In Between

This is a delightful story with well-rounded characters and a consuming plot.  Linden is very complete even without much detail.  The reader can easily see him.  The narrator, Woody, is equally as complete and the use of first person works in this scenario.  

I would have liked more of Sam Hain, the holiday, and little bits more of Drake, is it Mandrake per chance?  But, I could smell the smoke, feel the heat and the pain of the carving of the flesh/wood.  I enjoyed letting my imagination fill in the blanks.  There are a few grammar issues, but nothing to detract from the story.  Great Job!!!

Finding typos and or misspelled words in a story description is usually enough to make me skip it. It's college, not collage. In this case I ignored my instincts and was pleasantly surprised. There are several spots where verb tenses are mixed and jarring but the story does have charm. There's also a one word sentence in the middle which still has me confused: is the rest of the sentence missing or did the proofreader fail to catch it?

The tension's there from the beginning and the author does a decent job of ratcheting it up at a good pace. Confusion and fear draw the reader in and help create the right atmosphere for a Halloween inspired tale. Discovering the main character isn't what he seems fits in well with his reaction to the ritual he's forced to witness. Although I prefer endings where everything is resolved or a hint at a resolution is hinted at, in this case the doubt left in the reader's mind works well.