The Devouring by Simon Holt

Author: Simon Holt

Category: Horror

Release Date: September 1, 2008

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Reggie Halloway is a freshman in high school, she’s a bit awkward, and since her mother left her family, she has had to take over the household duties and become a “surrogate-mother” for her younger brother Henry.

Reggie is a horror junkie. She can recall the works of Poe and Lovecraft from memory, but she also tries to make her little brother braver by reading him some of these same stories. While at work in a local horror bookstore, Reggie comes across a journal titled The Devouring, which contains the scribblings and drawings of someone that would put a madwoman to shame.

This journal contains the creepy, shiver-inducing story of The Vours. The Vours are these demonic, creepy as hell beings that inhabit a host on Sorry Night (it’s December 22), they devour their fear and take over. They turn your brother, sister, friend, or loved one into a hollow shell of what they once were.

Then Henry starts acting strange - he becomes dark, cold, distant, mean. Reggie, with the help of her nerdy but enjoyable friend Aaron, comes to realize that what they wrote off as musings of a lunatic are true; these creatures not only exist but they have taken Henry.

Reggie then has to find out what happens when your deepest fears become reality. She needs to learn how to save the people she cares for by figuring out how to survive within a world that’s one big nightmare. She has to decide if she can devour her own fears before those fears devour not only her, but also the people she loves.

Talk about scary. This is not a story for the faint at heart. Sometimes the imagery is so vivid, that you can picture it within your head. If you’ve never had a story that stayed in your head, then be prepared, because after reading The Devouring it sticks for a bit.

For me, at least, the story has made me think more about my own fears. Could I be so terrified that my guard was so low as to allow a demon into my head and let it put me in my own personal form of Hell? I don’t think so, but you never know. You must conquer your fears, before they conquer you.

It’s a terrifying story, but terrifying in a good way. Put on some happy music, and settle in for a horrifying, yet fascinating, ride.