Book Review: Golem by P.D. Alleva

Thanks to the author for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Title: Golem

Author: P.D. Alleva

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Description:

“An extraordinary psychological horror book. Excellently written, with a twisted, spiraling, unexpected end that will leave you speechless.” TBM Horror Experts

Detective. Angel. Victim. Devil.

A haunting tale of suspense, loss, isolation, contempt, and fear.

On November 1, 1951, war hero John Ashton was promoted to detective. His first assignment: find the district attorney’s missing daughter. But his only lead is Alena Francon, a high society sculptor and socialite committed to Bellevue’s psychiatric facility.

Alena has a story for the new detective. A story so outlandish John Ashton refuses to heed the warning. Alena admits to incarnating Golem, a demonic force, into her statue. A devil so profound he’s infiltrated every part of New York’s infrastructure. Even worse, he uses children to serve as bodily hosts for his demonic army, unleashing a horde of devils into our world.

When Alena’s confidant, Annette Flemming, confirms the existence of Golem, John is sent on a collision course where fate and destiny spiral into peril, and the future of the human race hangs in the balance.

The Devil Is In The Details!

Fans of The Silence of the Lambs, Clive Barker, John Connolly, old Stephen King, and Anne Rice will be fascinated by this edge of your seat psychological horror thriller with a story that rips out the heart of humanity and throws it on a slab to be feasted on.

RATING

I’m not gonna lie, this book scared the sh*t out me. It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted but still I couldn’t stop reading it!

This is a historical horror about Golem, a literal statue that comes to life after it’s creator, Alena, breathes life into him. At first, Golem is a perfect man, helpful and kind. However, as the time passes Alena realizes that Golem came to the Earth with superior (and very evil) motives.

Many years later children are disappearing. Detective John Ashton is determined to be the hero who will find these children. Alena, now in a psychiatric hospital, knows who is responsible for these kidnappings, her statue Golem.

This story was so well written and interesting. It’s set in the 50s and is based on Jewish folklore where Golem is just like in this story, a statue that has come to life (although it is not an evil force like in this book). I always like reading books based on legends and mythology so this was a plus.

Usually I do not opt for horror because I’m a scaredy cat. So maybe this might not be as scary to you but to me it was. It’s extremely gory and has some serious cult-ish vibes. So, if you can’t handle gore this probably isn’t for you.

I do have some complaints though, mostly considering the cover. I do not like the cover and I feel like it doesn’t capture the story well enough. I know not to judge the book by it’s cover but let’s be honest, we all do it. I feel like cover is something that captures our attention and will decide whether or not we even consider picking the book up and finding out what it’s avout. The author should definitely think about re-doing the cover.

That being said, the overall story and the writing was really good. I flew through this quite quickly because it was interesting and easy to read, even though it scared me. If you’re a fan of historical horror and folklore legends, you should definitely consider picking this up!