4 Stars

Publisher: Silvermac Publishing

Date of publication: July 12th, 2016

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

Series: The Many

The Many—Book 1

Ancestral—Book 2

Where you can find this book: Amazon

Book synopsis:

Karl notices something odd about his sister the morning after a blind date. A coldness in her manner; nothing anyone else would notice. Suspicious, he confronts her about the date but she turns nasty, accusing him of taking a perverse interest in her sex life.

When he next sees her, months later, she seems back to normal, until a harmless comment provokes a sudden, violent response. As her mental state fluctuates, Karl seeks out the man she dated just before her personality began to change, convinced she is suppressing a painful memory from that night. But what he discovers is something far more sinister, and pervasive, than he’d ever imagined.

Strictly for adult readers, THE MANY are the first book of a series that explores the dark side of the world we live in and sheds light on a shadowy evil that is both disturbing and eerily familiar.

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My review:

Karl’s sister came home acting very weird after a blind date. Concerned that she had been date raped, Karl asks her what the matter. She lashes out in an inappropriate way, accusing Karl of having incestuous thoughts of her and wanting to sleep with her. Shortly afterward, Karl moves out, unable to deal with the insane things she was saying.

The next time Karl sees her is at Thanksgiving, and she acts like nothing is wrong. That is until Karl brings up that night, that’s when she goes bat poop crazy. His sister attacks their mother, twice, and then attacks Karl. Karl was able to restrain her, and when she calms down, he convinces her to go to his friend’s mother….a respectable psychologist. What she reveals there concerns Karl. But before he or the psychologist can act on what was told, she jumps out of the window. But before she dies, his sister tells them who she went on the blind date with, and now Karl is on a mission to discover what exactly happened to his sister the night of her blind date.

Dawn is a 17-year-old living a good life with her mother, Isobel. Isobel, who had just broken up with her long-term girlfriend, had scored a date on a lesbian dating site. Even though Dawn thought the woman looked mean, she encouraged her mother to go out on a date with her. Which, in hindsight, could have been the worse thing she could have done.

Dawn wakes up the next morning to a vastly different Isobel. An Isobel who was disconnected and short with her. An Isobel who hints at things that they both did that nighs, even though Dawn was home all night. Even so, Dawn was surprised when she got up one Saturday morning, and Isobel was gone. All her mother left her was a note. Panicked, she calls the police but gets a blown off. All she had left was to discover what happened the night Isobel went on her blind date.

As Dawn is dealing with that, Karl is dealing with the aftermath of his sister’s suicide. After confronting her date, almost getting arrested, and then hiring a PI, Karl meets a mystery woman who invites him back to her loft for a drink and some fun. He barely escapes after being drugged.

Dawn is dealing with her stuff. Creating a fake profile on the dating site, she meets another woman who has had an encounter with the mystery woman. Meeting up with her and hearing what that woman had to say, Dawn goes to the police, only to be told that they couldn’t help her. She also gets a phone call from the mystery woman, who threatens her. After that phone call, Isobel shows up and is a mess. She starts to go after Dawn, who runs out of the house, and Isobel gets hit by a car and dies. Shortly after her funeral, Dawn is contacted by Karl, and they discover that they have a lot in common, the main thing being that their loved ones had contact with both the mystery man and mystery woman.

The rest of the book, from that point on, was excellent. I liked that the author incorporated mind-altering drugs and mind control experiments into the story. The whole backstory about that was fascinating, and I do wish that more time was spent on it and on the guy who was told to eat until he was obese and how it affected his life.

Dawn had to have been my favorite character in the book. She was smart, she was very sarcastic, and she thought on her feet.

I did like Karl, but I did think he was a bit of a dummy in certain parts of the book. Mainly Dawn’s blind date. I wanted to yell at him when he hung up on the police.

The plot twist was hinted at the beginning of the book but wasn’t confirmed until the end. And, to be honest, it was gross but it explained a lot.

The end of the book was exciting. The main storyline was resolved, but before it was, a whole other storyline was exposed, and the end of the book left it open for the next book.

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I would give The Many an Adult rating. There are sexual situations. There is language. There is violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread The Many. I would recommend it to family and friends.

**I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book**