Review; The Death Chute by Ambrose Stolliker

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to recieve an ARC of the novella The Death Chute by Ambrose Stolliker through Netgalley. I read it shortly afterwards, but I haven't published my review until now as I wanted to focus on horror and paranormal this month.

Description from Goodreads
When his mother, Sophia, is diagnosed with an aggressive form of dementia, 44-year-old reality television producer Jake Porter is forced leave Hollywood and return to his native Vermont to look after her. His plan is to quickly set her up in a posh new retirement community in the Green Mountains and then head back to Los Angeles to revive his career, which is now in jeopardy after his last few projects bombed in spectacular fashion with TV audiences.

But when he learns that the retirement community was once a tuberculosis sanatorium where many patients died of the dreaded disease, Jake is uneasy at the prospect of leaving Sophia on her own. Only the assurances of the community's chief medical officer, Diane Barrett, convince Jake that his mother will be in good hands. Not long after she's moved in, however, Sophia has the first of many frightening experiences when she encounters the apparition of a little boy suffering from TB. At first, Jake dismisses her story as a symptom of her dementia, but as time goes on, it becomes clear the rest home houses dark secrets and is haunted by something strange and terrible.

My Thoughts on the Book

This was a fun and interesting horror novella toying with race and social issues. The downside with this novella is that I wished the characters were fleshed out a bit more as they didn't feel real and that it had more descriptions of both the characters, sanatarium and rooms. In addition to that, I think the plot and concept could have worked great as a full length novel.