Widowed Josh plans a birthday trip to Ireland with his daughter Holly and friends. But luxury soon turns to terror as a dark secret emerges from the mysterious Kinnitty Pyramid. Josh must team up with an unlikely ally to save Holly, facing a final showdown with a vengeful spirit that hungers for power. Even if they succeed, a grim choice awaits — a life forever changed or a sacrifice beyond imagining.
This was a fantastic effort that has quite a lot to like about it. The main aspect to be gathered from this one is the incredibly detailed and established storyline that not only works to dive deep into local folklore but also features a remarkable tale on its own. The first half, going through a series of detailed explorations of many of the main characters, their history with each other, and the different history of their shared region of the country that includes the potential hardships that they faced, gives this the kind of in-depth exposition on the group to get to know what’s going on. With everything giving an extra boost by putting a select scattering of phrases with a written-out phonetic spelling to say everything in an Irish accent in the readers’ mind or to include extra bits about localized places or subtext to get an idea of the accuracy of everything going on, there’s a fun starting point to what’s going on.
This aligns with the somewhat intriguing narrative structure, which effectively handles the numerous characters in a stylish, if not always clear-cut, manner. With the presentation focusing on diary entries by the participants while they’re on the fateful trip that spelled their doom, or the broadcasting of videos that were recorded as well, it becomes somewhat of a found-footage documentary about the incidents that occurred. This means that the book brings about a strong stylistic shift when going through their various changes during the trip, as everything starts taking place through this constantly shifting approach in the writing. That can make the linear events somewhat hard to follow, as the storyline is split into three different periods, and characters appear in multiple sections, making it difficult to grasp the plot while working through everything in this linear fashion. It grows more obvious over time, thankfully, but at first does become something of a struggle to acclimate to.
With the different characters and timelines present throughout here, this takes a while to get going on it’s central plot involving the people running afoul of the various creatures living in the countryside who are tied to the history of witches and their attempts at consolidating magic through their collection of specific objects scattered in the countryside. Since we spend the majority of the first half working with the main friend group on their trek around the country for a big birthday celebration during a week-plus trip, the gradual discovery that certain members of the group falling victim to the influence and power of the evil forces comes about very gradually to the point where it’s sometimes hard to tell where the chills are supposed to come from. Even still, there’s not much about this that’s truly detrimental since this comes off as more of a personal preference than anything else.
What’s not a personal preference is the stellar attempts at exploring the genuinely chilling effects in the second half, once it finally starts generating some supernatural elements. Featuring the intriguing setup of the early dreams and visions that were taking place during the trip that get paid off incredibly well over time, the burgeoning dread once it becomes apparent that there’s something wrong with the behavior chances and physical degradation taking place leading to the big confrontations in the last third that focus well on incorporating Irish folklore into the events featured here. Some could make a veritable claim that there’s too much going on and that the odd setup might be a detriment due to the unnatural construction, but given its charm, there’s not much to dislike about it.
4.5/5
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