An Evil Premise by T. Marie Vandelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
**4.5-stars**
Upon hearing that her sister, Deidre, has been egregiously-injured in a bizarre accident, Jewel drops everything and rushes to be by her side in the hospital.
All she knows is that Deidre was involved in a hit-and-run and remains in a coma. That’s horrible, and of course upsetting, but even more shocking to Jewel is the terrible skin malady that seems to be plaguing Deidre as well.
Her sister looks nothing like herself. How long has she been dealing with this strange condition, and what exactly is it? Jewel has so many questions.
She decides to stay at Deidre’s apartment, so she’ll be closer to the hospital while Deidre hopefully recovers. It’s at the apartment, as she tries to settle in, that Jewel comes across her sister’s current unfinished writing project.
While both are published authors, Deidre is very successful, while Jewel’s work has never garnered much attention.
After a conversation with Deidre’s literary agent, who called to inquire about the unfinished story, Jewel agrees to help meet a very serious deadline. It’s the least she can do to help her sister during her hour of need.
Also, more selfishly, maybe Deidre’s agent will be impressed with her work and it could help boost Jewel’s career as well. Silver linings.
As she starts reading Deidre’s manuscript though, she discovers something very unsettling. It seems to be mimicking her current circumstances, but how?
Not only that, she thinks it is possibly getting longer every night; that she can hear someone else typing while she’s in the other room. Jewel tells herself she’s just being paranoid. That would be impossible. Wouldn’t it?
Determined to see it through, to finish the manuscript, help her sister and possibly jump-start her floundering career, Jewel pushes on. No matter what happens, she will honor her commitment. Then her skin begins to itch.
Y’all, this was brutal and very, very good. I was all over the place with it, trying to figure out WTH was going on.
I was so entertained by being in Jewel’s mind and watching her interact with everyone around her. Staying at Deidre’s, she has many interactions with the other tenants in Deidre’s building, as well as quite a few interesting encounters at the hospital as well.
It’s clear Jewel might not be the most reliable narrator, which I love, but what was going on with everyone else? Was there anything going on, or was Jewel just pitching them to me in a way that would make me think that?
I love reading stories that revolve around authors, and this one certainly had that nailed with not one, but two authors. It incorporates sections of the book Jewel is working on, and those book-within-a-book elements were incredibly well-executed. NGL, it was impressive.
I thought it was losing me at the end, a little bit, I felt like I was going to be disappointed with the conclusion, but Vandelly brought it around with a jaw-dropping, evil grin inducing conclusion.
I would absolutely recommend this to Horror Readers, particularly if you enjoy a book-within-a-book story. I felt like Vandelly created some chilling horror imagery, with many scenes genuinely getting under my skin. Also, speaking of skin, excellent body horror.
Thank you to the publisher, Blackstone Publishing, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Everyone should be adding this to their Summer Scares TBR!!!
