This is the best paranormal book I have ever read. It is chilling and full of surprises. I never saw the ending coming. I would highly recommend it to everyone.
I honestly could not put this book down. It is so dark and gripping. It left me guessing until the end. Best horror book yet.
Contains some spoilers!
My copy of Xenon Phobia by Sterling Emmal popped through my letterbox in the UK this morning, and come the early evening I had completed reading.
The character Xenon had suffered much pain in her life and you could feel that in the writing. It's a paranormal powerhouse of a horror novella. Her father was murdered when she was young and she became a bit of a misfit throughout her school life, solely focusing on her work and aiming to become a Doctor, but not a doctor who wants to save lives; she wants to take them.
Xenon's life has been focused on becoming a prison executioner to exact revenge on those that have caused devastation and destruction to other family's. When her sister suffers a fatal beating at the hands of her boyfriend and loses her baby, Xenon heads for home.
When the hotel she is staying in is destroyed by fire, her life is taken...but not by the fire, by a strange man who prevented her going back into the hotel to save people. The man injected morphine into her heart. When she wakes, she is no longer in her body, but beside it. Kind of how I feel she'd felt for most of her life, just never quite within herself.
The man, known as Damien is not of the human world, and now, neither is Xenon. He has enlisted her for a reason, but first, he has to make her suffer pain like never before; to make her accept he has complete control over her and she must do as he says. Then comes the offer she had wanted, to exact revenge on the brutal boyfriend of her sister and unborn niece, Molly.
From the moment she confronts him, her mind is changed in a twist that I will not reveal. Then comes a further revelation as her rage and fury know no bounds.
The story is fresh and comes from a writer with an amazing imagination. I think and hope we are going to get plenty more from Sterling Emmal. It's dark, devilish, and delightful.
Xenon Phobia is a dark urban fantasy novella written by Sterling Emmal. Xenon was probably the only medical student who had braved the rigors of medical school and internship in order to take lives instead of saving them. She was coming from a very dark place in her life and had long planned exactly what she wanted to do after graduating from Stanford Medical School. Xenon wanted nothing more or less than to be an executioner for the state of California. If it had been possible, she would have preferred to be the executioner for Washington State, but that state didn’t have capital punishment on the books. Xenon wanted to be there when prisoners were killed, and she wanted to do the killing. It seemed the fair thing for her to do after her father was slain by home invaders. She still burned with hatred for those burglars, and each time she executed a prisoner, she would be feeling some bit of closure as well as giving closure to their victims. She knew she had to be very careful when she interviewed for the position. The head of the prison board at San Quentin would reject her out of hand if she revealed too much about her emotional baggage, but she was sure she could handle him.
Sterling Emmal’s dark urban fantasy novella, Xenon Phobia, is a chilling and horrific tale about a twisted and hate-filled young woman who has somehow lost all vestiges of her humanity and then loses her life just as her plans for vengeance begin to fall into place. Emmal’s lost child, Xenon, is filled with righteousness and is quite blinded to the contrariness of her positions on the sanctity of life. As I read this admittedly disturbing horror tale, I found myself wondering if the author would ever enable readers to feel any connection with Xenon, or if her righteous zeal and hatred had indeed moved her beyond compassion or redemption. This well-written and thought-provoking novella gives readers a chance to examine their own reactions and emotions, as well as their own personal quests for vengeance or retribution. Xenon Phobia is highly recommended.
Xenon Phobia by Sterling Emmal is a dark, twisted horror story about clinging to the deepest depths of your hatred, even if it means giving in to the demons surrounding you. Xenon is a doctor who managed to become the executioner for California after finding out her sister had been assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend. When Xenon is murdered by a mysterious man named Damien, she is bound by her need for vengeance. From killing the people who once loved her, to confronting a past she is just beginning to understand, she starts to slip further and further into madness, until finally only darkness remains.
I’m a future medical student, so when I read this book, I was chilled to the core. Xenon had an irrefutable sense of morality that can only be described as eerie. She carries this role on in the afterlife, all the while becoming the monster to whom she swore she’d bring justice. One of the things Emmal did incredibly well was show just how far Xenon would go to obtain her revenge. From contemplating killing her sister, to carving up her own corpse, from the moment she was revived, she had the potential to become a dark, horrific entity that solely existed to bring pain to others. Her character only served to make the end more satisfying. The fact that she took Damien’s place in the shadows, hungering for someone else to spill her hatred onto, only to fall prey to and be consumed by the same revenge was haunting. She even wrote a little message to the reader at the end, lulling her future students to her like moths to a flame.
Filled with emotion and pulling no punches, Xenon Phobia is a fresh take on the vengeance genre. Part supernatural and part crime thriller, this is a powerful novella packed with one twist after another and an ending that leaves you haunted.
To say more would induce spoilers and ruin the experience.
I expect good things to come from author Sterling Emmal. Keep writing.
