Endurance by Jack Kilborn

Cannonball Read III: Book #6/52
Published: 2010
Pages: 328
Genre: Horror

I pretty much bought this book because it was only $2.99 on my Kindle, and I love a good horror novel. Also, I might have been born and raised in West Virginia, where this novel takes place. Don't judge me. And no, in the 18 years I lived there, I did not see any mutant inbreeds living in the woods.

Endurance is about a group of people who find themselves staying at a very peculiar bed and breakfast out in the middle of nowhere, WV. Most of the guests are attending an Iron Woman tournament in a nearby town. We have Deb, who lost her legs in a mountain climbing accident who came with a reporter named Mal, a family trio entering the Iron Woman competition (grandma, mom, and 12-year-old daughter), as well as Maria, who went missing during last years competition.

When I first read some reviews on this book, everyone kept talking about the gore and how it was so awful. I honestly didn't think it was THAT bad. It was definitely gory, but it wasn't any worse than a lot of Stephen King books. Maybe I'm just jaded from reading too many horror novels, but if you can tolerate any sort of gore in books, I think you'll be fine with this one. The descriptions of the mutants freaked me out more than the actual gore.

I thought the characters were well written and I actually cared whether they got out alive or not. Although I did think it was kind of convenient that most of them were trained athletes, although they were fairly varied - grandma, young kid, woman with no legs. Although the Cam character (Maria's brother, who along with her fiance, have been trying to find her for a year) felt a little forced. I don't really understand why he was thrown in as a "monster", when we have enough of them to deal with already.

I actually loved the book and already put a few more Jack Kilborn books on my to-read list. I think it's awesome that he publishes his novels on his own as e-books and only charges $2.99. I probably wouldn't have picked up a book by an author I'd never heard of if it wasn't that cheap. Endurance probably isn't the most intellectual book you'll ever read (I hope not anyways), but it's a fun read.