Title: Seed

Author: Ania Ahlborn

Release date: May 28th, 2011

I had the oddest experience reading ‘Seed.’ Or re-reading it. I’m not too sure now.

As many of you may know, I read a lot. Back when I began to discover other horror authors outside of Stephen King, Ania Ahlborn was one of the first with her fantastic novels ‘Brother,’ and ‘The Devil Crept In.’ After reading those two, I purchased almost all of her others books that’d been out by that point. The next one I had on my TBR was ‘Seed.’

And this is where my confusion sets in. I’m 99% certain I started reading it previously. I’m 99% certain I didn’t finish it due to one more or another. But, the odd thing is, now having read it from front to back, I’m 99% certain I have read it before, as everything came back to me and I knew what was going to happen well before it did. It was so odd and I’ve never experienced anything like that before.

Saying all of that – I was excited to dive into this one for what I thought was my first reading of it. I love stories of entities spying, things coming to kids and latching on and how the past can haunt you, no matter how far away you move from it.

What I liked: The story follows Jack, a husband and father, doing his best to provide for his wife and kids while fighting the crushing sense of not being good enough and not providing enough. He plays part-time in a band and he has kept a secret from his wife for as long as they’ve known each other – that he’s running from something from his past and he’s afraid it’ll find him.

And you know what? It does.

It’s from this point on that Ahlborn does what she does best – creep the reader the fuck out. Few authors have a way of making even the most mundane moments drip with tension, but Ania has found a way to have each word carry a shadow throughout.

The pacing is fantastic, the family dynamics work so very well and as the back story unfolds more and more, you can see how frightened Jack truly is.

The ending is repulsively delicious – cruel but necessary – especially if you’ve been reading a lot of books that fall into this subgenre of horror fiction.

What I didn’t like: I wasn’t too keen on how long it takes for the reader to get a good morsel of back story. I think the dread (which is phenomenal and palpable) would’ve been ramped up even more if we got more of Jack’s childhood sooner than the teaser’s we get for half the book or so.

Why you should buy this: Having conclusively read this now, I have to say, it holds up as one of Ahlborn’s best and showcases just why she’s such an amazing author. Dark, violent, visceral and creepy as hell, ‘Seed,’ contains an atmosphere that few authors can conjure and never once does it waver. Not even when we all discover the horror that awaits us at the very end.

5/5