The camping trip of your nightmares: Devil’s Claw is a Southern Gothic horror story with ghosts from the pasts hungry for blood

 

Devil’s Claw (Dark Woods Series)

Kasey Hill

Dark Moon Rising Publications, 2024

ISBN: 978-1-945987-89-2

423 ppg., Ebook

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Go camping, they said. It’ll be fun, they said.

 

Not if you’re camping near a lake called Devil’s Claw, on a cursed piece of land haunted by spirits of those who were murdered in the 1800s.

 

And, oh, yeah, not if that same cursed land was also occupied by members of the Cherokee tribe who were in cahoots with the Raven Mocker, an ancient creature made of pure evil who is capable of taking on the form of a person.

 

Devil's Claw by Kasey Hill tells a story of just how powerful an ancient curse can be, and just how far it can reach! The story started off slow but picked up in the middle real fast! It really helped that the author included historical accounts of the bad things that happened on the land that would one day become a campground for families. Only, this campground is not all bonfires and fun hikes! Want to know what this particular story is like? Allow a character who sums it up on page 293 to explain it: “It’s like a scene out of Friday the 13th, except Mothman came to play instead of Jason Vorhees.”

 

Joshua and Isobel are two kids who have practically BEGGED their parents for months to go on a vacation. And leave it to good old dad to decide on a camping trip, and, of all places, to a camp area on cursed land! Once there, the two kids are shunned by the other campers’ children, so, left to their own devices to entertain themselves, they decide to go exploring and end up at a haunted tree containing haunted objects! That sets in motion a whole host of supernatural events that escalate on Halloween night, when there’s a full moon and the recitation of an old Cherokee prayer.

 

Welp, buckle in, readers. Because there’s a whole lot of thrills, ghosts and spinetingling chills set in motion real fast!

 

This book drew me in because I love reading stories about mysterious creatures based on legends, but I was also curious about it and I wondered, why is the lake the title of this book? I found out after reading it and the old stories surrounding the present-day mysteries just pulled me along.

 

I was also filled with a bit of dread because I also have some Cherokee blood. So, yeah, I spent some time looking over my shoulder and watching out for the Raven Mocker!

 

But that’s not the only thing that brought a sense of terror as I read this novel. It’s filled with so many scary moments and frightening creatures! As much as I wanted to continue reading this story, I also wanted to stop reading it too, because it scared me so much! But I wanted to know what happened at the end and if certain characters survived. The ending was just as scary!

 

I loved reading this novel! There’s just so much about it that says “folk horror,” Southern Gothic and historical fiction, with a nice helping of cultural beliefs. This story is also a good reminder of how we can never really escape from the ghosts of our past, no matter what we do or what barriers are set up against them. Those who believe know the haunting feeling of how they can never go home again, and that if they do, it means facing their ghosts from the past. Anyone who enjoys reading stories where the horrors and injustices of history as well as the lingering curse of a mysterious creature haunting modern-day land are in for a treat when reading Devil’s Claw; it does not disappoint.

 

 

Five stars

 

 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.