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“The Suffering” has all the horror bases covered

By Candice Black - | Jun 8, 2023

A novel that begins with an Edgar Allen Poe quote and a Halloween seance is already a hit from the first few pages. And in chapters following, “The Suffering” by M.J. Mars does not disappoint and lives up to its harrowing beginning.

Kyle lives in a stately Victorian mansion which is considered the “Victorian murder house” after a seance in 1876 goes awry. Along with his roommates, Kyle conducts a seance to awaken the five ghosts his ancestor trapped in the house. In their lifetime, the ghosts were a mixture of people including an oracle, an executioner, an Inca giant, a member of the Hellfire Club and a thief.

The groups gets more than they bargained for when the ghosts prey on each of the housemates and targets them based on their fears and insecurities. Kyle and his friends have to figure out how to send them away for good while the poltergeists plague their lives.

As no stranger to the horror genre, I was genuinely impressed with the creep factor Mars creates when describing the hauntings. I’m not typically affected by scary novels but this one sent chills down my spine, and that’s not an easy feat.

Before “The Suffering” was published in February, Mars had only written short stories and this is the debut novel, not that it shows. Mars writes as if she has had many years of practice and more impressively than several well-established authors. I highly recommend “The Suffering” for horror fans or event to someone new to the genre. Mars has all of the bases covered.

Candice Black can be reached at cblack@newsandsentinel.com.