I’ve got a treat for all of you horror fans just released today! Know what a clowder is? No? You will soon enough.
Enjoy the wonderful guest post from Author Vanessa Morgan. Check out my review of Clowders. And read the glimpse inside the book.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
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Guest Post by Author Vanessa Morgan
RESEARCHING LOCATIONS FOR CLOWDERS
About ten years ago, I visited a tiny but charming town in Luxembourg, Europe: Clervaux. As soon as the car entered this community surrounded by woods, I knew it would once become the setting for one of my stories.
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I already used of few elements of Clervaux in my supernatural thriller Drowned Sorrow (which actually takes place in New England), but as soon as I started working on Clowders, there was no doubt about it that the story would be set in Clervaux.
While drafting Clowders, I mainly used my travel pictures and Google Maps as research, but once the plot was complete, I went back there to have a clear understanding of the topography and to describe places such as restaurants, shops and the castle.
I did find a cat while I was there for research, and I featured him on Traveling Cats 😉 http://www.traveling-cats.com/2016/02/cat-from-clervaux-luxembourg.html
The only things that aren’t based on reality are the people that inhabit the town, the many cats in the area, and, of course, the curse.
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Clowders
by Vanessa Morgan
Genre: Horror
My Review
They say cats have nine lives. What that means in the lovely isolated town of Clervaux, Luxemburg is they take nine. That’s right. When a cat dies, nine human lives are taken.
When an American family moves to Clervaux, they believe the legend is just that, a legend. But then a cat is killed and not long after someone dies. One down, eight to go.
This started out so hopeful. A scenic little town, friendly inhabitants, and lots of cats. But slowly, the atmosphere darkens. Strange noises are heard. Something prowls in the house at night. Claws click across the floor. Food disappears, Shadows hide a hunched over figure. And the friendly neighbors become not so friendly. Sounds like a good movie, doesn’t it? Thanks to the author’s talent for showing the story, it felt like I was watching it.
It takes a lot to give me the creeps. I’ve read a bunch of horror stories and watched lots of movies. A few scenes in this book are so creeptastic! There’s this scene where something is stalking the next victim. It moves boldly through the crowd of tourists. They think it’s part of something put on to entertain and take pictures of it, even as it attacks. I’d like to think I’d know the difference. I read it over again and still got creeped out.
Soft kitty. Warm kitty. Little ball of fur….. Not!
4 Stars
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Synopsis
Clervaux, Luxembourg. This secluded, picturesque town in the middle of Europe is home to more
cats than people. For years, tourists have flocked to this place – also known as “cat haven” – to meet
the cats and buy cat-related souvenirs.
When Aidan, Jess and their five-year-old daughter, Eleonore, move from America to Clervaux, it
seems as if they’ve arrived in paradise. It soon becomes clear, though, that the inhabitants’ adoration
of their cats is unhealthy. According to a local legend, each time a cat dies, nine human lives are
taken as a punishment. To tourists, these tales are supernatural folklore, created to frighten children
on cold winter nights. But for the inhabitants of Clervaux, the danger is darkly, horrifyingly real.
Initially, Aidan and Jess regard this as local superstition, but when Jess runs over a cat after a night
on the town, people start dying, one by one, and each time it happens, a clowder of cats can be seen
roaming the premises.
Are they falling victim to the collective paranoia infecting the entire town? Or is something
unspeakably evil waiting for them?
Aidan and Jess’ move to Europe may just have been the worst decision they ever made.
Purchase Links:
Amazon: US / UK / FR
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Check out this glimpse inside:
“Who is she?” Eleonore asked when Jess drove her to school Friday morning.
“Who’s who?” Jess countered, not sure what her daughter was talking about.
“The girl. The one who’s always watching us.”
“No one’s watching us,” Jess said.
“Yes, there is. All the girls in my baking class say the same.”
Normally, Jess wouldn’t have put much thought into such a remark – children can say weird
things sometimes. But now it seemed Eleonore might be right. Jess felt like there was indeed
someone watching them, no matter what they were doing.
She felt it everywhere she went. When she took Eleonore to baking class, when she was
lying in bed at night, even in the shops. But not all the time.
Some of the time.
More often than not, everything seemed normal, and then all of a sudden, she felt as if
someone was checking up on her. Sometimes it was only briefly, like a minute or so, but at other
times, she could feel it for several hours.
Sometimes she could feel it on the streets.
But mostly at home.
And never outside Clervaux.
You’re imagining things, she told herself.
In fact, every day since she’d arrived in Europe, it had gotten worse. More and more, she’d
get that tingly feeling, and know that someone behind her was watching her. She’d try to ignore it,
tried to resist the urge to look over her shoulder, but eventually the hair on the back of her neck
would stand up, and the tingling would turn into a chill, and finally, she’d turn around.
And nobody would be there.
Nobody, except for the cats. The sight of cats waddling along the pavement had never
seemed eerie to her, but the fact that they were always there, no matter where she was – on the
sidewalk, at the main square, in a café, in the forest – made her skin crawl.
Whenever she was running errands in Clervaux, she kept looking into store windows, but it
wasn’t the merchandise she was looking at; it was the reflection in the glass.
The reflection of something sinister watching her.
Sometimes she could have sworn she saw something. The reflection of a small, squatting
figure. But then she glanced over her shoulder and all she could see once more were the cats of
Clervaux staring back at her.
She decided to not let her imagination get to her, to resist the urge to glance over her
shoulder every few seconds.
And then her daughter muttered the words, “Who is she? The girl. The one who’s always
watching us,” and the paranoia tightened its grip on her once more.
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Author Vanessa Morgan
Vanessa Morgan is known as the “female version of Stephen King.” Three of her works (The
Strangers Outside, Next to Her, A Good Man) have become movies. When she’s not working on her
latest book, you can find her watching horror movies, digging through flea markets, or
photographing felines for her blog Traveling Cats HERE.
Social Media Links
Facebook / Twitter / Google + / Amazon / Goodreads
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