Scanlines

Trigger Warnings: Suicide, Drug Use

This novella is inspired by the televised suicide of R. Budd Dwyer. A group of teenage friends were kicking it one Friday night and wanted to download some porn. Kind of like The days of Limewire and ThePirateBay. Well, in their search for Farrah Fawcett they come across an unusual, disturbing video of a man shooting himself in the head, ultimately killing himself (obviously) After watching the video, each teen has nightmares about killing themselves in the same fashion as Congressman Benjamin Hardy (the man in the video) They also experience disturbing hallucinations. Come to find out, each person that watches the video becomes haunted by it, almost like a chain letter.

I enjoyed this book for a few reasons.

First, Keislings writing style is great. It hooks you and makes you want to read more. He knows how to set the tone. I also felt some vibes from the movie The Ring with the whole chainletter/video arc.

That leads me to my second reason, and that's the tone and mood of the novella. I could feel the characters dread. Reading this book was enjoyable but uncomfortable at the same time. I like to be brought out of my comfort zone so Keisling put a good impression on me with this one.

Lastly I enjoyed this book because Keisling wrote from personal experience making the story more realistic and believable.

Overall Scanlines gets 4/5 stars for its overall creepiness, dread and interesting storyline.