Boys In the Valley

I do enjoy a good possession story. Religious horror is a fascinating niche, taking the scare stories of the faithful and exploring the horror within can create some powerful imagery.

Boys in the Valley takes an orphanage in a remote valley run by the church where the sheriff brings in someone who is apparently possessed just as snow comes in to isolate the whole place. The sense of trapped claustrophobia brings a wonderful pervading sense of dread to the story. Demonic possession, creepy kids, suspect priests - there is a lot of very fun tropes being played with here.

An excellent debut novel that has got me excited to find more of his work!

TWs: Death of a child, gore, mention of sexual assault/rape of a child

4.25 rounded down; this was well written and the very short chapters made it easily bingable! Ultimately the chaos was caused by a demonic spirit that possessed others which I felt was anticlimactic. Would've loved it much more if it was actually caused by the group's will to escape the Catholic orphanage to retaliate against the adults that were clearly abusing and mistreating them. Then the true natures of children with trauma might have delivered a more impactful delivery and message. Regardless, it was still a great read! Frustrated with that ending though lol

The first half of the book really does a good job of building up dread before the second half hits. Fracassi shows us how terribly the boys are treated by Father Poole and his lackey, Brother Johnson, and how the orphanage is already an awful, depressing, oppressive place that we know is only about to get worse. And we can only imagine the ways in which that will happen, but we'll probably be wrong!

The perspective shifts back and forth between Peter's first-person POV and a third-person POV. Peter is a great, likeable character with a lot of depth. Throughout the book, he's wrestling with an important choice he must make. His struggle with his upcoming decision is extremely relatable, and when he's forced to make the choice, it's heartbreaking. It's easy to love (and hate!) many of the other characters in the book as well. My least favorite was Father Poole and I really loved David.

The Boys in the Valley interested me from the start, but it didn't become a book I could not put down until the second half. Once there, I did not stop until I finished the book because I couldn't walk away from what was going on. There was a ton of action, lots of chaos, and it was so intense! I didn't expect the ending, but it was perfect.

Rating: 2.44 leaves out of 5-Characters: 2.5/5 -Cover: 5/5-Story: 2/5-Writing: 2/5Genre: Horror, Coming of Age, Historical Fic, Thriller, Supernatural-Coming of Age: 1/5-Horror: 1/5-Historical Fic: 2/5-Thriller: 1.5/5-Supernatural: 5/5Type: AudiobookWorth?: MehHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked LovedBooktok people really be selling hard on books that aren't up to the hype. Anyway, Philip... you had one job and ya fucked it up royally. Either way, I only enjoyed the company I had with reading this book. It did bring something new to the subgenre but they kids were so plain. Kids in horror are suppose to be creepy and this just didn't hit it.

I was lucky to get to read this book early because Nightfire sent me an ARC! Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi (Gothic, Beneath a Pale Sky, etc.) is a thrilling novel of coming-of-age amidst demonic possession. This Lord of the Flies meets The Exorcist story is set in St. Vincent's Orphanage, nestled in a 19th century Pennsylvania valley. Filled with daily human horrors, which truthfully may very well surpass the diabolical, as well as the infernal, Fracassi takes the reader on a rapidly-paced journey through the choices that shape the human soul. Through the powerful motif of fathers and sons, protagonist Peter must struggle against the chaos to find the light. It is worth noting this book contains very few women, both of whom are fairly minor characters, which might leave some readers disappointed. Yet, Boys in the Valley features a captivating plot, truly disturbing imagery, and generally strong character development on its mostly male cast of priests and orphans. Toward the end there were a couple details that didn't totally add up to me, but overall I found this to be a really compelling book. I have read Fracassi's short story collections and found his novel length work to be just as good, if not even better. An excellent book for fans of King, Cutter, and the like. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

3.5 stars

I really liked it and thought it was a lot of fun up until the climax and ending. This may be purely on my personal beef with organised religion and how much I hate it when stories use religion like some kind of super power.

Otherwise, it was a good story that was very well written. It made me feel dread and fear and made me really care about the characters.

Again, pretty fun up until the end but that's mostly on me.

While I did not love the audiobook - too many different character POVs without enough distinction between - the story itself kept me engaged. 

Well-paced, I never felt like I was trudging along at any point.

The isolated and somewhat bleak atmosphere and environment were painted very well. And the young boys in the story communicated as one might expect boys to do; they were well written.

My only real disappointment with the story is that I would have liked to know some of the ancillary characters just a bit more, to care about them just a bit more as individuals, beyond their being young boys experiencing a nightmare scenario. To be blunt, their deaths did not hit as hard as I felt they should have, because they were barely more than a name.

All in all, a worthy read if you enjoy supernatural tales, creepy kids, and grim settings.