#BookReview: Mask Beneath Her Face by Rafael Chandler @shanannigans81

Publication Date: October 14, 2017

Publisher: Neoplastic Press

Read Date: April 7th 2018

Genre: Horror/ Thriller

Pages: 412

Stars: 4.5/5

During the 1980s, slashers terrorized America. With machetes and masks, these unstoppable killers stalked college campuses, quiet suburbs, and lakeside cabins.

Thirty years ago, Bobbi Metzger survived a massacre at her 16th birthday party. She spent decades putting her life back together.

Tonight, Bobbi will face a new killer: a high-tech slasher hell-bent on opening the doorway to an abyss of unimaginable horror.

How long can Bobbi survive this nightmare? What will she do to protect the people she loves? How much blood is she willing to spill?

Mask Beneath Her Face was a story of four main characters- Sam, Bobbi, Jesse, and Chris. All had the dreadful gory bloodstained past that was told in third person narrative. It was mind blowing brilliantly written thriller horror story of revenge, survivors, and some terrifying slashers.

If you love 80’s slasher flicks like Friday the 13th or Sleepaway Camp, this book’s for you!

Warning: This book contains extreme gore and violence. Not for the faint of heart!

Sam– he was nicest person who worked as counselor and coach who met other main characters through Jesse. He was cautious but not as anxious and paranoid as Jesse.

Jesse -was living in solitude, a cabin surrounded by traps. He was afraid of mirrors and so never left his house or touched any things that has reflections. He was writer, ghost writer and wrote his story and published it under the name ‘I Alone Have Escaped To Tell Thee’ (interesting, right?). Through this book he met many other survivor including main characters.

Bobbi -at first she looked like decent woman working as janitor. She too was experiencing paranoia and because of that she returns to town to meet her friends- Sam, Jesse and Chris. As story unfolded it showed how messed up she was. Though she was messed up, I liked her more than any other characters.

All these three had best interest at heart for Chris.

Chris – She was smart, intelligent with athlete body, okay face but strong personality. She was one complicated character with abusive past and she was a mystery that the story unraveled step by step.

Main thing I loved about this book was characters were highly unpredictable. I thought I knew these characters at certain point of the book but I was so wrong, I couldn’t guess what they were going to do and what their intentions were except Bobbi. They all had hidden side that was revealed by the end of the book.

I loved the way author told the horror story of all the characters- as part of book synopsis, interviews, and letters. That was very brilliant idea. I even loved to read the letters of all the survivors and their different stories. The scenes, murders and psychological part was depicted so vividly that it will scare the hell out of reader. There was so much blood, gore and mayhem with uncanny brilliant mind of murderer will remind reader of slasher movies and this book didn’t fail in giving that exact feeling we experience while watching those kind of movies. Most horrifying aspect was the slashers, their weird way of coming back, and their horrifying stories. Most fascinating part was revenge of murderer, the way it was planned, and the way it was executed.

First half of the book was kind of familiarizing the characters, their stories, their life after facing slashers, and how they survived till present life. I just loved this book even more in second half. There was everything that I wanted in this later half of the book and third part of the book was just awesome. 

Twist and turns were unimaginable. Climax was uncertain, damn interesting with all slashers at one place, and loved the shocking end of the book.

Nasty, dark, full of blood, gore, mayhem, slaughters and carnage. Terrifying? Definitely. Did it scare me? No. As readers said not to read before going to bed, I read most of the book in night time but it didn’t affect me much. Maybe because I was watching horror series and movies since childhood and it never scared me much. If it’s made in movie it does have capacity stop my breath at certain points but not scary for me.

Overall, it was perfect thrilling story perfectly executed with smart characters, lot of slashers, and so much blood that might take out all the food in your stomach. Those who love this kind of horror story, I highly recommend this book.

About Author-

Rafael Chandler writes novels (Hexcommunicated, The Astounding Antagonists), video games (SOCOM 4, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, MAG), and tabletop role-playing games (Teratic Tome, Lusus Naturae). He’s a metalhead, a kaijuphile, and a gorehound.

Purchase link (Amazon) /  Author site / Facebook / Instagram / Goodreads

*** Note: I received review copy of this book as a part of blog tour organized by R&RBookTours, in exchange for an honest review.  Many thanks to Shannon and author. ***

What do you think about the book and my review? Have you read this book already? Have you read something similar to this before? Share your thoughts in comment-box below.