HAMPTON CREEK PRESS

J.D. Barker

 

His debut novel, FORSAKEN, released 11/30/2014. Visit his website to learn more. 

 

Praise for FORSAKEN

 

“Incredibly written, supremely creepy. I don’t say this lightly: J.D. Barker is a force to be reckoned with.”

- NY Times Bestselling Author, Tosca Lee

 

“It’s a superlative read!”

- Author, Robin Spriggs

 

“FORSAKEN is one of the best first novels I’ve read in a long time. Well written, a compelling story line. Put J.D. Barker’s name down on your must read reminder on the fridge – highly recommended.”

- Author, Gene O’Neill

 

“Creepy, atmospheric, well written…this novel surprised me. I wasn’t expecting such a descriptive blend of horror, mystery, and suspense combined with history. I started reading Stephen King, Dean Koontz and John Saul when I was ten (a long time ago LOL). This book grabbed my attention immediately. I had to give it a try. And I am not disappointed. J.D. Barker has spectacular potential in the horror genre. I was hooked from page one. Barker intertwined past and present, a book within a book, a novelist writing about a novelist writing a horror story filled with history- and tying it all together. The creep factor had me chilled. Imagining that little hand in the daughter’s room knocking down the toys…OMG I used to imagine that as a child. To think of it being real, of some tiny monster there terrorizing the child…that was my first real shiver while reading the book but certainly not the last. If you love horror novels this is a must read.”

- Author, Roxanne Rhoads

 

“Magnificent read. The story exists on the land that straddles suspense, thriller, and good ol’ supernatural chill-fest. The term “page-turner” has become cliched to the point of lost meaning, yet with Forsaken, we are reminded where the phrase was born: between the pages of just such a book as this. Moving the story along at a rushing river’s clip, Barker braids two tales together in a dance between present and past. We begin getting the slightest feeling that the two might be more intertwined than we at first suspected, but are kept in delighted suspense until Barker lets us see. He is generous in a manner. The reader is given an omnipresent view of the world inside the covers, and this serves to build tension as we become invested in the characters, sometimes wishing to grab them by the shoulders and shake them to their good senses, other times wanting desperately to tell them what’s happening just outside their line of sight. All of these ingredients are combined in a clever and delicious story, one that reads fast and fun, and with just enough darkness laying over Barker’s land to make us wonder, to make us check over our shoulders one more time, to watch the shadows… they’re only shadows, right?”

 – Blogger, www.princessburlap.com

 

“Perhaps the best measure of any book I read is how enthusiastic I grab the kindle, and reading this book, I looked forward to every moment I could power up. Forsaken is a unique story with two intertwined plotlines. A brief backstory of Witch trials from hundreds of years ago is linked to a horror writer who has just written his greatest piece of work yet. Only this book is different, and the price for putting it on paper and unleashing it onto the world puts his children and pregnant wife at risk. The author and his family in isolation from each other worked so well, as did so many other elements in ths story. Supernatural elements blended perfectly into the tangible world. Escalating conflict turned the volume up with each page, and it all built to a suprise ending and an unusual and perfectly blended shout-out to King’s Needful Things. Highly recommend this great accomplishment.”

- Author, Mark Matthews