lex sinclair

The book “The Goat’s Head,” written by Lex Sinclair, is an eerie book that dives into the scary world of demons and witchery.  The book has a haunting plotline based upon terrifying things happening to a completely innocent person, making it a satisfying read for those who enjoy horror type fiction stories.

The novel is about a twenty-two year old girl named Sofie Lackberg.  A stunning young women and brilliant law student, Sophie is of Swedish origin and resides in the United Kingdom.  In the beginning of the story, the naïve girl is trying to find a way to earn some spare cash and comes across a flyer advertising a small job taking care of the elderly.  She phones the lady who posted the flyer, a wealthy woman named Margaret with ailing parents that she needs someone to help care for on a particular evening.  After hearing that the job pays 150 British Pounds, Sofie accepts to work for her.  However, upon arriving at a gothic style home with a demon statue out front, she quickly regrets her decision.  Over the course of the night that she must stay there with the elderly couple, a number of frightening experiences happen to her, including being spied on through a hole while bathing and having the elderly people read her mind.  She ends up encountering danger after hitting her head, being surrounded by chanting individuals in cloaks, and the evil story continues from there.

The book is well written and Sinclair has an intriguing style of writing that makes the story not only easy to follow but engaging.  The pace of the book is fast in some parts and slows down in others, making it a perfect book for casual reading.  Sinclair does an excellent job of using a perfect balance of dialogue between the characters and descriptive text to really set each scene and help the reader visualize the setting.  Also, he does an excellent job of developing the characters in a way that makes them feel realistic.  While reading the book, it is hard to not feel terrified and upset over what is happening to Sofie because she is made out to sound like such a normal girl with terrible misfortune.

However, the book also has room to improve.  There are a number of obvious grammar and spelling mistakes sprinkled throughout the book which can throw off the reader and damage the flow of the book.  The small errors ultimately end up acting as a distraction from the content, making it a bit harder for the reader to lose themself in the book than it would be if there were no mistakes.  The writing is all excellent from a content standpoint, but it would be valuable for this book to go through one final round of post-editing.

Overall, “The Goat’s Head,” written by Lex Sinclair, is an excellent book that tells an unnerving tale of a young and ambitious girl whose plan to get ahead in life goes horribly wrong when she accepts a job offer that proves incredibly dangerous.  It is an exciting book that explores the petrifying world of demons and witchery, tossing readers into unfamiliar territory and leaving them there to experience fright alongside the book’s main character, Sofie.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys horror, or even fantasy, fiction stories.

Reviewed by Damnetha Jules
Damnetha  is a staff writer, horror book and movie critic.
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Also by Lex Sinclair: Nobody Goes There

The Lord of Darkness,” written by Lex Sinclair, is an eerie horror novel based ironically on the story of a young and successful writer’s struggles and how they turned his world upside down.  The story is unique and follows a different plot pattern to that of most horror novels, making the read interesting and highly unpredictable.   Sinclair’s writing style is extremely detailed; there are intricate descriptions included for every scene and each fine detail within the scene imaginable which adds excellent imagery to the book.

“The Lord of Darkness” is based on the life of a full-time fiction writer named James Baldwin.  Highly regarded for his renowned horror books, Baldwin sets out to write his next masterpiece.  However, he struggles from writer’s block.  A non-human character known as the Lord of Darkness arrives at his door, claiming he has a solution for writer’s block but stating that he cannot provide it to James without a lifelong commitment to his terms and conditions.  Hesitant and unsure of what he is signing up for, the author accepts.  James is then sucked into a vortex where he witnesses a famous author’s murder and the Lord of Darkness’ pact with said author to protect his ideas until he finds a worthy writer to see them through into books.  Changed forever, James’ life as a writer will never be the same and he becomes a mortal creative expression for the Lord of Darkness, even using his name as a pseudonym.

Throughout the novel, the actual horror content is subtly dispersed throughout the plot to make for a story that actually follows an interesting flow.  Unlike many horror books, this one is not jammed packed with terrifying or gruesome content, making for a pleasant and unanticipated turn of events whenever scary or violent parts of the story do unfold.  Also, the ideas within the book are interesting in that storyline feels unique and creative, lacking similarity to typical horror books which tend to have many commonalities.  One of Sinclair’s real strengths in writing this novel was that he developed an unexpected and special story that is almost like a mystery style fiction book with a slight horror genre twist.

Lastly, Sinclair writes with an extremely detailed approach, describing everything from settings to sounds and the fine details of characters’ faces.  This imagery provides added depth to the story because it allows the reader to really visualize what they are reading, giving strong support to the book’s ideas.  However, the author tends to write lengthy sentences which can result in awkward grammatical structure and diminish the impact of his words.  Also, while extremely minor, there were a few small typos as well as comma splices dispersed throughout the book.  However, if these small flaws can be overlooked, Sinclair’s writing style was very effective in bringing the story that he created to life for readers.

Overall, I would recommend this book for readers who are looking to dabble into the horror genre as opposed to readers who are diehard fans of traditional or more extreme horror books.  “The Lord of Darkness,” written by Lex Sinclair, is a well-constructed story unlike typical horror novels that is based on the life of a talented author and how his world is turned upside down when he makes an irrevocable promise to a total stranger.  The plotline is special and unique, resembling that of a different genre such as mystery, yet elements of fear and terror are present throughout the book.  Sinclair does an effective job of bringing the story to life through exquisite descriptions, however there were some small issues with typos.  “The Lord of Darkness” provides an interesting and refreshing spin on the horror genre and is an adventure to read.

Reviewed by Damnetha Jules
Damnetha  is a staff writer, horror book and movie critic.
More Horror Book Reviews