Review--Hellworld by Tom Leveen

Five years ago, Abby Booth’s mom, co-host of a ghost hunting reality show, went missing while filming in a ‘haunted’ cave in Arizona.

Since then, Abby’s life has all but fallen to pieces, most notably because of her dad’s deep depression and how they’ve drifted further and further apart.

But now, at seventeen, Abby has decided that things will change. She plans to go to the same cave where her mom and the crew went missing and to find out, once and for all, what happened there.

With the help of the co-host’s son Charlie and two of his friends, Abby sets off on a quest for answers…but what the group ends up finding, what they stumble across in that dark, primordial cave in Arizona, is nothing they could have ever imagined.

Abby was investigating a possible haunting… she never expected that there could be something worse.

 

I’ve been wanting to read Tom Leveen’s Hellworld for ages! I remember hearing that it was a super creepy read that was just chilling and it definitely had that, but it was far different from expected. This book was crazy weird and it definitely kept me turning the pages, but man, that ending!

The story begins in chaos, quite literally. Something big just happened and now Abby, her friend Charlie, and his girlfriend Selby are trying to escape a cave when Selby has a serious injury and needs medical attention. They are running from something, several somethings.

Then after the first chapter we go back to the beginning, the very beginning and learn all the who’s, what’s, and why’s, so to speak. Which soon sets off a back and forth matter of reading the NOW which is escaping from sudden danger and the THEN that led them to said danger. It was pretty wild. I mean, I would’ve preferred it to be the story just straight up chronological, but that’s just my way! I like reading a story as it unfolds not knowing ahead of time that OMG one of us just DIED! Kind of a spoiler, you know?

But in a sense, I can see why it worked for this story. Things are freaking crazy in the now, like apocalyptic crazy. In fact, it’s quite possible that’s where this is all headed. That when we get back to those THENs you almost don’t care anymore because you want to know how the survivors are surviving, you know?

A little more on the story, so you’re not totally confused like I was at its beginning…Abby’s mom used to be on a show called Spectre Spectrum and it was like Ghost Hunters in some way. Going to places and proving them haunted and whatnot. Well, then one day Abby’s mom and crew never came back. For five years she’s had to basically raise her dad who went into a catatonic state you could say. He’s there and moving and breathing, eating, but not really living. She had to drop out of school to work to help pay bills and is studying online. Then she finds a book among her mother’s things, one that she thinks points to what they might have been doing in that cave all that time ago.

She contacts her old friend, who’s father was among the missing crew members, and with his girlfriend and other friend who lost a parent in the debacle, they set off a quest for answers. But what they find was far more terrifying then they could ever imagine—no spoiler since they pretty much tell you this from the get-go!

This book was pretty terrifying in more ways then one. First the spooky stuff, and then you know, apocalypse scenarios in play! Those books always tend to freak me out because I know I’d be one to die in the first wave! Lol!

The ending though was far crazier than you would think! While we thought we were headed towards answers we get something somewhere in between. The ending leaves quite a bit unsaid and almost sets you up for a sequel, but since it’s been a few years I’m pretty sure this was just meant to tease and stress us out! But after reading a slew of horror reads, I’m getting the sense that this is just what that genre author likes to do to readers!

If you’re looking for a read that is downright terrifying and will keep you on the edge of your seat then definitely pick up Hellworld! It’s a wild and horrifying ride, but it’s quite the page-turner in the end! Except that ending!!

 

 

Overall Rating 4/5 stars