The Dark Rite by Anthony Izzo

​I found this novella during a random Kindle freebie search. The author’s name sounded familiar; I looked him up in my GR records and, sure enough, I’ve read him. Ages ago. Apparently found him decent but thoroughly mediocre than and it seems that the quality of his writing hasn’t changed in the intervening years.
 Which is to say this novella is a perfectly decent and readable take on the familiar genre presets with some nice frights along the way, but ultimately there just isn’t much to it. The writing is fine, short sentences that move the plot along. The setting is decent too…an old campsite across the way from something that looks dangerously like a cult.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep…and to no genre fan’s surprise, there’s a monster lurking in there. One that may only be appeased with a blood sacrifice. You know, the sort of thing that’s absolutely bound to ruin a family get-together weekend.
So yeah, not wheel reinventing here, just a decent spinning of the existing one. Nothing crazy. Nothing special either, but it read quickly, was properly edited and for a freebie, it was perfectly fine. Whether or not, it’ll finally warn people of an activity as stupid, reckless and tedious as camping remain to be seen.