The Patient, by Jasper DeWitt ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Horror, Mental Health, Supernatural Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: August 4th, 2020

224 Pages

Synopsis: The Silent Patient by way of Stephen King: Parker, a young, overconfident psychiatrist new to his job at a mental asylum, miscalculates catastrophically when he undertakes curing a mysterious and profoundly dangerous patient.

In a series of online posts, Parker H., a young psychiatrist, chronicles the harrowing account of his time working at a dreary mental hospital in New England. Through this internet message board, Parker hopes to communicate with the world his effort to cure one bewildering patient.

We learn, as Parker did on his first day at the hospital, of the facility’s most difficult, profoundly dangerous case—a forty-year-old man who was originally admitted to the hospital at age six. This patient has no known diagnosis. Every person who has attempted to treat him has been driven to madness or suicide.

Desperate and fearful, the hospital’s directors keep him strictly confined and allow minimal contact with staff for their own safety, convinced that releasing him would unleash catastrophe on the outside world. Parker, brilliant and overconfident, takes it upon himself to discover what ails this mystery patient and finally cure him. But from his first encounter with the patient, things spiral out of control, and, facing a possibility beyond his wildest imaginings, Parker is forced to question everything he thought he knew.

Fans of Sarah Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes, and Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World, wil be riveted by Jasper DeWitt’s astonishing debut.

If you are looking for a quick escape and you’re a fan of creepy horror, you should definitely check out The Patient when it’s released in August. It’s a fast-paced story that begins as a psychological horror tale before taking a turn to the supernatural. Parker’s online posts relating his experiences with the mysterious patient known as Joe are captivating and for the most part, keep you guessing as to what is really going on with him. The main reason I marked this down a point is because although Joe’s childhood is a big part of this story, when Parker finally speaks with his mother in the final third of the book, I was still left with questions which left me somewhat frustrated. I also think both the story and its characters would have benefited if the book were slightly longer. That said, I was entertained and easily finished this in a couple of hours. The Patient is Jasper DeWitt’s debut novel and I’ll definitely be looking out for future books by him.

Home Before Dark, by Riley Sager ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and Dutton Books for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: June 30th, 2020

384 Pages

Synopsis: In the latest thriller from New York Times bestseller Riley Sager, a woman returns to the house made famous by her father’s bestselling horror memoir. Is the house really haunted by evil forces as her father claimed? Or are there more earthbound—and dangerous—secrets hidden within its walls?

What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits, became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes, and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous by Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint of a history filled with dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

Alternating between Maggie’s uneasy homecoming and chapters from her father’s book, Home Before Dark is the story of a house with long-buried secrets and a woman’s quest to uncover them—even if the truth is far more terrifying than any haunting.

The first book I read by Riley Sager was Final Girls (2017), and with each book he writes he just keeps upping his game. Home Before Dark kept me up until the wee hours of the morning, had me nervously checking my pantry and linen closet as I walked by them, and has quite possibly ruined one of my favorite songs, Sixteen Going on Seventeen from The Sound of Music for me for life!

There are two stories at play here. The first takes place twenty-five years ago and is told through the book House of Horrors, by Ewan Holt, which is an account of the family’s twenty-two day ordeal in Baneberry Hall. The second takes place during the present day, and follows now thirty-year-old Maggie as she desperately tries to uncover the truth of what happened all those years before.

Maggie is somewhat aloof and remote, but given what her life has been like, who can blame her. She’s had Baneberry Hall following her around for most of her life, and to top things off she has no memories of her time there, and she’s positive her parents have lied to her and everyone else about what happened. It’s made her reluctant to trust anyone, yet I wound up quite liking her. She does have a compassionate side, and her determination to discover the truth, even when it upends her entire world, is something to be admired. I also liked Ewan, and while I disagree with some of his decisions, I understand how desperate he is to save his family. The secondary characters play small yet pivotal parts, and a couple of them have some quite interesting backstories that tie into Baneberry Hall.

The house itself almost becomes a character in its own right thanks to Sanger’s vivid details. I have a picture in my mind of not only what Baneberry Hall looks like, but what the atmosphere feels like after being the site of so many tragedies. There is more than one mystery that needs to be solved, and the path to the answers is a twisty one indeed. I thought by the midway point that I pretty much had everything figured out, only to be proved wrong multiple times. It drove me nuts, in the best kind of way!

Home Before Dark is a pulse-pounding, suspenseful tale of horror and mystery that will leave you questioning everything. It doesn’t have a lot of blood and gore in it, but this proves that you don’t always need those graphic elements to instill true terror. One word of caution: if you’re not a fan of snakes, they’re in here in all their creepy, slithery glory. For readers already familiar with Riley Sager, this is another knockout from him. For those who haven’t read his books, I guarantee that if you try this, you’ll immediately want to scoop up his others.

 

The Loop, by Jeremy Robert Johnson ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Bullying, Diversity, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: September 29th, 2020

320 Pages

Synopsis: Stranger Things meets World War Z in this heart-racing conspiracy thriller as a lonely young woman teams up with a group of fellow outcasts to survive the night in a town overcome by a science experiment gone wrong.

Turner Falls is a small tourist town, nestled in the hills of western Oregon, the kind of town you escape to for vacation. When an inexplicable outbreak rapidly develops, this idyllic town becomes the epicenter of an epidemic of violence as the teenage children of several executives from the local biotech firm become ill and aggressively murderous. Suddenly the town is on edge, and Lucy and her friends must do everything it takes just to fight through the night.

The Loop isn’t simply a Stranger Things/World War Z knockoff. No. Jeremy Robert Johnson has taken the whole teen misfits and zombie tropes, and spun it into something completely unique. This upcoming sci-fi/horror throws in: biological warfare, government overreach, conspiracies, social stigmas, greed and hubris, depraved indifference, aliens… You name it, it’s in here. But instead of devolving into a mess like many stories with a multitude of ingredients, Johnson skillfully blends everything into a compelling narrative that will immediately draw you in from the very first page.

Lucy is at turns vulnerable, yet badass, and readers will root for her. While her backstory is tragic, she refuses to let it define her. Bucket and Brewer as her sidekicks, provide a bit of intermittent comic relief which is needed because the events that unfold mainly over one night are utterly brutal and difficult to read at times.

While the first 25% of the book is spent more on setting up the characters and their backgrounds, by no means is it boring. Thanks to the interesting personalities and snappy dialogue, this serves as a chance to connect with them before all hell breaks loose. The pace quickly kicks into a non-stop, pulse-pounding, frenetic sequence of events that makes it nearly impossible to put this down. I devoured this in just over two hours! The ending is no happily-ever-after, but it’s the only rational outcome.

The Loop is not going to be for everyone. It’s filled with graphic violence and a few scenes had me wincing. And not all the questions raised are answered. Rather, the author leaves a few things up to the reader’s imagination. Because of the savagely gory nature of this tale, I would not recommend this to anyone under the age of sixteen. Otherwise, if you’re a fan of hardcore sci-fi horror, like Stephen King’s The Cell, and things like the Alien movies don’t faze you, I HIGHLY recommend The Loop. Just don’t expect to be able to sleep immediately after you finish!

 

Meg: Generations (Meg #6), by Steve Alten ~ 2.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Thriller

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: July 21, 2020

384 Pages

Synopsis: Dubai: An impossibility is being taken to the Middle East. The transport vessel Tonga is carrying a lioplerodon to the City of Gold. But while investors gawk at the prehistoric creature, an even more dangerous creature is beginning to stir.

The megalodon shark that Jonas Taylor worked so hard to capture is coming out of its drug-induced stupor and refuses to be contained. Now both ancient creatures, older than mankind itself, are loose in the waters of the Arabian Sea, and the region will never be the same.

I have been a fan of Alten’s Meg series since it debuted in 1997. For sheer popcorn pleasure, these books are adrenaline-filled insanity, so it pains me to say this 6th adventure with Taylor & Co. flounders badly. There are just way too many characters, both prehistoric and bipedal. For fanged, people-eating monsters in addition to the Megs, there are: Pliosaurs, Titanoboa, Pleseosaurs, Mosasaurs, among others. When you have a series about the re-emergence of Megalodons, one of the largest and nastiest aquatic creatures who ever lived (they make great white sharks look cute and cuddly), it’s the stuff of nightmares. But when you throw in all these other deep sea monsters, well, the bloody mayhem that follows just gets redundant after awhile.

In addition to the monsters, there are numerous groups from across the world that all want a piece of the action. And if that isn’t enough, there’s the family of a man killed by a Meg, who are determined to hunt down and kill all the Meg pups in revenge. Somewhere in this murky mess are the Taylors, but except for Jonas’s son David, for the most part they’re sidelined by Terri’s battle with cancer and Parkinson’s. There are so many storylines that not only does this do a disservice to the characters, but it makes it almost impossible to follow what’s happening. And to make matters worse there’s a confusing time jump that came out of nowhere and left me thoroughly confused.

The only saving grace is that the final quarter of the book manages to pull itself together and is much more entertaining. Overall though, Generations left me longing for the previous books in which the Taylors and Megs were worthy adversaries, and you were never quite sure who was going to win. Given the cliffhanger ending, I’m fairly certain there will be a seventh book and if this is the case, I hope Alten returns to the formula which served him so well: Taylors vs. Megs. Although this latest book was a disappointment, I still highly recommend the series if you love scary monsters with loads of blood and gore.

 

 

 

The Blade Between, by Sam J. Miller ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Homophobia, Horror

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: December 1st, 2020

384 Pages

Synopsis: Ronan Szepessy promised himself he’d never return to Hudson. The sleepy upstate town was no place for a gay photographer. But his father is ill and New York City’s distractions have become too much for him. He hopes that a quick visit will help him recharge.

Ronan reconnects with two friends from high school: Dom, his first love, and Dom’s wife Attalah. The three former misfits mourn what their town has become—overrun by gentrifiers and corporate interests. With friends and neighbors getting evicted en masse, and a mayoral election coming up, Ronan and Attalah craft a plan to rattle the newcomers and expose their true motives. But in doing so, they unleash something far more mysterious and uncontainable.

Hudson has a rich, proud history and, it turns out, the real estate developers aren’t the only forces threatening its well-being: the spirits undergirding this once-thriving industrial city are enraged. Ronan’s hijinks have overlapped with a bubbling up of hate and violence among friends and neighbors, and everything is spiraling out of control. Ronan must summon the very best of himself to shed his own demons and save the city he once loathed.

As someone who’s not overly fond of the small town I was born and lived in until a couple of years ago, the premise of The Blade Between, immediately piqued my interest. And while I hadn’t read any of Sam Miller’s previous books, he’s been on my radar since his Nebula Award nominated Blackfish City came out in 2018. After finishing this in two days, I can honestly say that this gave me a completely unique reading experience unlike any other.

Ronan, a forty-year-old recovering crystal-meth addict, is planning on getting revenge on the people taking over his town by setting up a fictitious online persona, looking for blackmail material, and pining after a lost love who is now married to a woman. What could possibly go wrong! It has to be said that while Ronan is a brilliant photographer, emotionally, he’s a hot mess. Yet, he’s also sweet, and surprisingly funny and likable at the same time. He’s quite complicated, which is my favorite type of character.

The story itself is equally complex, and beautifully explores the good, the bad, and the downright ugliness, of revisiting your past, while blending in intriguing supernatural elements. It’s incredibly fast-paced and I was glued from the first page and couldn’t tear myself away until I had finished it during the wee hours of the morning. One minor spoiler: It has whales!

Going home is something most of us will have to deal with at some point in our adult lives. For some it will be a positive experience filled with happy nostalgia, for others, a nightmarish revisiting of traumatic memories that have long simmered under the surface. The Blade Between will have widespread appeal for its thoughtful treatment of what can be an emotional time of life. As you can guess, I absolutely LOVED it and it’s no doubt going on my list of top reads of 2020. This is the first book I’ve read by Sam J. Miller, and it’s left me determined to read his others. I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone who’s looking for a completely unique tale with flawed yet endearing characters.

 

Ghostland, by Duncan Ralston ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Science Fiction, Thriller

Thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op for providing an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

414 Pages

Synopsis: After a near death experience caused by the park’s star haunted attraction, Ben has come to Ghostland seeking to reconnect with his former best friend Lilian, whose post-traumatic stress won’t let her live life to the fullest. She’s come at the insistence of her therapist, Dr. Allison Wexler, who tags along out of professional curiosity, eager to study the new tech’s psychological effect on the user.

But when a computer virus sets the ghosts free and the park goes into lockdown, the trio find themselves trapped in an endless nightmare.

With time running short and the dead quickly outnumbering the living, the survivors must tap into their knowledge of horror and video games to escape…or become Ghostland’s newest exhibits.

Ghostland is a wild and crazy thrill ride that’s most definitely not for the faint of heart! This is no Disney’s Haunted Mansion. No, these ghost commit bloody, gory mayhem with gleeful abandonment, and no one is safe from them, not even infants and children.

The opening scene is one of the best ones I’ve read in a long time. A creepy house moving slowly through the streets of a small town, at first glance, seemingly on its own. That we discover that it’s on wheels and being taken to a planned haunted theme park, is small comfort. The story then picks up a few years later with now eighteen-year-old Ben and Lil once close friends, now worlds apart because of Ben’s close brush with death. They both have their reasons for visiting Ghostland and while they begin the day as near strangers, they are soon united in their determination to make it out of the park alive.

I loved Ben immediately, but it took me awhile to warm up to Lil. I found her treatment of Ben puzzling and abhorrent, but as more is revealed about his near death, I understood her more and eventually wound up emphasizing with her. The rest of the characters are fairly one-dimensional, but this doesn’t really detract from the story that much. It’s Ben and Lil that you become invested in and root for, the others are mostly just fodder for the murderous ghosts.

The world building with its mix of technology and the paranormal is visually stunning and sucked me right into the terrifying theme park. The ebook is cleverly interactive which further fleshes out Ralston’s imaginative world. The pacing is insanely fast and despite this being over 400 pages long, I easily finished it in two sittings.

At the end of the book the author talks about what inspired him to write Ghostland, and how this is just the beginning, which pleases me immensely because the ending has me wanting more. While the two main protagonists are teens, this is definitely not a YA novel, and Ghostland, with all its blood and gore isn’t going to be for everyone. But for horror fans who don’t mind decapitations and loss of body parts, disembowelments, and other assorted disgusting chaos, you should definitely give this a try. I cannot wait to see where Duncan Ralston takes his creation next!

 

Out of Body, by Jeffrey Ford ~ 3.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror, Mystery

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: May 26th, 2020

176 Pages

Synopsis: A small-town librarian witnesses a murder at his local deli and what had been routine sleep paralysis transforms into something far more disturbing. The trauma of holding a dying girl in his arms drives him out of his own body. The town he knows so well is suddenly revealed to him from a whole new perspective. Secrets are everywhere and demons fester behind closed doors.

Worst of all, he discovers a serial killer who has been preying on the area for over a century, one capable of traveling with him through his dreams.

I requested Out of Body on NetGalley because a librarian starring in a horror story was irresistible to me. While it was a quick read, I wound up wanting more from the characters and the story though. To be honest, this is exactly the reason why I don’t read more novellas, because more often then not I’m disappointed in the overall lack of development. In this case, I liked the main character, but thought he needed more oomph. I loved the small town setting, and its residents. I thought the evil hiding in their midst quite intriguing, and the alternate world was well written. I just feel that with a full-length story, so much more could have been added to this. However, I did like Jeffrey Ford’s writing style, so I’ll be looking for more of his stories.

Mayhem, by Estelle Laure ~ 3.0 Stars

Tags

1980s, Domestic Abuse, Horror, Mystery, Substance Abuse, Suspense, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: July 14th, 2020

304 Pages

Synopsis: It’s 1987 and unfortunately it’s not all Madonna and cherry lip balm. Mayhem Brayburn has always known there was something off about her and her mother, Roxy. Maybe it has to do with Roxy’s constant physical pain, or Mayhem’s own irresistible pull to water. Either way, she knows they aren’t like everyone else. But when May’s stepfather finally goes too far, Roxy and Mayhem flee to Santa Maria, California, the coastal beach town that holds the answers to all of Mayhem’s questions about who her mother is, her estranged family, and the mysteries of her own self. There, she meets the kids who live with her aunt and, it opens the door to the magic that runs through the female lineage of her family, the very magic Mayhem is next in line to inherit, and which will change her life for good. But when she gets wrapped up in the search for the man who has been kidnapping girls from the beach, her life takes another dangerous turn and she is forced to face the price of vigilante justice and to ask herself whether revenge is worth the cost.

From the acclaimed author of This Raging Light and But Then I Came Back, Estelle Laure offers a riveting and complex story with magical elements about a family of women contending with what appears to be an irreversible destiny, taking control and saying when enough is enough.

The premise for Mayhem checked all my boxes. It’s set in 1987 (the eighties is my favorite decade), and it’s described as a combination of The Craft, and Lost Boys. As soon as I read that, I just knew I had to get my greedy little fingers on it. As I made my way through the first half of the book though, I grew increasingly uncomfortable with how much it directly lifts from The Lost Boys, without adding anything new. I mean, the Frog brothers, and Sax Man, are included. Even grandpa’s quote: “One thing living in Santa Carla I never could stomach, all the damn vampires” makes its way in, except the setting is changed to Santa Maria. The cave’s description sounds exactly like the vampire’s nest in the movie, and the characters start out eerily similar. But after I reached the halfway point, the story seemed to find a little of its own footing. I wound up liking the story behind the Brayburn legacy, and the characters grew on me. I particularly like the way the mother-daughter relationship progresses, as Roxy begins to recover, Mayhem is able to get out of the unhealthy caretaker role she’s trapped in. In the end I’ve settled on a neutral rating of 3 stars. I’m almost positive there’s going to be a sequel, so I’m curious as to where Laure takes this.

Inside, by D.M. Siciliano ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Horror

Thanks to NetGalley and Parliament House Press for providing an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

354 Pages

Synopsis: 1987 “Does it burn in the dark?”

Reid is a bully, but he’s still Alex’s best friend.

When Reid pushes Alex and their friends into invading a historically haunted Massachusetts house, Alex knows it’s a terrible idea, but he indulges his friend. What could go wrong?

Inside, a mysterious Shadow looms in the darkness. The door to the house vanishes, leaving them trapped. The group flees through the tiny, one-roomed house that defies logic, constantly shifting, presenting them with new doors, hallways, and rooms that seem to be plucked from their memories and fears. One by one, the Shadow hunts them, intent on burning them all from within.

Is there any way to escape? Or will they be burned from the inside out?

I was initially attracted to Inside because of the comparisons to The Blair Witch Project and Stranger Things, and while yes, there a few similarities, for the most part this story stands strongly on its own merits. Amidst the horror of what’s happening in the house the friends and their interactions with one another also help drive the story. Reid is especially fascinating and winds up being much more sympathetic as his backstory is revealed. I was initially afraid that at 354 pages, the whole wandering around the house looking for an escape was going to get old, but it doesn’t. The pace remains steady and I easily polished this off in two sittings. I do warn you though, what happens to these kids is just awful, and there is no happy ending. They all pay a very high price for their lack of common sense. There are a couple of elements in regards to the entity haunting the house that I was left me a little confused, but overall I quite enjoyed Inside and highly recommend it to horror fans who are looking for something off the beaten path.

Eight Will Fall, by Sarah Harian ~ 4.5 Stars

Tags

Dark Fantasy, Horror, LGBTQ, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, YA Fiction

Thanks to Edelweiss and Henry Holt for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

352 Pages

Synopsis: In a land where magic is outlawed, eight criminals led by seventeen-year-old Larkin, are sent on a mission to kill an ancient evil that plagues their kingdom. Descending into an underground realm filled with unspeakable horrors, Larkin and her party must use their forbidden magic to survive what lies in wait, teeth sharp and jaws deadly.

As she fights for her life, Larkin finds a light in Amias, a fellow outlaw with a notorious past. Soon Larkin and Amias realize their fates are entwined. The eight of them were chosen for a reason.

But as the dangers multiply and her band of felons are picked off one by one, Larkin must confront a terrible truth: they were never meant to return.

I need to start by saying Eight Will Fall will not be to everyone’s taste. To say that it’s dark is putting it mildly. I consider myself pretty hardened against blood and gore, but some of the scenes here had me cringing. Without giving way too many spoilers, let me just say that several instances of flaying are involved. Blech! Just thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies! That said, the goriness isn’t gratuitous and it’s all part of the story. Which leads me to the phenomenal world building which is one of the most creative and original I’ve come across in recent memory. While the idea of “magic users” being ostracized by their society isn’t new, the entire magic system involving empaths isn’t something I’ve seen before. And, as Larkin and her team make their way deeper into the underground realm, I felt this growing sense of claustrophobia and outright dread that went beyond the monsters they encountered. Eek! Just thinking about it as I write this review is sending chills up my spine, and I read this book a week ago!

Larkin and her team are the type of flawed characters that I love. They start off perhaps not making the best decisions, but as the dangers they face increase, so does their friendship and trust among one another. Unfortunately, this makes it even more heartbreaking when some of them die. The romance between Larkin and Amias isn’t a major part of the story, but it was sweet and added to my constant state of anxiety as the author made it clear almost from the beginning that no one was safe.

The story itself grabbed me immediately and never let go. It’s action-packed and the fast pace is aided by a few surprising twists. I did think that although the bittersweet ending wrapped everything up nicely, it felt a little rushed. I read somewhere that this was originally planned as a duology before being scaled back to a standalone, so perhaps that explains why.

Overall, Eight Will Fall is a near perfect hybrid of dark fantasy and horror. Because of the more gory scenes I discussed earlier, I do not recommend this to anyone younger than sixteen. Otherwise, for those who like these two genres and have strong stomachs, I encourage you to try this. I guarantee it will be a memorable read.