Jackknife by Chris Joe Hill
Series: The Shivers #1
Genre: Horror
Pages: 45
Published By: Amazon Original Stories on 15th April, 2025
Format: Ebook
Add to Goodreads
Buy on Amazon (not affiliated)
Book Synopsis:
Dennis awakens something evil when he removes a decades-old jackknife from the trunk of a gnarled old sycamore. Once pinned in placeβnow thoughtlessly freedβthe tree returns to its roots. An act of vigilante justice took place under its boughs long ago. But its taste for blood has only grown strongerβ¦
Book Review
As part of my “Amazon Originals” Summer Project, I am reading through short stories published by Amazon. Β A spin wheel picked them at random, and I ended up with getting the first book in the ‘The Shivers’ series. I hadn’t read from this author before, so I was intrigued to find out what I thought of their writingβ¦ Because I have Amazon Prime, the eBook was included, so I didn’t have to pay for it either.
I’ll start by saying that I am typically not a horror girly so was a little worried going into this one. However, I was glad that it wasn’t too scary or horrific. It felt more creepy than anything which I didn’t mind. I would have liked the book to explore the tree’s lore in more depth, as it receives little attention. I found the trees behaviour very interesting but would’ve liked to know the “why?” behind it.
The writing in this novella is descriptive which is good for a horror as it helped me feel more immersed in the story. I’d have liked a little more substance though to the plot. There were no twists and some parts felt quite predictable. Pacing was good and kept me interested but the ending was too abrupt. I turned to the next page thinking there would be more but there wasn’t. It didn’t feel like the story was complete in my opinion. With the title of the story being Jackknife, I expected it to be more present in the story. Again, there was some lore lacking in terms of the importance of it…
Character wise I didn’t really care about them. I was more invested in the tree than I was the MMC. He was incredibly irritating and come off very cocky/arrogant. I found his attitude towards women particularly off-putting; he frequently came across as entitled and seemed to believe he was owed sex.
Also, be mindful that there is an animal death that happens so I would say that’s a trigger warning to bear in mind if you’re going to read this. I found the animal death more upsetting than the human death…
Overall, if you’re looking for a quick eerie story to binge then I’d say to give this one a go. I didn’t find it incredible, but I enjoyed it enough to consider it an average read.. I’m looking forward to seeing what the rest of the series has to offer. However, I don’t think I’ll be rushing to read a full-length novel from Joe Hill any time soon.
Leave a Reply