I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

A college professor must revisit the terrors of his childhood after the passing of his father and the return of his older sister and rediscover a hidden world beyond what we thought possible in author Mike Robinson’s “Walking the Dusk”.

The Synopsis

“Hey.”

With that one word, uttered in the dead of night, young Charlie’s life veers down a dark and unbelievable road.

Some thirty years later, Dr. Charles Barry teaches physics at a small California college. Only in dreams do those childhood events reach him: the strange presence in the house, the otherworldly visits and the shadow over his beloved older sister, Megan, whose troubled inward life he could only glimpse.

That is, until his father dies, and Megan, now an artistic wanderer, comes back into his life. With her come memories of unearthly creatures, a predatory entity and a harrowing trek behind the walls of the known cosmos, toward places of the alien and seemingly impossible, in order to save the very essence of his sister.

Now, caught once more by the same forces, Charles returns to those places in the hopes of setting certain things right—and to keep Megan from slipping away forever.

With Walking the Dusk, Mike Robinson delivers a contemporary Dantean vision, one of both sweepingly surreal vistas and intimate bonds, a mind-and-genre-warping journey into the twin infinities of the universe within, and the universe without.

The Review

This was such an engaging, complex, and mesmerizing read. The author did a fantastic job of world-building this narrative’s setting, taking readers back and forth between the past and the present in a kaleidoscope of rushing emotions and painful memories. The layers of mystery the author delves into when discovering the complexities of the history that are shared between the protagonist Charlie and his sister Megan make their relationship such an integral part of the story.

To me, the heart of this narrative rested in the almost poetic imagery of the author’s writing style and the rich character dynamics that helped elevate the more fantastic and horror-driven elements of the narrative. The pacing allowed readers to see the psychological and emotional pitfalls of the past building between these siblings and underscored the chaos that would soon follow, but it was the dynamic between Charlie and Megan, the painful journey of a brother desperate to save his sister, not only resonated with me as an older brother but gave the fantasy and horror elements a more grounded foundation to be built off of.

The Verdict

Memorable, engaging, and heartfelt, author Mike Robinson’s “Walking the Dusk” is a must-read occult horror meets fantasy and metaphysics novel. The twists and turns in the narrative, and the journey that Charlie goes on, reminding me of a blend between Stephen King and Peter Straub’s Black House, Dante’s Inferno, and the character development of Robin William’s Peter Pan in Hook, made this story shine brightly, and the reader will find themselves drawn to this narrative time and time again. If you haven’t yet, be sure to grab your copy today!

Rating: 10/10

About the Author

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Mike Robinson is the award-winning author of multiple speculative fiction novels and dozens of short stories which have appeared in the likes of 2019’s American Gothic Fantasy anthology, Storyteller Magazine, A Woman Unbecoming, Underland Arcana and more. He has received honors from Writers of the Future, Publishers Weekly’s BookLife Contest, the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Maxy Awards and others, and is also the editor of J.P. Barnett’s popular, award-winning “Lorestalker” series.

In between, he hikes (often with his two dogs), swims, draws, tries to learn the didgeridoo and, yes, has even been known to actually write a screenplay or two, some of which have received their own notices.

www.mike-robinsonauthor.com

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