As the leaves turn, the nights draw in and the temperature starts to drop, there’s nothing quite like curling up with a spine-chilling read that perfectly encapsulates the spirit of Halloween. Hell Train by Iain Rob Wright is one such book that promises to deliver thrills, chills, and a journey into the unknown. So let’s step aboard the spine-chilling ride of Iain Rob Wright’s Hell Train! This is not your average commute, it’s a journey of terror.
Hell Train is part of The Cursed Manuscripts series, a modern-day homage to the classic horror tales that many of us grew up fearing and loving. Wright is a horror writer known for his ability to weave terrifying narratives with “fear on every page”, and he does not disappoint with this addition to this series.
| The Cursed Manuscripts: on December 21, 2012, according to the Mayan Calendar, the world was supposed to end. It didn’t. But on that day, 113 mysterious manuscripts were discovered around the world, each one written in blood by an unknown author. After several dozen unexplained deaths befell the finders of said manuscripts, a decision was made to lock them up for good in a secret vault beneath the Vatican. It is said that anyone who reads the stories will die, and as such they are now referred to as ‘The Cursed Manuscripts.’
Manuscript 12.20-03, discovered May 2021 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by teenager, Tom Dutton, who fished it from a stream. Tom Dutton drowned in a flooded basement just one day later. The following words were left as a voice message by an unknown called on his family’s answering machine shortly before his death: Beware of journeys without end… |
All aboard the Hell Train, a train journey that takes the reader on a terrifying journey on a route not covered by their ticket, spiralling into an abyss of horror. We take a journey with Clip and Xavi, a student couple, whose mundane train to their university lectures turns into a nightmare where the end point is death! Hell Train is a nod to Stephen King’s The Langoliers, but instead of being on an plane, this time it’s on a train with 13 passengers that enters a tunnel and seemingly never leaves and people start to die.
Overall, I found Hell Train to be an excellent creepy and scary read (my favourite of The Cursed Manuscripts series so far – I have read 3 books of the series so far).
The plot and storytelling are excellent and with 13 very different characters this is a book that is extremely hard to put down, so much so that I read it in a day. It is a very intriguing story that while it travels along at a fast pace, it never lets up on the thrills, and it does so without revealing all its secrets at once. You’ll never see the flickering lights on a train in a tunnel the same way again!
The story is excellent but the eclectic cast of characters is what truly makes this story, from the sweet caring interfering old lady to the face-covered, hoody wearing thugs with an attitude problem. The character development is fantastic and they are very believable characters, such as we would see on any train journey on any given day. This realistic relatable collection of characters makes the story all the more creepy, unsettling and terrifying.
Hell Train is a journey to creepy thrilling terror that will keep you turning the pages into the dead of night (if you dare). With eerie voices, murder, disappearing people and an evil spirit, combined with ritualistic ceremonies, the human condition and survival, what more could your what?
For those looking for a Halloween read that combines the nostalgia of old-school horror with contemporary storytelling, I can highly recommend giving Hell Train a read. It’s horror at its best, a book that not only scares, but is creepy and exciting.
So, if you’re going to take a journey this Halloween, step aboard the Hell Train.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £17.24 (Hardback) / £9.99 (Paperback) / £2.49 (Kindle)
For more information, visit iainrobwright.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.
