Well, I certainly didn’t see that coming!
I just finished Borrasca by C.K. Walker, and what a story!
This was a relatively short book, and I really enjoyed it. The story moved quickly, and I found myself wanting to keep reading because I needed to know what was happening in this strange little town.
I love a good mystery, especially when there’s something sinister going on beneath the surface. And Borrasca definitely delivered.
I thought I had figured out the big secret before the ending.
Oh, was I wrong!
If you enjoy dark mysteries, disturbing secrets, and stories where absolutely nothing is what it seems, this is one worth reading.
What’s Borrasca About?
From the Amazon book description:
After his family relocates to the picturesque town of Drisking, Missouri, young Sam Walker expects a boring life — until he hears whispers of monsters and screaming in the mountains. Urban legends of a place in the woods call Borrasca.
Years later, Sam is haunted by the tragedy of that winter. Older and more determined to discover the secrets of Borrasca, he sets on a path of destruction and pain. No price is too high to learn the truth, even if he never comes back.
Borrasca is a coming-of-age story steeped in trauma, loss, and the horrors that hide behind small-town smiles.
What I Thought About Borrasca by C.K. Walker
I really enjoyed this book!
It was short, fast-paced, and filled with just enough mystery to keep me guessing. I also loved the friendship between Sam, Kimber, and Kyle. These kids grew up knowing something terrible was happening around them, but they couldn’t figure out exactly what it was.
And I felt so sorry for them.
They were trying to understand things that the adults around them either wouldn’t explain or deliberately kept hidden.
As the story went on, I started putting together my own theory about what was happening.
And I was so confident I had it figured out!
I Thought I Knew What Was Happening
Spoilers ahead! Skip down to My Final Thoughts if you don’t want to know what happens.
As we got closer to the end, I became convinced that the town’s founders were involved in some kind of drug operation.
The powder? Drugs.
Those horrible sounds coming from the mountains? Somehow connected to the operation.
I even figured that the town’s infertility problems had something to do with the water table.
So I thought I was doing pretty well solving the mystery.
And then the truth came out.
Good grief.
I was absolutely not expecting what Sam discovered.
His long-lost sister was there. Pregnant.
Kimber, who had recently disappeared, was there too.
And there were so many other women and girls, some pregnant and many drugged.
The whole operation was so much more horrifying than anything I’d imagined.
These women and girls were being abducted, exploited, and their babies sold for profit, while people throughout the town were being paid to keep quiet or simply looked the other way.
I couldn’t believe it.
Sam’s Dad! I Should Have Known!
And then there was the revelation about Sam’s father.
His own dad knew.
Not only did he know, but he was involved. He had actually sold his own daughter.
That was one of the most disturbing parts of the entire story for me.
And looking back, I feel like I should have seen it coming.
Right at the beginning of the book, we learn that Sam’s father, a police officer, had done something wrong and that the family had to move.
That should have been a clue!
But I didn’t put it together.
And that’s one of the things I really enjoyed about this story. There were clues along the way, but I was so focused on my theory about drugs that I missed what was really happening.
And That Ending?
I wanted closure.
I wanted the people responsible to pay for what they’d done. I wanted Sam to be believed, and I wanted some kind of justice for all those women and girls.
But that’s not what we got.
And as much as I wanted to hate that ending, I really didn’t.
Because sometimes life doesn’t work that way.
Terrible things happen. People get away with things they shouldn’t. And not every story ends with everything neatly wrapped up in a bow.
I did love that Kimber left her mother’s note for Sam so he could finally understand what had been happening. And I was relieved that she had apparently escaped to California.
But Sam’s situation was heartbreaking.
He loved his friends so much, especially Kimber and Kyle. And yet, after Kyle was brutally beaten, Sam was blamed for what happened.
Even his own father turned against him.
I thought that was absolutely terrible. Sam had already lost so much, and now he was being treated like a violent criminal for something he hadn’t done.
He ended up on the outskirts of the very town that had allowed these horrors to continue.
And what could he possibly do?
When an entire town knows what’s happening and chooses to look away, how does one person fight against that?
That was what stayed with me after finishing the book.
Not just the terrible things happening in the mountains, but the fact that so many people knew and did nothing.
My Final Thoughts on Borrasca by C.K. Walker
I thought Borrasca was a fantastic little horror story.
It was quick to read, kept me interested from beginning to end, and delivered a twist I absolutely did not see coming.
And while the ending didn’t give me the closure I wanted, I think it worked.
Sometimes the most disturbing stories aren’t the ones with supernatural monsters or haunted houses. Sometimes they’re the ones where the monsters are ordinary people doing terrible things.
And that’s exactly what made Borrasca so unsettling.
If you enjoy dark mysteries, shocking twists, and stories that leave you thinking long after you’ve finished, I definitely recommend this one.
Just be prepared. It’s a much darker story than you might expect.
You can find more of my thoughts on the books I’ve been reading on my Book Reviews page.