Benjamin Kane Ethridge

Four friends are haunted by a sinister song that turns nightmares into reality. Can they unravel the mystery before more innocent people are killed by their 'lifemares'?

An amazing, haunting story. Drew me in from the very first page and I loved it. It keeps you on your toes and remains a mystery right up to the end, when everything falls into place and you realise where the song is coming from. Still leaves a lot of questions unanswered and I'm really looking forward to the next novel.
The show more story is well-written, original and never boring. The characters are interesting and have enough depth to carry the story, and character development throughout the story is worked out quite well. show less

If you’re a fan of Greek mythology, particularly stories featuring Charon and the Furies, then this book will seriously float your boat. Sorry, had to get that pun in. Bottled Abyss is a contemporary urban fantasy/horror tale that features elements of these myths in an original and genuinely creepy way. The opening scene, in which Herman bumps into an evasive (yet supremely helpful) Charon, drew me straight in and I found Etheridge’s writing style to be pretty engaging throughout, show more despite the fact that towards the middle there is a good deal more violence and unsavoury goings-on than I’m used to in my reading.

The blend of reality, myth and fantasy will certainly appeal to a lot of readers who enjoy the feel of urban fantasy with an edge. I quite enjoyed the character development of a number of the main players – particularly Janet, who certainly makes a change from the grief-stricken drunkard that she appears to be at the beginning of the book – as events become stranger and the worlds of the living and the dead start to blend together. There are a number of characters that readers will no doubt love to hate also – my unfavourite being the odious childcare teacher who isn’t what she appears, closely followed by the thuggish and brutal Vincent. I found it satisfying that many of the characters are linked in ways that aren’t immediately apparent, even to the characters themselves. I felt this was the mark of some clever narrative planning and added to the reading experience overall.

While tending toward more violence and visceral suffering than I generally like to see in books, Bottled Abyss certainly delivers on both the fantasy and horror elements of the tale. I found myself still thinking about the story a few days after finishing, so obviously this is more than just a blood-splatting, clichéd yarn, so if you are stout of heart (and stomach) and enjoy a bit of mythology and horror in a contemporary setting, I’d definitely suggest trying this one out. show less

When Herman and Janet Erikson’s young daughter, Melody, is killed in a hit and run accident, their lives quite literally fall apart. Janet is consumed with suicidal thoughts and seeks solace in alcoholism, while Herman finds himself increasingly unable to cope with his wife’s inability to move past her pain, to the point where he begins to despise her. When their dog goes missing in the coyote infested desert near their home, Herman sets out to find the animal. When he finds the dog near show more death, a stranger appears and miraculously saves the animal by giving it a drink from an ornate bottle, Herman, and later, Janet, become obsessed with the bottle, and its power to bring things back from the brink of death. An obsession that will have dire consequences for them and everyone around them. Especially once Janet’s thoughts turn to revenge against those who caused the death of her daughter.

Bottled Abyss is a very different novel from Ethridge. His Bram Stoker winning debut, Black and Orange, was a tightly written action horror that strayed into dark fantasy. Bottled Abyss is a much more introspective offering, looking at the darkness within each person and the fragile nature of the human condition and the relationships between the main characters.

That is not to say that this is your standard dull literary horror offering. Far from it. The prose is often lyrical, almost poetic in its nature, which contrasts the bleak nature of the narrative in a very effective manner. When someone drinks from the bottle, they cough up a coin, which, when passed to someone else, exchanges the death meant for that person with the recipient. When this happens, the narrative switches to a stream of consciousness first person perspective which works incredibly well, heightening the tension of the victims impending encounter with The Fury, a monster straight out of ancient Greek mythology, that seeks justice and dispatches the unfortunate in some original and gory ways.

Bottled Abyss is a remarkable novel. One that stayed with me and played on my mind long after I’d finished reading it. It cleverly mixes ancient myths with modern society, and populates its pages with interesting and complex characters that I could not help but relate to, and in many ways, empathise with. The pain that Herman and Janet go through at the start of the book stayed with me, and meant that I was still hoping that they could escape their fates, even when their actions begin to cross from “moral grey area” into “downright wrong”.

Benjamin Kane Ethridge has matured as an author, and I would not be in the least surprised if he ended up winning another Bram Stoker award for this book. It’s thoughtful, clever, heart-breaking, horrific and bleak. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next. show less

I won a copy of "Nightmare Ballad" though Library Thing early reviewers. "Nightmare Ballad" by Benjamin Kane Ethridge is about Luke Rhodes and how his life is horribly changed after a swimming class. During the swimming class he hears a strange ballad. Awful things happen and Luke believes that he is stuck in a nightmare. He sees frogmen drowning children and their parents. Luke almost dies, but somehow escapes the nightmare through a black curtain.

Luke goes back to his family to discover show more that what happened was real and that the news media reporters accept what happens without question. In fact nobody in the town where he lives questions the strange events. Everyone tells him "That’s what frogmen do." Luke's wives Dara and Maribel experience these "Lifmares" also. Luke's friend Johnny becomes stuck in the Lifefmares. Everybody associated with Luke hears the Nightmare Ballad and they can't escape it. When they hear the ballad, everybody and everything around them is thrown into chaos. Luke and his friends and family need to find a way to to stop the nightmare ballad before they end up dying.

"Nightmare Ballad" slowly builds in tension. I never had a book mess with my head as much as "Nightmare Ballad." The story will keep you guessing until the end. When you discover who is responsible for the nightmare ballad, the story is still not done in upsetting you.The last few pages made me angry and cry at the same time. I can't wait for the next book in the trilogy called Nightmare Serenade. show less