The Spooky Bookshelf

I’m amazed that I’ve managed to read multiple books in the past few days, but it happened. This time, I finally got off my butt and read Don’t Let the Forest In by CG Drews. I’ve been following CG Drews on Instagram for quite a while and when they announced that their debut YA Horror novel was on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to request it. But then, after getting approved, my brain said “nope, no reading for you” and it sat in my Kindle app… until last night when I finally got off my butt and started reading. I’m glad I did.

Characters

The main characters, Andrew and Thomas, are quite interesting. Andrew is anxious about literally everything, while Thomas is tough and seen as a bad kid for the most part. At least that’s how everyone seems to view him. I liked both characters quite a bit.

Dove was so standoffish that I was taken aback – after all, she’s Andrew’s twin and even if she didn’t like Thomas for some reason, you wouldn’t think she’d abandon Andrew. But there’s a reason for it and I guessed that reason about halfway through the book.

As for the other characters, we see them but we don’t. We don’t get a lot of background on them and we don’t see them as much as Andrew and Thomas because the story isn’t about them. It’s about Andrew and Thomas.

All in all, I enjoyed the characters very much and enjoyed seeing asexuality portrayed as a lot of LGBTQ+ books I read don’t include asexuality.

Atmosphere

I have to admit, I’ve never been a big fan of forests. Sure, they can be beautiful, but I always end up thinking of what could be lurking out there. So that makes the atmosphere of this story all the better. Let us not forget the boarding school – that seems determined to ignore the weirdness of what is going on – and you’ve got the perfect creepy atmosphere for a story. Especially when you realize the forest might not be staying on its side of the fence.

Writing

CG Drews has a writing style may trip some readers up. The prose in this book, while not extremely difficult to read, is dark, twisted, and makes you stop and consider the imagery that is being put forth on the page. Some might be tempted to call the writing “flowery” for its descriptive nature, but it isn’t flowery – it is dark, moody, creepy, and full of rot and decay. And considering this is a horror novel, that’s a good thing. I have their next novel, Hazelthorn, in my NetGalley queue and I’m anxious to read it as well, as I want to continue reading this deliciously dark writing.

Plot

The plot for Don’t Let the Forest In might seem to take a bit to fully be understood, but it is meant to be that way. After all, there wouldn’t be a story if the plot was blatantly obvious from the start. No, this plot unfolds slowly, with twists coming here and there. The twists are rarely what you expect and even if you are expecting something, it may not be entirely correct. Some things become obvious as you read, others just pop up out of nowhere. It makes for a delightfully creepy read!

Intrigue

The intrigue in this book is amazing. There are so many questions that pop into your head as you read. Is Thomas what the gossip says he is? Why doesn’t Dove want anything to do with Thomas and why is she distancing herself from Andrew and everyone else? Does the school’s biggest bully have anything to do with this? What is going on here? Is all of this real? So many questions, so few answers…

Relationships

The relationships in this book are beautifully broken. Dove seems to want nothing to do with her twin. Andrew and Thomas dance around what they are and how they feel for each other. Even the relationships between faculty and Andrew or faculty and Thomas are disjointed, out of place, slightly off-center. It makes for wonderful reading and even more questions!

Ending

The ending? Obviously meant to be a one-off book. Stand-alone. No need for another book. Yet the ending will also leave you staring at the wall, wondering if it really is over. What did you just read there at the very end? Is everything OK? Is everything not OK? Who lived? Who died? What is going on? Was this all just a fever-dream? And yet even with all the unanswered questions that may pop into your head, you realize… you don’t want a sequel. It is perfect as it is.

I gave this book 5 stars. Not because I’ve been following CG Drews since before this book was even put on NetGalley, but because this book was amazing. Deliciously creepy, twisty, nightmare fuel that may not keep you up for days, but might make you stare a little closer at the shadows… or the trees in your backyard.

I haven’t been reading much lately, I think being a college student has gotten me into a slump – I read so much for school, I don’t want to read anything else when I’m done with my homework! But… I did manage to read a book over the past couple of days, so maybe I’ll get back into the swing of it! The book in question? No One Saw It Coming by Susan Lewis – a mystery that involves family secrets, murder, and mental health.

Characters

The main characters in this story are hard to define in some cases. We have Hanna and Jack, a married couple who’ve been together for decades. Hanna is the main focus of this book – you’ll understand when you read it. There are Leo and Cait, Hanna and Jack’s two children, who each have issues of their own. Next comes Sebastian, Jack’s best friend, who plays a major part in the story line. Finally, for main characters, there is Riona… who isn’t quite who and what she seems.

You’ll meet other characters along the way – Jenny (Jack’s stepmom), Andee (Hanna’s best friend), Graeme (Andee’s husband), Sophia (Cait’s toddler daughter), Ishan (Sophia’s father), Freya (you’ll understand when you read it), and Blanche, who has her own chapters and is tied to Riona… it is complicated, and a few others.

I liked Hanna, Jack, Leo, Cait, and Sebastian. I liked Riona as well. I felt the characters were relatable and they felt like real people to me, not just flat characters on the page, which is good. Some of the more minor characters were also real, but some were just flat characters on the page, because while they played a part in the story, it wasn’t enough of a part for me to really care about them.

Atmosphere/Setting

Not being overly familiar with the layout of the UK, I am assuming that this book is set in Great Britain, as it is referenced that Riona came from Ireland and has an Irish accent. Not having a bloody clue about where anything in the book is (or even if the locations are actually real) did not detract from my enjoyment of this book in any way. It was a great setting for the novel and kept me from being overly bored with it – or overly critical if the book happened to be set in a place I know.

I do wish a bit more description of some of the areas in which the characters found themselves had been given – especially Riona’s home, but I suppose that might have spoiled part of the big twist of the book.

Writing

Despite being written using British English spelling and vernacular, I found the writing style to be easy to read and easy to digest. I didn’t get that feeling like I had no clue what was happening because Ms. Lewis did not write in circles as some mystery/thriller authors have been known to. I thoroughly enjoyed the book for the writing style and it is one of the reasons I look forward to reading more books by Ms. Lewis.

Plot

So the plot to this one is standard, but not standard at the same time. Someone is hurting Hanna’s family and she needs to figure out who it is and why they want to hurt her family. At the same time, there is a secondary plot involving one of the characters believing fully that they have found their long-lost sister, but yet keeping their distance from said sister.

I’m sad to say that I’d already guessed part of the big twist within the first quarter of the book. That isn’t to say that it was something that was telegraphed or easy to guess! I just recognized that part of the twist for what it was. It didn’t mean I didn’t want to know what would happen. I mean, no one had even gotten hurt yet! There wasn’t yet a mystery to actually solve when I figured out that part of the big twist. So if you figure that part out super early, just keep reading, there’s so much more to the story than just that part of the twist!

Intrigue

Despite having figured out the big twist of the book super early, I still found that this book had a huge amount of intrigue. Figuring out who had done each of the crimes that are committed because there are suspects, but no definitive answers – at least not until the twist comes up. Then, yes, there are answers. And what an answer it is! But of course, you have to read it, I’m not going to give it away here.

Ms. Lewis knows how to write a mystery that will keep you reading!

Relationships

There are some pretty complicated relationships in No One Saw It Coming. First, there’s Sebastian and Riona’s relationship – where it seems she wants him as much as he wants her, but then it doesn’t seem like she wants him after all. Then there’s Cait’s antagonistic attitude toward her parents, especially her father, Jack, that no one seems to be able to figure out. Finally, there’s Jack’s relationship with someone else that Hanna didn’t know about (Hanna and Jack have flings/affairs but never keep them secret, except this time). So relationships in this book are complicated at best, but very interesting.

Ending

The book ends on a note that makes you wonder if perhaps in the future there could be a second book. After the big twist, after everything goes down and all is “well”, it seems like there could potentially be more to this story – as though book is finished but the story isn’t, if you know what I mean.

If Ms. Lewis was intending to write a sequel, I fully intend to read it!

Conclusion

Ms. Lewis has written a solid four-star book here. While it wasn’t “can’t put it down” good, it was definitely good enough to make me want to read more of her work.

Content Warning: Death, blood, slight descriptions of gore, violence, video game violence.

Come on, it’s horror. You know I had to give it a shot. It’s meant for teens/young adults, so it isn’t super scary – or maybe I’m just so jaded when it comes to horror that nothing really scares me anymore.

I was pleasantly surprised at the stories. A lot of the time when I find horror anthologies by authors I haven’t heard of, they’re either not good at all or there are only one or two good stories with the rest being mediocre at best. Not true with this anthology. All of the stories were really good. Again, not as scary as I’d have liked, but this wasn’t written with adults in mind, so there is that. Younger teens and tweens would probably find this book scarier than I did.

My favorite stories in the book are “The Secret Sister”, “Stage Fright”, and “The Bone Fairy”. That’s not to say the others weren’t great, because they were. But those three top my list for stories in the book.

>f you’re someone who likes horror but doesn’t like it to be too scary, I think this book is a good one to try out. I also think it’s a good introduction to horror for younger audiences who might not yet be used to the world of horror.

Sometimes you just need a quick read to get yourself back into the spirit of reading, and His Name is Grace by H. G. Davis was a perfect quick read to do that for me. At just 152 pages (1,795 locations on Kindle), I was able to read this book in just about 3 hours. It was fast paced, easy to read, and difficult to put down.

The formatting of this story is interesting. You’d think it’d focus on the actual mystery, but for the most part, it doesn’t. It focuses more on the secrets that the family of the deceased are keeping. Which isn’t to say it is a bad story, because it absolutely isn’t. I’m just not sure I would have categorized it as a mystery/thriller when it doesn’t really focus too much on that aspect, unless you consider all the secrets to be mystery/thriller material.

However, the book was very good – I wanted to know if the accused really had murdered his brother and if not who had. I also wanted to know how it happened and why the accused thought he’d done it if he hadn’t. I also wanted to know how many of the people knew about the others’ secrets.

The characters were interesting enough, although I didn’t feel any particular connection to any of them. Perhaps it was all the secrets. I will say though, that one character in particular, Jake, seemed a bit more cunning toward the end of the book than was being let on at first, making me wonder who was the real murderer… but you’ll have to read the book to find out what I mean.

A quick, easy read that gets 4 stars from me.

Four Found Dead was one of those books that took me a while to read - mostly because it was a case of "right book, wrong time". I tried several times to read this book and just couldn't stay interested. Last night, I decided I'd give it one more try before giving up and I'm glad I did. I started it at 10PM and finished at 3:45AM the next morning.

Once I was able to properly get into the book, I could not put the book down. I had to know what was going to happen next. While we didn't get to know all of the characters well, I have to say that my favorites were Naomi, Hudson, and Jo. However, I would like to have gotten Jo's name a bit earlier in the book than we did, but it is what it is. And I would like to say that I hated Clayton from his first entrance into the story. So there's that.

Four Found Dead is quite fast paced - it would have to be, considering that the events take place over the course of about 9 hours. Once it pulls you in, you're hooked. You need to know how these people are getting out of this mess they're in.

I found the little "intermission" notes interesting. They left me wondering exactly who it was who was telling this story, or at least, who was giving their two-cents between some of the chapters. You will find out at the end, and trust me, it wasn't anyone I was expecting.

The ending is great and quite interesting. There are some things that are foreshadowed earlier, but then you kind of decide that can't be the case later... only to have it thrown in your face that it was true all along.

I gave this one 4.5 stars - it was a great book and now I'm planning to find other books by Ms. Richards as well.

If you know me, you probably know that I am a fan of Stephen King's work. Honestly, about the only book of his that I have never quite been able to get into is Holly, and I think that is because it's more or less part of a series that I haven't actually read. But this review isn't about that - it is about a novella/short story called 1922.

In 1922, we find a man named Wilfred James who is telling a story that might be unbelievable to some, but perhaps not for those of us familiar with Mr. King's writing. We meet a small host of characters - Arlette James (Wilfred's wife), Henry James (Wilfred's son), Shannon Cotterie (love of Henry's life), and a few others. We only really deal with Wilfred and Henry enough to form an opinion of them - to me, neither character is particularly engaging or noteworthy - but I often find that Stephen King's characters aren't the main attraction of his stories.

The story doesn't take long to read, and is an engaging tale of confession, loss, grief, and madness. Obviously I'm not going to tell you what happens, but suffice it to say that the plot moves quickly enough to make reading the book quick and the plot is interesting enough to keep you wanting to read more.

I watched the movie on Netflix a few years ago, but oddly I don't remember much about it. It might be time to revisit that now that I've read the novella.

I gave it 4 stars because while I didn't connect with any of the characters, it had a fast-paced, interesting plot.

Blurring the Lines + Extras is a prequel novella with some extra tidbits for the Blind Rebels series, all wrapped into one tidy little package. This book does contain spoilers for the Blind Rebels series, so if spoilers bother you, I recommend either reading the series first or stopping after ,Blurring the Lines and waiting to read the extras until after you've finished the Blind Rebels series.

As a huge fan of the Blind Rebels series, I'd often wondered exactly how the events played out that led up to the Rebels' hiatus. I knew it had to do with Mavrick, Callum, and Mavrick's fiancee Becka, but I wasn't sure how it had all played out. Now I know.

I'm going to be honest, I dislike Becka even more now than I did before. While there were times I could relate to her, she really got under my skin most of the time. I had a hard time understanding what Mav saw in her to be honest.

Blurring the Lines was very well written and relieves the itch of wanting to know what happened before the events of Bridging the Silence took place. Now... about those extras!

The extras are the parts that will be spoilers for the Blind Rebels series. Like I said above, if you want to avoid spoilers, I recommend reading the series first or just reading Blurring the Lines and leaving the extras until later. The extras include events from other perspectives, events that don't actually appear in the books, and in some cases, things that happened after the series was over. You'll get to see some beloved characters dealing with things in new ways or just dealing with new experiences.

I gave Blurring the Lines + Extras a solid five stars because it perfectly starts off the series and gives so much more to the series! I can't wait to read the next series.

I love secret societies. Whenever I read a book set in a school, that is one of my biggest hopes - that there is some sort of secret society involved in the plot. Well, with A Darker Mischief, that hope is definitely fulfilled.

This book is definitely a slow-burn type of book. It will take a while to fully get into the story. It will also take a while to start understanding the characters presented A Darker Mischief. This is not one of those books where you get the characters' life story at the beginning. Even our main character, Cal, largely remains a mystery until later in the book. And if someone's story isn't important to the plot? Well, their story remains untold.

I have to say that I actually liked Luke more than I liked Cal. He seemed more genuine than Cal did. But Cal had his moments. Now for some reason, I'd suspected one of the secrets Cal held, but when it was revealed, I was still surprised. And no, I won't tell you what it is, you'll have to read the book to find out.

I loved the Society of Seven Eyes. For me, it is what made A Darker Mischief a four-star read. I loved the parties, the mystery, and the fact that the society's main "raison d'être" is to explore the grounds of Essex and dig up all of the history about the school. Including, perhaps, some secrets that pertain to Society.

The ending for A Darker Mischief was great. It perfectly closed out the book - and even left the book open for something of a sequel if perhaps a certain character wanted revenge on those who'd "wronged" him. I mean, the book ends perfectly as is, but a sequel could be fun as well.

If you are a fan of books that contain secret societies, I guarantee you'll want to read this book. Society of Seven Eyes features prominently in this story but so do the characters, which is important. I gave this one four-stars and hope to read more books from Derek Milman in the future.

In my quest to work through my NetGalley queue, I started reading If You Can Hear This by Faith Gardner. I have another book by Ms. Gardner in my NetGalley queue as well, so I was hoping that I would enjoy this book. I did - immensely.

What do you get when you mix a group of misfit kids who make up an audio/visual club, a missing teacher, and an apathetic town? You get If You Can Hear This. And believe me, this is a book you won't want to miss.

Our main characters - Posey, Sal, Jeremiah, Athena, Yash, and Lexy make up the Wild Pines High School AV Club. They each have their own unique perspectives on life and what's happening.

Posey is a girl who came to Wild Pines from San Francisco. She's the new kid - she's weird, quite a bit on the bossy side, and to be honest, obnoxious. I found myself wanting to reach through the screen and swat her upside the head, telling her to relax.

Sal is an enigmatic character, about whom we find out quite a bit. He's mysterious and can seem suspicious at times, but he's got a good heart and he cares about people.

Jeremiah isn't seen as much but he's an interesting character, what we do get to see of him.

Athena is the actress of the group but she's got her own issues. I liked her quite a bit because she seemed more real than most of the other characters.

Yash is another character who is more or less in the background - we find out bits and pieces about him, but not much.

Lexy is seen fairly often in If You Can Hear This, but she's another background character whom we don't learn a lot about. I do wish we'd learned a bit more about her - especially considering she's an activist at heart.

I loved the plot for this book. A teacher goes missing and her students set out to figure out what happened to her and where she went. They also want to raise awareness as it seems no one in authority wants to actually do anything about the missing teacher. It shows what students can do when they set their minds to it. It also shows some of the realities of people being on social media and what can come of social media use.

I gave this book a solid four stars because I thought it was a really good YA Mystery/Thriller. The start was a bit slow and it took a few days for me to really get fully into the book, but once it got going, it was awesome. I can't wait to read the other book by Ms. Gardner that is in my queue.

If you're a fan of urban legends, then One House Left by Vincent Ralph is definitely a book you should check out. Playing around with Bloody Mary or Death Number 999-9999 is one thing, but living in an urban legend? That's a whole different story.

For the most part, I wasn't overly attached to our main character, Nate. Something was off about him - and not just the fact that he was oddly obsessed with Murder Road and keeping people away from there. He just wasn't a character that I really connected with, to be honest. But sometimes you don't need to connect with the characters.

I loved Max - she was someone I'd probably have been friends with when I was in high school. She's fiery but she also has a soft side. She's my favorite of the characters in this book.

The other two main characters, from whose point of view we get to see parts of the story, Seb and Tyler are interesting characters, but I didn't really connect with either of them. They were more or less background noise - someone more for Nate and Max to interact with.

The plot for One House Left is fairly simple - Nate and his family used to live near Cherry Tree Lane, also known in the world of urban legends as Murder Road. Unfortunately, Murder Road isn't just a legend, it is real. Now Nate and his family are on the run from Murder Road... but why? The twist is something you won't see coming... and even then, it's a slow burn twist to get the full story.

I didn't have the massive "can't put this down" feeling like I have for other books, but I also didn't hate it. I still wanted to know what was happening, but it wasn't as much of a burning need as it has been for other books. To be honest, One House Left is the first Vincent Ralph book I've actually finished. I tried to read Lock the Doors a couple of years ago and just couldn't get into it. Maybe it is time to revisit that book, now that I have a better idea of Mr. Ralph's writing style.

Vincent Ralph's writing style is slow burn rather than fast paced. It will take you quite a while to get the main action. Sure, there will be bits and pieces to keep you entertained and help keep your attention, but to get to the good stuff, you'll have to read over half the book. Trust me, it's worth it.

The ending was great - it left the book with an ending that was both final and not at the same time. The book could have a sequel if Mr. Ralph wanted to write one, but it doesn't need one. If he did write a sequel, I'd love to read it.

I'm giving this book 4 stars because it's a great slow burn horror novel that will make you want to know more, but not to the point of obsessing over it.

When I chose to read The Debutantes by Olivia Worley, I did so based purely on the cover. I love the cover to this book so much, even though I can't exactly tell you why. It just jumped out at me as something I should read. And my intuition was spot-on.

The Debutantes is what Pretty Little Liars would have been if it was set in New Orleans. Dead and missing friends, danger, secrets being exposed, mysterious masked people.... Yep, Pretty LIttle Liars in New Orleans backed by Krewe culture and, to an extent, Debutante culture. Honestly, that's one of the reasons I loved it so much. I loved Pretty Little Liars.

Reading this book kept me on my toes. I didn't want to put it down, and honestly, I stayed up until 6AM to finish it! It was so easy to read, so easy to follow that I just didn't want to stop reading. That's one of the ways in which it differs from Pretty Little Liars - you won't need a spreadsheet to keep track of what's going on. Also, The Debutantes won't need sixteen books to wrap everything up - it was all wrapped up neatly at the end. Or was it?

The ending was amazing and wrapped the book up well. Does it wrap the full story up? It actually could. But could there be more books? I think there could, if Ms. Worley wants there to be more books. I'm sure there's a way to add a sequel or two to this plot.

As for the characters, I really enjoyed Vivian and April. I wasn't as much of a fan of Piper's, mostly because she drove me crazy with the way she behaves. However, I didn't like Lily at all. Granted, we don't see a lot of her, but she just doesn't seem to be a genuine person in this story. She isn't sincere in anything she says or does and it just bugs me.

I gave this book five stars because it was an excellent book that made me want to keep reading - even after it was over. I hope to read more from Ms. Worley in the future!