 Mike Sherer’s Under a Raging Moon was a wild ride from beginning to end. The pacing was short, snappy, and honestly perfect for the short story it had to tell. Readers were dropped into an exciting scene that was already unfolding quickly without much explanation at all as to what was going on. The most important bits were quickly revealed, though, and they only made me more curious to see what would happen next. Vivian’s character development was handled nicely. She’d been thrust into a horrifying chain of events that she had no way to prevent or plan ahead for. The fact that she adjusted so quickly to the new rules she’d have to discover and follow in order to have any hope of keeping herself and her son alive was admirable, especially once I realized that her Achilles Heel was just about the last thing I’d expect her to be afraid of after everything else she faced. She definitely acted fast in the beginning, but her reasons for having that reaction made sense to me once they were revealed. There were so many imaginative plot twists. While I did see some of them coming in advance, that didn’t make them any less exciting because of how quickly they popped up and how invested I was in finding out what would happen to Vivian and Kody next. They were in very real danger, and this was one of those cases when I as a reader genuinely didn’t know how they’d survive all of the things that were threatening to end their fragile human lives. I wasn’t as thrilled with the subplot involving the relationship between Vivian and the entity that was possessing her son. The plot would have been tighter without it, and it added some strange undertones to what was happening that I would have preferred not to see play out. With that being said, I did appreciate how far the author stretched the boundaries of what should and should not be included in the horror genre. The ending, though, was perfect. After all of the blood and gore - and there was a lot of it - I was not expecting the characters’ stories to be tied up the way that they were. In fact, I thought I’d seen all of the plot twists by the time this final one popped up. It couldn’t have been more satisfactory. Under a Raging Moon kept me on my toes. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for what the author comes up with next. Under a Raging Moon BY MIKE SHERER A mother and her possessed son battle for their lives against a horde of demons intent on not only their destruction but the death of the unborn child she carries.Stressed-out single mother Vivian has to fetch twelve-year old son Kody from an overnight after he gets into a fight with the friend he was spending the night with. On the way home she nearly runs over a man out for a night jog. Who ends up being run over in front of her house. When a police officer very quickly responds he shows little sympathy for the injured man, instead drawing his gun. But the jogger kills the officer first. Vivian calls for help, then flees her house with her son. Thus begins a long gory night as Vivian is hunted down by demons intent on her destruction. As the reasons for this come into focus, an extremely weird relationship develops between Vivian and her possessed son who is on the brink of death. Forget Norman Bates. This mother-son relationship is more twisted than the Gordian Knot. LYDIA SCHOCH Lydia Schoch is a speculative fiction author and blogger who lives in Toronto with her spouse. Don’t tell her parents, but Lydia was the sort of preacher’s kid growing up who sometimes snuck out of church services to read, preferably something scary. She’s published two books and is currently working on her third one. As an immigrant and member of the LGBTQ+ community, she is always on the lookout for fiction that tells the stories of underrepresented groups in the horror genre. When she’s not reading or writing, Lydia spends plenty of time lifting weights and doing cardio workouts to prepare for a zombie apocalypse and/or old age. Lydia blogs at https://lydiaschoch.com and can also often be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TorontoLydia, and Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8186591.Lydia_Schoch. She cannot be found anywhere that expects people to eat Brussels sprouts. Every horror fan has their limits, after all.   Comments are closed.
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