The cover and the title for this book invoke a bloody expectation of the horrors to be found in its pages. And they are there, but they were not what this reader was expecting. “Scream All Night” is the mantra of the Moldovia B Horror movie studio. Think Elvira (if you are old enough) and the movies she used to push. That will give you a perfect idea of the movie that come out of Moldavian Pictures. Cult classics like Night of the Living Dead.

This sounds like an awesome place to grow up, until to see what is behind the fog machines and prosthetic makeup. Dario is just such a kid. His dad owns and runs Moldavia, and its more than a movie studio. It’s a home. It’s a family. It’s a nightmare. Dario’s mom isn’t in the picture. She’s cuckoo for Cooco Puffs. Literally. And dad isn’t much better. Dad casts Dario in a movie at age 12, and pretty much tortures him to get the performance he wants. This leads to Dario getting emancipated and willingly living in an orphanage. Six years have passed, and dad is on the way out. He’s 91 and wants to have a living funeral.

The funeral becomes way more than bargained for, and a the reading of wills takes place. Unbeknownst to everyone, dead dad left Dario in charge of the studio, and on a mission to make it solvent in 6 months. If he can’t, or chooses not to, the studio must be sold to their biggest competitor. This may sound like fun and games, but Dario has a much older brother and lets just say, I as a reader frequently judged his sanity.

This book was so much more than I was hoping it would be going in. I was expecting a blood gory horror novel and instead got the story of a young man trying to live life, and cope with a traumatic and neglected childhood. Once I started this book it was hard to put down. I just had to see how it ended. And while it has still left me hunting for a frightening tale to read this October, it filled me and my heart with more empathy and hopefulness than an entire library of Stephen King. I cannot wait to see what this author comes up with next.