A review of "A Black and Endless Sky" (audiobook) by Matthew Lyons

Matthew Lyons’s A Black and Endless Sky is a gripping horror novel that begins strong, releases some of the tension, and then builds to a hard crescendo. After Jonah’s divorce, he and his sister, Nell, decide to road trip from San Francisco to Albuquerque. To start things off, they get in a bar fight with some bikers. Then it’s all downhill from there when Nell becomes possessed by a demon in the Nevada desert. With the wounded bikers and an exorcist dogging their every move, siblings have to figure out how to free Nell and get home.

I find it difficult to enjoy a book when I don’t genuinely like any of the characters. I didn’t find any of them to be particularly sympathetic. From the beginning, Nell is problematic with how she baits her brother into fights. Jonah is somewhat likable at the beginning, but then his character flaws reveal that even he is not going to be the hero of this story. When Ann, the exorcist, comes on the scene, I was expecting to like her and thought she might be the character that drew me in, but her arc went in another direction entirely. However, the plot and the cinematic description of events kept me listening to the audiobook even though I didn’t want to grab a beer with any of the characters. The conflict had the cosmic horror elements I like to see in horror, and the fact that all the characters were sort of bad in their own way lent to the tension. Additionally, the descriptions of the gruesome fights and the visions Nell experiences were effective. They created vivid scenes in my head, some of which I had to take a break from.

What I particularly loved about the audiobook version was that each character — Jonah, Nell, Ann, and Terry (one of the bikers) — each had their own narrator when in their perspective. I love this concept in an audiobook because it really helps keep the characters’ voices true and consistent when listening. I would recommend this audiobook to horror fans and would read other titles from this author to see what else he is doing. All in all, A Black and Endless Sky by Matthew Lyons was a satisfying listen.

I received this audiobook from Netgalley.