The Gatherings by Jeremy Ray is an apocalyptic tale with body horror events that are so unsettling, it will give you nightmares.
Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way. I also purchased a copy.
Let’s dive in!
My Thoughts on The Gatherings by Jeremy Ray
First things first, I love the set up that Jeremy has here.
The book starts off with a content warning, which you all know that I’m a huge content warning fan! After that, there is a micro-story that sets the tone. I absolutely love when a short bit at the beginning of stories kick us off before page one where the main story begins. I usually see this with things like prologues, so this micro-story element is something I love seeing each time Jeremy does something like this!
As we jump into the main story, we meet a writer named Emily who has stumbled across paper and a pen. She begins writing in the hopes that her words may find another survivor one day and hopefully help them… So clearly things are not well where she is.
While she continues her story, we get some brief set up information to show us how things have ended up before she begins explaining how she wound up in her current position. And boy, what a wild tale it was!
I thought it was super fun when the narrator calls out that she may not have time to edit anything, and apologizes for making corrections as she goes. Readers can see this as Emily has crossed out a few words already to replace them with something else.
This tid-bit certainly comes back to give readers a gut punch later on though.
My Favorite Passage from The Gatherings
But things change when the skin of someone’s face lands on your head, and you have to pick guts out of your hair.
I don’t have visual memories of the next moments. Just blackness. Like the screen of a television going blank while the sound continues to play.
My Final Thoughts on The Gatherings
This is a must read for fans of body horror horror that will punch you with powerful and haunting description.
Try as I might, I just can’t get many of the images from this story out of my mind…
Very well done, Jeremy!
Snag a copy through your local bookstore if you are able or feel free to use my Amazon affiliate link:
Thanks for reading!
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Ooh this sounds like a horrific read for sure~
😀