Rachel Reviews: The Sacrifice Box by Martin Stewart

The Sacrifice Box was a really good read and not what I was expecting at all. It was quirky, funny and packed with all the elements of horror that have served creators in this genre well for many years, and will do for many years to come, I am sure.

There are five principle characters that we follow but the main one is Sep, full first name, September who is on the verge of leaving the island where he has grown up to study further on the mainland, having applied for a scholarship. He only has his mother as well as Mario, the chip shop owner ( who is also a vet of sorts) and Sep is continually targeted at school because of his intelligence.

The friends with whom he made the sacrifices to The Sacrifice Box are no longer his friends; they are around but they have drifted and no longer speak. The book starts when Sep, Mack, Arkle, Lamb and Hadley the five are performing the ritual, Sep as instigator, him having received the words of the ritual in his head, source unknown.

The action then skips to four years later where the group has dispersed and bad things are beginning to happen. Crows appear (they always get a bad rap) and when items that were placed in the box take on a life of their own, or are animated by evil influence, it is up to the original group to control the problem before the people they love get hurt.

There are many things to recommend this book: first of all, it is set in the 1980s, a decade like no other, and the references to that time sat well with me and gave an added connectedness to the action of the book as I grew up then; it is funny, especially the dialogue between characters - snappy, sharp, real; it's a horror story but it's not too intense, although it is tense at times; it is full of great characters from the gamekeeper, to Mario, as mentioned, who is particularly humorous, to the teacher who champions Sep, to the interaction between the original group of friends.

It's well-paced with a Goonies/Stranger Things kind of vibe to it mixed with Child's Play/Pet Sematary nuances if indeed either of those things can be seen as nuanced.

Great if you like your horror just this side of deepest darkness.

Rachel Rating: 4/5 stars

This review was first published on Reedsy Discovery:

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