Intercepts: A horror novel

Clever, intriguing, dark storyline— does the end justify the means? Main characters were fleshed-out well. Provided for an interesting internal debate, on both the nature of the facility’s purpose and the staff who were able to justify or turn a blind-eye to the horror of their work. Very well-written and brings you on a bit of a rollercoaster of emotions. Solid 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

This book really surprised me with how good it was. The characters were very distinct and believable. The way they reacted was spot on. I suspect the author did some research or has direct experience with things that may cause severe anxiety, because the little details of how the characters behaved under these conditions was perfect. Such as when Hannah is hiding in the break room and she struggles to control her breathing. She'd alternate between forgetting to breathe and taking in giant gulps of air. Anyone who has experienced severe anxiety for any reason likely knows how accurate this is.I also loved how creepy Bishop was. If you love eerie horror with tons of blood and gore, this is for you.That said, I'll get into the reason I took a star. The book could have used a slightly better line editor. The copyediting was flawless, but a few things could have been said better.For example: When we're reading from Tyler's perspective and he notices the fingernails at the base of the door, it says that the antennas had torn them off when trying to scratch through the door "without even noticing." This is something that should have been said from the perspective of someone who saw it and would know such a detail. Hannah could have been the one to notice this and it would have worked better.There's also a line that reads, "Joe climbed into his hot, sun-heated pickup." Obviously, this is a redundancy. I, personally, would have and replaced it with a comparison. Something like, "Joe climbed into his sun-heated pickup and was immediately struck with the suffocating sensation of entering a sauna—not that there had been time for such leisure since he began working at the Facility."There was a small handful of such phrases that just could have been improved with a good line editor. There is also a developmental problem toward the end. Why did Bishop kill herself but all the other antennas rampaged through the Facility when they were taken off the gas? This never really gets explained. Perhaps she had just had more of the pain than she could take over the years, since she had been used more, but this should have been explained.Still, these small oversights were not nearly so numerous or glaring as to distract from an excellent story. The ending was immensely satisfying and revealed interesting details. The author is undeniably talented and to say I enjoyed the book is an understatement. I strongly recommend Intercepts to all horror fans.

I am a fan of horror books and picked this novel up based on positive genre reviews it got from readers. I’ve had instances where I’d pick up a book only to read a chapter or two and then set it down for good without ever finishing. This wasn’t the case with this one, as I tore through it in 4 days (would have probably finished it sooner, but I do have a full time job).The narrative is very solid and attention grabbing. I really enjoyed the story line, attention to detail, and characters that have profound depth to them. I can see (and sincerely hope) this story being adopted for a movie at some point.

The premise of this book--a government facility using cruel human experimentation in the pursuit of a sort of psychic warfare--is intriguing if not entirely original. The characters are believable and relatable if not entirely well-developed. The plot is exciting if not entirely unpredictable. And those thoughts seem to characterize the book as a whole. It is a good book, but it's not a great book. It's certainly gripping, certainly holds the reader's attention, and certainly explores some interesting territory. But at the same time, it doesn't ever really seem to go anywhere new with those ideas.The notion of psychic warfare, farfetched as it may seem, is fertile ground for a novelist, I think. As skeptical as we may be of people who think this sort of thing actually happens in reality, the fact of the matter is that history contains numerous stories of governments experimenting with rather obscene procedures when they have become convinced that the ends justify the means. Indeed, that concept of ends and means reflects a moral/ethical debate that I think this novel could have explored in gut-wrenching detail, but it mostly ignored the philosophical.Instead, it took a more personal approach, focusing on a father/daughter relationship. That's not a bad thing in and of itself, but if one wants to trade philosophical horror for familiar horror, the characters need to be up to the challenge. These characters are, inasmuch as we get to know them, but they often seem underdeveloped, leaving the reader to fill in a number of gaps in their personalities.The result is a book that's thoroughly enjoyable to read, but probably won't linger in the memory for very long. The premise, plot, and characters are all good and interesting but there's just not enough original material here to distinguish the novel from other works in a similar vein. A while after you've read it, I suspect it will run together with many of those others in your mind. In other words: there's nothing really wrong with it, but it's not going to haunt you in the way one might hope a horror novel would.

Interesting. Not perfect, but worth a quick read! Very fast paced once it gets moving. I recommend if you like Sci fi and gore

This was phenomenal. I was hooked from the first page. The way the story unfolded was so clever and kept me interested for hours. For such a small book the author managed to make well fleshed out characters without info-dumping, a fairly complicated plot that also did not involve ridiculous amounts of confusing information, and an overall tone that was creepy without being gratuitous with gore and needless sexual assault. All of my questions were answered. I was left feeling almost happy for the ending. Easily one of the best horror novels I have ever read.

Intercepts was an amazing new horror novel with great visual story telling. The characters all had individually self identified qualities I loved. Amazing book I went and purchased T.J Paynes other 2 novels.

I am honestly surprised with the way things ended in this book. It left me with a sense of satisfaction, not because I'm glad that whatever happened to the characters, happened, but because it's just honestly a good and/ FITTING/ending to the story.Yes, at the beginning it was quite hard to read (a bit boring imo), but one you get to the middle mark with Riley... IT GOT SO GOOD (imo)!!!Very pleased with my read!

After reading the prologue, this book hooked me so much I read all of its 300 pages in a single day, and normally I'd consider myself a slow reader.This story is labeled horror, but don't be mistaken, it is not the kind to give you nightmares. The horror aspect is overall very light, but the story beneath it, with all it's twist and turns, is what shines the most. It's a must read for anyone who likes good books.

This book is unnerving. It’s gross. It’s scary. And it’s pretty damn good!Intercepts tells the story of Joe, a supervisor at a top-secret government facility that performs experimentation on human test subjects. Kept in extreme sensory deprivation, these human guinea pigs are essentially tortured into having outer body experiences which help the government locate and thwart terrorists, war lords and various other criminals.Unfortunately for Joe, one of the “antennas” as the test subjects are called, figures out who Joe is and uses her out of body experience ability to find and terrorize his wife and daughter.It’s been decades since I read a horror novel that truly deserves the classification “horror” as much as Intercepts does. As I am incredibly squeamish about torture and any kind of human experimentation or imprisonment, this book bothered me on a whole other level. Brilliantly written and well-paced, it hooks you from the very first page and keeps walloping you with believable, well-executed twists and turns until the end. For days afterward, I kept peeking around corners in my house half expecting to see “Bishop” standing at the end of the hallway screaming at me. Payne also didn’t give any of his characters truly happy endings so it ends by giving you a hard gut punch which I appreciated.Would I recommend this book? Absolutely yes!!!! If you love horror and a bit of blood and guts, go buy this book right now.

Ein Horrorroman in einem gut beschriebenen Labor-Setting und guter Story, echt toll erzählt. Halb Sci-Fi, halb Horror, ein wirklich tolles Buch. Hat mich ein bisschen an Minority Report erinnert. mit dem Twist, dass die Precogs sich gegen ihre Meister wenden. Nicht alles wird am Ende aufgelöst, aber das ist bei der Geschichte nicht ganz so unbefriedigend wie sonst. Das Buch kann man nur empfehlen!

What an incredible book, a real page turner. The way TJ Payne composes his writing to enhance the suspense is truly masterful and for a debut novel, unheard of.The kind of book that gets in your head and will have you questioning what you see out of the corner of your eye.Highly recommended. I have since read his follow-up books and continue to enjoy his writing.