Review of Stain

[Walter R]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Stain" by A.D. Logan.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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“He had just killed her and she was not dead. What is she?” Carolyn had just become the queen of the night wisps and is forever bound to their abode, her lavish mansion. She craves freedom, and to be free; she must sacrifice a stained soul that even the devil would be all too glad to accept. She hosts a lavish party for twelve people she could easily stain because of their past misdeeds against her. What they never knew was that they were all going to die. Who will go on the killing spree? And whose soul was stained the darkest to be a worthy sacrifice?

In Stain, A.D. Logan writes about a woman willing to save her husband and her child at the cost of her freedom and her horrific attempt to regain her freedom with help from supernatural creatures.

There are positive aspects to this read. The length of the book is considerably short, which makes the book a quick and easy read. For readers looking for a brief read that would keep them curious and thinking, this is definitely the book for you. The book is direct, delving straight away into the action, suspense and mystery. This successfully gets readers into an alert and agitated mood from the very beginning to the last page.

There is no room to get over the high of all the tension and mystery. It is a tense journey all throughout the book. Also, one must consider the fact that Stain is a dark-themed novel that comes with a lot of gore, violence, and bloodshed that can be triggering or offensive for readers. I appreciate the fact that the author alluded to this in his prologue. So it does not take a lot of time for the readers to figure out what they should be expecting.

Reading the first few pages of the book, I never expected it to have a supernatural touch to it. It was a pleasant surprise encountering supernatural creatures, witches, and other extraordinary elements. I also loved how the author devoted each chapter to a particular character. Readers would get to focus on each character and their story. As this book is a horror story that is to feature grotesque murder scenes, I had expected the victims to be characters I could easily sympathize with in terms of their innocence.

However, I was surprised when some of them, like Gregory, Blake, Madilyn, Dilan, Wendell, and Jeff, turned out to be either vain or unrepentant of their past sins. However, some were an exception and did get my sympathy. For the former characters, I struggled with feeling pitiful about their gruesome deaths. This is a positive aspect for me because I never saw the struggle I would have encountered coming. I was pleasantly surprised. The book had few grammatical errors, and this does not remove the fact that it was professionally edited.

Unfortunately, there are negative aspects to this book as well. In an attempt to create mystery or suspense, there were so many holes in the plot, so many questions and details that were not clarified. The story was told in bits and pieces that I was left confused and wondering for the most part of the read till I got to the ending chapters of the book. Even on finishing the book, I could not get a flowing continuous storyline that answered all the questions I had.

I still wonder what is spectrum foundation, who Elliot is, Jeff’s relation to Carolyn and so many other details. Also, I found the book to be highly unbelievable and incredulous. This might probably be because of the excessive tragedies that Carolyn suffered or the plot twists in the book. In its entirety, it just felt like Logan just wanted to write a book that was all horror and nothing else.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. I would have loved to rate it higher but because of the flaws I noticed I cannot. I recommend this book to lovers of horror stories, mysteries, supernatural fictions or thrillers.

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Stain
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[Ahmad Mahmood Baig]

Very interesting and nice book

[Amy Luman]

I really like horror books, but I also prefer them to have a storyline. I got one once that was just a ghost going from one bloodbath to the next. I do think I’ll try this one, though, I enjoy mysteries.

[Boitumelo Tumi 5]

Twelve people are invited to Carolyn’s home for a party that quickly takes a dark turn when she turns into a homicidal demon. Everyone is now in a desperate struggle for survival as they come to terms with the sins they committed against her.

[Ekezie1998]

In Stain, A.D. Logan writes about a woman willing to save her husband and her child at the cost of her freedom and her horrific attempt to regain her freedom with help from supernatural creatures. Great review.

[CrossK]

Also, one must consider the fact that Stain is a dark-themed novel that comes with a lot of gore, violence, and bloodshed that can be triggering or offensive for readers. This makes me a bit hesitant to read this book.

[Luchris Curtis]

The author's perspective is quite intriguing, and the storyline of the book is fascinating. Freedom is an expensive thing that is not easy to get. I'd love to read this book. Thanks for your honest review.