IAN DOWNUNDER VS THE ENGAGEMENT

Ian checks out Jay Bower’s, The Engagement and finds a horror story where the jump scares are sponsored.

TITLE: The Engagement

AUTHOR: Jay Bower

GENRE: Horror

PAGES: 204

FORMAT: eBook

PRICE: eBook $2.99, Paperback $14.96

G’day all, it’s your ARC reader here from sunny down under. We’re gearing up for Halloween here, which is incredibly popular in the area I live in. We go through bags and bags of lollies (what we call candy over here) every year, handing them out to all sorts of creepy ghouls and monsters. Oh, and the kids, of course, too! Anyway, the reason I’m bringing Halloween up, beyond the fact that it’s spooky season, is that this week I dove into Jay Bower’s The Engagement which is set in October and the lead-up to Halloween. A perfect book for the season, really. So let’s dive in and discover what spookiness awaits us, shall we?

I’ll start off by saying Jay is an excellent writer. Every one of his books is entertaining, filling the reader with dread and excitement alike with his unique tales. The Brownsville universe, in which The Engagement is set, is a creepy place and you have to feel for the residents that are caught inside. The amount of trauma Jay puts the residents through is enough to drive anyone as far away from Brownsville as possible, yet still the hapless citizens persist and endure its horrors. This time, they face a technological scourge in the form of The Engagement.

The story follows Ava, a high school student with a past addiction to the social media platform Feed, who had a viral moment for all the wrong reasons—A breakdown that was seen by the thousands, which forced her off social media and into therapy. Now recovering and managing to stave off her addiction, a new viral challenge on Feed is doing the rounds. The challenge: film yourself at seven different locations within a certain timeframe, and your profile will go viral with millions of views, thousands upon thousands of followers and brand deals galore. The only problem? Those who complete it don’t come back the same. They’re shells of their former selves, slaves to social media in more ways than one.

Ava and her two friends Harper—a girl who is determined to get into film school and the very same person who filmed Ava’s breakdown, and Tate, a technological guru—are seemingly are the only ones who aren’t interested in doing the challenge and when Ava’s younger brother Ethan falls into the challenge’s trap, they set out to uncover what is really behind the sinister trend.

This is a fast-paced book with a unique premise that tackles many struggles that the younger generation face today, those being social media addiction and AI. It’s a refreshing addition to the horror genre that I loved and if you give it a go, I’m sure you’ll love it just as much as I did.

I give it a 4.8 evil social media challenges out of 5.

Ian Gielen is a writer of all things spooky and a horror fanatic. Ian embraces his inner geek with pride, his dedication on display in the intimidating collection of horror novels and video games that threaten to take over his living space. He is mad for all things Alien, Star Wars, and cats; his furry companions are always there to keep him company as he scribbles down his latest ideas. With the sheer number of furry and human companions in his life, it’s a wonder he isn’t a little crazier than he already is.

PLEASE NOTE: The views and opinions of the staff of Memento Mori Ink do not necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or Crystal Lake Publishing, nor do the views or opinions of Crystal Lake necessarily represent those of Memento Mori Ink or its staff. Thank you for understanding.