great author

Never before have I read a book that made my heart race at the especially tense scenes & then in the next moment had me chuckling out loud at some of the humorous dialogue. What an excellent read! I highly recommend if you're looking for some laughs to go along with some really well-written horror.

Alley has another hit on his hands, filled with horror and humor in his signature style. Grappling with the difficulty of homeownership in late-stage capitalism, the misallocation of tax dollars in small towns, and what it means to take a stand, to stake your claim in a callous world.

A thrill from start to finish, author Elford Alley shows his strongest prose yet and weaves a tale that is sure to crawl into your bones and, well, never leaving.

Having experienced a lot of haunted-house tales over the years, it's always a pleasure to come across one that puts a unique spin on or adds one or more interesting wrinkles to the formula. "Never Leaving" accomplishes that nicely, helping it to stand out a bit from the plethora of other similar titles one might choose.

Things I particularly enjoyed were the inclusion of (mild spoiler) literal biological monsters, which had their own separate existence and agenda apart from the ghosts that made for some clever and novel scenarios. I also liked the "rules" that governed what the ghosts could and couldn't do in certain circumstances, which had strong and sensible impacts on various aspects of the overall plot and how specific events unfolded.

On the down side, I would have preferred to see some of the characters fleshed out better, and depicted as more than typical, cookie-cutter stereotypes to make their eventual roles as fodder a little less obvious. There were also a few scenes that I felt could have used a bit more detail to better establish and maintain the flow from one action or event to another as those transitions at times felt a bit abrupt and disjointed to me. Finally, some of the dialogue occasionally struck me as somewhat forced and inconsistent to the point where it became noticeable, though that is admittedly a rather subjective and minor complaint, all things considered.

The book's elements of humor, which occur fairly frequently, were hit and miss for me, with some of the jokes and gags giving me a little chuckle, some falling flat, and the majority simply passing without much of an effect. Overall, I'd say those inclusions didn't particularly help or hurt the story and could easily be embraced or ignored depending on a reader's own personal taste and preference for such things.

In short, "Never Leaving" was a good, solid horror story that I found satisfying and worthwhile. It builds a fun haunted house for a reader to explore, with a few stand-out components that successfully bolstered those that for me were a little less sturdy.

Definitely my new favorite of Alley’s works. A great blend of haunted house, monsters, and humor. The only downside is that it’s over so quickly, leaving you wanting more.

Never Leaving evokes VHS classics like The Amityville Horror, House by the Cemetery, and The Boogens—all with Alley’s easygoing humor and wicked penchant for driving likeable characters up a tree only to chop it down.

Elford just gets it right. Pacing, story, characters. A little sprinkle of comedy in there. Tension. A little creepy. Some gore. Look, it's a little pot of horror that is stirred up nicely.

I really enjoy Elford's work. You should check him out.

You can blast through this one in a couple of hours.