Sentinel

Review to come, but I'll definitely be reading the next one.

Very minor spoilers.

Thank you to Mr Starling for an ARC of his novel for a fair review.

And my review is that I had great good fun reading this book. There was so much strange, small town, folk horror delight in this book. And a bit of a surprise with the monsters. I became invested in the mythology of the novel, and I'm intrigued to find out more about the whys and wherefores of everything.

As for the characters, I actually quite liked Ellen and Aaron Dreyer–especially Ellen. That's not the norm for me. Usually, I'm not the biggest fan of het couples in horror; often, they follow prescribed gender roles. But in this, Ellen has herself together, and she's actually pretty tough. Aaron is the one who falls apart more easily, and he's a stay-at-home dad whilst he looks for a job. They consider the dog to be part of the family. And the dog lives. This is important. Pets rarely live in horror. But Mr Starling guarantees the dogs live. For which I am immensely grateful.

I digress. Anyway, strange things are afoot in the new town to which the Dreyers have moved. People are dying violently, and a strange creature traipses through their yard every night. Their child has nightmares. They lose time. Their dog is disturbed. And then, events become more personal.

There are two monsters here. One is the Night Bastard. I want to know all about the Night Bastard. Because that name! Also, I love villains.

Anyway, I enjoyed this one and am looking forward to the next book.