Audiobook Review: Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics

16-year-old Amanda Verner and her family live in a small, remote mountain cabin.  The previous winter nearly devastated them.  A relentless winter storm left them trapped in their own home. Her pregnant mother became deathly ill, giving birth to a blind and deaf baby girl. The cabin fever that set in was enough to cause Amanda to have terrifying visions.  Amanda, now pregnant herself, is hoping their move to the prairie is enough to give her a fresh start, away from the father of the baby, a mail delivery boy whose promises of love were all in vain. She's afraid of what her parents will do to her when they find out she is with child. These consequences, however, seem pale in comparison to what confronts them in their new home.

After days of travel, the Verner family is exhausted, drenched in sweat, emotionally and physically exhausted.  On the outside, their new prairie cabin home appears to be a luxury compared to their previous one in the mountain.  Abandoned by the previous owners, it is theirs for the taking. When the enter, however, the circumstances regarding the abandonment raises alarm.  The inside of the cabin is covered in blood, so profound in volume that they are sickened by the stench.  As this their only option, the Verners camp out under the prairie sky while the patriarch of the family replaces the damaged wood.

There, under the vast prairie sky, Amanda soon realizes that there is an evil that surrounds them. Certain that what she is experiences is caused by her own guilt, Amanda and her family struggle to make a new life, struggle to ignore the knocking on the window late at night, the cries of children out in the prairie...

What an uber-creepy listen!  The terror begins from page one, starting with flash-backs of a horrific winter, leading up to the present.  It’s being promoted as “Stephen King meets Little House on the Prairie” and that is actually quite accurate.

The rich descriptions Lukavics uses to describe the setting, the action, the characters, quite literally brings them alive before the page. Nothing is left up to the imagination; she just lays it all out there for you. And it is terrifying.  The reveal of the history of the house is painstakingly slow, but intentionally done so as to provide the biggest impact when all is to be revealed. Readers will find it impossible to trust any of the characters, for evil truly does reside in the most innocent and unlikely of individuals.

Jorjeana Marie’s narration was spot on.  She expertly transitioned from “normal” cadance to one that is bone-chillingly terrifying. I think this definitely added to the experience; I liken it to listening to a ghost story being told around a campfire. 

My only complaint would be the length; I was definitely craving more.  There definitely could have been more added without it feeling too weighty. All in all, however, a truly terrifying experience. Highly, highly recommended.