Bloodtooth

By: D.W. Hitz

Narrated by: Curtis Michael Holland

After nightmares begin in the small town of Custer Falls, Montana, in 1992, it’ll be thirty years before they end.

Just outside of Custer Falls, something is sleeping. Life in the small town was never ideal, but it was safe, quiet, and predictable. After Wes Henson and his friends’ field trip to Bloodtooth Caverns, all of that changes.

All they did was stray off the path. They didn’t expect to break their bones and discover an ancient relic. But once it’s in Wes’s hands, he’s the one that has to put it back.

Until he does, the town’s nightmares are no longer harmless. The good side of your conscience may go quiet as the devil on your shoulder speaks up. Children fall into comas, while adults are torn to pieces in their sleep.

If Wes and his friends want to survive, they’ll have to conquer the waking world and the dreamscape.

Because when this evil is awake, no one’s dreams are safe.

©2023 D.W Hitz (P)2024 Fright Night Audio

horror perfection 👌

This book had been on my tbr for a good hunk of time but kept getting passed up because she is a literal beast, 687 pages or 23 hours on audio. I adore Hitz and Custer Falls, so I knew I HAD to read this. Also, it's narrated by Curtis Michael Holland ( my dark romance peeps know what's up ;) ). At this point, how could I ignore it any longer?!!

BLOODTOOTH is written in two timelines, 1992 and 2022. The reader is able to see what happened then and how those horrific events still impact Custer Falls today. A field trip into Bloodtooth Caverns doesn't go as planned because surprise surprise kids can't leave well enough alone!! Why did they have to mess with that dang rock? PUT.IT.BACK!

Hitz masterfully blends cosmic horror, coming of age, small town horror, and loads of blood to create an unforgettable tale.

Epic!

There’s something about dreams that are so mysterious, so creepy, and D.W. Hitz explores that to the fullest extent in Bloodtooth.

The story is told from multiple characters’ POVs from the past (1992) and the current time (2022). As terror descends on town in a multiple murder spree and kids start to go to sleep and not wake up, Wes has the unsettling feeling that this has all happened before. When he’s reunited with his addict sister, Di, he comes to realize that truth is stranger than fiction and that it’s up to them to put a stop to the madness.

I loved how absolutely intricate and detailed the plot was with the way the characters grow and come to understand their situation in both the past and the current time. I admit that I was a little confused at the beginning of the book because there are a lot of characters to learn, but once I did that, I loved where the story went. There were monsters and demons and claustrophobic situations. This was a fantastic mashup of so many awesome tropes.

I read another review that mentioned something about this giving vibes somewhere between Stephen King’s It and the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and that is a very accurate description.

All in all, if you’re in the mood for an epic dark fantasy with some horror elements, this will definitely hit the spot.

Wrong Narrator

The narrator's tone sounds like he's reading a bedtime story to a child. It really takes you out of the narrative, which is convoluted and makes little sense. It seems like the author intended to build mystery and suspense but instead he ended up with a disjointed nonsensical mess. There are too many characters, introduced too quickly without enough development. The supernatural elements feel like an afterthought that was shoehorned in.