Coaltown: An Alaskan Horror Story

I'll stop reading Katie's work when she stops coming up with new horrifying ways to make werewolves into messed-up monstrosities that make you fear for your life at 10:18am on a bright Thursday morning. The depths of her imagination for these creatures is as deep as the mine shafts in this book, and she always surprises me with clever ways to explore the genre. My other favorite part of this book was the found footage letter records they found in the Foreman's cabin. The implication of horror and mystery left unsolved and covered up is a compelling one. If nothing else, read it for the atmosphere alone. It's worth it.

Coaltown follows Andrew and his gang of friends as they take a vacation trip to a cabin to get footage for his senior thesis film. The group is introduced in rapid succession at the beginning and I had trouble differentiating who was who at first, but about 1/3 of the way into the story, Andrew does interviews with them which helps solidify their personalities and goals. I really liked that format and it was fun to see their banter and interactions, especially towards the end as they each step up to help escape. I think my favorite was the grouchy nurse chick who liked poking at the weird skull and took care of keeping the others alive. Andrew himself is a pathetic coward at times but this book sets up a character arc for him to grow in the rest of the series and I'm looking forward to watching his development. It's clear that despite their bickering, they all care about each other and can put their problem solving skills together to (mostly) survive.

Overall I highly recommend this for anyone who's looking for a fast paced monster story to give you the chills this winter!