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Blake Douglas has a beautiful wife, a brand new daughter with a horrible, life threatening illness, and a young son. His life, however, is disintegrating around him. He is weeks away from losing his business, he has medical bills and now, his house has been invaded by thousands and thousands of centipedes. Luckily, his wife, Alyssa has found a place to live for a few days until their house gets fumigated. But that is when every falls apart. Blake's past rushes in to destroy his present, the disgusting book in the rental house shows horrid pictures, and the ghosts come to rip the Douglas family apart. This story has remnants of The Shining, elements of The Sixth Sense and the tragedy of Misery.
Michael knows how to write. He knows how to write well. He keeps the reader engaged and entertained, all the while sucking you into his madness de jour. Before you know it, you are hip deep in darkness and are struggling not to sink. Michael is not afraid to tackle the fears we do not want to tread near. He talks about them, writes them, plays with them and then viscerally tears into them making them real. So real, you wish you weren't there, but you are, and it is quite the ride.
The past few years have taught me there are authors, there are storytellers, there are writers and then there are the best who take all these components and with a little magic, a lot of talent and a lot of blood, tell a story that needs to be told to quell the darkness. Michael is such a man.