Mental asylums have long been my favourite setting for a good horror novel. There’s just something about total insanity and the fact that you can’t trust your own senses that makes it that much scarier. Mo Hayder depicts this setting in a very natural and realistic way, as her words comes to life in my mind. Reading about how a shared illusion can spread like a virus at a mental hospital full of impressionable people, and how any sane person who doesn’t watch out can themselves get wrapped up in this hallucination.
The latest Jack Caffrey novel starts out strong by depicting the Monster Mother in her attempt to “hide herself” in a rather graphic and unexpected way that made my stomach curl up. In two short paragraphs, I had to pause three times just to look away from the words. To even try to imagine what is going on inside the head of these people is very hard, but Hayder makes it easier when you get to experience everything from inside the head of Detective Inspector Jack Caffrey, as he stares down the eyes of evil itself in this nerve-wrecking thriller.
Poppet by Mo Hayder is a sure buy for me and it was released yesterday (March 28th) and is available at Amazon and a teaser from the first chapter can be found Dead Good Books.