Follow Him

by Craig Stewart

True love doesn't die - it devours. Just outside the sleepy town of Dreury, a mysterious cult known as The Shared Heart has planted its stakes. Its followers are numerous. More join every day. Those who are lost and suffering seem to be drawn to it; a home for the broken. When Jacob finds himself in need of such a home, he abandons his dead name and gives himself over to the will of The Great Collector. However, love refuses to let Jacob go so easily; his ex-fiancé, Nina, kidnaps him in the hopes that he can be deprogrammed. As she attempts to return Jacob to the life they once had, a terrible fear creeps in: what if there isn't enough of her Jacob left? When The Great Collector learns of his missing follower, the true nature of The Shared Heart is unleashed. Nina discovers what Jacob already knows: that hidden behind the warm songs and soaring bonfires is a terrifying and ancient secret; one that lives and breathes and hungers. And it's coming for them.

Genres: Horror

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2019

Reviews

[Amy Walker - Trans-Scribe Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

'True love doesn't die – it devours. Just outside the sleepy town of Dreury, a mysterious cult known as The Shared Heart has planted its stakes. Its followers are numerous. More join every day. Those who are lost and suffering seem to be drawn to it; a home for the broken. When Jacob finds himself in need of such a home, he abandons his dead name and gives himself over to the will of The Great Collector.


'However, love refuses to let Jacob go so easily; his ex-fiancé, Nina, kidnaps him in the hopes that he can be deprogramed. As she attempts to return Jacob to the life they once had, a terrible fear creeps in: what if there isn't enough of her Jacob left? When The Great Collector learns of his missing follower, the true nature of The Shared Heart is unleashed. Nina discovers what Jacob already knows: that hidden behind the warm songs and soaring bonfires is a terrifying and ancient secret; one that lives and breathes… and hungers. And it's coming for them.'


I have to admit, I thought I knew what to expect of Follow Him for most of the book. Jacob has been taken in by a clearly brutal cult that's not afraid to torture and kill people, and his ex-fiance has to try to get him back from them without getting killed by them in the process. I thought it was going to be a psychological horror with a bit of an 'on-the-run' side to it, with very real human antagonists and threats to deal with. But over the course of the book I began to question some of this, beginning to think that maybe there's something a little more there than meets the eye, but never one hundred percent sure; and this kept my on my toes throughout, never knowing what to expect next.


The horrors of The Shared Heart are subtle to begin with, and at first it seems like most cults that people would be aware of, where a central figure has manipulated people into giving up everything to come and live and work together in a community tucked away from the outside world. Whilst this in itself is a quite disturbing situation to find yourself in, it's not until we begin to see the darkness just below the surface that we realise how dangerous and twisted the group is.


Once Nina has kidnapped Jacob from the cult it's very clear that this isn't a group that's just going to allow him to go, or one that will simply appeal to her good senses or the law to get her to release her prisoner; no, this is a group that will hurt her. Added into the tension of The True Heart finding her is the fact that Jacob is battling her as much as she's trying to break through his brainwashing. She's a woman that doesn't really know what she's doing, fighting desperately to get back the man she loved, and he's torturing her every step of the way.


Jacob, quite clearly, doesn't want to be saved from The True Heart. He doesn't want his old life back, and he doesn't want Nina. Whilst she's using their history together to try and help the man he once was, he's using that same history to hurt her. He brings up old wounds and tears them open, making past pain new and raw. The fact that Jacob is so vicious in his response to Nina and what she's doing is one of the most heart breaking parts of the book. She's trying to save someone she loves, and he's trying to destroy her.


The way in which Jacob fights against her the whole way, and steadfastly stands by The True Heart does make you begin to question whether Nina is really the hero of the story. She's fallen into what one would see as a more classically heroic role, saving a loved one from evil forces, but is she really a good person? She's kidnapped someone who left her when their relationship ended. She attacks him, tortures him, and tries to impose her will on him. If it wasn't for the fact that The True Heart is actually evil and kills people you'd have to question if she was the real villain. If Jacob had ran away and joined an Amish community to get away from the outside world would she still be the good guy for kidnapping him and keeping him tied up? I didn't expect Follow Him to make me think these kinds of questions, but very soon into the book I began to believe that perhaps there were no 'good guys' in this story.


I want to talk about what happens towards the end of the book now, so there will be some major spoilers, so if you don't want to know more but are intrigued I'd definitely say to go and grab a copy, as I've barely covered how good the book is. However, if you've already read it, or don't mind knowing how things end, please carry on, because there's some interesting things to discuss.


So, The True Heart are kind of onto something it seems. They're not just like every other crazy religion or cult that claims to know the truth, but seem to actually be onto things. I say seem to, because despite how the book ends I do have some very slight doubts. You see, when the mass suicides begin to take place and The Great Collector eats the cut out hearts, transforming into a monster this seems to make it quite clear that yes, their belief system was bang on and there is a supernatural entity at work here. However, we only ever see this through Nina, who has already displayed that she has been suffering from nightmarish hallucinations; so perhaps watching dozens of people slaughtering each other has tipped her over the edge into madness?


The fact that I don't know if the end is real or not both infuriates me and leaves me loving it. I want to know if the monster is real, but don't know if I'd be satisfied with knowing. Leaving it the way it does means that those who wanted the cult to be right are happy because there's a huge monster at the end of the book, and those who want a more subtle, psychological horror have an ending where Nina is left broken and mad by the events she's been through.


However you choose to take the ending, I think you'll be like me and be left shocked by the conclusion. I was in no way expecting the brutal and bloody conclusion that Craig Stewart gave us, and was left in a sense of shock from it. I didn't know what to think or feel once I'd finished that final page; and that meant that the book stuck with me. Because of this ending Follow Him will definitely be one of the more memorable books I've read this year, and I'm certainly looking forward to reading it again knowing the conclusion, to see if I can possibly make my mind up about if I believe what Nina's seeing or not.


Follow Him is a book that piles the tension on from the first few pages and doesn't let up once. There's a genuine sense of dread throughout as Nina is hunted by The True Heart. We get to see a character trying desperately to do what they think is right in a scenario that gets ever more and more frightening and out of hand, one that is sure to leave the reader shuddering. I cannot wait to see what more people think of this title, and will certainly be putting more of Craig Stewart's work on my to be read list in the future.

[Maria Fledgling Author Park · Rating 5 out of 5]

Horror fans will absolutely devour Follow Him. Craig Stewart slowly draws you from the reality you've clung to into a monstrously surreal world you only remember from your childhood.

Jacob joins the Shared Heart cult looking for hope. Instead, he slowly loses himself and becomes a lowly Dreg, a follower of the mysterious and sinister Collector.

Nina, his girlfriend, comes looking for him after a year of searching, to extract him and deprogram him herself. What she finds within herself and Jacob is fear, darkness and the depth of evil.

I made the awful mistake of reading this very late at night. HUGE MISTAKE! I had to stay up all night because I was scared witless.

One of my favorite lines is from when Nina finally meets The Collector. "This otherworldly thing grinned at her. The image from a UFO documentary of an alien caught on tape flashed into Nina’s mind."

A masterful work of horror that will terrorize, titillate and terrify you. Highly recommended if you have a strong heart!

This was an advance copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

To sum up “Follow Him” in a few words I think it's appropriate to say it is unsettling, weird, and downright gritty. Reading about cults personally is a fun pastime even though the actual history with real-life cults can be quite terrifying.
Craig Stewart seems to be able to capture the view of when someone is just too far gone into a rabbit hole of what they are desperate to believe in, even if it's damaging. Our story surrounds The Shared Heart community, a cult that wholeheartedly believes in a “person” aptly named The Collector, who is hell-bent on bringing its followers to their knees. Enter Jacob Donahue who has been chosen by The Collector for a great cause that isn’t quite explained until much later in the story but it certainly is hinted. Jacob looks forward to his role in The Harvest but his ex-fiance Nina is unwilling to let him go. Nina will do whatever it takes to save Jacob not only from The Shared Heart but also from himself while she is battling demons of her own.
There is a lot of nail-biting intensity at play throughout the 300+ pages and although the story itself was great I found some parts to be sort of clunky. There were plot points that could’ve trimmed down or taken out altogether. But and there is a big but, the characters themselves were quite interesting and story saving. The mental spiraling that takes place within Nina and Jacob gives you all the feels that can really make you sad, angry, and hopeful all at once. Fighting for the one you love is no easy feat nonetheless Craig sends you directly into the shoes of all his characters and not just the one’s front and center. A story of finding yourself, dealing with grief and the supernatural concurrently, and will leave you in your seat reeling. There is a darkness that takes over and has you wanting more by its finish. In the end, it’s safe to say that Craig Stewart accomplished a sort of mastery for his storytelling.

[Teresa Ardrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follow Him by Craig Stewart
I read copious amounts of horror. So much so that I have become a bit inured to it. Follow Him broke through my desensitized state. This book kept me on edge the entire time I was reading it; it made me uncomfortable, it made me fidget, it made me cringe. The tension was palpable and unrelenting; and I did not know what kind of horrors would come next. When I was convinced on how the story would unfold, I was mistaken. When I thought I agreed with one philosophy, I was corrected.
Follow Him is the story of a cult, one that has existed on the outskirts of a sleepy little town, slowly collecting the broken and the needy, giving them a place to feel accepted and whole again. And Jacob is one of these broken and needy people. He finds what he needs in this cult. However, Nina, his ex-fiancé, does not accept that Jacob could find what he needs from a cult; that he would leave her in her own need after declarations of forever love, so she sets out to save Jacob from what she believes is his undoing. Things start to unravel for both Jacob and Nina, in a battle of wills, where it is hard to know the truth, to trust in our own senses, forcing us to confront our own broken pieces, to the evils that lurk within and without, and no longer knowing which path is the right one, which character to believe.
Follow Him is unsettling; be prepared to confront your own demons while reading.

[Carl Bluesy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a small book that packed a lot into it. I got hooked early on by the weard life of the cult. I was worried that when the story traveled away from the cult that it would lose its thrill. Not only did not lose its thrill it added onto it. It brought the weird into the every day life. The images described in this book make you had to reread a few sentences just to make sure that is said what you thought it did. To me that kind of strange is what I search for in a good book. Something that I can’t believe I read right The first time my eyes pass it.

The pacing of the book was excellent it went from a thrill to a good slow character build, back to the scares. I gave you plenty of reasons to care about what happened to them in this book I believe there’s a lot that happens.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an engaging concept! I liked seeing the cult from the lens of someone who at least to a degree likes/appreciates it -- I felt uncomfortable (in a good way) the entire time. The writing style is gorgeous. The descriptions and flow are truly wonderful. As a not-spoilery example I liked lines like: “Jacob’s mother used to make pancakes in the shape of continents, which Jacob would then have to name before sinking them in an ocean of syrup” -- the entire narrative is full of stuff like this. Dialogue is natural too. I like the different ways/voices people talk.

The plot isn’t insanely “fast”, but this definitely suits this story. We need a lot of buildup to the danger, and I personally as a reader like a "slower" plot because it makes me believe in the danger more. I feel like I’m getting a really good idea of what motivates characters like Jacob especially of course, but also Nina, Zelda, the neighbors, etc. I love how this plot makes you question what you think you know about the cult -- whose perspective is 'right', Jacob's or Nina's? Truly dizzying, therefore, engaging. The ending and climax's pacing is also great.

Without spoiling too much, the following things took me out of the experience enough that this is overall a 4 out of 5 for me personally instead of a full 5 out of 5: I think the middle parts of the book sometimes lose track of the overall tone and flow. I personally don’t like the “old lady and animal death” stuff. I know this book is supposed to be dark and unnerving (and most of the time it is in a good way), but I came here prepared for human suffering -- animal suffering is different, and it took me out of the experience.

Also, I personally also don’t like how often sex scenes are framed as a trauma thing -- I think we’re building up to that many of the characters have trauma related to sex, but I also don’t like the overall trope that's present in a lot of literature: “sexual assault is kind of romanticized and is the catalyst for a woman getting involved in a man’s problems.” This isn't exactly how it's done here but I do feel like the way it's done here toes that line. I don't feel like the assault scenes always help push the plot or the overall tone here and I found myself thinking during them, "we could portray this same message through other means, this feels unnecessary" -- while most of the violent acts definitely fit, assault scenes (even in dreams/etc.) have different implications than other kinds of violence and I don't think it's always handled carefully or are necessary in general.

Overall, though, this book is poetic and unnerving and has a very unique viewpoint. The beginning is fantastic and the ending is fantastic, and even my issues listed above with some stuff in the middle don't overshadow what I took away from this overall. I've never seen anything like this. Definitely recommend for anyone who loves elegant, dark suspense.

[Iseult Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unflinching in its darkness, Follow Him is a book that is hard to put down. Jacob sought to find a way to leave his life behind, and was found by the cult of The Shared Heart. Nina, the woman Jacob abandoned, hasn’t stopped looking for him, but now that she’s got him she realizes it’s easier to take the man out of the cult than the cult out of the man.
The scenes dealing with the cult are distorted and disturbing, even as the actions described, for the most part, appear superficially banal. Nina’s character arc is a roller coaster journey that will have you screaming and covering your eyes. Jacob and Nina’s dynamic has that car crash vibe to it that makes it impossible to look away.
I found the first few chapters of the book difficult to get into, as there is a lot of sex and it takes some getting used to the cult and their beliefs. However, once Nina arrived, I couldn’t put the book down.
I got a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[C.L. Spillard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A haunting hallucination, a disturbing power relationship, and the sense of impending doom pull the reader into the very first page of Follow Him.

Much of Part 1 is too ‘male gaze’ for my tastes, including the sex scene and the supposition that the woman involved - but not the man - ends up ‘sacrificed’. *Too* obvious, guys - in fact the trope is nicely twisted as she returns later as a vital part of the narrative, and he ends up paying a price too.

The characters begin to show their true depths as the plot progresses. Their backstories, their emotional ‘pressure points’ so ably abused by the cult, and how they came to join it, ring realistic to a worrying degree.

The second part reads like a taut, psychological thriller. Nina’s inner dialogue initially comes across as a little too sentimental and verbose, and her Catholicism could be a little more three-dimensional, but she toughens-up, and becomes more self-consistent, as her journey to rescue her man plunges her deeper into the darkness that is the Shared Heart.

Will he love her again? Will she get over-run by the part of her that wants to punish him? Will he stop blaming her for the blood-stained incident in their past that wasn’t her fault (in fact, if they are being held up as an embodiment of Love, should he have been blaming her - before he joined the cult - at all? This rather jarred - again, male viewpoint.) Will the nosy neighbour accidentally betray her as she hides the man she loves in the only place that offers space enough for her to begin the process of reconstructing his mind? Will the cult find them and reclaim him? And if they do, what might they do to her?

And finally: where do the collective nightmares of this Crowley-like cult come from? Will they, in fact, be revealed not to be nightmares at all..?

Like a Horror version of Ken Follet’s ‘The Hammer of Eden’, but one in which the cult is darker and the Demons are real, this tale is *literally* not for the faint-hearted!

[Ioannis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many thanks to Hellbound Books and the author for sending me a copy of this book for exchange of an honest review.

For the ruler of wood and stone
Of blood and bone
And keeper of our eternity
We children shall endure!

Jacob was lost. But now he is in the good hands of the cult of the Shared Heart and their leader the Great Collector. A home for all those who are lost and suffering. Nina, his ex-fiance kidnaps him and takes him back. But the ancient evil that rules the cult have other plans for him...
This is a very uncomfortable book. It starts slow. So slow that is almost boring. And then something happens. There is something that crawls inside your skin. It starts like small waves of horror rising throughout the book and ends up being swept away by a tidal wave.
The plot is intense with believable characters.
Flaws? Sure, but not many. I didn't like the slow start.
If you are a horror fan, then this is a must read and something you're going to remember for a long time.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Follow Him" makes me think of the Joy Division song "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Not because it's set in the 80s or has any post-punk aesthetics but because love tore apart so many of its characters.
Pop-culture tells us that "love conquers all" and that "love will find away." I think Joy Division had the right of it and, by the end of the book, Nina would agree. She thought that she could rescue her ex-finance Jacob from a cult, The Shared Heart, using love, through reminding him what they once had. Instead, every remembrance shared only brought him closer to understanding why he had left her and what path lay before them both as the day of the Harvest drew near.

[I_is_for_me · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read tons of horror books and this is easily one of the very best.
Craig Stewart gives us a story that is exceptionally well written, blending the complexity of human emotions and a new take on the supernatural into an intriguing tale full of twists and turns. The characters are multifaceted and the story world described in a way that makes it come alive and add beautifully to the atmosphere of the story. I wasn't sure how it would end until the very last page and read in blissful suspense while enjoying plenty of chills from masterfully described moments of genuine horror and human despair.
I warmly recommend this book to any gourmets of horror out there.
Brilliant!

[Nerissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is for horror and thriller lovers. I honestly scare easily and after reading this, I started to wonder whether I too had imagined things moving in those dark shadows. The story will get you thinking, doubting things you thought you knew. Imagining new horrifying details about the world we never wondered about before. It will get you scared. To even think about the word 'Love'. Well, it is a horror story afterall.
The author was very imaginative and every part was expertly described. It was like reading but watching a movie at the same. If you're looking for a dark and creepy story with no way to obtain a happy ending, then this one is for you.

[Bakerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follow Him is a book written by Craig Stewart. This is a book of extreme horror and it should actually carry a very strict warning, because, really, where the horror is concerned this book doesn’t take any prisoners.
This book is about the rescue of Jacob Donohue from the farm of a cult called The Sacred Heart, by his former fiancée, Nina Todd. Everything seems clear cut at the beginning, with Nina’s quest as noble, and the cult as evil. But as she starts the deprogramming of Jacob things suddenly doesn’t look so clear cut anymore. Her “rescuing” of him starts to look more and more like a kidnapping. Joining the cult was something Jacob wanted to do and he was never forced into it.
Yes, but you were brainwashed, Nina tells him in reply to this. We find out that Nina did some research on how to “deprogram” someone who had been influenced by a cult. The question is will she succeed in this, because according to Jacob, she is actually the one who had been brainwashed and he (and the other cult members) is the one who had seen the light and knows the truth. This part is quite a few chapters long and the writer did a very good job with it. Later both the reader and Nina are not sure of her “quest” anymore.
Then, after being lulled into a sense of false security by these “deprogramming chapters”, the real horror comes to the fore. I was expecting evil monsters and demons coming out of the floor and the walls, but I can assure you it is much worse than that. Much, much worse.
This is the type of horror that gives you nightmares and can drive you insane, because this can happen for real. When you discover the horror for the first time (because it is there in front of you all the time, but you don’t see it until that crucial moment) it gives you the shudders. This is the exact type of horror that made me to stop reading Stephen King many years ago.
In your mind you (the reader) tell Nina to let it go. But because of the monsters in her own life she wants her fiancé back. This is more to proof a point than anything else. Although she means well, she lost my sympathy along the way. The reader quickly discovers that her life is not necessarily a clean slate. There is more dirt there than you would expect of your average person. Something which is not made clear at the beginning.
The last bunch of chapters is full out suspense all the way. I burn to tell you what happens, but I don’t want to spoil it for you. I can assure you that if you like mind tingling suspense and bloody horror in a continuous flood, this is the book for you.
The writer takes you deep into the mind and the background of the characters. And there are many more than Jacob and Nina. All of the characters have terrible skeletons in the closet, even the ones that would traditionally be seen as the good ones. In the end it seems that the only way of redemption – for all of them - is via The Harvest professed by “The First Beast”.
This book also illustrates very clearly how easily a person can be convinced by a cult. In the end the reader himself doesn’t know who is good or bad anymore. That which the cult professes actually starts to make sense and that is where the true horror lies, if you can read between the lines.
What I didn’t like of this book? That’s a hard one, but if you push me for an answer, I would say the ending. If I was the writer of this book, I would have made the ending slightly different.
This is a good horror book that will stay in the mind of the reader for a long time. A blessing is the book’s very short chapters. This makes the book easy and a pleasure to read. The story is also told via lots and lots of dialogue which makes it even more of a pleasure to read.
If you like a good horror story, which might stay in your mind for a long time, this is the book for you.
Highly recommended.

[Isobel Blackthorn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Follow Him falls into that category of horror that draws on the paranormal in the form on an ancient evil, a metaphysical entity of enormous potency. The novel opens with Jacob coming out of a strange trance in which he saw for himself what the worshippers of The Shared Heart thought they knew. He could fly, he could soar, and he had come face to face with the beast. The experience was ecstatic, a privilege, only for the chosen few, and all who worshipped coveted the same. Jacob is lost, doomed and it remains for his ex-fiance to save him. When gutsy Nina appears on the scene, breaking into The Sanctuary to steal Jacob away, the story picks up speed in true thriller fashion.

Stewart has penned a novel with a complex undertow very much pointed at the dangers of religious and spiritual cults. I enjoyed the Biblical overtones. It is no accident that Stewart named his protagonist Jacob – Jacob first appears in the Book of Genesis as the son of Isaac and Rebecca, he who wrestled with God and forced God to bless him. Jacob is said to have experienced a vision of a ladder, or staircase, reaching into heaven with angels ascending and descending, known as Jacob’s ladder. Stewart’s Jacob follows ‘The Collector’, the beast’s messenger, and has out of body experiences that change him forever in the most unpleasant of ways.

The complexities of this theme are cleverly buried beneath an action-led, fast-paced plot laced with sensuality. Well-crafted characters, excellent snappy dialogue, and a sharp and witty narrative style make Follow Him great entertainment. Yet this novel remains ultra-disturbing in every respect. Follow Him is Iain Banks’ Whit on steroids. Recommended to horror/dark thriller fans after their next fix.

[Kim Warner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure horror.
I may not be the best person to review this book as I have read horror (think Stephen King, or Helter Skelteresque books), but this was over the top. Horrifying horror. It’s the kind of book that gets into your head, like an ear worm, and then just squirms around in there.
The Shared Heart cult, what I see as one of two Antagonists, is brought to life in graphically visual imagery that puts your mind in the discomfort of the horror genre from the start. Likely a good thing as it’s a preparation for the storyline of the main characters Jacob, who sought out the cult to escape from a broken heart, and Nina, the cause of the broken heart.
Throughout the book what you believe, what you wish would happen, what you expect - give up on all of it. The story moves quickly (although I couldn’t read it quickly due to the aforementioned horror issue), the characters are terrifically interesting (including the ancillary characters), and the storyline makes you think - about life, love, cults, mind-control, and how those things can interact to the point where people can be consumed by a cult, or cult-like brainwashing.
Not a cookie cutter book. If you enjoy the horror genre, this is the book for you - you’ll spend the entire book dreading what twist will be thrown in next.

A copy of this book was provided to me in return for an honest review.

[Daffola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well true love certainly devours you ! At least in the case of Nina , a girl who attempts to save the man she loves from this ridiculous cult named "the shared heart" who turned this compassionate jacob into an emotionless being ! but in return all she gets is pain and well the ending of the story which all i could say was poor Nina but i do admire her will power !

Throughout the story i was like come on girl it's not Worth it, don't fight for someone who doesn't care enough to fight back for you or himself but honestly had i put myself in her shoes i think I'd be doing the same for the one i love !

But jacob did have some points too! Love is indeed a weakness but he was also wrong because without it there is no life and the results will be something like that bloody monster named collector !


I had mixed feelings about the ending but it was very well described that despite me being kinda sad for Nina's final destination i still liked it !

Indeed this story is one of the best horror stories i have read so far!! beautiful choice of words as if paragraphs were showing me what was happening rather than narrating it !

[Joe Pranaitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Craig Stewart brings us the tale of Nina and her fallen ex-soon to be husband Jacob who has gone to live at a cult compound called the Shared Hart. As the story opens we see that Jacob one of the new Dregs of the Shared Hart has his last night with a woman named Susan before he is castrated and she has her reproductive organs removed. Then as the story continues we're introduced to Nina, the woman who Jacob almost married and she has a plan to deprogram him from what he has been told is to be his life up until their harvest. She goes through everything that she can to deprogram him and turn him back into the man that she still loves but I won't give away the ending and it's something that through out the book you can feel it coming but you just don't know how it will. I highly recommend this book and I'm looking forward to reading Craig's other works.

[Tracy Sharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a digital copy of this book for an honest review.

Follow Him is a beautifully told horror story that sucks you in. Stewart's writing is lush and unflinching, and I found myself caught between the luscious phrasing of his prose and the absolute horror on the page.

Stewart takes a lot of care in the crafting of this character-driven story. If you're looking for a quick read, this isn't it. It is a lovingly penned story that takes its time in the telling. This story is intoxicating, vivid, sensuous and terrifying. I felt like I was walking through a gorgeous nightmare.

Highly recommend.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark horror that will take you into depths of hell.
This cult is evil and so dark.
The story will stay with you and remind you why cults are to be avoided and why they are mostly illegal.
If you like dark, rather graphically awful happenings then this is definitely one for you.
A good grit wicked read.

[Curtis Hempler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this more than I expected I would. The characters are complex and believable. The story moves at a quick pace, and has some surprises. I like the writing style, and will look forward to more from this author. There is nothing light about this story... these are very deep waters to wade into. The bonds of religion/cults are pitted against the bonds of family and loved ones.

[H.G. Gravy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Craig Stewart’s Follow Him is a novel where the reader feels a constant sense of impending doom from the first page until the last. It contains all the beats you’d expect from a cult horror novel. Supernatural entities. Groupthink. Strange and interesting dogma. The story starts with Jacob experiencing a spiritual moment with The Great Collector, the head honcho of The Shared Heart. He is flying, soaring, and then sees the god of the cult in his vision. He’s changed forever afterward and knows that there is a very important role he is set to play in the future. The story changes over from Jacob’s POV to Nina’s, Jacob’s ex-fiance, and her plan to kidnap Jacob back from The Shared Heart. With the help of her brother, Nina’s plan is successful and they bring Jacob back to the home which they shared before Jacob abandoned his previous life. From this moment onward, it’s a battle of wills. Jacob’s beliefs in the cult vs. Nina’s attempts to break through the brainwashing. Of course, it’s not a simple task. Nosy neighbors. Dreams of a version of Jacob which wants to hurt Nina. The cult wants Jacob back as well. All these forces collide as time ticks down until it’s time for the Harvest. Saying anymore would be adding spoilers.

While there are many terrifying moments of the supernatural, the true horror comes from the people involved with the Shared Heart and the main characters themselves. The followers of the Shared Heart are all broken and flawed people who are slowly erased and call themselves Dregs. They no longer identify with their old lives full of pain and sorrow. The Shared Heart provides answers and eases the pain of their members which makes it oddly appealing if you are susceptible.

This novel is a slow, deliberate burn that works to its benefit as I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next. The dynamic between Jacob and Nina is the core of the novel. Despite becoming a Dreg, there is still something there for Jacob when it comes to Nina. On the other hand, Nina kidnapped Jacob. It was against his will as he never asked to be stolen away from the commune. It leads to questions about how far you would go for someone you love, even against their wishes. Adding in all the supernatural elements, the story slowly takes you from being skeptical to accepting there is something to the Shared Heart.

Overall, Follow Him delivers exactly on everything it promises. There’s no question this novel delivers on the horror. There are scenes of extreme violence, sexual encounters, and supernatural entities. Yet, it isn’t simply for the sake of grossing out the reader or to try to be edgy. Not at all. It’s all wrapped up in an excellent story which addresses the complexities of losing someone you love, the feelings of anger toward the person, the feelings of guilt and self-blame, and how people handle their grief. For me, the incredibly scary parts aren’t the ones involving the Beast or the cult. The scary part is imagining myself sitting across from the person I love and realizing that it isn’t them anymore. The shell is the same yet on the inside its only remnants.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair review.

[S.B. (Beauty in Ruins) · Rating 4 out of 5]

While there are hints of the supernatural and promises of apocalyptic darkness in the opening chapters of Follow Him, they are almost deceptively placid . . . slow paced and subtle . . . character studies of men and women whose identities were to have been erased and consumed by The Shared Heart. What makes it all so disturbing is the way Craig Stewart simultaneously makes the cult seem creepy and yet dangerously appealing at the same time.

At least, that is, until the screams and the blood and the mutilation.

Just as we’re getting settled, accustomed to the darkness of the cult, Stewart throws in the rescue and extraction, a scene that is brilliantly rendered and almost heartbreaking in its emotional complexity. Nina has been searching for Jacob, desperately trying to find the man she almost married before he disappeared, but as the story illustrates, it’s one thing to free a man from a cult, it’s another thing entirely to free the cult from the man. He doesn’t want to be saved, and the Sacred Heart isn’t just going to let him go.

The edginess of this, the uncertainty as to what’s rational and what’s supernatural, is the real draw. Your constantly on edge, wondering as much about what’s going to happen next as what’s really happening now. Can we believe our eyes? Can we believe what we’re being told? Can we believe what the characters believe they’re experiencing? All of that is important because if we can’t trust their motives, if we can’t be sure of their intents, then the line between hero and villain, captor and savior, becomes ever-thinner.

Fear not – or perhaps fear more is the correct phrasing – for there are answers here, and they may not be what you were hoping for. Having read Stewart before in Worship Me, the story of a organized cult (i.e. Church) with apocalyptic problems of its own, I had some idea of what to expect here, but the way he eviscerates the story and the reader is fantastic. This gets really dark, and depending upon the depth of your faith or the nature of your belief system, it may very well give you nightmares.

But isn’t that precisely what we crave from horror?


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[Justin Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If happiness is how we determine a life worth living, then which one of us really needs to be rescued?” - Jacob

We've all been down at some point. We've been hurt, been misunderstood, been disappointed and wanted a someone to save us. A fresh start. In FOLLOW HIM, Jacob finds a new home with The Shared Heart- a cult lead by the mysterious Great Collector. Nina, his ex-fiancé whom he left behind, isn't ready to give up on him, then again- neither is The Shared Heart.

When we meet them, we know that something drove them apart, something major enough for Jacob to up and leave Nina and his "dead name" in his past. One of the things I noticed right away is how real their struggles feels. The relationship is believable, even relatable. Granted some of the things that Jacob now believes are strange, but there's a twisted logic to it, and you can see how easy it could be to be to fall into that way of thinking about love and/or life if you felt like you didn't have anything left to lose. I ended up caring about the couple, despite the circumstances they found themselves in and rooting for them to reconcile.

There does seem to be a connection to Craig Stewart's other novel WORSHIP ME that I was unaware of going in, so if you've read that, there's a small part of the book that may mean something different to you. It pertains to the The Great Collector whom I was hoping to know more about. I know that the unexplained can be and often is scarier, but personally I wanted to know where he came from. Speaking of scary, there's also a fair amount of more traditional horror and gore in this novel too, but I'd be doing you a disservice by saying more than that- you'll have to read it to find out.

Starting this book, I didn't really know what to expect as this is the first cult horror novel I've ever read, but I became invested in Jacob and Nina's relationship right away and was filled with dread from the moment they reunited on; there's this ever pervasive uneasy feeling always lurking in the background. I never felt like the characters were safe and had no idea how the story would end. Overall, a very enjoyable and nerve-racking read about what some are willing to do for love.

I was provided a copy of this book by HellBound Books in exchange for an honest review.

[Bobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

True love never dies – it devours.

Love and destruction go hand in hand in Craig Stewart’s second novel, Follow Him. When Jacob is lost, The Shared Heart, a doomsday cult who has discovered the truth of the end times, finds him and brings him into their fold. He sheds his old name and abandons his old life as be assimilates with his new community, but his fiance, Nina, isn’t ready to let him go. Hoping to deprogram Jacob and restore what they once had, Nina abducts Jacob and begins the process of reclaiming the man she loves. What she believes to be the start of rebuilding their lives together turns into a nightmare as The Shard Heart sets out to reclaim what has been taken from them.

Follow Him doesn’t follow a traditional story format and pivots every time the reader begins to get comfortable. Stewart’s novel is a tale of the end of times, a love story, a body horror blood-fest, and a study of just how far someone will go to keep a relationship alive. Stewart does something pretty special by giving the reader just enough insight into what’s to come while also inspiring hope that Nina’s efforts are not in vain.

“Because love is devastating. And once you learn how bad it can hurt,
there’s no going back. Love is unleashed. And its ruins
are everywhere, if you know how to find them.”

For fans of Lovecraftian horror, the ending of Follow Him will not come as much of a surprise. Themes centered around pre-human monsters and cosmicism all point to an ending where shit is going to get real. That said, the ending is not going to be for everyone. But for those who enjoy subjects like the fragility of sanity, blood soaked fields of writhing bodies, and unhinged body horror, this novel will be an enjoyable ride from start to finish.

[Benjamin Langley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Craig Stewart's Follow Him tells the story of Jacob, who has joined a cult known as The Shared Heart, run by The Great Collector. They talk of an event known as The Harvest, which is fast approaching, with suggestions of some kind of world-ending tragedy.

On the outside of this is Nina, Jacob's ex-fiancé, who refuses to give up on Jacob, but can she reach him before it's too late?

There's much to admire in this novel. The writing is sharp throughout, and if you like your horror crammed full of visceral gore, there's plenty to get your teeth into here. At points, Stewart wallows in it.

The plot works well too. While there are several twists and turns along the way, it all makes sense. Even if I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, it's probably the one the characters deserve. While some of the characters' decisions seem odd at times, as we come to understand them more deeply, we understand the reasons. Stewart's main characters are acting in a way that extreme grief could certainly drive them to.

If there was any part of the novel I was less keen on, it was that I was never quite sure exactly who I should be rooting for. With the first part of the novel following Jacob, when it switched to Nina I was a little thrown, and some of Nina's actions at times make her hard to sympathis with. However, the more I understood how damaged these characters were, the clearly that became. While I was desperate to find out what happened in the story, I wasn't desperately hoping for a happy ending for Jacob and Nina.

If you're a fan of well-written and gory horror, and stories involving cults and ancient evil, you'll surely find much to admire in Follow Him.

I was sent a free ebook copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

[Petrina Binney · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story follows Jacob, a young man, living in the cult of the Shared Heart. Having shaken off his former life, including former fiancee, Nina, Jacob has settled into commune life and its hard work, out of date clothing and relinquishment of self.

When Jacob bears Witness to the rise of The First, the original beast from which all life sprang and to which all life will return (if necessary, by force), his faith is everything to him. But little does Jacob know that journalist, Nina, has found out where he is and is intent on bringing her boyfriend home.

A couple of warnings: as might be anticipated with the description, the subject matter is pretty dark and features cult life, loss of self, and the concept of deprogramming. There are also some extended scenes on the topics of miscarriage and self-mutilation, which could well be challenging for some readers.

That said, the writing is very strong. The imagery, especially in the gorier scenes, was stunning. A unique voice, I can’t think I’ve read anything like this before. The main characters were well-drawn and fresh. I did find some of the sex scenes rather uncomfortable but maybe that’s just me. I really enjoyed the nosey neighbour character - he felt familiar as well as disturbing.

Brilliant.

[Debbie Viscosi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of a man who is lost. Jacob Donohue needs something new in his life. He joins The Shared Heart hoping to find what he's looking for. To join he must abandon everything of this world including his name. All members are called dregs and they are waiting for the Harvest.

Jacob's fiancee, Nina, is stunned by Jacob's disappearance. She decides to find him. What she doesn't anticipate is the depth of misguided evil that is at The Shared Heart. She thinks that she can deprogram Jacob. What she doesn't realize is that this is far from a simple cult.

The leader of The Shared Heart teaches them about love. This is not the love that we feel and know but another type of love that involves complete sacrifice. The event that all followers wait for is the Harvest. When the Harvest comes, it leaves an impact that you won't soon forget.

Craig Stewart's imagination is amazing and frightening. He has crafted a horror story that will follow you into your dreams and beyond.

[Taz Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Follow Him is the first book I've managed to finish for a while. While I'm a huge horror fan in terms of films, I've sadly not read many horror books beyond Stephen King so this was a change, and may become responsible for making me expand my horizons when reading.

What stood out to me about the book wasn't necessarily the plot - which is also good, and I love the cynicism of it - but Craig's descriptive and often poetic writing. The creative ways he describes things and paints the picture is incredibly immersive.

As for the horror - well, it can be pretty grim and often made me cringe as I read (a very high compliment indeed). Especially Nina's dream scenes. The best way to describe the kind of violence in the book is probably as 'invasive' which makes you uncomfortable in the best way.

Interesting themes are explored here, from cult indoctrination, trauma, and the crazy things people do for love. There's a lot to enjoy, and Craig's writing makes it easy to get lost in the character's thoughts and see things from their perspective.

[Chris from the Basement · Rating 3 out of 5]

Follow Him is almost really good but ultimately falls short due to inconsistent pacing.

I was sent this book for review.

It's been several months since I read Follow Him and I do find that I remember a lot more of the plot than I would with most other books I read that long ago. That is something that Follow Him has going for it. It's memorable. The ending is brutal, probably the most brutal scene I've read in a novel before. If you are into extreme horror than the ending scene would be worth a read alone.

The writing was above average. Easy to read prose, well framed action sequences.

Again. The book falls short due to the pacing. While the book kept me guessing as to what was going to happen next, the ways to subverted my expectations led the book to feel like it was several stories cobbled into one narrative. Not terrible but it could have worked better if information was developed differently within the plot.

Overall it wasn't a waste of time. I just don't know who I can recommend this book to.

[Alisha Rowe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jacob lost his mother when he was young and later, when other events in his life happened he found himself with The Sacred Heart. Their goal was to rid the world of love by bringing back The First. The First was here long before anything else and was the reason humans had love in the first place. Nina, Jacob's fiancé has plans to bring him home, but will her love bring him back from this cult or will The First get her as well?
The first part of this book was really slow and I didn't really think I would like the book. Then, when I got to part 2 I was hooked and couldn't put it down. It was a stimulating read that will make your heart race and question some things, if even for a moment. For instance: how far would you go for someone you love? Just how quickly can the love that holds you together turn toxic?