Which scene was your favorite?

My favorite scene was when the actress shot the guy at the end. Totally unexpected and shocking

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

there was a few shudder moments, but it was great

Any additional comments?

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

excellent

I received this audiobook free of charge from the author, publisher and the reader yeah