Amongst Demons

by J.T. Atkinson

Something’s haunting the corridors of Legion Hospital. Something that forces you to confront your past. Before it takes your eyes. Christian is an ordinary, hard-working, happily married man, until an unexpected phone call throws his life into crisis. The caller is someone from Christian’s past. The caller gives Christian devastating news. The caller begs Christian to come quickly ... to Legion Hospital ... before it’s too late. Christian doesn’t hesitate. Leaving everything behind, his job, his home, his wife, Christian departs for Legion Hospital, an action that he will soon come to regret. In Legion Hospital, Christian will encounter the ghosts of his past. He will face up to the things he has done. He will see a horrifying secret revealed. And then the nightmare will really begin ...

Genres: Horror

129 pages, Paperback

Published October 25, 2018

About the author

I am a writer and have published two books. Amongst Demons and We Hide in the Shadows are the first two books in The Covenant series, a thrilling series of genre-stretching novels that can be read individually and that simultaneously draw on the horror, thriller, and fantasy genres.

I am currently working on the third book in The Covenant series, the soon-to-be-published In Its Wake.

Reviews

[S.A. Krishnan]

A dark story of two people - Christian and Adam. The tale is told taking you back and forth to their younger days and present times. The mystery comes unfolding in the end in a harrowing manner. Sinister tale.

[Mark Carnelley]

As good as King and Koontz.

This is one of the better horror/supernatural thrillers that I have read in quite a while. For me, it’s reminiscent of Koontz, and early King, in that the writing is such that the terror and suspense is wonderfully palpable, and not just inferred. That is writing at its finest.
The author brings you in, little by little, slowly yet inexorably, and when he has you, hook, line and sinker, he goes in for the kill. It will have the reader looking over their shoulders, at every sound they hear.
The setting for this read, a fun park, and a hospital, are tried and true backgrounds for horror stories, so why change? They are pivotal in this great read which would suffer if they were anywhere else.
Great characters and dialogue add to a marvellous reading experience.
Five ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars for this First Book of the Covenant series. Looking forward to the others.

[H.M. Holten]

The Darkness Within Triggers Despair

Amongst Demons is a ride on a horror rollercoaster. You don’t know if the demons are real or just a projection of guilt. Whose guilt? That remains to be seen. As a reader, you feel the hairs on your back rise: the half-world between the walls and under the floor carries you along. Is the dilapidated hospital part of a fantasy, is the funfair real or a projection of inner fears? The protagonist torments himself and you suffer with him. Be prepared to visit the deepest, darkest secrets that an individual can endure. JT Atkinson keeps the reader in suspense with a masterly plot.

[L.D.]

Awesome story!

[Mary Woldering]

Christian, a man who was unfaithful in his marriage, even though he has decided to mend his ways receives a call from a dying young man named Adam he had known when that man was a child.
At this point tone of the writing becomes surreal, moving between the present day of the 1990’s and a summer in 1978 with a carnival background. Christian is haunted by memories that are broken but cannot solve the mystery of why this has brought him to Adam’s bedside. Even his ailment is a mystery although readers can guess why he suffers.
It becomes a story of confronting inner demons and admitting error in a nightmarish backdrop. My biggest problem with the story is the repetition of phrases where one character says something, and the second character repeats it as if it is the second part of the question. It was a bit confusing. I kept visualizing the horrific and demonic and zombie imagery of British surrealist artist Francis Bacon as words and scenes oozed across the page and through the story. If you are a fan of Horror and rather moist descriptions, you will enjoy this book immensely.

[My Emotional Support Story]

I think there are certain subject matters that require you let the reader know what they’re getting into before starting and shouldn’t be used as plot shock value. My review and rating of this would be different if not for the choice of this subject being used this way. If you truly wish not to know, stop reading here.

This is a dark read in the style of older black and white movies. The dialogue is stilted and leaves a lot for the reader to figure out who is sayin what.

There’s an overtime of homophobia and I cannot tell if this was being down as a charge against homophobes or in sympathy with them, so if it’s the first the author missed the mark a bit.

There is also a scene of grooming and suggested child rape in the present tense.

Outside of the homophobia and subject matter, I was engrossed in figuring out what was happening, enough that I needed to read the second book to see if this was entirely the writers style and subject matter. So good job there author.

However, I don’t believe that writing about child rape in a shock value sense can be forgiven or over looked. We get to the last 3 chapters when a fairly explicit scene of a child about to be raped is depicted, and then we find out we actually read a scene of verbal SA of a child earlier in the book. Neither of these are subjects I would willingly choose to read if I’d known, and the tone prior to the end did not suggest this is what I was getting into.

I appreciate that the rapist got his end in a horrifying matter, but to thrust that subject on readers with no warning is unacceptable.

[Michelle Belanger De Rohrmoser]

Although I am not a fan of horror, I was curious enough after reading the synopsis, that I wanted to find out what this story had to say. So the way I woukd describe this book is that while it definitely did have strong horror vibes, mainly at the beginning and the end (like the bread in a sandwich), with some horror sprinkled thoughout, the real "meat" is in the middle. The entire story felt like being stuck in a nightmare. I had NO idea that this book would take a turn and touch on such difficult, uncomfortable, disturbing, and heartbreaking but also important subjects. There was one particular scene that was so so difficult and disturbing to read that I almost skipped it, but the point is.... I think this book is good and I think it has an important message packaged in a horror setting. I liked the ending because I felt the main character (Christian) got what he deserved. And while Adam also had the same fate, from my point of view it was almost like his death at the hands of the monster was more like the monster was "helping" him by putting him out of his misery. The real monster in this story was Christian.

[Robert Clark]

AMONGST DEMONS by J. T. Atkinson is a bit weird. Deliberately. About half the book is presented in flash backs, not a style I normally care for. In this case, I can’t think of another method that would have told the story as well. The entire narrative was rather vague, and some of what seemed to be major characters were of questionable importance. However, this was the first book of a short series, so I’m guessing they will become more relevant in time. The vagueness was obviously intentional, and combined with some excellent description, greatly increased the creepy, “What’s going on?” feeling I’m sure Atkinson was trying to create. Some parts of AMONGEST DEMONS were completely predictable, others left me with a “what is going on, is this supposed to be real, a night mare, or something else?” feeling. I suspect that is exactly what Atkinson wanted. AMONGST DEMONS by J. T. Atkinson tells a strange, somewhat unsettling story, but if, like me, you occasionally like something strange, I think you will enjoy it.

[Bernadette Robinson]

This is the first in The Covenant Book series, of which I believe there are going to be 7, all loosely related.

At around 121 pages or so, it's a very short read. However, contained within those pages is a slightly dark compelling page turner, that draws you in. Telling the story of Adam and Christian both in their younger years and as older adults, it moves backwards and forwards in time.

This is a more character driven than action driven story, that you feel the tension creeping along slowly until the reader nears the end and the strands of the story begin to knit together and you begin to realise what has happened to the two main characters.

I was drawn into this story and was keen to find out what was happening. It's a short read that will keep you engaged for a couple of hours if read in one sitting. I wait with baited breath for the second in this series and hope that the waits not too long.

I gave this a 4 stars or 8/10.

[Joe Pranaitis]

Author J.T. Atkinson brings us the tale of Christian and later his young friend Adam. Christian is married and cheating on his wife even though this isn't the first time and his wife still blames him for the first time. But one summer in 1978 when he and his wife and their friends go to the amusement park Dreamland he meets Adam. Adam is a ten year old whom his parents had let roam the park and both Adam and Christian have cought the eye of a creature that has fired its toy gun first at Christian. The author dose a good job of keeping the description of the creature a little vague. There is one act near the end of the book that the way it was described and how we were introduced to Christian you wouldn't think him capable of but he dos it. But I did enjoy the cat and mouse game that they had when Adam was trying to infer what he had and where it came from. This is an interesting book and not for the faint of heart but I do highly recommend it for all horror fans.

[Petrina Binney]

A different kind of horror, this. Christian is married to Lilith, a woman who can’t forgive him for an indiscretion some years back and throws his behaviour in his face at every opportunity.

The main character starts out unlikeable and only gets more appalling as the story reaches its climax. Christian is a pretty nasty homophobe, flinging insults at the boy-hungry (they’re borderline legal from the sounds of it) Rosier, while muddying his own moral waters by carrying out a spot of 90s phone sex with the elusive Bev.

But as a young lad from Christian’s past gets in touch to say his goodbyes, the story unfolds in blood and revulsion.

It’s really well-written, no doubt about it - with demonic figures, powerful imagery, and wretchedness in all directions, but the subject matter was just heartbreaking.

[Jude Walko]

I'd probably give this book a 4 or 4.5 but decided to round up.

It's an intriguing tale of a man dealing with his own demons, both literal and figurative. It also is a great metaphor of how guilt, no matter how much in our past, can eventually become all consuming.

I did like the way the book jockeyed between past and present. I also loved how the main character comes off as so judgmental and downright mean at first, before we eventually learn of his own hypocritical vices.

This book wont be for everyone, but I particularly liked the blurred lines between reality and fantasy. It still could be interpreted either way and that's part of its charm.

I will admit I also learned a couple new vocabulary words reading it, so kudos on that.

All in all a quick read, that keeps you interested and ends on a satisfying up-and-comings paying of the piper.

[Reuben Shupp]

I did not like Christian from the start. He cheated on his wife and was a real jerk. He made my stomach churn. Did I dislike the book because of our main character? Absolutely not. I really enjoyed reading this book. The tension begins on the first page and does not let up until the very last page.

The author really knows how to write vivid descriptions in such a way that the reader can visualize everything. I love how we are unsure whether the manifestations are real or imagined. This alone kept me turning the pages.

What a wonderful book! I highly recommend it.

[Amanda Tockert]

Within the first few pages I was already very uncomfortable with this book. That is something I look for in a horror book. I found a few of the transitions confusing, but all in all it did add to the disconcerting effort of the book. I almost wanted to read it with the lights on.

[Eddie Morales]

The author does a good job building the suspense into the dark unknown keeping you intrigued. The adult subject matter of this horror novella was indeed shocking when the secrets of the past are revealed.

[Robin Ofsonka]

Not Impressed

I do agree with one reviewed that "he said" was used more than needed. I also thought the storyline was drawn out and extremely wordie. I actually dosed off several times while reading this story.
Waste of my time.

[Sandi Turner]

Strange. It has been touted if you like King and Koontz you will love his works. Nope not even close. The story bounces back and forth between past and present. The plot simply stinks. All I am going to say. This book took me 3 days to read because I kept putting it down for lack of intetest

[Stephanie]

This absolutely needs triggers for childhood sexual assault. Not to mention the homophobic rhetoric written, which might be key to who Christian is but it feels ick. At the end of the day, I’m not comfortable that I could recommend this to people without properly informing of triggers.

[Scott Raphael]

Nightmarish

A dark and twisted short book, it reads a little like a nightmare, with haziness, confusion, and oddity. It’s a dirty, uncomfortable book, and that’s exactly what it’s supposed to be. Not for the easily disturbed.

[Alan Aspinall]

An enjoyable read, with a intreasting plot, it narrative is a little strange, but this was intended, and works well with the story plot,

[Carin Camen]

Pedophilia Glorified

I've never given a one star rating before, until now. JT Atkinson has overdone himself in writing a purely disgusting book.

[Elisa Menz]

Great first chapter.

I could have enjoyed it more without all the homophobia and pedophilia.