I Read, Therefore I Blog

The Blurb On The Back:

November 1999
North Dana, Massachusetts.

Nesbit Nuñez discovers the partially devoured body of Bastion Attia - star quarterback, secret witch and Nesbitt’s even-more-secret boyfriend.

Now the remaining members of North Coven - Nesbit, Dove, Drea and Brandy - vow to get answers. Nothing can prepare them for what they uncover. Nesbitt’s nightmare is only just beginning …

An ancient evil. A coven bound in blood.
A love that death cannot destroy.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Freddie Kölsch’s debut YA historical dark fantasy/horror mixes THE CRAFT with IT in an engrossing tale of love, sacrifice and ancient evil. I believed in Nesbit’s relationship with the charismatic but tragic Bastion and the way Kölsch reveals North Dana’s dark history is well done. However I wonder how well modern teenagers will relate to the 90s setting and Cameron didn’t quite work for me in terms of his role in the story.

NOW, CONJURERS was released in the United Kingdom on 6th June 2024. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

”London’s exorcists! I have a reward for all of you, a job for one of you. Come to Brierley House, 20th April, 9.00am.”

The newspaper ad is a baited hook and it smells like a three-day old corpse. But hey, it’s a grand in hand for turning up so Felix Castor goes in anyway, alongside the curdled cream of his dubious profession. And once he’s in it’s hard to get out again. Brierley House is the home of Russian oligarch Gavril Ustinov, now missing, his driven daughter Ksenia Ustinov and their staff of taciturn, sinister domestics. It also hosts an invisible force that attacks exorcists and negates their abilities - a force that seems to be centuries old. Ksenia wants Castor to locate her missing father, alive or dead. Castor wants to find out who set a trap for exorcists back in the late Middle Ages and what else they were up to.

For a job this big he’s got friends he can call on: zombie data-fence Nicky Heath, reformed succubus Juliet Salazar, jaded cop Gary Cordwood and Trudie Pax, the Anathemata’s finest warrior. But the ghosts of Brierley are many, and they won’t give up their secrets lightly …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mike Carey’s urban fantasy/horror novella is a very welcome addition to the FELIX CASTOR SERIES that sees Castor older, but not necessarily wiser. Although the central mystery is overly telegraphed, I very much enjoyed the return to Castor’s world and in particular the way that Carey seems to be returning to a larger supernatural battle between Hell and Earth and he leaves the ending open for a sequel, which I would most definitely want to read.

The Blurb On The Back:

Welcome to Dread Wood High.
It’s a scream …

Flinch is a game of fear. The more you scare your friends, the more points you get on the app. But things are about to get WEIRD …

Angelo and his friends start to investigate who is behind the game. Is it the people wearing the super-creepy clown masks? With adrenaline pumping and the fair arriving in town, it’s time for the REAL games to begin!

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

The second book in Jennifer Killick's comedy horror quartet for readers aged 9+ is a genuinely creepy read with some sharp lines and good twists. It helps if you have read DREAD WOOD as there are a number of callbacks to it (although I could follow the plot without having done so). I believed in the kids’ omerta about Flinch, while the parasites are suitably disgusting and the Latchitts menacing such that I’d definitely read more in this series.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Brat has always lived in the isolated castle on the island, taking care of the vicious creatures that his master creates, waiting in terror for the moment when they are ready to be put to use. But then the unthinkable happens. The monsters get out. Now Brat must overcome his features, and venture into the world he has hidden from his whole life. For the fate of the everyone rests on his shoulders alone …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Lorraine Gregory’s standalone dark fantasy novel for children aged 9+ has a believable central character who needs to overcome his fears and his relationship with Tingle and Sherman and desperation for love from Lord Macawber is sweet without ever being sickly. However the story is a little episodic and dependent on sudden revelations to get characters out of trouble and there’s a twist at the end that I think could have been hints at earlier.

Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Tonight is a special terrible night.

A woman sits at her father’s bedside, watching the clock tick away the last hours of his life. Her brothers and sisters - all broken, their bonds fragile - have been there for the past week, but now she is alone.

And that’s when it always comes

The clock ticks, the darkness beckons.

If it comes at all.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Sarah Pinborough’s horror novella is an unflinching look at the emotional and physical mechanics of dying, tied in with the drama of a broken family and adding a dark fantasy element. It’s a moving read that’s tightly written, filled with sadness while the main character is neither saint nor sinner, aware of her own faults as much as those of her siblings and father and although I predicted the ending that didn’t lessen its impact.

The Blurb On The Back:

When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother’s house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be?

Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more - Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants … until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.

Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors - because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

This standalone horror novel from T Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) is a slow burn that steadily racks up tension and mystery over what is out in the woods. Mouse’s great conversational narration, which editorialises what’s happening and her attempts to rationalise it, enhances the creepiness but the final quarter is quite rushed and anti-climactical and I wanted more Foxy who is a great sidekick with a smart mouth and a pragmatic attitude.

Thanks to Titan Books for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

”I used to think to make people feel afraid was a curse, an awful thing ... But I’d love for them to fear me ... I want them to look at me and weep.”

On the even of their divining, the day Lil and her twin sister Kizzy are to discover their fate, they’re captured and enslaved by the cruel Boyar Vallarta.

Far away from their beloved Traveller community, and forced to work in the harsh castle kitchens, Lil finds some comfort in the storm-eyed Mira, a fellow slave who she’s drawn to in ways she doesn’t understand. But too soon she also learns about the Dragon, a mysterious and terrifying man of myth, who takes girls as gifts.

They may not have had their divining day, but the girls will still discover their fate ...

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s YA gothic fantasy (a homage to the ‘dark sisters’ in Bram Stoker’s Dracula) has some beautifully written scenes and shows the discrimination faced by Travellers but there’s not much plot, Lil’s first person POV leaves Kizzy under-developed and in the final quarter, her disappearance means that a key decision has no tension or explanation while the ending is very weak such that it doesn’t do the dark sisters justice.

THE DEATHLESS GIRLS was released in the United Kingdom on 19th September 2019. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Then

One night, my little sister went missing. There were searches, appeals. Everyone thought the worst. And then, miraculously, she came back. She couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say what had happened. But she wasn’t the same afterwards. She wasn’t my Annie. Sometimes my own little sister scared me to death.

Now

The email arrives in my inbox:

I know what happened to your sister. It’s happening again ...

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

C. J. Tudor’s second novel is a tightly plotted horror tale that gives more than a nod to Stephen King’s PET SEMETARY but which nevertheless has a distinctly British feel. The amoral and desperate Joe makes for an interesting protagonist and I liked Tudor’s depiction of a broken pit village while the supernatural elements are generally creepy. All in all, this is a great Halloween chiller and I will definitely check out THE CHALK MAN.

The Blurb On The Back:

On the Baltic Sea, no one can hear you scream …

Tonight, twelve hundred expectant passengers have joined the booze-cruise between Sweden and Finland. The creaking old ship travels this same route, back and forth, every day of the year.

But this trip is going to be different.

In the middle of the night the ferry is suddenly cut off from the outside world. There is nowhere to escape. There is no way to contact the mainland. And no one knows who they can trust.

Relationships are about to be tested. Ordinary people are forced to become heroes. But what happens this night may also bring out the worst in people …

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Mats Strandberg’s vampire horror thriller is an entertaining mix of THE POSEIDEN ADVENTURE meets 30 DAYS OF NIGHT and although the wide cast is broadly drawn there’s enough on the page to care about what happens to the central characters and the fun comes from seeing who deservedly (or undeservedly) dies or survives and although there’s nothing terribly original here I would nevertheless definitely check out Standberg’s other work.

BLOOD CRUISE was released in the United Kingdom on 12th July 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

The Blurb On The Back:

Jake usually likes to stay out of trouble. But when he opens a strange box containing a severed finger, trouble comes knocking at his door. Literally. Jake has summoned a reaper to drag him to the Eternal Void (yep, it’s as deadly as it sounds) and his only option is to RUN FOR HIS LIFE!

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Will Mabbitt’s spooky fantasy novel for children aged 9+ (the first in a series) features some cracking illustrations by Chris Mould (I particularly liked Zorro the ghost fox) and a well-crafted plot peppered with some good jokes, interesting side characters (I especially liked Cora, a hockey stick-wielding ghost stuck inside a school cup) and a relatable main character in Jake and I would definitely check out the sequel.

EMBASSY OF THE DEAD was released in the United Kingdom on 14th June 2018. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.