"Anger is an Acid" Book Review

The Patience of a Dead Man series begins with a man named Tim who is starting over after a messy divorce that leaves him worse-for-ware. In an effort to restart his finances, he goes all in on an investment property in New Hampshire. Not only does he find the perfect house to flip, he finds love too. Holly is a realtor for the area and after finalizing the deal on the house, Tim and her begin seeing each other. It seems like Tim’s luck has finally changed until some frightening and disturbing things begin to occur at the new house. Now, Tim is going to have to find a way to deal with the entity that haunts the property. With everything on the line, Tim manages to thwart the thing that threatens his newfound happiness. Or so he thinks...

The story continues in book two, Dead Woman Scorned. Revenants walk the earth conjuring magic in rotting husks of bodies like those of the living dead. That is until Mildred Wells returns to exact revenge on their leader for the terrible things he did in a past life. After dissecting and diminishing the revenant clan, Mildred procures a sacred text never before seen by humans. For ages the revenants have been practicing magic and recording their findings in their magnum opus, The Book of Shadows. With this tome of spells, she can finally turn her anger towards Tim and Holly so that she might have the vengeance she so desperately desires. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

And in the horrifying conclusion, Anger is an Acid. We follow Tim and Holly, who have gone through hell because of the evil revenant we come to know as Mildred Wells. She has killed Tim's wife and kidnapped their two daughters. What was once a mild haunting at Tim's investment property has turned into a terrifying venture where death lurks around every corner. With nowhere to go and nothing they can do to stop Mildred, an unknown visitor arrives that revives a sliver of hope for the future. Now this team of unlikely heroes need to track down Tim's daughters and stand in the face of a murderous revenant hell-bent on revenge.

Mildred Wells is fear incarnate. Although she is technically the antagonist of this story, I empathize with her because of the circumstances that led to her transformation into an anger- induced nightmare of a creature. She was deceived by her husband, coerced by a cultist and robbed of a peaceful resting place. I felt for this evil dead thing even when she was wielding the deadly kitchen knife in a murderous rage. Aside from Mildred, we have Tim and Holly, which are the most adorable victims I have ever read in horror. I desperately wanted them to supercede the torment their life had become and live happily ever after, but the haunting menaces of this story thwarts that happiness every chance they can. There is also Andrew. He is the saddest excuse for a human and is constantly dragged along and put into harms way against his wishes. Even though he is such a screw up, he becomes a hero of sorts and I really enjoyed following him in the book. You just know that no matter what this guy does, he's doomed regardless. These people Clark crafted for his story are what make these books so entertaining. I am thoroughly impressed with the author and hope this is not the last we will see of this fantastic cast of delightful characters.

I’ve got to tell you, this is such a satisfying read. I am emphatically enthused about the way Clark wraps up the series. There are no loose ends, and the characters land right where I predicted. You must remember that nobody ever really survives a horror story and lives happily ever after. If you make it to the end, there's gonna be trauma in one way or another. In the end, I was happy for the protagonists and enthusiastic about their future. Although it's not at all definitive, there's a tiny glimmer of hope that a side story could be developed with Andrew. I just get the feeling Michael Clark isn't done with him yet.

There is this nifty trick Clark executed in book two where he swaps protagonists and readers see Mildred Wells in a new light. Because of this I came into the third book with a lot of empathy towards the would-be antagonist. She became this complex character that had a tough afterlife. I'm not about to tell you she's not a bad person. I'm just saying I can see where her anger comes from. In saying that, there comes a point in the story where the reader will come to a new revelation about Mildred and it really flips the script on how you feel about her. Was she ever really the antagonist at all? These twists are what makes Micheal Clark a unique writer. I can't wait to see what he has in store for us all next.

What a journey it's been. The Patience of a Dead Man series is 778 pages of pure terror and dread. Michael Clark pieced together a perfectly executed trilogy with an unforgettable cast of characters that I cannot get enough of. A thrilling and arduous story filled with anxious uncertainty. Anger is an Acid will keep you on the edge of your seat the whole time. If you have not read any of the books in this series, I recommend that you start as soon as possible. This is not your average ghost story.