Screechers by Christina Bergling and Kevin J. Kennedy #BookReview

In the apocalyptic fallout of the burned world, the screecher is a massive beast evolved to kill and built for survival. One screecher abandons its home among the crushed remnants of a city and moves to explore the wider world. Unbeknownst to it, one of its surviving nephews decides to tag along.

Far away, across the dusty sand dunes, three men flee the smoldering ashes of their community along with their regrets, looking for a new place to survive.

These two stories, of screechers and humans, alternate and dance around each other before the creatures and men intersect and weave into one story.

In the scorched remains, everything struggles to survive. The end of the world produced mutated monsters beyond imagination. When worlds collide, when man meets monster, who will survive in this new world?

Title: Screechers | Author: Christina Bergling & Kevin J. Kennedy | Publisher: Independently published | Pub. Date: 10 March 2019 | Pages: 118 | ISBN: 9781798052655 | Genre: Horror | Language: English | Triggers:  None | Rating: 3 out 5  Source: Received a copy from authors for review consideration

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Screechers Review

I have LOVE for post-apocalyptic horror/sci-fi stories.  It’s my thing, my bag, I dig it. I also enjoy the intersection of this with creatures – War of the Worlds, The Mist, and on and on. So deciding to pick up SCREECHERS was a no-brainer for me.

First – the world created by Bergling and Kennedy is fantastic.  The first part of the book puts us directly into the mind of the creature, and the world we see through its eyes is just what you’d expect. The world is ruined, by what it doesn’t say.  It isn’t necessary. This is just over 100 pages and I think the authors did a great job of keeping this trim where it needed to be and detailed in other, more crucial, ways.

My biggest issues come in when the humans and creatures collide and then again in the ending.  I can’t give details here, but I found these instances kind of unbelievable and honestly, a bit frustrating.  I see that the authors were trying to do something different, to put a spin on the expected,…but it didn’t work for me at all.

Sandwiched between those two things is one of the best creature, monster, human battles I’ve read in quite awhile.  There is stomping. Chomping. Just a blood and guts fest that really kept things moving. Here is where the details really come to the forefront – creature description and a battle extravaganza. Honestly, this is probably what kept this at a 3 instead of a 2 for me.

Overall, I had a good time. There are some pretty big issues for me, but in looking at all the other reviews it seems this may be a case of “it’s me, not you”  – *shrugs*

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