My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Many thanks to Blackthorn Book Tours and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.
The opening chapter left me with goosebumps and from then on, the Legacy Of Old Gran Parks made me stand at the edge of a precipice. Described as darkly humorous, this story is set in Southern Australia in the 1980s. Cann River comes alive with the description by the author. There’s a palpable sense of the wilderness and the desolate bushes and the never-changing landscape of the place as Miriam rolls into the town with a broken car.
Events that begin to unfold in this bleak town then take on a surreal quality as the readers are treated to some subtle humor and gory deaths and heaven help me, I wasn’t sure whether to feel revolted or laugh at the turn of the incidents that were happening around the women. The story does have some graphic dismembering being described but there’s a rich sense of underlying humor that for a time it is easy to forget that that was what was being described. It was exactly what one would expect from such hardened women whose presumptions and further decisions are fuelled by the past that has been their life. As Miriam becomes embroiled in the perceived injustices and the revengeful attitude of Frankie and Pearl, it is a week of a hellish nightmare for her that unfolds with a horror of its own.
Several books that describe Australia have been mentioned by the author and clearly, the reader gets a tantalizing glimpse into the psyche of a backpacker like Emily whose wish is to explore rural Australia. Pearl, Frankie, Emily, and Miriam are not too likable characters but Pat and Con walk away with the cake, their antics with the meat and burgers giving me shudder every time I think it thru.
At the end of it all, the Legacy of Old Gran Parks does extract its pound of flesh from a reader with its layered and eerie storytelling.
Highly recommended for fans who can stomach some gruesome horror laced with rich and dark humor.
Set in Cann River in Australia’s rugged southern wilderness, The Legacy of Old Gran Parks is a tale of a remote town haunted by a legacy, a legacy with ominous consequences.
It’s a warm evening in the autumn of 1983 when Miriam Forster rolls into town in her broken down car.
Frankie the deer hunter, is up in the forested hinterland with her gun. Old Pearl the fisherwoman sits on her front deck down by the lagoon with her whisky and her dog. And Emily, the English backpacker, scrubs out the pie-encrusted kitchen at the roadhouse.
All is not well. There’s a hoon doing donuts at the crossroads and screaming down the fire trails in the woods; a suspicious-looking city-slicker with two small children, squatting in Fred’s shack down by the lake; a beanie-headed gaunt guy convalescing at the lighthouse; and an acne festooned creature in the hotel room next to Miriam, thrashing about in the night.
Gran Parks is stirring. Who will survive? Who will get away? Who will stay?
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Interesting review, thank you, but this one is not for me. Weak stomach!!
Ha..ha.. honestly Elizabeth, the gory aspect of it is coated with such subtle humor, the revulsion doesn’t register much. I loved how the author managed to do that, it is quite exceptional!
Thanks so much for this detailed and thoughtful review! I have to admit once I developed those characters, Miriam, Frankie, Pearl and Emily pretty much took things over. 😀
Thank You. So glad to hear your words of appreciation❤️❤️❤️