A couple release a Banshee who is out to collect souls. A chilling horror you won’t want to sleep without leaving the light on.
Colin Knibb Author of the Inception Trilogy

A couple release a Banshee who is out to collect souls. A chilling horror you won’t want to sleep without leaving the light on.
Colin Knibb Author of the Inception Trilogy

Before reading Mr. Young’s book, I decided to Google the word “banshee.” I discovered that in Irish folklore, a banshee is a spirit in the form of a wailing woman who appears to or is heard by members of a family as a sign that one of them is about to die.


In Billy Young’s frightening tale, she was falsely accused of witchcraft and is about to be released from her prison in a dark cabin cellar behind a wall where she has been entombed for many many years. Frankie and Mandy have just moved into the old cottage, despite the rumors of it being haunted by a terrible ghost. After exploring the cellar and prying a crucifux off the wall, unbeknownst to Mandy she sets the banshee loose.


Immediately, the banshee picks up her jar in which she plans to collect souls. As the souls grow weak, the banshee grows stronger and goes screeching through the woods at night, a horrible cry that sends fear coursing through your veins if you hear it. Throughout the book, the haunted cottage attracts various visitors who pass by it. Despite what they’ve heard, they seek shelter there unaware of what is waiting inside for them.


I would love to be able to hear the author tell this story out loud. There is enough mystery and intrigue, various plot lines, and an array of complex characters to definitely keep the pages turning. The short chapters and the writer’s ability to push through the story also help. Despite minor spelling, formatting, and grammatical errors, his story of the tortured banshee and her jar of souls is one that is easily remembered.


My favorite part has to be Chapter 6 where the author goes back in time to show us how the banshee came to be… a woman beaten in prison, accused of witchcraft, and eventually led to the gallows. A priest approaches her to allow her to confess her sins before she is hung, and what does she say?


“You have nothing to fear my mother’s friend,”croaked Helen once her mouth was free of the obstruction, “but for all of you others who have falsely sentenced me to death I call a curse upon you, may the screaming of the banshee tear your very souls to ever lasting torment.”


My only real qualm with this book is the repetitive details such as “the banshee’s jar of souls used to give her strength.” Rather than leave it up to the reader to hopefully remember the key points of the story once they have been explained the first time, when they come up again in the story the author wastes words by telling you its purpose all over again. There were several elements like this which to a reader who was paying attention, make you feel like the author is repeating himself. True, important aspects such as these probably would be reiterated again and again to give the story feeling if it was being spoken aloud, but they don’t work on the written page. Also, the spelling of “judgment” is different on the cover of the book than it is on the book’s Lulu page (although both spellings of the word are correct), and inside the book on the cover page the book is just called Banshee. This could make the book hard to find in a bookstore or online at other bookseller websites.


All this aside, Billy Young should be proud of his evil banshee tale. With a bit of editing and tightening of the key story elements, I could easily see this book published as a serial in a magazine or as part of an anthology. It has everything a “spooky” campfire tale should have to make you check over your shoulder before going to sleep.

Read the full review at www.lulubookreview.wordpress.com!

A blood-curdling tale of revenge, which forces the reader to turn the page.

I loved the line, '...captives swim inside...a jar like fish in a bowl trying to find their freedom...'

This story also brings to light the dangers of superstition, hysteria and closed minds, which, ironically, can corrupt such innocence and cause the downfall of many.

It is, however, a story filled with sadness, confusion and justice, where it is not always easy to judge the guilty from the innocent.

Terrific.

Though, I won't be able to switch off the light for a while when darkness falls!

Julie Elizabeth Powell, author of Gone, The Star Realm & Knowing Jack