[Book Review] Threshold by J.M. Kaukola

Threshold by J.M. Kaukola is a suspenseful tale about a group of friends in a relatively small town. Boredom allows them to stumble upon something that they would have been better off not seeing, and good intentions further drives them into an unbelievable situation that only gets more intense by the minute…

While reading this book, I had to fight myself to put it down.

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

Thank you so much to J.M. Kaukola for sending this book my way!

Threshold by J.M. Kaukola

Synopsis:

Jason Derval has problems. He and his friends are failing through life, struggling with school, and barely surviving in their dying small town. Then a fracking company accidentally unleashes an ancient evil. Now they have new problems, and their only weapons are debt, good intentions, and a rebuilt Camaro.

This will not end well.

Oh my gosh, this book. I had so much fun reading it! It was a great mix of interesting and really well developed characters, humor, nerdiness, and horror.

The first half of the book was really all about the character development. I loved that we really got to know each of the characters and what their relationships with one another was like. I especially loved learning about each of the character’s hobbies! The main character’s LARPing was especially interesting to me as I have heard about this here and there, but didn’t know much about it. I loved learning more and these scenes were so much fun to read!

I have to say, when I first heard that the main character knew how to properly use a sword, I had my fingers crossed that we were really going to see him in action rather than holding back to make sure he didn’t actually hurt someone. I was not disappointed!

While the author gave me a heads up that the horror would come later, I found myself getting totally lost in the tale in the first half and kept forgetting my anticipation for the horror!

Now don’t get me wrong, there were certainly elements that were put in here and there that alluded to the horror that would come later. I especially loved the last sentences of many of the chapters that made it clear that something was going to happen. And boy, did the story take a turn around the 50% mark!

I struggled so hard to put this book down and get to work! I just had to know what was going to happen next!

When I arrived at the last page, I set my kindle down and had to take a deep breath.

Bravo, Mr. Kaukola! This what quite the tale!

If there were two things it was good at, it was wasting money and desecrating Indian burial grounds. They should put it on a postcard. ‘Historic Landen. We bulldozed two of these fuckers, and we ain’t haunted yet!’
The lack of poltergeists made sense. Even vengeful ghosts would take one look at Landen, remember they had standards, and fuck off upstate.

He drank in silence, his eyes locked on the cut-out hills. After a moment, he lowered his can and passed the half-empty to me. He said, “Hold my beer and watch this.”
That phrase was a hillbilly red flag. It meant that bad decisions were imminent. With Shane, that was double.

In the Old West, cowboys shot one-handed to keep the control of the reins of their horse. Shane shot one-handed so he could keep drinking.

He reached forward and turned on the radio. With the windows down and radio up, we sailed through the night and straight toward disaster.

I remembered coming here as a kid. At least, I think I did. The problem with “little kid memory” was that it got blurred and hiccuped; it was built from flashes of scenes, vague feelings, and single points of clarity.

If someone asked me a question, I was damn sure gonna answer. It was like when the doctor hit your knee with the mallet, except with words.

Say what you will about bravery, but there was a time and a place for running away, and that time was five minutes ago.

There was no way I was getting out of this ‘okay.’ It wasn’t in the cards. I was fucked. Doomed. College student number seven-thousand-seven-hundred-thirty-four was no goddamn match for this. My skills were pop culture and sarcasm. When the living dead came for me, what was I gonna do? Snark them to death?

If you enjoy the mix of humor and horror based around an awesome young adult cast with a lovely coming of age element, then I highly recommend this one to you!

Like I said above, I had so much fun reading this one! I just loved each of the characters and their realistic banter. Everything was so wonderfully organized, it felt like you were right there in the story with them!

Snag a copy through your local bookstore or feel free to use my Amazon affiliate link: