Book 11: The Beast Within Review

Wow, so where do I start? First off, How did Edward Levy not raise in the ranks with Steven King? Seriously, this book was dark and twisted. It was an interesting take on lycanthrope. Warning, this book does have rape scenes in them. the book spans approximately 20 years and it does it in a way that makes. It starts off with Farmer Scruggs. He was by far the evilest man, and is what set this entire story into motion. He was an elderly man who pretty much purchased a wife (she was 19) to serve as a maid pretty much. He isolates her from her family and she is NEVER allowed to go into the town. So she is in this home by herself with only one dress…you read that correctly. He only allowed her one dress and she could only wash it when he was in town because he would have flipped out if he saw her naked. Seriously, they never ever have sex because he believes it is a sin. And a couple years of being together she asks him to have a baby….well he punches her because clearly she has to be possessed by the devil for thinking such things.

Not much longer after this a young traveling bible salesman ends up on their farm because his car (which just started being made) broke down. And let’s just say that while Farmer Scruggs may have had issues sleeping with his wife but this salesman did not! Scruggs finds his wife having sex with the Salesman and knocks out the man. Later on he wakes up chained in their dirt cellar and admits to setting his wife on fire until she admitted that they were in leagues with the devil! He then throws the charred wife down with the salesman so that he would have something to eat. Something TO EAT! Scruggs is insane! To make matters worse he literally keeps this man in the root cellar for 15+ years. The man pretty much goes feral and only escapes because Scruggs had a heart attack, fell down the stairs, the guy eats him, and it wasn’t until he was starving again that he pulled on this chains and wood (finally rotted) gave out.

He then goes into the woods, finds a woman, knocks her out, rapes her and then gets bit by a snake and dies alone in a cave. But that was only the FIRST part of the story! The woman gets pregnant but believes it to be her husbands baby. They raise the baby and when he is 6 years old he starts having these dreams and feeling at night. Here comes the whole spin on lycanthrope….At night the beast within him takes over and he escapes from their home and goes on a killing rampage. He kills local farm animals and when his parents find out they do everything they can to help him, including caging him in his room. The book goes on and jumps to when he is 13 and his first sexual arousal which summoned up that beast. Then it jumps again to when he is older. At this point you find out that the beast within was still coming out at night but he was hiding it better. That is until he started killing humans and raped a woman. I won’t go any further because I do not want to spoil the book for anyone, but the ending was fantastic.

Pros:

• It is horror at its finest. You will feel uncomfortable at times because of the story and what you are reading.
• The characters all seem like real people who are trying to do the best that they can and genuinely believe they are doing the right thing. Even evil Scruggs believed he was doing the right thing….which is insane, but he really did think he had the devil trapped.

Cons:

• For me there were parts that were just really upsetting, but I guess that is the point. So maybe that isn’t a really con.

Overall:

This book is a must read for anyone that hungers for a great horror book. You will be brought into the mind of a mad man, a creature that is no longer a man, and the mind of a young man trying to balance the two. You will find yourself hoping that things turn out ok, but they never really do. It is just one horrible event happening after the other and you will not want to put the book down. Definitely a must read!!!

~Book 11 complete! Only 1 book to go to finish Mt. Rainer!~