Welcome to my stop on the tour for Special Levels Of Earthly Hell.
Special thanks to Author Merry Freer for answering my question.
Enjoy her guest post and my review.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
Now. let see what Merry has to say!
“Why did you choose this event to write about and have you ever experienced a paranormal experience?”
The events in “Special Levels of Earthly Hell” are inspired by actual events that occurred to members of both my nuclear family and my extended family. There is something cathartic about writing about experiences that are either frightening, unexplainable, or horrific. The protagonist in the story is my son. I feel that through reliving these unbelievable events it helped him to bring up buried feelings and deal with them.
We were never a family who gave much thought to paranormal activity until my son was married and began to experience the demonic possession of his wife in a very personal manner. It was all the more disturbing to him because he is not a religious person and he had a great deal of difficulty reconciling his experience with his belief.
I have never had a personal paranormal experience, but I was certainly affected by the unworldly events seemed to precede the horror documented in this book. People were killed. Children were murdered. Like I said…..cathartic.
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Special Levels Of Earthly Hell
by Merry Freer
Genre: Supernatural Horror
My Review
What a sad, creepy story. It reads like a family saga, going from sister to sister, country to country, following them as their lives intersect and slowly crumble.
What made this especially chilling to read was realizing that, while fictionalized, this story was inspire by actual events.
Something is tearing these families apart, right down to their foundations. Possession is often scoffed at, but not by me. Nothing chills me more than to think of something taking over my body, controlling me, trying to kill me.
I could understand the hesitation and disbelief. But I wondered why they didn’t get the hell out. It turns out the outcome wouldn’t have changed. What happened was far removed from their focus.
Knowing something terrible will happen doesn’t make it any less scary when it finally does. The author does a good job of putting you in the character’s shoes. And when the entity shows itself, you’ll be glad you’re just reading about it, not there facing it.
The ending was rather abrupt for my taste and left me with a few unanswered questions. But it did have one of those ‘finally’ moments where the characters finally did what they should have done a long time ago
Disturbing and realistic. Not one for the faint of heart. And one I recommend for mature readers.
4 Stars
Synopsis
Drew Collins experiences the world in black and white. As an educated man of science, he rejects belief in the paranormal and the existence of demons. Until an evil energy he calls “The Beast” repeatedly enters his bedroom at night and takes possession of his wife’s body.
What he witnesses at night in his own bedroom cannot be reconciled with science. And yet he sees it with his own eyes, feels its presence, ominous and evil, with his entire being.
Against every instinct, Drew reaches out for help. It is not just his marriage that’s at stake. The evil force has invaded his wife’s family, tearing them apart and culminating in bloodshed and murder. Drew must face a stark choice: sacrifice his belief that the world is a rational place and fight an entity he doesn’t understand and is reluctant to label, or abandon his wife and her family.
Author’s Note to the Reader: Sadly, the most frightening and brutal events in this book are factual. The story is loosely based on one family’s experience with multiple tragedies, some of them “ripped from the headlines.” It is also an excruciatingly factual account of one man’s experience with a loved one who is possessed by a demonic presence. However, it transcends genre and is as much a tale of romance, of cultural barriers, of abuse, and of family drama, as it is of demonic possession.The link between the introduction of an evil spirit and the heartbreaking misfortunes that are visited on the family is left for the reader to decide.
Enjoy the excerpt
It was 3:00am, though Drew didn’t notice the time. He was startled into a state of complete consciousness by a feeling of intense dread and fear. Had he been sleeping? Had the feeling returned because he let go – drifted off and let down his guard? Terror ripped through him when he sensed a malevolent force above him. Slowly, he opened his eyes. Even in the pitch darkness of the room, he could see that a dark silhouette straddled him, standing upright, and as he recognized the form, he knew, with a lightning fast certainty he didn’t yet understand, that it only appeared to be his Adriana, her body inhabited by the evil force, her spirit squeezed from her helpless body and now possessed by whatever energy had terrorized them. He brought his eyes to meet those of the adversary that stood above him, silently begging to find recognition, but its black, dead eyes rolled back in their sockets and he realized instantly, as though by telepathy, that it intended to attack him…to fall on him! The form became completely rigid, falling straight forward like a stone slab toward his prone body, with no regard to how it might land. He let out a scream of primal fear that came from the depths of his being. Some kind of demonic beast was hurtling toward him and, throwing up his arms and hands to protect himself from its fall, he instinctively pushed at the foreign creature and threw it from his body, his hands burning with the contact. The creature’s head took the force of the fall, cracking into the heavy nightstand beside the bed.
Sitting up in the bed, shaking, perspiration dripping from his pores, he reached for the lamp on the nightstand and reluctantly turned the switch, terrified of what he might find, knowing he had no choice.
On the floor beside the table lay Adriana, his wife, in a fetal position, holding the back of her head, crying and confused. Drew climbed from the bed, taking her in his arms.
“What happened to me?” she whimpered, still rubbing the growing bump on her head.
“You don’t remember anything?” Drew whispered, carrying her limp body back to the bed.
“I think I hurt my head,” she said.
“You climbed over me to turn on the light and you fell,” Drew lied.
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Author Merry Freer
Merry Freer is an author of memoir and fact-based fiction. “Special Levels of Earthly Hell: The Story of One Family’s Chilling Struggle with Demonic Possession” was inspired by actual events that were experienced by her nuclear and extended families, tearing relationships apart and making national news headlines. This book comes on the heels of her first book, a memoir named “Doctor, Doctor.” While “Doctor, Doctor” is her debut novel, she has been a writer and editor for many years, including work with the San Diego Chargers and the San Diego Hall of Champions. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from San Diego State University and has been a featured speaker for classes dealing with medical ethics.
Her controversial memoir, “Doctor, Doctor,” topped the Best Seller List in True Crime/White Collar Crime for 10 months and received a “Best Books of 2014” award from “Suspense Magazine.”
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Paulita Kincer
