There is a place just outside of town where the people of Knoll, Wisconsin take their sorrows and their worries. They don’t talk much about it, and they don’t discuss the small tokens they bring as offerings to the place known as the Crymost. After all, this is Knoll, where certain things are best left unsaid. The Crymost, however, will not remain quiet for much longer. Something ancient has … awakened in that remote, sorrowful place, and time is running out for its inhabitants. Long-kept secrets will need to be unearthed before the entire town succumbs to the will of a powerful, dark stranger who works hand in hand with a hungry entity crossing Knoll’s borders, invading its homes and executing a soul-draining grip on its citizens.
“The Crymost by Dean H. Wild is the best story by a new novelist I’ve read all year.” – Paul Dale Anderson, author of Claw Hammer, Winds, and The Girl Who Lived
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If you like Stephen King novels you will probably like The Crymost
I enjoyed this book immensely! Definitely has a strong Steven King vibe but Wild brings his own characters and plot twists to what feels like a familiar story while also feeling original. I look forward to more from this author.
I was drawn to this book immediately by the wonderful characters & how they interacted with one another in the small town atmosphere which l could visualize anywhere. The Crymost was a mystical and definitely haunting area with its powers over all who came in contact with it. It seemed so real & frightening. I love a good scary story & this book fit the bill perfectly.
Well done.
its scary with a little enteraning in it:)
In Dean H. Wild’s The Crymost, the quiet little town of Knoll has its quirks. The people have their odd peculiarities; their old ways. One such quirk is the Crymost- a quiet place just outside town where people go to mourn their losses. They take little trinkets, momentos from their lost loved ones and cast them into the Crymost as a way to help put their sorrows to rest. But the Crymost is more than just a local tradition. Something is stirring in its murky waters, something that has long lain dormant. Its awakening will be catastrophic for the little town. When Mick Logan, a once-outsider turned local begins to uncover what is happening, he sets out to save his town by any means possible.
The Crymost continues the long-standing tradition of horror novels set in sleepy little towns with secrets. While this broad premise is nothing new, the success of such a trope lies in the author’s ability to bring the little town to life. In this way, I think that Wild has knocked it out of the park. Knoll is a town with a rich history, full of real characters and complicated relationships. Wild walks a fine line between oversharing about the town and keeping it mysterious; giving us enough backstory to make Knoll seem genuine without filling unnecessary pages upon pages with exposition.
Perhaps the best crafted aspect of Knoll is the relationships between the characters. Wild doesn’t go all in with the “everybody knows everybody” schtick. I think that when every single person knows every single other person in the town, to include their entire backstory and daily life, it tends to be a bit unrealistic, even in tiny little villages. Instead, most of Wild’s characters know most of the others, but sometimes it’s as simple as a recognized face in the crowd that they can’t put a name to. This approach just felt more organic and realistic. However, just like in any small town there are certain central characters who everybody does know, like the village president.
Moving past the setting, the story laid out in The Crymost is a unique and interesting one. As the trinkets that have been offered to the Crymost over the years start mysteriously returning to their owners, Mick Logan begins to discover the history of some terrible thing that nearly wiped out the town several decades ago. As he keeps digging, he and a few others become convinced that the mysterious event is coming back once again. The one thing that just didn’t sit well with me is in the way that the heroes attempt to stop this from occurring. I won’t go into detail, but there is a sort of hail mary defense that the townspeople concocted in case the darkness ever came back. The idea is simple, and while it is done in a cool way, I think the over-simplicity of it just sort of fell flat for me.
Putting aside this shortcoming, the story and climax are executed wonderfully. The story starts off fairly benign, and it doesn’t seem like there is going to be all that much blood and horror. However, as the story builds towards its climax, things start really going off the rails. Wild is not afraid to take drastic measures in his writing, and is definitely not afraid to kill off your favorite character. Nobody is safe. What begins as a sort of abstract, off-putting sort of tension ends up as an adrenaline-pumping scramble for sheer survival.
One final aspect that I feel compelled to comment on is Wild’s successful crafting of characters that you really get attached to. Not every character is likeable, and none of them are even close to perfect, but as the story unfolds and we watch these characters struggle and learn and strive, we grow deeply close to them. Even characters that start off the tale leaning closer towards the ‘unlikable bad-guys’ end of the spectrum end up earning themselves a good deal of empathy. This blurs the line between the ‘good guys’ and the ‘bad guys’ and makes for a very interesting dynamic. And as anyone can tell you, having characters that you genuinely get attached to is one absolutely vital pillar of horror. If you don’t love em, you won’t care when they survive, and you surely won’t care when they die bloody.
All things considered, The Crymost is a great read with a living and breathing setting, a unique plot and truly exceptional character work. It’s a bit of a slow burn, with things not really taking off until the final act. If you enjoy historical horror, supernatural mysteries, or the small-town-with-a-secret vibe, you’ll likely enjoy this. If you’re looking for a thrill-ride or blood soaked gorefest, this probably won’t satiate you. Clocking in at nearly 300 pages (paperback), this wasn’t a short Sunday read, but I did remain engrossed throughout. If you have a penchant for a good horror-mystery, give Dean H. Wild a shot, and let me know how you like it!
Not my style
Interesting concept
Really great book it kept you interested through the end