Whisper House Press

Book: 8114

Author: Joshua Hull

Publisher: CRASH Books

Estimated Publication Date: August 26, 2025

Capone’s Rating: 4 of 5 ⭐s

With 8114, Joshua Hull pulled me in and held me fast, as 218 pages blasted by. I needed to know how our protagonist (and the author who cornered him) would resolve the contortions into which he’d been twisted. This book was unique, its story well-executed.

The opening, I’ve seen before: A character who’s left a hometown long behind—along with associated dark memories—is coaxed back home after something bad has happened… and what the character finds is something akin to what they knew before, only much worse. In fact, I’ve read at least three books in the last twelve months with that sort of opening. As we all know, there are no new ideas—but there are ingenious takes on similar themes. So I don’t count this similar start against Hull any more than I counted it against Sarah Gailey (whose Just Like Home was a tremendous success, in my view) or Ronald Malfi (I loved Small Town Horror). No. My wonder was: What would happen from there? And man! The hits came fast, and they kept coming. Hull’s skill is best on display in 8114 while he’s describing what is utterly real to the pov character whose experience drives the hell-bound train but what, for us, is in serious doubt.
Joshua Hull takes that opening and runs with it, and the changes not only undergone by the main character but by all the characters around him. Infused with horror-pop-culture references that work well in this post-Jade Daniels world, 8114 knows what we’ve seen before and offers something new. I’m not a reader who seeks scares, but I can definitely see this book spooking a lot of horror aficionados. At times, the action moves a bit too quick for what’s developing for my taste, but Hull acquits himself extremely well as an author who disappears into the narrative he’s woven for us; that’s what we want, of course. Hull delivers in this page-turning spookfest.