Jack Kilborn's Endurance

Jack Kilborn's Endurance

Plot:

WELCOME TO THE RUSHMORE INN

The bed and breakfast was hidden in the hills of West Virginia. Wary guests wondered how it could stay in business at such a creepy, remote location. Especially with its bizarre, presidential decor and eccentric proprietor.

When the event hotel for the national Iron Woman triathlon accidentally overbooked, competitor Maria was forced to stay at the Rushmore. But after checking into her room, she quickly realized she wasn't alone. First her suitcase wasn't where she put it. Then her cell phone was moved. Finally, she heard an odd creaking under the bed. Confusion quickly turned to fear, and fear to hysteria when she discovered the front door was barred and the windows were bricked over. There was no way out.

One year later, four new female athletes have become guests of the Inn. Will they escape the horrors within its walls? Or will they join the many others who have died there, in ways too terrible to imagine?

My Review and Thoughts:

Right off you get the sense this is going to be one hell of a ride in the creepy department. This is a tense under the skin goose bump inducing spoke book at times. It's a quick read and yet at times feels like it never wants to end and that’s a bad thing. Thick character inducing plot. All the characters are well developed and just add to the intense reality of the story. A novel that runs at times with pure depravity and gory type of horror.

This is your basic murder and torture mayhem book. A bed and breakfast from hell. Each chapter sends you the reader deeper and deeper into the story of insanity at times. Vile villains that at times can haunt you. It has that classic spooky mentality that old style goose flesh and that ability to want to look under the bed or in the closet, "oh what's that noise," or "Didn't I just move that object, then why is it there?" 

This is nothing new or original, it's been done before, the old cliche house out in the middle of nowhere ran by freaks, mutants, inbred type who hold hostages taken by them and so on. That does not mean this book is bad because it's not, it's a decent horror read with violent actions you would expect for a horror book. This is geared to just die hard horror fans, anyone outside that realm of reading will not get or like this book.

The negatives of the book is it's to long and most of the situations or chapters are repeat actions. No room, drive, blow out tire, see something move, glowing eyes, in the woods, check in to Rushmore Inn, weird decorations, enter room, shower, feels weird, someone watching, check closet, check under the bed all this happens over and over and over again. Once or twice is fine but over and over and over again it just makes no sense and feels boring.

The book seems to not be able to explore anything else and decides to recycle the same thing over and over. The book builds up and at moments gives you these great action moments or horror induced craziness but then ends up falling back into the same story. I felt maybe the book was being stretched.

I felt the story was strong and thick with actions at times such as the boyfriend Felix to Maria who is missing and is a captive of the hillbillies and he is trying to find her and the ordeal he goes through to find her is a worth while moments in the book. Then the story is very weak in parts, long drawn out moments of the same thing happening to each guest where you as the reader are like is something going to happen or am I just going to read about one of them sensing someone watching them, it just got so boring because of that.

I don't know what it was about hands or fingers with this author but almost every act was about the hands. Finger breaking over and over again, hands being stepped on and breaking fingers, resetting broken fingers, sliced fingers by knife, a hand being severed, fingers placed in holes and then cut, must be a hand fetish thing. Once or twice was painful for the reader but then it got boring.

I felt the book really worked at first but then it got ludicrous and so far out there that you smirked because it was so over the top you could not take it serious from mountain loins and inbred mutants named after presidents to kung fu cancer infested granny to a crazy kid who wears gloves and hears his dead friend screaming and even mountain climbing. This is like The Hills Have Eyes crossed with The X-Files Episode Home mixed with Wrong Turn yet way over done.

This is another 50/50 book for me, I love some of it and I loathe some of it.