Book Review: All Good People Here

 

Rating: 5/5!

From Goodreads: In the propulsive debut novel from the host of the #1 true crime podcast "Crime Junkie," a journalist uncovers her hometown’s dark secrets when she becomes obsessed with the unsolved murder of her childhood neighbor—and the disappearance of another girl twenty years later.

Everyone from Wakarusa, Indiana, remembers the case of January Jacobs, who was found dead in a ditch hours after her family awoke to find her gone. Margot Davies was six at the time, the same age as January—and they were next-door neighbors. In the twenty years since, Margot has grown up, moved away, and become a big-city journalist, but she’s always been haunted by the fear that it could’ve been her. And the worst part is, January’s killer has never been brought to justice.

When Margot returns home to help care for her sick uncle, it feels like walking into a time capsule. Wakarusa is exactly how she remembered: genial, stifled, secretive. Then news breaks about five-year-old Natalie Clark from the next town over, who’s gone missing under eerily similar circumstances. With all the old feelings rushing back, Margot vows to find Natalie and solve January’s murder once and for all.

But the police, the family, the townspeople—they all seem to be hiding something. And the deeper Margot digs into Natalie’s disappearance, the more resistance she encounters, and the colder January’s case feels. Could the killer still be out there? Could it be the same person who kidnapped Natalie? And what will it cost to finally discover what truly happened that night?

This review is spoiler free.

I've been a long time listener and lover of the podcast Crime Junkie, and when I saw Ashley Flowers had a thriller coming out, of course I had to immediately request it on Netgalley.  I honestly couldn't believe it when I got approved, and am so honored to have gotten a chance to read this!  

If you are at all interested in the world of true crime, no doubt you've heard the case of JonBenet Ramsey - one of the most famous unsolved murders of the last few decades.  All Good People Here echoes the case closely, weaving an incredibly atmospheric and twisty tale of what might have happened in a similar situation.  

I truly enjoyed this book, and cannot wait for more by Ashley Flowers!  She is an expert storyteller, and All Good People Here is no exception!  

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

Book Review: Sundial

 

Rating: 5/5

From Goodreads: Sundial is a new, twisty psychological horror novel from Catriona Ward, internationally bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street.

You can't escape what's in your blood...

All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind.

She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice.

Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie fears that only one of them will leave Sundial alive…

The mother and daughter embark on a dark, desert journey to the past in the hopes of redeeming their future.

This Review is spoiler free.

WOW.  Just.  Wow.  This is the first book in a long time that gave me literal GOOSEBUMPS.  Atmospheric, brilliantly plotted, super fast pacing, descriptions that leave *just enough* to the imagination to be truly terrifying - this was amazing.  

Rob, a fourth grade teacher and mother of two, is forced to revisit the past she tried so hard to run from when her eldest daughter, Callie, starts showing disturbing behavior.  Hoping a change of scenery will help, Rob brings Callie back to Sundial, the house in the Mojave Desert where Rob and her sister Jack grew up together.  However, Rob is acting strange, and starts to tell Callie secrets she isn't sure she wants to hear.  Secrets that make her begin to wonder whether both of them will leave alive.

I truly don't want to elaborate too much on anything about the plot as it's just such a whirlwind experience and I think it's best to go in without too much knowledge, but if you're looking for a very different type of psychological horror, this is the book to pick up.  I can't wait to read Catriona Ward's other book, and honestly want to go back to the beginning and reread this one as I truly was blindsided by all the twists and turns!  

~ Charlotte

Book Review: Things We Do In The Dark

 

Rating: 4/5

From Goodreads: When Paris Peralta is arrested in her own bathroom—covered in blood, holding a straight razor, her celebrity husband dead in the bathtub behind her—she knows she'll be charged with murder. But as bad as this looks, it's not what worries her the most. With the unwanted media attention now surrounding her, it's only a matter of time before someone from her long hidden past recognizes her and destroys the new life she's worked so hard to build, along with any chance of a future.

Twenty-five years earlier, Ruby Reyes, known as the Ice Queen, was convicted of a similar murder in a trial that riveted Canada in the early nineties. Reyes knows who Paris really is, and when she's unexpectedly released from prison, she threatens to expose all of Paris's secrets. Left with no other choice, Paris must finally confront the dark past she escaped, once and for all.

Because the only thing worse than a murder charge are two murder charges.

Things We Do in the Dark is a brilliant new thriller from Jennifer Hillier, the award-winning author of the breakout novels Little Secrets and Jar of Hearts. Paris Peralta is suspected of killing her celebrity husband, and her long-hidden past now threatens to destroy her future.

This review is spoiler free.

When Paris Peralta is found and then arrested in her bathroom, covered in her husband's blood and holding one of his straight razors while he lies dead in the tub, she knows that the trial will bring unwanted attention.  Media attention is the last thing Paris wants, because while she didn't murder her husband, she has plenty of other secrets she doesn't want to come to the surface.

Shockingly dark, twisty, and told through several different perspectives and timelines, Things We Do in the Dark is a fantastic slow burn thriller.  While the opening is slow, and I guessed a few of the twists before they were revealed, Jennifer Hillier has such a captivating writing style that it was impossible not to love this book.  

Despite this being a thriller about a murder, I truly didn't go into this book expecting it to be as dark and disturbing as it was.  Please note that this book contains graphic descriptions of child abuse and sexual assault, and if those are especially triggering for you, you may want to sit this one out.  While it absolutely turned my stomach to read many of these passages, Jennifer Hillier truly brought sensitivity to these absolutely horrific scenes, and they are handled well.  

Looking forward to reading more by Jennifer Hillier - I get why everyone keeps recommending her books!

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

Book Review: Clown in a Cornfield 2: Frendo Lives

 

Rating: 5/5

From Goodreads: After barely making it out of the Kettle Springs cornfields alive, Quinn’s first year of college back in Philadelphia should be safe and comparatively easy. All Quinn wants is to forget what happened and be normal again. But instead, Quinn finds that her past won’t leave her alone when she becomes the focus of a host of online conspiracy theories that claim to prove that the Kettle Springs Massacre never happened. It’s a deranged but relentless fantasy, and there’s nothing Quinn can do to get people to hear the truth — not even on her own campus or in her own dorm room.

So when a murderous clown attacks Quinn at a frat party while another goes after her father in Kettle Springs at the same time, Quinn realizes that that the facts alone are never going to save her. Her only option is to go back home, back into the cornfields, back to where the nightmare began, to set the record straight the only way she knows how. Because when the truth gets lost in the lies, that’s when real people start to die.

It’s an all-new horror classic about what happens when the truth is the last thing we want to believe, the sequel to the 2020 Bram Stoker Award winner.

Spoiler Warning!  This review contains spoilers for the previous book in this series, Clown in a Cornfield, but does not contain spoilers for this installment!  

After the harrowing events of Clown in a Cornfield, Quinn Maybrook is off at college, trying to put the massacre behind her.  Cole and Rust are still in Kettle Springs, but take a road trip to visit Quinn.  But while all three of them are attending a dorm party, a man in a clown mask attacks.  At the same time back in Kettle Springs, Quinn's father - now Mayor Maybrook - is also attacked by a clown.

Adam Cesare nailed it with this one.  I found myself simultaneously wanting to turn the pages as fast as possible so I could find out what happened next, as well as desperately wanting to slow down so it wouldn't ever end.  Weaving together chilling current events (lots of creepy 4chan-y, InfoWars-y conspiracy fake news-ers) with classic slasher horror, Clown in a Cornfield 2 is wonderful.  Crossing fingers this won't be the last installment in the "Clown" saga, as these are just so, so fun to read!  

*I received an ARC from Adam Cesare and Harperteen in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

~ Charlotte

Book Review: Mary

 

Rating: 5/5

From Goodreads: Nat Cassidy’s highly commercial, debut horror novel Mary: An Awakening of Terror, blends Midsommar with elements of American Psycho and a pinch of I'll Be Gone in the Dark.

Mary is a quiet, middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself.

But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things.

Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown, hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. Instead, visions of terrifying, mutilated specters overwhelm her with increasing regularity and she begins auto-writing strange thoughts and phrases. Mary discovers that these experiences are echoes of an infamous serial killer.

Then the killings begin again.

Mary’s definitely going to find herself.

This review is Spoiler Free!

In Nat Cassidy's author's note, he begins by describing how as a child, he loved to look at the covers of horror movies to sort of "test" his own limits, (side note, I thought I was the only one who did this, this was literally my favorite thing ever to do as a kid), when he came across the cover of Stephen King's Carrie.  The blood-drenched Carrie White haunted him, and he confessed to his own mother that he was scared.  His mother explained the story of Carrie in a way that humanized her as a sad, bullied girl.  And that story stuck with him.

Mary, a middle aged, peri-menopausal woman, feels incredibly invisible.  Fired from her bookstore job, she goes back to her home town to help take care of her ailing aunt.  But as she returns, she begins to see things, well - more things.  In additions to the horrible visions she gets when she looks in the mirror, she begins to see terrible, bloody ghosts.  As she continues to adjust to her old town again, Mary begins to recover more from her own fractured past, and finds more questions than answers.  

Wow, I loved this book.  I keep joking with my husband that my idea of an ideal horror novel is for it to just feel like an expertly crafted season of AHS.  With all the twists and gut-wrenching turns of Mary, this truly did have that feel.  Brilliantly crafted, with so much attention to detail, excellent pacing, and phenomenal mythos, this book was totally riveting!  I truly wasn't expecting to love this one as much as I did, but this was absolutely brilliant.  Terrifying and gory, Mary is a chilling character study that will stay with you.

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

~ Charlotte

Book Review: The Game

 

Rating: 2/5

From Goodreads: To save their life, you have to play.

‘Exciting and original’ Simon McCleave
‘A twisty page-turner’ Liz Lawler
‘Chilling, packed with intrigue’ Dan Malakin

Across the globe, five strangers receive a horrifying message from an unknown number.

THE PERSON YOU LOVE MOST IS IN DANGER.

To save them, each must play The Game – a sinister unknown entity that has a single rule: there can only be one winner.

IF YOU LOSE, YOUR LOVED ONE WILL DIE.

But what is The Game – and why have they been chosen?
There’s only one thing each of them knows for sure: they’ll do anything to win…

WELCOME TO THE GAME. YOU’VE JUST STARTED PLAYING.

A breakneck thriller filled with non-stop suspense, perfect for fans of Harlan Coben, Mark Dawson and Terry Hayes’ I Am Pilgrim.

This Review is Spoiler Free!

The Game feels like a Black Mirror episode meets Taken meets The Amazing Race...and I'm not really sure it worked.  While the writing style itself was very cinematic and engaging, and there were five very unique voices throughout, the plot really didn't hold up.

While I don't always mind books that require me to suspend my disbelief, this one was just too much.  And even after the big reveal of the twist at the end, it was very hard to see this as plausible.  For a novel called "The Game" that revolves around rules, there really was a lack of clarity and it caused confusion.

The pacing and writing style were well done, but the plot just didn't work for me.  

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

Book Review: Clown in a Cornfield

 Rating: 5/5

From Goodreads: Quinn Maybrook just wants to make it until graduation. She might not make it to morning.

Quinn and her father moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs to find a fresh start. But ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.

This review is spoiler free!

So, I have to admit, I basically knew I was going to freaking love this book going in.  I mean, creepy clowns, middle of nowhere town, a group of Youtubing pranksters - essentially the perfect ingredients for a fabulous teen slasher novel.

However, rather than just being a violent, bloody good time (which heck yes this by all accounts still was!), there's also some well plotted political and social commentary throughout.  It gave me Scream vibes in literally the best way possible (which, that comparison alone should tell you how much I loved this because Scream is just the best).  

Like cinematic, fast paced, horror?  Adam Cesare is basically the master at it.  This book was a one sitting read.  I couldn't have put it down if I wanted to.  

This is a smart, self aware slasher that, while in the young adult section of the bookstore, would be a new favorite for grizzled horror readers and teens alike.  Cannot wait for the sequel.  Hurry up August, I freaking mean it.  

~ Charlotte