Seed by Ania Ahlborn

Seed
Synopsis:

In the vine-twisted swamps of Louisiana, the shadows have teeth.

Jack Winter has spent his entire life running from something no one else can see. His childhood is his darkest secret, but after a near fatal accident along a deserted road, the darkness he was sure he’d escaped rears its ugly head… and smiles.

But this time, he isn’t the only one who sees the soulless eyes of his past. This time, his six-year-old daughter Charlie leans into his ear and whispers: Daddy, I saw it too.

And then she begins to change.

Faced with reliving the nightmares of his childhood, Jack watches his daughter spiral into the shadows that had nearly consumed him twenty years before. 

But Charlie isn’t the only one who’s changing. 

Jack never outran the darkness. It’s been with him all along. 

And it’s hungrier than ever. 

A new breed of dark fiction: the subtlety of Seed will haunt you, and the end will wickedly satisfy.

Review:

This book started off really good. Kind of creepy and interesting and guessing what exactly is going on.  The beginning just drew me in instantly. I couldn't wait to find out more. I really liked the way Jack's past was sprinkled into what was going on. There were a lot of great creepy visuals that I really enjoyed. Overall I thought the writing was good. 

*Some spoilers ahead here* 

The story itself I was enjoying for quite a while. Then I finally got tired of Jack not doing anything! I mean he sees his daughter struggling with the same evil he struggled with as a kid and what does he do? Nothing! He just lets it happen. Um...okay? I mean you know what it is like, what happened to you so you just sit back and watch? I guess he didn't really do nothing, he did try his hardest to make his wife feel like she is seeing things or that nothing bad is really going on. He does everything he can to discount anything she sees happen and why? Well she doesn't know about his past because...she will leave him. Well sitting back while your daughter becomes scarier and scarier and doing nothing is not really going to make her stick around either. I could see her getting frustrated with his lack of trying to help the situation. I mean finding the worst psychiatrist he can so he can try and say see look she does just have some mental problem! Problem solved! Just doesn't work. I don't get why he doesn't try and stop it or help Charlie. I mean what kind of parent just sits back and lets the evil thrive and not do anything? Then he does decide to try and act and what does he do? Goes back to where he grew up. Why? I am not really sure. Because it started there so...

Then when he gets the call from his wife that Charlie took Abby he gets home as quickly as possible and it was just like good job. Way to not really do anything. I guess he did learn he killed his parents so that is something. I did really enjoy the imagery of the final scenes, the scene he walks into where he finds Charlie and Abby was just great. Then hesitating to kill the evil was just lame. The whole ending, besides the great images it invoked, was just not good. I hate books like this where is it just like nothing changes, you can't do anything, things just keep going the way they always have. I just want something to happen, even some small victory even if everyone still dies. Anything so it is just not everything is hopeless, nothing can change. 

Overall I enjoyed the first half of the book. Then I started getting annoyed with Jack and his inability to do anything and the end was just not what I like. 

Rating: ★ ★