1 out of 4 stars
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Snake Prayers is a horror novel by James Gish, Jr.
The main character Jack Outland is a drinker and a teacher. Upon hearing news of his father's death, he leaves his place in Ohio and returns to the family farm in Kentucky for the wake. The official cause of death is heart attack brought on by a snakebite, something which Jack is immediately suspicious about as his father has had plenty of experience dealing with snakes in the past. He hears about another, far more grisly murder involving a man having the top of his head torn off and his brain half eaten and becomes involved in trying to catch whoever's behind it, particularly when it starts to look like his father's death was no accident after all.
As the story progresses, people begin to report seeing deceased loved ones walking around and Jack's own sister is found to be heavily involved in a strange cult led by the charismatic Clydio. He starts to realize that while his father's death wasn't an accident, it definitely wasn't just a straightforward murder either.
For about the first quarter of the book, the story is disjointed and jumps from scene to scene without much in the way of a flowing plot. In some places, the chapters aren't even numbered; only the word CHAPTER is written. A couple of chapters are named, and the rest aren't. One character changes names mid-paragraph and then changes back without a word of explanation.
Spelling is average with several elementary mistakes sprinkled through the manuscript. This combined with poor grammar, syntax and punctuation make this book a struggle to read, particularly in the beginning. The author also tends to use capitals instead of italics and dialog is rather stilted and unnatural, with most characters never using contractions: eg, "I am" instead of "I'm"; "It is" instead of "it's".
There are a couple of nice turns of phrase in the book, but the writing in general is of below average quality with repetitive sentences such as "In the kitchen, he found eight cold Pepsis, and a tray full of ice. In the trunk of his car, he slipped a pint of Bacardi Light from out of the spare wheel well. In the kitchen, he introduced a tall tea glass to some of the ice." For much of the story, this kind of writing style is the norm. However, it must also be said that the characters are all unique and have their own distinct and believable voices and personalities, and the writer did a good job of making this reviewer care about them. The story arc is generally good as well.
When it comes to the rating, I have never regretted the lack of a half star system more than with this book. The characters are good and the story engaging, so it deserves a rating which reflects that. Unfortunately, the writing is generally of such an unprofessional quality and littered with enough elementary mistakes that the author is his own worst enemy here. If there were half stars available, this book would be rated 1 and a half stars.
Sadly, the writing problems mentioned occur so often and lower the overall standard of the work to such an extent that I can't honestly award this book any more than 1 out of 4 stars. I would love for the writer to come back and improve on it once he's had a chance to learn his craft a little more.
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Snake Prayers
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It's not extreme horror, but yeah, if you're not a fan of this genre it's best to steer clear 
