“I was hoping this was going to be as good as ‘The Exorcist’ and I was not disappointed.”Something Evil is Inside Cassie Stevens…In a quiet coastal New England town, a teenager awakes in the dead of night. An icy chill fills her room in the warm autumn night, and as her eyes search its dark moonlit corners, she’s suddenly aware of the presence of something with her. She neither sees it nor … something with her. She neither sees it nor hears it, but she unmistakably feels it. The presence of pure evil.
Ever since surviving a near-death experience in a crash, Cassie Stevens has been haunted by terrifying supernatural phenomena. She’s shunned by friends and classmates who fear her, and with good reason – terrifying changes are happening inside her. And something evil is taking over.
In the vein of The Exorcist and The Conjuring, read the book described as “a wild scary ride literally to hell and back.”
What readers are saying:
“One of the best books I’ve read in a long time!!!!”
“I never thought any book would come close to The Exorcist but this book surpassed it!”
“This book blew me away. I was expecting it to be scary, but I wasn’t expecting it to also have this much of an emotional punch. Five stars!”
“One of the best horror books I’ve ever read. Very good pace and excellent story telling.”
“Hell is a powerful story, at times grotesque, at other times emotional and deeply understanding of mourning, loss and growing up. It belongs right up there with classics like Audrey Rose, Carrie and The Omen.”
“I have read plenty of horror and never gotten really creeped out like this book did.”
“I NEVER write reviews….but this book is THAT good/scary!”
“Superbly written, strong characters, a beyond creepy setting.”
“Scary as Hell!!!!!”
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Just finished this horror novel. The cover scares the heck of out me, and I was glad to discover the book fulfilled on that promise. There were definitely some chilling scenes. I rank this one right up there with the best horror novels!
HELL: The Possession and Exorcism of Cassie Stevens, by Tom Lewis, is a story that really stood out to me in this particular sub-genre. I’ve read a fair amount of stories involving demonic possession and exorcisms, and this one had some great sections, with characters that were memorable not only for their current situations, but also their pasts.
“October 31st. That was the night Cassie Stevens died . . . that was also the night something followed her back from the other side of death . . . ”
We know by the title alone that Cassie is going to be possessed, so at first I was surprised when we were taken further back into her life to who she was well before any changes had taken place. However, this tactic is what really sucked me into her life. I felt I had known her so well that these changes–when they came–were all the more dramatic and gut-wrenching because of it.
“. . . the sunshine held no answers for her, and the night did . . . ”
In a parallel story, we also learn about the early life and changes going on with Sean McCready–a man who later ends up as a Reverend in the town Cassie lives in.
“Hatred, you might say, is the essence of the demon.”
The way that the author individualizes these two very different people is what kept my undivided attention more than anything else. I felt I knew so much about them, that I simply HAD to find out what would happen to them.
“. . . in the excitement that followed her resuscitation, one thought never occurred to anyone–Where had she been during these minutes of death?”
Another aspect that I felt especially important to this novel was the nature of the demonic entity.
“. . . It was a brute uncaring force. It was the sound of evil.”
This particular demon was described in great depth regarding many aspects. It was not merely “a demon”, but rather a very specific one with a long and merciless past. As opposed to only being “something that takes over” Cassie, it is a creature with its own agenda, goals, and even personality, in a way. Something that readers could understand in more detail, and even begin to guess at its endgame, based on its track record.
“. . . We didn’t open the channel. It was already open before we started.”
The one part of this novel that seemed a little “less than”–in my opinion–came closer to the end. Some aspects there felt ‘out of line’ compared to the rest of the book, and a bit more cliched in general.
“. . . This is what the death of hope felt like . . . ”
Overall, I really enjoyed the majority of this story. I feel that Tom Lewis brought some new ideas and original scenes here, and those really helped get me invested in the main characters. Also, his take on the nature of the demon was a great, sinister touch that made it stand out among all the other tales of possession out there. The weak point, to me, came towards the end of the book where I found it easy to guess at what was to come next. Still, it was otherwise a solid novel that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to fans of this kind of horror.
Recommended!
This book started off well with unusual aspects of possession not normally seen but the exorcism part was too quick and easy especially considering the strength of the demon involved. Three out of five stars for me.