Review – Isolation by Travis Thrasher

Synopsis

A family on the edge …

A house with too many secrets …

A relentless killer …

James Miller is a burned-out missionary whose time on the mission field in Papua New Guinea left him exhausted and disillusioned. His wife, Stephanie, feels like she's losing her mind. After moving to North Carolina, Stephanie begins seeing strange and frightening things: blood dripping down the walls, one of her children suffocating. Premonitions, she's sure, of what's to come. As the visions and haunting images intensify, Stephanie asks her brother to come for a much-needed visit--but he's hiding secrets of his own that will prove more destructive than Stephanie can imagine.
Nine-year-old Zachary sees his family's move as an adventure, and as he explores the new house, he discovers every young boy's dream: secret passageways and hidden rooms. But what seems exciting at first quickly becomes altogether frightening. When a snowstorm traps the Millers, the supernatural dangers of their new home will test everything they thought they knew about each other, and about their faith.

Review

James and Stephanie Miller are a missionary family, with two young children, who have just returned from New Guinea, where they were helping out a small village. But their return is not a peaceful one, they left New Guinea under mysterious, but horrible circumstances. Upon their return to the US, they decide that they need to get away from it all for awhile. They receive a generous offer to stay at an out of the way, mansion-sized, log cabin that was recently donated to be a retreat for missionary families. Along with another, older missionary couple they plan to relax and take stock of their lives, their faith and their experiences in New Guinea. But a terrible blizzard leaves them cut-off, scared and truly re-evaluating their faith.

Isolation contains many mysteries, about Stephanie’s past, the horrors they faced in New Guinea and the massive log cabin they find themselves trapped in, not to mention the history involving the previous owner/builder. All of these mysteries are slowly unravelled throughout the novel with everything tying up neatly in a rather horrific and dramatic ending. There are plenty of tense and creepy moments and lots of suspicions cast about, there is no doubting that Thrasher is a great storyteller.

Although a horror/thriller, Isolation is a Christian fiction novel, and faith plays a major role throughout the story and amongst all the characters. From a man who believes his faith is lost, a man who feels religion is not dependable or responsible thing to have in your life to a child who shows that true faith is the faith you have in yourself and can never be lost. There is a lot of religious thought to be found throughout, but it is very evenly balanced within the story.

Travis Thrasher is a fan of Stephen King, and gives thanks to him for the inspiration he provided him as a writer. This is noted in the acknowledgements section at the end of the book, but without  knowing this, it seems obvious while reading Isolation. As a huge fan of horror novels and a reader of Stephen King, this is the one thing that bothered me a bit with Isolation. There are a few aspects of Isolation that made me automatically think of certain books by Stephen King. Family isolated in a giant building, during a snowstorm – The Shining? Person waking up and seeing their feet are muddy – Pet Semetary? But this may just be me and my slight tendency to overanalyse things.

My final thoughts, even with that one snark of mine, Isolation was well-written, with intriguing characters and an interesting plot. I recommend this as a terrific, creepy read. Travis Thrasher appears to have a great deal of talent in creating an eerie atmosphere and I am looking forward to reading his next novel, Ghostwriter (coming May 2009)

About The Author

Travis Thrasher is the author of nine previous novels. In third grade, while attending a school in Munich, Germany, Travis decided he wanted to be a writer. He wrote his first novel in ninth grade when he lived in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in a suburb of Chicago. Travis has written novels in several genres including suspense, adventure and drama. He strives not to be put into an artistic box, both with his faith and with his stories. Having worked in the publishing field for over thirteen years, Travis is a fulltime writer and speaker.

Author Website

Published by Faith Words

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