Official Review: Survive the Night by Benjamin Card

tularula789 · Post by **tularula789** » 13 Dec 2015, 19:08

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Survive the Night" by Benjamin Card.]

3 out of 4 stars

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Survive the Night by Benjamin Card was great. It's a 244-page horror novel that follows the story of teenagers Victoria and Kevin, along with a small group of friends.

Ashmore house is said to be haunted ever since a jealous Abner Ashmore murdered his brother Sebastian and his fiancee Evelyn a century prior. One October night, Kevin and the "popular" clique decide to spend the night in Marbury's famous haunted house as a Halloween celebration.

When Kevin and his group manipulate a classmate into coming with them, Victoria and her best friend Ashley tag along to stop them from bullying him. However, once there, they become trapped inside the house with Abner's bloodthirsty ghost and must set all their differences aside in order to survive. As the group of teenagers spiral deeper into Abner's twisted web, Victoria and Kevin must come to terms with the fact that they may have a deeper connection to the house than they would have thought, one not exactly normal.

This book was interesting, and I was really immersed in the story as the plot proceeded. Before reading this book, I'd never really grasped the concept of insanity or really thought about what it really amounted to in the end. The horrors of what humans would do in order to survive and the desperation of being trapped in one place forever really got to me. There were brief, but constant examples of solidarity and unrequited love was a theme touched upon as well, from Abner to others- though I can't talk about them without revealing spoilers.

I think that the best part of this book were the descriptions. The thrill I got from reading about the nightmares the teenagers faced reminded me of why I loved horror novels in the first place, and at certain points, I couldn't even tear my eyes away. Though at first it was easy to put down, the farther along I got, the harder it was. I was fully immersed in the story, so by the time the end hit, I was kind of disappointed.

Cliffhangers are the worst endings, and this one was so abrupt, it just jarred me out of the story and bumped it down a star. There are some cliffhangers that have you on the edge of your seat nibbling at your fingernails in anticipation of the next book. Others makes make want to hurl my laptop at the wall and pull all of my hair out. Yes, it was that disappointing. That's why through all of my love for the rest of this book, I couldn't rate it a four. I (sadly) rate this amazing story 3 out of 4 stars.

The descriptions were beautiful (or as beautiful as horror writing can be), the characters well fleshed out and relatable, and the plot fast and furious. There were a few grammatical errors, but nothing serious, and they didn't detract from the story. The ending was a total letdown, though, and while I look forward to the next book, this one didn't quite make 4 stars. I'd recommend this book to those who love a good old creepy novel to curl up with at night and don't mind rushed endings too much.

******
Survive the Night
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benjamincard · Post by **benjamincard** » 15 Dec 2015, 14:12

Hey thanks for the great review! I'm glad you enjoyed my book. I'm a little worried that when I sent this book for review, it had my former ending to the story, which I changed. Is there any way you can contact me to make sure?

tularula789 · Post by **tularula789** » 20 Dec 2015, 08:12

benjamincard wrote:Hey thanks for the great review! I'm glad you enjoyed my book. I'm a little worried that when I sent this book for review, it had my former ending to the story, which I changed. Is there any way you can contact me to make sure?

You're welcome! I really enjoyed reading it.

As for the contacting, I'll PM my email address to you. I'm sorry that I didn't reply sooner, but I'm currently on vacation and had a hard time getting online.

gali · Post by **gali** » 20 Dec 2015, 09:46

tularula789 wrote:
benjamincard wrote:Hey thanks for the great review! I'm glad you enjoyed my book. I'm a little worried that when I sent this book for review, it had my former ending to the story, which I changed. Is there any way you can contact me to make sure?
You're welcome! I really enjoyed reading it. As for the contacting, I'll PM my email address to you. I'm sorry that I didn't reply sooner, but I'm currently on vacation and had a hard time getting online.

@"tularula789", Please note that Members of the review team are prohibited from having private conversations with any authors who have requested a review, nor is it appropriate for a reviewer to give an author their email address.

tularula789 · Post by **tularula789** » 29 Dec 2015, 09:43

gali wrote:
tularula789 wrote:
benjamincard wrote:Hey thanks for the great review! I'm glad you enjoyed my book. I'm a little worried that when I sent this book for review, it had my former ending to the story, which I changed. Is there any way you can contact me to make sure?
You're welcome! I really enjoyed reading it. As for the contacting, I'll PM my email address to you. I'm sorry that I didn't reply sooner, but I'm currently on vacation and had a hard time getting online.
@"tularula789", Please note that Members of the review team are prohibited from having private conversations with any authors who have requested a review, nor is it appropriate for a reviewer to give an author their email address.

Sorry about that! I'm not sure what I should have done. The conversation we had was about the ending and I definitely didn't want to spoil it. It won't happen again.

Bigirimana Celestin · Post by **Bigirimana Celestin** » 29 Dec 2015, 09:53

Thank you for a good review.

bluemel4 · Post by **bluemel4** » 29 Dec 2015, 10:43

Very well written review. I really enjoyed reading it. I love horror & ghost stories! I am adding this to my to-read list.

Post by **bookowlie** » 07 Jan 2016, 17:36

What a great review! The book looks really good, but I have to agree with you that cliffhanger endings are the worst. I read a book last month where the ending was so abrupt that I wasted time re-reading the last chapter to see if I missing something.

tularula789 · Post by **tularula789** » 13 Jan 2016, 06:01

bigirimanacelestin wrote:Thank you for a good review.

Thank you!

bluemel4 wrote:Very well written review. I really enjoyed reading it. I love horror & ghost stories! I am adding this to my to-read list.

Thanks! Me too..

bookowlie wrote:What a great review! The book looks really good, but I have to agree with you that cliffhanger endings are the worst. I read a book last month where the ending was so abrupt that I wasted time re-reading the last chapter to see if I missing something.

Thank you!

Yeah... cliffhanger endings seem frustratingly more common now.