Reviews

Decimated Dreams by Brennan LaFaro

ericarobyn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Decimated Dreams by Brennan LaFaro is the heart-pumping and tense follow up to Slattery Falls.

If you haven’t snagged Slattery Falls yet, do it now! You will want to be ready to jump right into Decimated Dreams!

And one more quick note before we get started; I purposefully avoided spoilers in my review, so this review is safe if you haven’t yet read the first book.

Let’s dive in!

My Thoughts on Decimated Dreams by Brennan LaFaro

It’s been five years since Travis, Josh, and Elsie faced down a monster in the terrifying underground maze in Slattery Falls. While time has allowed Travis and Elsie to have some space from the events, the trauma isn’t far from their minds.

When their little girl, April, announces one morning that a man with green eyes who was at her window had woken her up, the parents realize that Weeks hasn’t given up his hold on them. 

But things are about to get much, much worse… Travis and Elsie will soon be on their way to Slattery Falls, hoping to track down the man that they had been trying to forget.

The story opens with a scene that certainly gets the heart pumping! It’s a terrifying dream/memory where the three were exploring the underground grotto and find a tunnel under water. Of course, fearless Elsie is going to dive into without knowing if it will bring her out again. While reading, I noted “Just on page three and Brennan already has my anxiety spiked. Diving into a tunnel filled with water and not knowing where it goes or if you would be able to get back out if you run into a dead end? No thank you!”

This story was tense from cover to cover! It doesn’t gives you a chance to come up to breathe at all. It’s like we’ve gone into that underwater tunnel and the entire story is a lungs-aching-for-oxygen type of terror that doesn’t ease up until the very last sentence that finally gets our heads above water as we take in a big gasp of air.

I’m obsessed with the world building that Brennan seems to do so naturally. It’s the small details that he adds in… like a car very slowly coming to a stop, or how poorly a suitcase is packed when it’s noticed that they had an odd number of socks.

Brennan also plays with the senses so well! When things are dark and dreary, you’re going to feel that. But again with the smaller details, like the pine potpourri on the dresser, readers really get fully immersed here as if we’re walking through each scene like we’re one of the characters.

These elements make the story seem that much more real!

My Favorite Passages from Decimated Dreams

A voice cut through the silence, groaning like rusty gears powering a run-down machine.

Metcalf had shoulder length brown hair and a face that seemed too soft for law enforcement, too kind.

They—whoever the fuck they is—always say you’ll never look back from the view on your deathbed and wish you spent more time at the office. It’s a weird sentiment because no one needs to think twice before agreeing with it. No shit, of course family is more important than work. And yet, we subconsciously prioritize it on a regular basis. All those small choices group together, adding up in a nearly imperceptible way. We go in fifteen minutes early. We stay fifteen minutes late.

A single road snaked past the gas station, leading us into the town proper. At the road’s entry point loomed a weather-worn sign welcoming us to Slattery Falls. Some folks might call the sign rustic, but decayed was probably a better fit.

Stories have power. You don’t need to be a reader to believe that.

“So that means we’re not meant to get back to the foundation,” Robin said, her voice quivered like Jurassic Park jello.

Rather than launch an investigation, I stepped next to him and lost my feet in black oblivion. The murkiness chilled my feet, as if I’d plunged my leg into a body of water mid-winter. The resistance, seemingly designed to slow down progress and keep us from running blindly into the darkness, suggested we might be ankle deep in some foreign substance. Water was the first thing that came to mind, because, let’s face it, if you step in something wet outdoors, you hop that’s what it is.

The laws of the universe dictate that roads grow exponentially longer when you have to walk them as opposed to driving. The law is doubly true when you are in a rush to reach what lies at the end.

My Final Thoughts on Decimated Dreams

This is yet another tale that Brennan has just knocked out of the park. Readers be warned, once you pick it up, you’re not going to want to put it back down until you see how it ends. I highly recommend you go snag a copy of this as soon as you can.

Gosh, I cannot wait to see where Brennan takes these characters next!

HUGE shout-out again to Brennan not only for allowing me to beta read this amazing tale, but for also naming one of the characters after me! I still just can’t believe it… But I’m so honored! I loved seeing Robin Metcalf get looped into this twisted tale!