The Splendor of Fear by Ambrose Ibsen
Something stirs in the town of Newsom's Landing...
Penny hates the outdoors, but when her boyfriend, Jared, plans a romantic weekend getaway in the woods, she decides to tag along.
The pair drive to a remote Kentucky campground with a strange and sordid history. Within the confines of the Swan Creek State Park are the ruins of a town abandoned under terrifying circumstances in the 19th century. The town of Newsom's Landing had been the site of the last-known witch trial in US history, and the ghost of its defendant, the infamous Ellie Pomeroy, is said to still linger.
Arriving on the anniversary of Pomeroy's murder, the pair find they have the entire park to themselves.
Or, nearly.
Something else is stalking the woods—watching in the night, wandering through the ruins. It brings a plague of hallucinatory terror wherever it goes, and before long, Penny and Jared can't parse reality from nightmare.
Lost in the woods, the pair are faced with a choice: Find a way to end the century-long curse, or be consumed by it—body and soul.
The Splendor of Fear is a full-length novel of terror by Ambrose Ibsen.
My Review
I've read a few books written by Ambrose Ibsen and I'm never disappointed! Somehow he makes the horror of an idyllic situation so disturbing that you'll be sleeping with the lights on!
The Splendid Fear was fantastic in so many ways. First of all, the descriptiveness of the scenes could be felt off the page. All while Penny was running in fear, I felt like I was running along side her, experiencing the same emotions and physical reactions that she did.
I can't give it away but I will tell you this, the story itself reminds me of a traditional ghost story, but the details that are sprinkled through-out, including the intense details that are more better than anything I've read previously.
That being said, there were a few details that I wondered about after finishing up that were left to hang. Like Jared's watch; Penny found it in the destroyed camp but she never asked him about it afterwards. The fact that she picked it up made me think it was more than a hallucination and that something more should have come from that find.