We Will Rise by Tim Waggoner
We Will Rise by Tim Waggoner is an occult horror, ghost fiction novel. Published by Flame Tree Press on July 19, 2022, it weighs in at 256 pages.
We Will Rise is a novel that takes place in Echo Hill, a small town in Ohio. A normal day turns into pure chaos as dead spirits come back to seek revenge on their living relatives.
The first six chapters of the book introduce you to the characters you’ll be following. Once you’ve met them, the real fun begins as the dead surface to haunt and torture them. As each chapter passes, the horrors ramp up into a frenzy of fear and chaos that’s spreading beyond the borders of Echo Hill. The chapters unfold like puzzle pieces that will link together over time, gleaning insight for the characters and readers resulting in a satisfying ending.
Each chapter is told from a different character’s POV, making the experiences that much more personal and horrifying. It gives a deeper visceral feeling each time something bad happens to one of them.
Waggoner brings to light horrors that lie outside the norm of what I’ve read in the past, creating a fresh and fun reading experience. Despite the blood, gore, and maniacal characters, he also delivers an underlying tone of gallows humor that helps maintain a normalcy in the midst of some wildly fantastical and evil situations. Just when you wonder how much a person can take, the author turns it up a notch and makes your jaw drop.
Though the book starts out a little slow to introduce everyone, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was going to happen to each of the characters as I neared the end. I found myself caring about them and becoming invested in their outcomes.
I’ll also admit I enjoyed knowing harm came to some of the characters, too! There are some despicable people in this book. There are scenes that could be too much for some readers. Some descriptions of abuse will turn your stomach - not necessarily because of the gore involved but because of the nature of the heinous crimes that were committed and to whom.
I’m happy to report that over halfway through the novel, I was not able to guess the ending. It kept me turning pages. The ending was perfect. I was satisfied and felt I’d come full circle with each of the main characters.
We Will Rise is a fantastical, horrific, gory, disturbing story that also brings light to toxic relationships and viewpoints that plague society today. Waggoner finds a way to take the characters’ worst fears and sorrows and bring them (back) to life. If everyday people battling malicious, vengeful spirits who have nothing to lose sounds like something you’d enjoy, grab a copy of this book!
Find Tim Waggoner:
Merely a handful of the many works from prolific author Tim Waggoner:
To see a complete listing of Tim Waggoner’s publications, check out his Bibliography
Who is Tim Waggoner?
Tim Waggoner's first novel came out in 2001, and since then he's published over fifty novels and seven collections of short stories. He writes original dark fantasy and horror, as well as media tie-ins. He's written tie-in fiction based on Supernatural, Grimm, The X-Files, Alien, Doctor Who, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Transformers, among others, and he's written novelizations for films such as Halloween Kills, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. His articles on writing have appeared in Writer's Digest, The Writer, The Writer’s Chronicle. He’s the author of the acclaimed horror-writing guide Writing in the Dark, which won the Bram Stoker Award in 2021. He won another Bram Stoker Award in 2021 in the category of short nonfiction for his article “Speaking of Horror,” and in 2017 he received the Bram Stoker Award in Long Fiction for his novella The Winter Box. In addition, he's been a multiple finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Scribe Award, and a one-time finalist for the Splatterpunk Award. His fiction has received numerous Honorable Mentions in volumes of Best Horror of the Year, and he’s had several stories selected for inclusion in volumes of Year’s Best Hardcore Horror. His work has been translated into Russian, Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Hungarian, and Turkish. In addition to writing, he's also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
***taken from Tim Waggoner’s website
You might also enjoy:
Six books I’ve reviewed on my blog or have co-reviewed on the Unsettling Reads podcast in the past popped up in my mind after I read We Will Rise.
Click below to read my reviews!
The Devil’s Mountain by Jack Harding, published by DarkLit Press
The Again-Walkers by Deborah Sheldon, published by DEMAIN PUBLISHING
Goddess of Filth by V. Castro, published by Creature Publishing
Scratches by Joshua Marsella, self-published
Click below to listen to the Unsettling Reads podcasts:
The Bone Weaver’s Orchard by Sarah Read, published by JournalStone - Trepidatio Publishing
Bones by Andrew Cull, published by Vermillion2One Press
