Amateur Amalgam

Aug 20, 2025

I’m back at it again with another horror novel!

I must say, this one was actually really creepy. It did drag on a bit at the end, but there was so much happening that I think I would have been more upset it it didn’t. It was also crazy vivid in it’s descriptions, I physically recoiled at some parts.

Plot:

When the young Henry Thorne is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest, he finds himself connecting with a strange force living in the woods—using that bond to wreak havoc against his captors. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this ancient being has its own reasons for wanting the interlopers gone—there is something hidden beneath the house, tucked away in the dark, damp root cellar . . . waiting for its return.

Spoilers Ahead!

Warnings: Body Horror / Kidnapping / Suicide / Incest

This was an insane series of events my guy. We switch POV’s throughout the book so we get to see into the minds of each of our main characters a little.

We begin with a (horrible) description of a body, with something growing out of it. The (presumably) mother comes and gives it a new place to grow, as the meat has spoiled on the body, and waits.

We are now introduced to our main character, Henry. An African-American kid (he’s like 9) who is living with his dad in an apartment in California after his mom died last year. Today, his dad is taking him to work, but on the walk there, he tells him that he lost his job. He notes his dads distraction then his dad picks him up and walks into oncoming traffic.

The older brother (Uncle Dave) sues the bus company (the driver was drunk and killed himself after) and is also considering suing his brothers former employer (they fired him cause a racist rich lady said so). Henry lived through the ordeal, despite us experiencing his trip to (almost) heaven. When he comes back to himself, his memories of his time as a soul (tormented btw, there were other things going on) fade and he is left with the ability to see the emotions and thoughts of the people around him – and also has a new voice in his head.

We move to a bar and meet a man (Jim) who is making plans – he heard about what happened and also that they settled for 2 mill – money he intends to steal

Henry, as the youngest, doesn’t understand the big picture going on of what happening but through his powers does have really good insight into they way the adults around him are feeling. Uncle Dave is going back and forth between being angry with his brother and missing him terribly. Jim is just straight evil. Like, for real. He does remember moments of his upbringing so we see it was hard on him, and thus influenced his worldview – but he’s so… I don’t think I have the words to describe it at the moment. He’s mean before others can be mean to him? Reactionary I think is the term. Want’s to take what he thinks is owed to him for the awful life he’s had before anyone else can and that informs the cruelty of his choices. He also has nothing against causing the death (directly or indirectly) of those around him – friend or foe (including children as is repeatedly demonstrated in the story).

This is the part where things get wicked. The actual kidnapping takes place. Turns out, the mentally challenged Janitor that was hired at the school is actually Jim, the mastermind behind the kidnapping. The team assembled is a bunch of mid level baddies. A brother sister duo (twins) who are secretly romantically involved. An Aussie haunted by his own past. A Mexican gang banger acting tougher than he is. And finally our main guy, the leader of this group. They take Henry and make their way to a house in the woods that’s abandoned, where they will be hiding out for a few days till the ransom is paid.

The house is where the creature (known as Mother) has stashed her cocoon (Baby) to grow. Unfortunately, the gang find it. Thus begins our battle between Mother and them. At the same time, the FBI agent (Salvador AKA Sally) is on to the people who took Henry. He did interviews at the school and figured out the Janitor is sus and also the school bullies (who harassed the Janitor & Henry) are dead.

The Aussie is the only member of the crew with a little bit of a conscience, although it only applies to things that either relate to or impact him directly. He’s the one that feels bad for Henry the most and does what he can within the scope of the kidnapping to make things little easier – but he does mess it up repeatedly. He’s only nice cause he falls bad over the loss of his own kid. The incestuous twins are hella creepy but the girl is the more dangerous of the two, she’s a psychopath and this is shown to Henry in that he cant see an aura of emotion around her at all. The Gang banger is just below tweaking the whole time – in terms of his energy level – he also makes himself bigger than he is through his words and actions throughout the story, but he’s a coward in the end.

The FBI agent – Sally – is actually very good at his job. Jim is a sort of criminal genius and with the prep time he had his plan was damn near foolproof. If this was a regular kidnapping it would have probably worked out really well for him (not for Henry though, he would have died 100%). Unfortunately this is not a normal kidnapping so that’s not how it came to be, but I digress. Sally was able to sort of reverse engineer the plan from the clues left behind by Jim (Janitor false ID, bar with dead owner, dead kids, van sighting) and tie everything together. Short of the prophetic dream that showed them the way at the end he was actually on the right track all on his own.

Meanwhile, Mother sends various plagues to the house and most of them work, unfortunately, Henry told Liam (the Aussie) about his powers and Liam told Jim which leads to Jim shooting baby when he hatches and bringing forth Mothers full wrath. This does not go well for him cause she kills all of them, in gruesome ways might I add.

Also, the dad’s ghost is the voice in Henry’s head and goes to his brother in a dream to let him know whats been happening (cause he knows shit’s about to go down). They had narrowed it down to a specific area enough that when he came to Sally with this vision/dream, they were like that matches what we know lets do it. They get there in time to watch Mother rip Liam apart and see the house burn down. Henry loses his abilities when his dad leaves him to move on (he ran out of the energy to stay, and any more would kill Henry). The snipers shoot at Mother and she hides in the shed behind the house which then explodes.

Everyone is reunited and all goes back to normal.

In the end we see that Mother has now decided that Henry is her new baby and she stays with him, implying that his powers are (somewhat) back.

Mother is said to be something much older than people, and from the little we learn through her interactions with Henry, only has babies once in a blue moon – which is why this Baby of hers is so important to her. They feast on the death and the Baby needs a body to feed on while it gestates (we never learn who that first body was for sure, but it’s implied). She does everything she can to protect her baby from Jim and his crew, but she unfortunately underestimates that Jim is a son-of-a-bitch who will kill her Baby just to see her suffer. Because of Henry’s powers he creates a psychic link to her and Baby and he feels it when Baby dies. The psychic link sort of imprints them all together so upon her own baby’s death, and Henry’s loss of his father’s ghost presence, who can they turn to but each other?