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I like Jack Kilborn (Konrath), there's no two ways about it.While Endurance did not reach the level of sickness that TRAPPED did - let's be honest, few stories can - it was still an adrenaline rush with some pretty rough and horrifying scenes.The premise is a terrifying one: To stay in a strange place with some insane people who have very, very bad plans for you. Add to that someone who has no legs and you make for some interesting ways of trying to fight for your life.There are more than one ma...
Endurance: a Novel of Terror felt like a horror rollercoaster ride is the best way I can describe this book. So many twists, turns, & cliff hangers keeps you reading one more page to see what happens. Jack Kilborn aka JA Konrath does an amazing job with a large ensemble cast. It amazes me how he can take so many characters and make each one unique and interesting. My ebook had a few typos and errors but who cares? I hate it when those grammar Nazis start deducting points for every typo they find...
This was a fast paced, super gross read. Definitely not for the light hearted. If you like the movies hostel, hills have eyes and wrong turn you will like this.
2.5☆ - rounded up, partly due to it being fun; and because of the poetic justice (s) - towards the end. That amused me, quite a bit. As with its predecessors, this novel is littered with typos; and in this case, I also noticed two (there may be more) continuity errors, that should've been caught, but missed - somehow. I can only assume, that this wasn't proof-read, by anyone. I'll list a few; mainly because, I'm in a petty mood, and because it's starting to wind-me up. I'll put the words that sh...
Loved how freaky this was!
Having enjoyed J. A. Konrath's first two forays into straight out horror, Afraid and Trapped, I was looking forward to this third title he released under the name, Jack Kilborn. The afterword reveals that his editors wanted significant cuts, but he refused to give up on it, and his desire to see it released in the form he intended led to him expanding into ebooks.Well, good for Konrath/Kilborn, but truth be told, I can see why his editors had their issues.Endurance depicts the tale of several fe...
The plot is far from original (how many times have we seen movies and other novels with backwoods inbreds and a group of unlucky victims) but forget everything you know about similar stories, and get ready to be caught on a white knuckle thrill-a-minute literary creep fest, because Jack Kilborn is going to amaze (and shock) you.Sometimes a novel is written so perfectly, and so precisely that you wonder why all books cannot be so. “Endurance” happens to be one of those novels. Everything is so pe...
Deep in the (inbred) forests of West Virginia, the Rushmore Inn has a policy of "You can check in, but you can't check out!" Several female contestants in the Iron Woman competition, referred to the Inn due to overbooking, are about to find this out...There's Deb, a mountain climber who lost both her legs in a fall and crawled to safety while being attacked by a moutain lion, who arrives at the Inn accompanied by a flirtatious reporter, and there's Florence, Letti, and Kelly, 3 generations of to...
3.5 stars.ENDURANCE, by J.A. Konrath, is a gruesome novel with a good dose of dark comedy thrown in, that you will not be able to get out of your mind for quite some time afterward. Several athletes competing at the Iron Woman Triathlon find that their hotel had been overbooked. However, the hotel clerk is happy to inform them that they will be put up--free of charge--at the Rushmore Inn.Konrath introduces us to several groupings of characters, all conveniently arriving at different times. Two o...
This book is a trainwreck. Even though the rational part of my brain was telling me, "This is terrible, you're wasting your time, read something you're actually interested in," I just could not look away from the awfulness.Kilborn/Konrath seems to think that "horror" and "gore" are synonymous terms, but coming up with graphic, creative ways to make your characters bleed to death is not enough to make something scary (neither does having a family of people with grotesque genetic defects trying or...
I read this book as part of a horror group read at Shelfari. I finished it back on July 5, but wanted to think on it a little bit before posting a review.While I found this book to be a fun, fast paced read, I did find it to be a bit cliche. The hillbilly family 'thing' has been done and though this novel had a few original twists on that theme, I couldn't help still thinking about those cliches. What I did like were the characters. They saved the day. Most especially Eleanor Roosevelt, the char...
Okay, let me be up-front about this ...no bullshitting ... Endurance is some sick and twisted shit. Some of the sickest and twisted-est shit I've read in a very long time. BUT ... and this is an important "but" folks ... Endurance is also solidly written, sublimely creepy in parts, with characters you can root for and other characters you can hate. And that's what saves this novel from the unsavory pit of mere torture porn. In a recent documentary, Stephen King makes a very interesting point abo...
I just saw an episode of Hotel Hell about a Roosevelt Inn that definitely could have been an inspiration for this book.
Jack Kilborn is a pen name for J. A. Konrath. He tends to use this name for his more gruesome horror novels. J. A. Konrath is a talented storyteller who will enthrall you with exciting stories for the evening. Jack Kilborn will charm you just enough to be invited in then will stab you in the back and chew on your bones... while you're still alive.Did I call Kilborn's novels gruesome? Let me rephrase. This is SICK SHIT! Lord knows I have a high tolerance for the grotesque but this tested my bound...
If the West Virginia “family” that owns the Rushmore Inn bears even the slightest resemblance in ANYway to ANYone in your family then….HOLY GOAT BLOWERS BATMAN you need to stop reading this review and go deal because you have some meganormous genealogy issues to work through. Of course, I will be unable to assist you because I will be standing off at a safe distance with a flame thrower and a light saber ready to go either Medieval or JEDIevil on your ass if you so much as pivot in my direct
I never knew horror could be so funny.This book was completely AWESOME the one liners had my laughing out loud all the way through, loved the characters, the plot and the outcomegruesome and hilarious.
The usual suspect is a Nasty piece of sheriff, who used to be a bootlegger to boot before he came to the town. Once you check into The Rusmore Inn Hotel you would notice the proprietor Eleanor Roosevelt has an obsession with American presidents. “ That Eleanor Roosevelt has some issues. Hell she has a whole subscription.”This story includes a house of horrors, a Charnel House of ill repute and torture, and a motley bunch of human crudeness and evil freaks.The Rushmore Inn a homage to dead presid...
I tend to read a good bit of horror. I picked this one up because of the glowing reviews of others saying it scared the beejezus out of them. I must say this is one of most nerve-racking, spine-chilling books I have ever read. I started it at night before bed (great time to read horror) and didn't go to sleep. To rephrase, I finished it four hours later and could not go to sleep. After reading this you will check under your bed EVERY time you stay at a hotel. Books that claim to be "edge of your...
Tense and brutalThis book grabbed me from the start and never really let me go. The author did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life and making them likable before placing them in extremely hazardous situations.Yes, we have read the degenerate hillbilly story before. This author, however, takes a common theme and spins an intensely uncommon story around it. The story alternates between various groups of characters, each as round and likable as the other. He skillfully weaves a razo...
Endurance, in a word: tiresome.