30. The Whisper King by Wil Radcliffe

My name is David Kinder. And this is my story... every goddamn bloodstained word of it.

About 25 years ago when I was six my parents died in a car crash. I was

bounced around a few state homes until they finally settled me at Meripitt

Hill, an orphanage just outside of Lansing, Michigan. It was there that the

shadows started visiting me. Not normal shadows. These shadows moved on

their own accord, and whispered strange, alien things to me. Scared the piss

out of me.

While not my usual tipple of fiction to indulge in, the opening lines of The Whisper King drew me straight in. The language and dark fantasy elements it presents threw me straight back to my days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Sin City.