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Lawless, British Columbia is on edge after a powerful earthquake jolts the region, quickly followed by a string of savage animal attacks. Newly stationed to the area after her predecessor mysteriously disappears, Conservation Officer Christine Moon needs to calm the jangled nerves of the small mountain town.

Awakened from ancient slumber, something stalks the swirling, grey mists that surround Lawless. A beast with a gnawing hunger that grows stronger by the minute -- its only thought, to satisfy its ravenous appetite.

Rampant corruption at the highest level has targeted Christine to be the next mysterious disappearance. Now, she's in a fight for her life while trying to track and contain the creature threatening to decimate the local population.

470 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 28, 2019

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About the author

Katie Berry

12 books118 followers
Katie Berry is a Canadian Author of Thrillers.

Born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario, Katie moved west to British Columbia during a family migration that occurred during the later-half of the 20th century.

A longtime writer and voracious reader, Katie enjoys a variety of creative and recreational activities when she's not absorbed in the written word.

With many years of keyboard experience, Katie is an avid digital musician, involved in many musical theatre and stage productions in the beautiful West Kootenay region of BC over the past several years.

An eye for detail helps Katie capture many magical moments with her camera as she interprets the natural beauty of the world that surrounds her through its lens.

Always looking for something new to advance her artistic experimentation, Katie is an accomplished sketch artist. She specialises in detailed drawings of friends, family and clients, including fur-babies, such as cats, dogs and the odd ferret.

After a lifetime of experience in numerous fields of endeavour, Katie now spends her days, and most nights, doing what she loves, bringing stories alive for people who enjoy a tale where the everyday suddenly becomes something much, much more...

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5 stars
579 (30%)
4 stars
629 (33%)
3 stars
406 (21%)
2 stars
172 (9%)
1 star
93 (4%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews
Profile Image for Carl Bluesy.
194 reviews46 followers
March 21, 2024
This was a fun read. I like reading books that take place in Canada by Canadian authors. It gives you all those small little details that only comes from living in a place firsthand.

There was a lot of environment this book really exploring the town and the residence. It gave the book a unique feel making it to be bigger than just the monster and main cast. The streets they walked are real and the people, even if they had small parts, and were just killed off in one scene, felt like strangers the main characters would have small interactions with.

I do feel this made the book a little bloated, and some things could’ve been cut, but overall it was very enjoyable, and I like that approach the author took. It was easy to see how much the author truly loves writing and the art of writing. They had a lot of unique layers to their prose most of which I enjoyed, but a few didn’t quite land for me. But I appreciate when offers take these chances rather than not have them in the book at all.
Profile Image for Teresa.
1,862 reviews26 followers
June 27, 2020
I wanted to like this book.
Its by a Canadian author, It’s set in BC, and its a creature feature.

Unfortunately the book suffers from bad editing, stupid wording and too much emphasis on Trips beard, and descriptive paragraphs of what people are eating.

Example of stupid wording: “..his prognosticative abilities were still up to snuff”
“..with a huge gulp of his prerequisite, extra large, triple-cream, triple sugar”
coffee. “ a fresh glazed sparkling cruller sat poised for imminent consumption”

“ Manny Oritz swaggered into the Vancouver international airport and scoped the rubes”

“...trailed behind, doing his best sycophantic scurry”

And it goes on, and on.

Then there is the extremely loud stomach growling that happens every time food is mentioned. “Rounds of cheers came from the work crew, almost loud enough to drown out the noise from their stomaches, audibly growling for hamburgers and fries”

And of course a conservation officer who leaves her rifle in an orange tent to try and hide behind it, so the bad guys don’t find her, because its always best to hide behind a florescent tent and leave your weapon behind 🙄

Then suddenly, after being involved with horrifying prehistoric bears, a sabre tooth tiger appears? What? The didn’t even occupy the same geographical areas!

And then.. just in the nick of time, coils of climbing ropes and C2 adjustable crampons show up in the orange tent, even though her gun got crushed inside the tent when a truck size boulder squished it.

Not worth the time.
Profile Image for Lolapaige.
189 reviews
April 1, 2020
This would have been a good read had it been trimmed down some. It seemed that too much of the book revolved around what people were eating and how much.
Profile Image for Peter Fang.
Author 1 book2 followers
January 3, 2020
I sorely enjoyed this novel. This is a 'what-if' novel of what happens if due to geological activities, once thought extinct 'monster' started to appear in an isolated town in CA. The author has a sharp talent in creating imagery details of the story's settings and main characters' backgrounds. I also enjoyed the author's humorous tongue throughout the novel that provided a balance to the tension in the story. The novel also touched upon due to weather warming, the main town was constantly under a heavy, impenetrable fog. This added a mystical tone in the story's arch and provided a great mechanism to hide the main non-human antagonist--the once thought extinct creatures. I find most of the characters are believable (save for maybe one) and enough time was given to each main character for proper development.

There is a small twist at the end, but I won't spoil it for you. Be patient and read this slow-burn monster/survival-esque novel and you will be rewarded in the end.
Profile Image for Jaime.
1,511 reviews2 followers
October 8, 2021
I have always searched for and enjoyed a good monster novel. The key is a vicious monster and interesting characters with sustained terror and suspense. Katie Berry, the author starts off her book with all of these elements. I was hooked in the first 30 pages. The reading takes off at a fast pace with each subsequent chapter. I lost track of how much I read with each sitting.

The 'monster,' itself is menacing and shadowy. The author wisely makes it a ruthless and wily predator opposed by savvy 'hunters.' The human heroes (Chris, Austin, Tripp, Jerry, and Alex) are noble with their issues but remain humane and brave throughout. She also populates the novel with unsavory characters who get their just desserts. The action sections are ripe with descriptions, emotions, and intent. To top it off, she also includes other beasties from another time who add to the feeling of nature gone wild. This was a riveting and voracious read with a significant bite! Pardon the pun.

Overall, this is a well-constricted and fast-paced adventure-action-horror novel. It was a page-turning adventure which dare I say it, reminded me a lot of the classic natural monster classic novel, "Jaws." Ms. Berry should be congratulated and encouraged to write more novels like this. Well done!
336 reviews2 followers
January 17, 2020
We are just an appetizer for this bear

What a great adventure! Loved the characters, the creatures, and the humor of this great story. Everything felt so lifelike. This is one of those books that you don't want to stop reading and pull you in deeper and deeper from page one. I hope more like this are coming from Katie Berry.
3 reviews
December 10, 2019
I enjoyed this book. It was engaging to the very end. The characters were fun to read and with subtlr humor thrown in just added to the book. I look forward to her next release.
Profile Image for Lel.
1,050 reviews27 followers
March 25, 2021
A very unbelievable read, but quite fun. The reason it only got two stars were the characters all seemed to be the same, either too nice and helpful or out right bad villain horrible. It was very two dimensional but had a lot of funny moments in it, i'm not sure if they were meant to be funny, but I have a weird sense of humour.
Profile Image for Madeline Pettet.
4 reviews1 follower
August 19, 2020
I'd been really looking forward to a fun horror romp but I really struggled to enjoy Claw.


SPOILERS BELOW



At a big picture level, this story could be cut in half along with dumping or condensing characters. Many characters honestly were interchangeable and easily forgettable. No character was particularly fleshed out so by the end I was rooting for the bear.

On that note, the characterisation of the bear made me feel sad for it rather than fearful of it. This creature had awoken in a strange new world, was trying to feed its babies but we're supposed to cheer when the protagonists dismember it limb by limb?

At a line level, the excessive use of exclamation marks so everyone is overly exuberant, along with constantly greeting other characters, became exceptionally grating.

Similarly, many elements were constantly repeated in an attempt at characterisation but Trip endlessly blushing is not a defining trait, nor is liking doughnuts.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 7, 2020
Great creature feature

A great creature feature read. You want to keep going and find out what happens next to the characters and villains! A bit of cheese at the very end was unnecessary and was hoping for a bit of a relationship conclusion for my 5 star read. I’ll look for her other books and recommend this one. I couldn’t wait to dig into it whenever I could!
Profile Image for Jerie.
1 review
April 29, 2021
Okay read

The book was very enjoyable. A lot of banter, sometimes childish, between some of the adult characters. But it showed the bonds between them. Great heroes and believable bad guys made it an enjoyable escape. The creature features were an added plus. All in all I'd recommend you read it.
Profile Image for Sarah B.
1,123 reviews27 followers
January 2, 2024
Very Long Creature - Action Story but Slow + Flat

So reading this is just like watching one of those creepy creature action movies. It even has the super lousy human crooks who have their own greedy plans. You know how those movies are. And then you have the heroes - often its someone pushed into the role. In this case its two men. They work for the town in an official way but they are not police or anything. They are supposed to be doing stuff like avalanche control...

But then they find this huge bloody area out in the woods.

And some giant dead beast is found on the road. Someone hit it with their truck. Its in pieces. But what is it? And where did it come from??

Then things get worse. People are missing. Maybe dead. And what are those huge claw marks up on trees??

So here is what I think about it. All in all the book reminded me of one of those creature movies. But I guess I am kind of fussy. I like my creature movies pretty pure so when you put those bad greedy people into the story sometimes I find it a tad annoying. Now in this one it didn't annoy me too much (but I definitely HATED the police chief and the mayor).

I did feel the story was moving rather slow. The characters were constantly eating. And I do mean a LOT of eating. Donuts (it mentions the crumbs in the beard countless times), burgers, fries, mashed potato with gravy, all sorts of stuff. I realize they have to eat but all of these scenes slow down the story. And there are other scenes that slow it down too.

Now there are tons of action scenes in here with the creature. Bloody ones. And at first we don't even know what it is.... But then later we do. These scenes are very descriptive too. Guts and everything.. But they are spaced between these other slow scenes. And these slow scenes were bogging down the story so I found myself checking how close I was to the end. In other words I really was not enjoying it too much.

And the MOOD of some of these characters were getting on my nerves too. Especially Trip. He was just unnaturally happy or something. Practically all of his sentences ended in an exclamation point. It was like he was shouting everything. And I doubt if people talk like that.

I like a character driven story and this is not really that. The viewpoint kept shifting too. I prefer the stories where I can really get into the characters head and this is not that. I didn't feel as if I related to anyone in here either.

I granted the final scene was superb. Very nail biting and high tension. Very much like a movie... BUT.... Through the majority of the entire story there was no suspense or sense of actual danger. So one had all of these many attacks but yet somehow you don't feel any danger. Even if it was obvious that the guy was going to die. I guess because it was some extra "red shirt" where it doesn't matter? But the main characters, who you should be concerned about - that was missing until the very end. So in other words the majority of the story is pretty flat.

I hope that makes sense.
Profile Image for Mark.
232 reviews4 followers
November 21, 2023
"Claw" fits right in with the craggy swamp of horror books I read during the heyday of horror novels, the '70s and '80s. It was a time when things with big teeth showed up and ate the villagers after a little dismemberment. It was like tasting a favorite moldy cheese that was long from the over-pasteurized supermarket aisles. I'll be coming back to Katie Berry in hops of other blood-encrusted gems, just like I keep an eye out for John Halkin, Gregory A. Douglas, and Clive Barker.
Profile Image for John.
531 reviews22 followers
March 31, 2023
This was a decent horror story. Some of the characters were as my son would say, “A little much…”. I felt the lead characters were decent and parts of the dialog was amusing. The concept of the book does place reasonable doubt in the reader’s mind , allowing in the thought .. could this happen? Depends on if you have a vivid imagination or not I suppose. I will read more into this series for I am interested to see where we go from here.
Profile Image for Jerry.
314 reviews34 followers
April 25, 2024
What started out as a good creature feature quickly devolved into a corny and trite mess of a story. The usual liberal tropes mixed in for "bad" measure somewhere in the middle. One and done with this series for me.
Profile Image for Damien Casey.
Author 19 books75 followers
January 13, 2022
Genuinely fun read. Felt like a good mix of Michael Chichton and a Hunter Shea creature novel.
Profile Image for Michelle.
564 reviews42 followers
July 21, 2022
What a hot mess this book turned out to be. The premise sounded really good, but the writing was so god awful. Here are a few examples:

1. Every cliché under the sun was mentioned in this book. Was it on purpose? I hope not. You have the adult drunken exfrat boys weekend in the mountains complete with the ex -frat boy drunken dialogue.

2. We have characters that you couldn't tell apart because they were 2 dimensional and easily forgettable except for the female conservation officer. But even she was written like it was her first day on the job after failing conservation school 6 times and the only way she passed was because they wanted to get rid of her.

3. There was so much dialogue repetition and un-needed descriptions of shit that I literally yelled STFU several times while listening to this. Every sentence out of this one chracter's mouth was either.."Ok Boss" "You got it boss" "Right Boss." I counted 66 times in one scene where this was said. Than we have the scene with the older lady who kept calling the officer "dearie" every time she spoke. WTF talks like this all the time?

4. Over description on things that did not matter. Several times I yelled, just get on with the story.

5. The narrator was awful. He reminded me of the kid in school that has to read out loud in class and does so with no emotion what so ever.

Was there anything good? A few witty parts that made me laugh, but not enough to make me want to continue with the story. I had to give up after 4 hrs into the audio.
Profile Image for Mkittysamom.
1,467 reviews52 followers
December 28, 2020
#Popsugar2020 A book from Country titled with “C” Canada

Very Detailed and Lifelike and I love the Monster Suspense

This was a good adventure, with some pretty cool people in it. I love Chris!! She is an awesome kick butt Conservationist! I wonder now if that it what they actually do? I know the author mentions that some parts of the story are true, I mean we haven’t found a cave full of scary predators yet to my knowledge, but all the rest of the story seems reasonable to me. I’m so glad I got to read this Canadian Thriller! Also I have to say that her choice of wording was interesting and very readable without being too simple. She added Canadian colloquialisms but didn’t fall into the “yoouper” or “hoser” or “northern speak in her dialouge and I was grateful for that!
Profile Image for Jacques Hollands.
201 reviews4 followers
April 22, 2021
Scribd recommended this book to me about six months ago. Although the book looked interesting, I was hesitant as the author was unknown to me.

When it popped up in my recommendations again, I decided to give it a try. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. The story moved along at a pleasant pace and the characters were very relatable. The scenes were described excellently and I could feel the cold of the ice and snow, even while reading this in a pretty warm South Africa. The story may be a bit gory for some, but I enjoyed the balance between action, suspense and gore. I am a sucker for a good old monster story and Claw was very believable. I sincerely hope Katie Berry has several books lined up to be released shortly. Alex Knox also narrated brilliantly.
Profile Image for Betty.
41 reviews
February 20, 2020
Impressed the hell out of me!!

The five stars I gave this book weren't enough; I wish I could give it six or seven! The writing was well done and very coherent, the writer is obviously Canadian from the "tone" of her writing but that was no problem at all. Her characters alternated between lovable and hateful, her "monsters" were incredibly scary, and I read this all in one day (and night) ((very sleepy today, but the book was well worth it 😊)). This book has everything I love most in a "scary" story, and presents it well to boot!
Profile Image for Lesley Henry.
165 reviews8 followers
February 29, 2020
Absolute fascinating read

I wasn't sure what to expect when I started this book but I was quickly drawn in as the story began. Earthquakes seem to have allowed creatures from thousands of years ago egress into a small isolated Canadian town where city officials & a greedy casino owner are in cahoots over a gold find that makes the gold rush of 49 in California look like chump change. They are so blinded by their golden secret that they are willing to put the lives of the townspeople at risk. It is a rollercoaster ride of adventure from one chapter to the next.
Profile Image for Mark Woods.
Author 15 books26 followers
December 10, 2019
Failed to impress

Picked this up on KU because I liked the cover and thought the synopsis sounded interesting, but unfortunately this book failed to grip me and right from early on, I found my interest waning.
Wanted to like it, but honestly the story did little to make me want to keep reading.
Sorry.
4 reviews
July 17, 2020
Detail is superb

It's evident Ms. Berry does her research. I loved her story telling ...it was gory in some places but it didn't dominate the book (thank goodness). I enjoyed getting to know the characters and I anxiously await her sequels.
Profile Image for Craig.
35 reviews
September 11, 2020
I really liked this book. I am a big fan of the horror genre and creatures killing people. I am looking forward to her other books. One of my favorites.
Profile Image for Paul Preston.
1,320 reviews
February 10, 2021
Sometimes you need, just NEED, an absolutely fierce beast. A monster that is huge, with an insatiable hunger and claws that are half a meter long. Skull crushing jaws included.
Profile Image for DA.
Author 2 books112 followers
July 3, 2021
I only give this book 4 stars due to how the author wrote the dialogue. Way too many exclamation marks made the characters seem juvenile and way too cheery in situations that were anything but.

Other than that this was a chilling tale of a small Canadian town being terrorized by prehistoric predators that I quite enjoyed.
Profile Image for Alouise Lynch.
44 reviews5 followers
October 26, 2023
Just what I needed, a well written novel with just enough intrigue, suspense and a sprinkle of 'monsters' to keep it interesting. Will definitely read the rest of Ms Berry's books in the future.
Profile Image for Cheryl.
2,371 reviews61 followers
November 13, 2020
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. - Mahatma Ghandi

I enjoyed most of this first book in the CLAW series, after the prequel novella I read previously CLAW: EMERGENCE - CALEB CANTRILL.

I actually rated it 3 1/2 stars but rounded it up to 4 because I truly do enjoy "creature feature" type horror books.

This book takes place in modern times in a small mountain town in the Kootenay region of British Columbia. The three main characters are a newly arrived female Conservation Officer and two male city road and maintenance/animal control employees.

An earthquake hits the region and, all of a sudden, extinct deadly animals are on the prowl in the area. A lot of the action originates in a newly discovered cave near a glacier in the mountains near town.

I liked the main characters. They interacted well together with some humor thrown in. I do think the book was overly long with some extraneous details thrown in but I still enjoyed it.

The bad guys were awful people. The action was bloody and intense at times.

All in all, I enjoyed this horror tale.
Profile Image for Adrienne Ryans.
258 reviews8 followers
March 5, 2022
Loved this book and felt some sense of fear of what we really do not know what can happen when glacier’s unfreeze
Displaying 1 - 30 of 251 reviews

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