A review by poisoned_icecream
I think I'm alone now by Ali Seay

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Dorrie is a traumatized and troubled teen. She has done some violent and cruel things and felt no remorse for her actions. Her neighbor Mr. Frank, who all the neighborhood children are afraid of and suspect the worst about, has been watching her a lot. Dorrie assumes the worst as well, especially when he abducts her. However, when he reveals that he figured out she is possessed with a hitchhiker (how demons are referred in this novella), she learns that the rumors about him are false, and that he intends to help free her from the hitchhiker.

The novella switches a few times from 1985 from when Dorrie is 14, to 2019 when she is in her late forties. In the present day narrative she joins churches and watches the children with troubled backgrounds, as they're most at risk of becoming possesed, and does her best to help them.

This has become one of my favorite horror books about possession along with Come Closer by Sara Gran, Girl That You Fear by Azzurra Nox, My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, and Goddess of Filth by V. Castro. Ali Seay is also now another of my favorite writers and I'll always be excited to read anything she writes. I'm super grateful to Grindhouse Press for publishing this and her novella Hysteria. 🖤

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