Review: Children of No One by Nicole Cushing

 Rating: ★★★★
Author: Nicole Cushing
Title: Children Of No One
Format: E-Book
Publisher: Dark Fuse
Copy Provided By: Netgalley
Expected Publication Date: March 26,2013

 Sadism, nihilism, poverty, wealth, screams, whimpers, sanity and madness collide in Nowhere, Indiana

For Thomas Krieg, Nowhere is a miles-long, pitch-black underground maze in which he's imprisoned dozens of boys for the past ten years -- all in the name of art.

For two brothers, Nowhere is the only place they clearly remember living. A world unto itself, in which they must stay alert to stay alive. A world from which the only escape is death.

But for an English occultist known only as Mr. No One, Nowhere is much more...and much less: the perfect place in which to perform a ritual to unleash the grandest of eldritch deities, the God of Nothingness, the Great Dark Mouth.

Review: This was my reaction when I completed Children Of No One. I'm not even exaggerating here the Novella is truly that disturbing.   Guys, I love horror its my genre but this novella really pushed me to my limits. I came away from reading Children Of No One feeling dirty, like I just witnessed something so deplorable that it should of never been put to paper in the first place. Thing is this isn't an over the top gore-fest, with crazed mutated psychos running through the wood with chainsaws. No, what makes this book so creepy is the psychological warfare it plays on the mind. This above all is what really got under my skin. I'm going to need to snuggle a bunny after this one for sure.  After I snapped out of the disbelief that I had just essentially read a novella about child torture for the sake of art like somehow that's a worthwhile excuse pfft, My reaction changed to something akin to this.: Truth be told, as much as I want to rip this novella apart for its content, I do actually see the small bit of brilliance in the Authors writing. The above mentioned is why I kept reading even being as appalled as I was by the adult characters. Thomas Krieg is the artist who conceptualized the labyrinth. The labyrinth exists underground,away from the prying eyes of the public. It is kept perpetually dark with the exception being when the food drops happen. In his brilliance madness as an artist Thomas Krieg has trained the kids to believe that he is an angel, the food drops manna and that all of it comes from heaven. What really makes the children's existence in this place tragic is knowing all the children were sold to this guy to be tortured (knowingly or not) by their very own parents  all because they were poor, their greed to much.  It makes the situation the kids find themselves in that much worse. Since this is a novella, I won't get into much more than that but the details the "artist" put into his masterpiece were enough to make even this die hard horror fan recoil in disgust. I feel that speaks volumes in itself. Overall I found this Novella interesting but uncomfortable to read the majority of the time. I'm certainly glad this wasn't a full length novel, I don't think I could stomach much more of it. I guess this begs the question, Would I recommend Children Of No One? At this time, I'm going to leave my answer blank. Yes, this was certainly disturbing and creepy with flawless writing but I just don't know if I can recommend it in the end. So for now my answer is blank. That being said, I will be rating Children Of No One ★★★★.