The Burden of Life – Jay Bower

5 stars

Jay Bower is an absolute master class at his craft, and here’s why:

The Burden of Life is dark, twisty, and grim, but above all else… it makes you care. The way that Jay writes his characters, you can’t help but twist yourself up in their lives, feel their successes and failures as your own, and grieve with them when something terrible happens. Poor Joe has gone through so much. and despite everything that he’s done, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him and want to help him.

Which, can we talk about that reveal??? I had a hunch as to what was happening to Joe, but once the moment he acknowledged exactly what was happening to him….MASTERFUL! I had chills, and it really set the tone for me for the rest of the book.

Jay also injects so much small town nostalgia in his books; it’s almost like I’m living the scenes with the characters. Being a small town Illinoisan myself, I felt so much closer to the plot of Burden of Life. Reading the conversations about the Bears gave me a whole lot of resigned deja vu as I’m positive I’ve had similar conversations myself.

To top it all off, Jay’s writing has a habit of making me completely forget I’m reading a horror novel. I was so caught up in the power struggle and what makes us human vs. monster that I was taken off guard when something horrifying happened (like very vividly described eyeball munching scenes). I’ve never read an author whose storytelling captivates me so much like Jay Bower’s.

The Burden of Life was fantastically done, and I seriously can’t wait to see how Joe’s story ends!