C. J. Daley

As soon as I saw this was available, I immediately grabbed a copy and started reading it. Christmas horror is 100% my style this year.

This was a lot darker than I expected from the blurb to be honest. I expected a fast paced home invasion story, and instead I got a ghost story featuring kidnapping, infatuation, absolute control, and conditional love. Mam is not like other mothers. Angelina is constantly watching out so as not to upset her, because at best, she’ll be berated, and at worst…well she doesn’t want to know.

This really broke down and showed the different ways a parent can be over the top controlling. One of my WIP actually features the same type of control, and this was done well enough that I was definitely taking notes. The conditional love was so strongly written and revolting that it made my stomach turn just reading through it.

This was definitely a very Christmasy story, and just about as dark as you can go. Personally a 4/5* for me.

Huge thanks to Shortwave for a physical copy of this one to review. I have to say, it’s simple, but this is one of my favorite covers from them.

A couple gets a little lost, so when they come across a bar, they figure why not stop for a beer? They’re already a bit behind, and it’s just going to be one, right? What follows will go down as one of their worst nights…ever.

This is a first read for me by the author. I have a hardcover of Boys in the Valley, it was on my desired October TBR, but I just didn’t fit it in. As I enjoyed this, this may actually function as a really nice introduction to the author for people. It’s short, concise, spooky, kooky even. There’s humor and ridiculousness thrown in that makes it something you can laugh at, while also sidestepping all jukeboxes for the foreseeable future.

Some well done eeriness in such few pages, and a bit of revenge thrown in there as well. Kind of reminded me of something you could see on The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror, especially in its almost episodic length. Check this one out, and as ever, support Shortwave Media.

So I am currently attempting to read the Poirot series in order. Ambitious I know... even though they don't actually connect and in some they reference work done by Poirot that has not actually been mentioned prior, but anyway that's how I'm doing it.

So for me I really enjoyed this story not being in the perspective of someone working with Poirot—as much as I enjoy Hastings and disliked the doctor from Roger Ackroyd. This was a refreshing take from so many of the others feeling the same. The story changes perspectives from random characters/suspects and Poirot is almost in the background. This way, when it gets to the explanation at the end, you don't really understand or know what he's thinking because you haven't been attached to him the entire time. It gets to a point where it's almost frustrating how Hastings is used as a tool to blind you, so this approach was nice for me.

A very enjoyable one, I would certainly read it again.

I knew as soon as this book opened with an exorcist putting bullets in a mason jar of holy water, it was going to be a good one. 
I'll start with the height of this book...this book spooked me legitimately! Which hasn't happened since I read Home Before Dark by Riley Sager. Again, just a good mixture a things going on and the book got me. Was I looking over my shoulder in the dark? Yes, I was. Damn basement laundry rooms... 
When the Hill family moves into their recently renovated country home, they expected some peaceful time off before flipping the house for a profit. What they got instead, was demonic presences, evil spirits, and possession. Oh and evil fog, humidity, and funky smells. Body horror and disfigurement. 
The author does some cool references/Easter eggs. For the new family he kept saying the Hill's house, which I took as a possible ‘The Haunting of Hill House' nod.  There's also the obvious name for the exorcist, Merle Blatty, which is a nod to the author of ‘The Exorcist' William Peter Blatty. 
My favorite part of the novel was the way it was narrated. The production did some really cool things the narrators voice. They changed the octaves lower and higher for some of the demonic stuff and it was really good. 
Personally a 5/5*. 

Thanks to the author and Savage Realms Press for the eARC! This one sounded like it shared a sinister world with my own novel, so I was super intrigued. I really wanted to review by release day, and I was close, but I had some stuff come up.

Chapter one opens in the past, the kind of set up that may be labeled a prologue in SFF. It shows an event that would stain the town of Cedar Mills for years to come. It immediately feels like a tightly focused creature feature, which is one of my favorite horror subgenres. Then it shifts, giving the reader a mixture of POVs from high school kids to a disgraced detective. It’s a little strange at first, but the author ends up making it work.

This felt like the inverse of my own writing, where I mentioned supernatural but didn’t dive in, this one does it all. It’s a full on supernatural story that steps its toes into crime fiction. It’s a cool take on blending horror subgenres. That’s where this story really shined: the horrors. The creature, known as 43, whose description brought to mind Creature from the Black Lagoon, is a semi-aquatic badass—one that loves stabbing government agents in the head with its claws. And I even liked how the author gives us the full explanation of what it is by the end, spinning into an almost full blown scifi horror.

The trigger happy agents in this reminded me of the supernatural devision from When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy. Their no-loose-ends mentality actually causing more trouble by the end. The inclusion of innocent teenagers also added in a well done layer of emotion and heart to the novel. Regardless of any interwoven romance, four teen friends getting thrown into the deep end was an interesting take that felt kind of like its own thing. These weren’t slasher movie teens that feel and even look like adults, these were starry-eyed and screaming kids, grieving and just trying to make it out alive.

Great action, a scary beast, and a beating heart in the background, making this one a solid read!