'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.
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