Book Review: We Will Rise by Tim Waggoner

In Echo Hill, Ohio, the dead begin to reappear, manifesting in various forms, from classic ghosts and poltergeists, to physical undead and bizarre apparitions for which there is no name. These malign spirits attack the living, tormenting and ultimately killing them in order to add more recruits to their spectral ranks.

A group of survivors come together after the initial attack, all plagued by different ghostly apparitions of their own. Can they make it out of Echo Hill alive? And if so, will they still be sane? Or will they die and join the ranks of the vengeful dead?

GENRE: Horror

PURCHASE LINKS: Flame Tree Press | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then he's published over fifty novels and seven collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, Grimm, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Halloween Kills, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. His articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest, The Writer, The Writer’s Chronicle. He’s the author of the acclaimed horror-writing guide Writing in the Dark, which won the Bram Stoker Award in 2021. He won another Bram Stoker Award in 2021 in the category of short nonfiction for his article Speaking of Horror, and in 2017 he received the Bram Stoker Award in Long Fiction for his novella The Winter Box. In addition, he's been a multiple finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Scribe Award, and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. His fiction has received numerous Honorable Mentions in volumes of Best Horror of the Year, and he’s had several stories selected for inclusion in volumes of Year’s Best Hardcore Horror. His work has been translated into Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Hungarian, and Turkish. In addition to writing, he's also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.

Review & Recommended Listening

I'm not a big fan of horror, or at least not as much as my husband. Some of them hit much too close to home, in the sense that it's not entirely improbable for such stories to actually happen in real life. This novel turned out to be one of those, and I give it five stars for the simple fact that it took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride, which is more than I can say for jump scares and VFX in horror films/shows. I was creeped out and genuinely horrified by a lot of the scenes - the baby, the teeth, the book, the eyes, and more - and eventually distressed by where the story was heading. By where HUMANITY was heading. 😨

I don't think I'll have the energy to read this all over again, which is rare for something I give five stars, but I won't be able to stop thinking and talking about it for sure! Maybe it's just me as a reader, but I found a lot of things to unpack and reflect on. Great job to Tim for managing all that!

Oh, and the ending - it won't be for everyone. I liked it, but it might already be too late for some, especially those who like their happily ever afters. This is just not that kind of book, but it's not hopeless either.

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Recommended Listening: As I mentioned in my open call for books to review, I’ll now be adding a song to my reviews! It’ll be one that either sums up the book for me, what I’d imagine in a trailer were it a movie, something that I associate with the story or one of the characters for whatever reason… or maybe even an original inspired by it 😉

I'm here, at the beginning of the end

Oh, the end of infinity with you

I'm done with having dreams, the thing that I believe

Oh, you drain all the fear from me