Title: Oak AvenueAuthor: Sasha Dawn
Series: Dark Corners Collection #7
First Published: September 27, 2018
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Pages: 72
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Short Stories
Format: Ebook
Source: Prime Reading
Rating:
Synopsis:
A young wife and mother—new to this town and to its secrets—learns just how much she doesn’t know in this tingly tale of all the things hiding in the dark at the top of the stairs, from bestselling author Brandi Reeds.
While renovating her Victorian home, Ana Clementine finds an ornate door buried under forty years of earth. Once she restores it to the attic, she starts hearing whispers, her loving husband becomes a stranger, and her baby daughter learns a chilling new word. Maybe Ana has unlocked the house’s secrets. Or maybe she’s becoming just a little unhinged herself.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
A creepy old house, a hostile town, and a struggling young mother trying to stay sane, Oak Avenue had all the pieces for a good story. I ended up hating the story, and found myself frustrated with the weak plot and characters. The story starts off well enough, the main character Ana is disappointed that her dream Victorian home is full of musty and outdated seventies decor, she’s treated like an outsider, and her husband is rarely home. As she begins restoring their new home strange things begin to happen in the home. The early half of the story was good, creepy even.
Unfortunately the story just sort of falls apart. There is obviously something spooky happening and when Ana starts to investigate, well, the explanation was bare bones. The good start never builds up to anything substantial and the ending was extremely weak and underdeveloped. Nobody even cared about the domestic abuse? That is the real horror of intimate partner violence I guess, that victims aren’t always believed, but the lackadaisical attitude of every character including Ana who is clearly going through it was unbelievable. It kind of sickened me to read a story that blatantly uses domestic abuse as a plot device for a spine-chiller ending. This one ended up being my least favorite story in the Dark Corners Collection and it really left me feeling sour.
Quote
“You unearthed quite a bit more than a door, Mrs. Clementine.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Sasha Dawn
Sasha Dawn resides in her native northern Illinois with her daughters. She teaches writing at community colleges and offers pro bono writing workshops to local schools. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys art and history, home improvement and restoration, and tap, ballet, and Latin dance. She also writes under the name Brandi Reeds.
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