The Children of Red Peak

Bram Stoker Award-nominated author Craig DiLouie brings a new twist to the cult horror story in a heart-pounding novel of psychological suspense.

David Young, Deacon Price, and Beth Harris live with a dark secret. As children, they survived a religious group's horrific last days at the isolated mountain Red Peak. Years later, the trauma of what they experienced never feels far behind.

When a fellow survivor commits suicide, they finally reunite and share their stories. Long-repressed memories surface, defying understanding and belief. Why did their families go down such a dark road? What really happened on that final night?

The answers lie buried at Red Peak. But truth has a price, and escaping a second time may demand the ultimate sacrifice.

Title: The Children of Red Peak

Author: Craig DiLouie

Genre: Cult Fiction

Paperback:  384 pages

Publication Date: 11/17/2020

Publisher: Redhook

Language: English

ISBN: 0316428132

ISBN-13: 9780316428132

My Review

Cult, the atonement of sins and sacrifice. The ultimate act of faith committed by an entire community who followed their Reverend to cross over to be with God and only 5 children survived to tell about that awful night.

It’s been 15 years, and those five children, now all adults, are down to just four. They all received the same letter:

“I couldn’t fight it anymore.”

Sweet Emily took her life.

They haven’t seen each other in years. Not since their time in group therapy after the incident until each of them was sent to foster care or was adopted, but they all struggled in different ways to cope with their past while growing up.

This Bram Stoker award-nominated novel tells the story of these cult survivors in their pov’s alternating between the present and the past. It starts of so normal, not perfect by any means: broken families of oftentimes just one parent seeking refuge with Reverend Peale in his community near Red Peak, California. David and his sister Angela, for instance, commute for two days to make a new beginning with their mother, after their father cheated on her and left them. With the signs of an impending apocalypse per Reverend Peale, shortly after 9/11, their mom couldn’t give a darn about what would happen to him or his new girlfriend, as long as she brought her kids to safety. Now, years later, David practices Exit counseling for those trying to get away from cults, which are plenty around in this country.

Unlike Deacon, who now pours all his feelings into music gigging from one low-brow bar to the next trying to catch a break, Beth is a phycologist and has it all together. Somewhat OCD, it is her way of coping: order, patterns, regularity, and that nightly glass of wine that keeps her centered and sane.
Angela was the most skeptical of them all during her childhood, and now that they are back in touch with each other, convinces them to go back to Red Peak to fully process and make peace with what happened.

In painstaking bits, we follow the characters in this eerie novel into the deepest and darkest places of their souls. There is this slow-burn element of events, that begins to become creepier and creepier giving insight into how easily manipulated the mind can be in the most vulnerable situations as well as the torment to overcome something so horrific.

I read this novel rather quickly because I became fairly glued to the suspense and lured into the drama with a need to find out what happened and what these characters will ultimately end up doing. I can’t say this was the most heart-pounding or engrossing novel I have read, but it certainly has the “I can’t look away from this train wreck” attributes. Most awful was the mutilation of the members/parents in the cult that voluntarily starved and sacrificed body parts of themselves to ready for the ultimate passage. Throw in the innocent children, helpless and brainwashed, and you have yourself a subtle and disturbing read such as this one.

Like I mentioned, the characters offer an array of personalities and I found myself connecting to many of their thoughts because deep down, they all exhibited vulnerable human traits easily to connect with such as underlying fears, worry, and anxieties, etc. But there were also positive vibes to come across such as their deep childhood connection and friendship, firsts of things like stolen kisses, and straight-up happy child’s play. While the entirety of this mysterious cult unfolds, the reader gains a real sense of the characters in it.

If you enjoy a little shock and chill…this could be your next read.

Enjoy!

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review.

All opinions are my own.

Thank you!