Tag Archives: Horror

Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry – a Review

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Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry – a Review

 

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Description:
Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt’s grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that’s just legend, the village gossips talking.

Twenty years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play Sleepy Hollow boys, reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the sinister discovery makes Ben question everything the adults in Sleepy Hollow have ever said. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?

 

 

Review:

Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry is a standalone novel.  Henry has been giving us some modern & dark tales on various stories such as this one.  Horseman takes place 20 years after the headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane events, as Sleepy Hollow has been quiet. Ben Van Brunt, is the granddaughter of Brom Bones, who was part of the stories years before.  Ben (who is a girl, but acts like a boy), is 14 years old, and loves and wants to be like her grandfather; she is strong and tough; as she stands up to the boys who tease and threaten her.  One of those boys is found in the woods with his head and hands missing, and the town is in an uproar, fearing the that the magic and horror is returning. 

Ben tries to find more information about her deceased father, and learns he was killed years ago in the same manner these young boys were.  Brom and Katrina (her grandparents) warn her to stay away from the dangerous woods.  When another boy’s body is discovered in the woods, Ben finds herself being accused by the boy’s father as the one who is using magic to kill his son, and the other boy.  Ben sees the creature who is killing the boys, as well as hearing sounds of the horseman trying to come to her rescue.  Is she imagining the thumping sound of the horse, is the horseman real?

What follows in a dark and intense story, where we follow Ben when she finds herself in danger, as she is taken captive by the dead boy’s father, and she does everything to fight and survive, even if she has to kill.  But when she comes face to face to the creature, her survival is dire; can the Horseman be real and save her?  One of the amazing parts is when Ben is in the woods, I can actually feel the thumping of the hooves as she can feel the Horseman coming. To tell too much more would be spoilers, and with all that happens, you do need to read this book.

Christina Henry wrote another interesting and dark storyline, as well as being scary with chilling scenes.  If you like intense dark stories, based on old tales that are created in the modern world, you should read Horseman, which was very well written by Christina Henry.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

 

 

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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix – a Review

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The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix – a Review

 

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Description:
In horror movies, the final girl is the one who’s left standing when the credits roll. The one who fought back, defeated the killer, and avenged her friends. The one who emerges bloodied but victorious. But after the sirens fade and the audience moves on, what happens to her?

Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre twenty-two years ago, and it has defined every day of her life since. And she’s not alone. For more than a decade she’s been meeting with five other actual final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, putting their lives back together, piece by piece. That is until one of the women misses a meeting and Lynnette’s worst fears are realized–someone knows about the group and is determined to take their lives apart again, piece by piece.

But the thing about these final girls is that they have each other now, and no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.

 

 

Review:

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix is a wild crazy standalone horror thriller.  A final girl is the lone survivor in all those horror slasher movies, where they managed save themselves and kill the crazed killer.  There are six girls (each having been victorious in saving themselves against the evil monsters), who meet with a therapist monthly, to help them try to get beyond the trauma they suffered through.  Though with many years having past for most of the girls, they still need these sessions to help them try to move past the horrors. 

Lynette Tarkington, one of the final girls, is the main heroine in this story, as we follow her throughout the forth coming ordeal, when one of the girls does not show up, and is found dead. Lynnette goes home to lock herself in, and we watch what she has to go through to get back to her place (multiple buses, train, cage outside her door, keeping her address secret, and no social life at all, etc), which showed how much her life was still like, living in fear.     

When one of the other girls comes to visit her, Lynette knows she has been compromised, and suspects someone is out there, planning to kill the remaining final girls. When shots are fired, Lynnette manages to escape, leaving the other girl injured.  Lynette was a good heroine, though at times a bit batty, but then again, constantly being faced with a murderer on the loose, we can understand that.  She is determined to find out who is out to kill them, (though she constantly suspects various people along the way), as well as try to save her friends.

What follows is a wild intense dark ride that never let up, with a number of twists and surprises along the way.  With Lynette acting mostly on her own, she does everything she can to escape an evil killer, and try to save her friends; with a surprise betrayal.  It is a gruesome and at times gory journey that will give you the chills.  At the same time, it was amazing how these women, especially Lynette, would continue to fight, never giving up. 

This is a difficult review to write, as the action is non-stop and saying too much would ruin the book for you. The Final Girl Support Group was a chilling dark story, with lots of violence and gory details.  Grady Hendrix did a great job writing this book, tying together many of those massacres from those movies. If you enjoyed your slasher movies, this book might be for you.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

 

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Survive the Night by Riley Sager – a Review

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Survive the Night by Riley Sager – a Review

 

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Description:
It’s November 1991. George H. W. Bush is in the White House, Nirvana’s in the tape deck, and movie-obsessed college student Charlie Jordan is in a car with a man who might be a serial killer.

Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Like the Hitchcock heroine she’s named after, Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh, from the holes in his story about his father to how he doesn’t seem to want Charlie to see inside the car’s trunk. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?

What follows is a game of cat-and-mouse played out on night-shrouded roads and in neon-lit parking lots, during an age when the only call for help can be made on a pay phone and in a place where there’s nowhere to run. In order to win, Charlie must do one thing—survive the night.

 

 

Review:

Survive the Night by Riley Sager is another one of his excellent standalone psychological thrillers, which I have read and enjoyed.  It amazes me how Sager continues to give us ultra-exciting and tense, edge of your seat stories that have us holding our breath all the way.

Charlie Jordan, our heroine, decides to leave her campus and go home to her grandmother, as she is still grieving over the loss of her friend, Maddy who was murdered months ago by the Campus Killer.  Charlie meets Josh Baxter, who offers her a ride to her hometown, and needing a ride, she accepts.  Charlie leaves her boyfriend, Rob, explaining that she may not come back, depending if she still has her nightmare dreams.  She is a loner, day dreamer, introvert and is movie expert. Charlie has suffered with what the doctor says are hallucinations since her parents were killed in a car crash; which she often finds herself in movie scenes that look real.

Josh is a janitor for the school, and is heading home to care for his sick father.  They begin their travel at night, and for a while the ride is fun, as they play 20 questions to learn about themselves. After a bit, Josh begins to notice how Charlie seems to be distanced, like in another world, at times. When he stops to pick up coffee and food, Charlie notices some strange things like a driver’s license with a different name, and his address was not where they were heading.  She begins to suspect that maybe she is riding with the Campus Killer; she needs to keep herself alert and find a way to get away, especially trying to force her movie visions not to takeover. Somehow, she needs to survive the night.

I do not want to tell too much, as it would be spoilers, as there are so many twists along the way, I could not put the book down. Charlie suspicions grow and when they stop at a diner, she is desperate to find a way to escape, and calls her boyfriend Rob, who calls the police.  The waitress in the diner befriends her, and tries to help; but Charlie needs to keep Josh from hurting anyone. Survive the Night was an intense nonstop thriller, that changed the game so often, throwing me for a loop, with shocking revelations.

What follows is an intense, action packed, exciting, edge of your seat scary thriller that a had a number of twists along the way, keeping us engrossed to the very end.  Riley Sager once again gives us another fantastic story that was so very well written.  With so many surprising twists throughout, you really need to read Survive the Night from start to finish.  If you enjoy thrillers, suspense, and mystery, look no further than reading anything by Riley Sager.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

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He Sees You When You’re Sleeping by Sara Dobie Bauer-a review

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He Sees You When You’re Sleeping by Sara Dobie Bauer-a review

 

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date December 10, 2020

We met when you were just a child, but youre a man now and need my protection.

With Christmas Eve approaching, Ill watch over you.
Whether you know it or not.

Because no one is allowed to hurt you.
No one but me.

••••••

REVIEW:HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING by Sara Dobie Bauer is a stand alone, adult, paranormal holiday novella focusing on Kris aka Father Christmas and Jack Benson.

WARNING: HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING contains scenes of M/M sexual situations, graphic violence, murder, abuse and other triggers that may not be suitable for more sensitive readers.

Told from third person perspective (Kris) HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING follows Father Christmas aka Kris on Christmas Eve, a night where he goes in search of not only children who believe but children who are in desperate need of his help. At the age of ten, Jack Benson still believed in Santa but the horror that what his childhood found Jack facing a virtual stranger who would become his guardian angel. Fifteen years would pass before Father Christmas returned to help Jack Benson once again, only Jack was no longer a ten year old boy but a man who stirred something deep within Father Christmas, an attraction that triggered memories from the past.

HE SEES YOU WHEN YOU’RE SLEEPING is the retelling of a Christmas classic blending Charles Dickens and the mythology of Santa Claus with a modern twist-the reality of life, death, addiction and abuse. Sara Dobie Bauer writes a dark and gritty short story; the psychological impact, and sociological complexities of the real world blended with the supernatural, the paranormal, and mythology of Christmas, punishment and second chances.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy

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Home Before Dark by Riley Sager – a Review

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Home Before Dark by Riley Sager – a Review

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Description:
What was it like? Living in that house.

Maggie Holt is used to such questions. Twenty-five years ago, she and her parents, Ewan and Jess, moved into Baneberry Hall, a rambling Victorian estate in the Vermont woods. They spent three weeks there before fleeing in the dead of night, an ordeal Ewan later recounted in a nonfiction book called House of Horrors. His tale of ghostly happenings and encounters with malevolent spirits became a worldwide phenomenon, rivaling The Amityville Horror in popularity—and skepticism.

Today, Maggie is a restorer of old homes and too young to remember any of the events mentioned in her father’s book. But she also doesn’t believe a word of it. Ghosts, after all, don’t exist. When Maggie inherits Baneberry Hall after her father’s death, she returns to renovate the place to prepare it for sale. But her homecoming is anything but warm. People from the past, chronicled in House of Horrors, lurk in the shadows. And locals aren’t thrilled that their small town has been made infamous thanks to Maggie’s father. Even more unnerving is Baneberry Hall itself—a place filled with relics from another era that hint at a history of dark deeds. As Maggie experiences strange occurrences straight out of her father’s book, she starts to believe that what he wrote was more fact than fiction.

 

 

Review:

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager is another standalone psychological thriller that I have become accustomed to from this author.  I am amazed how Sager continues to write intense exciting edge of your seat stories that have us holding our breaths from start to finish. 

Home Before Dark switches between two POV’s; one set in the present and the other set 25 years ago.  We meet our heroine, Maggie Holt, who inherits a Victorian estate in Vermont from her father, who recently deceased.  Maggie has spent most of her life knowing about this scary mansion, as 25 years ago her parents bought the rundown Baneberry Hall; and after staying only 20 days, they run out of the house to never come back.  Her father wrote a bestselling book (House of Horrors) about their horrifying experience with spirits/ghosts, and Maggie has hated this book, believing it all to be a lie.  She remembers nothing about the place, especially since she was only 5 years old at the time, and neither of her parents would ever talk about it.

Despite her mother trying to convince Maggie (she is an interior designer) to not go there, just sell it, she decides to go and renovate the estate, and then sell it.  Maggie will begin to hear strange noises in the night, and we learn more about those who lived in the house and the so-called spirits from her POV.  I liked seeing Maggie’s POV, but it was her father’s (Ewan) POV that was scary, crazy and horrifying, as we saw through his eyes what was happening.  In Ewan’s POV, most of it is from his book, which details the horror, ghosts, etc; which eventually drove them out of the house.

In the present time, Maggie begins to see shadows and noises, which she tries to shake off as her imagination.  Having hated the book as a lie, she begins to worry that maybe she is wrong, especially after talking to those who were still alive and were part of the mansion.  There are so many twists and surprises that we see in Maggie’s present time that slowly changes the game, and it is here where during the last 1/3 of the book it becomes a wild, exciting, riveting race to the climax.  I was on the edge of my seat, as one surprise after another kept me unable to put the book down; a couple of times I needed to step away, as I felt parts being downright creepy.

What follows is an intense, exciting, creepy, edge of your seat gothic horror thriller that a had so many surprising twists, keeping us engrossed to the very end.  Riley Sager once again gives us another fantastic story that was so very well written.  I do not want to give any spoilers, as you really need to read Home Before Dark from start to finish.  If you enjoy thrillers, suspense, and mystery, look no further than reading anything by Riley Sager.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

 

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The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James – a Review

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The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James – a Review

 

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Description:
The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn’t right at the Sun Down, and before long she’s determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden…

 

 

Review:

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is another wonderful mystery thriller.  Having read her previous thriller, The Broken Girls, I couldn’t wait to read this book.  This was quite different then the previous book written by St. James.  It seemed more of a ghost story, and a bit creepy at that.  The Sun Down Motel was an old run-down motel that was plagued with mysteries and ghosts; with POV’s of the past 1982 and the present time of 2017, switching back and forth each chapter.

We meet our heroine, Viv Delany, who in 1982, arrives in this small sleepy town (Fell, NY) and decides to work as a night clerk for the motel to help pay for her to continue her trip to New York. In a short time, Viv begins to realize that not all is well in the motel, as she hears and sees ghosts many times each and every night.  Viv begins to suspect that these ghosts were either murdered, haunting the motel until the   dark secrets are revealed.  Viv takes it upon herself to try and find who is killing these people, though a photographer friend and the local night cop tell her to stop.  We see Viv go on dangerous tasks to follow some motel visitors, putting herself in grave danger; and eventually Viv herself will go missing.

In the present time of 2017, we meet Carly, our present-day heroine, who since her mother recently died, decides to try and find out what happened to the aunt she never knew. Carly takes the same job as Viv had, being a night clerk at the Sun Down Motel, which is much more run-down than years ago.  Carly too will begin to hear voices, doors opening, and even seeing dead people.  She begins to do her own investigation, and meets someone staying the motel, who also sees the ghosts.  There is another person who she meets in the library, who loves reading about those old creepy days.  I really did like Helen, a new friend for Carly, who also wants to help investigate.  Alma the cop, and the photographer were excellent characters back in Viv’s days, that will play a part in present day.

What follows is an exciting, dark, suspenseful and creepy mystery in both time periods, which kept me hooked to find out what happen, of course I made sure to keep the lights on.  To tell too much more would be spoilers.  The Sun Down Motel was an intriguing story that was also a gothic thriller.  If you enjoy suspenseful thrillers with a ghostly background, I suggest you read this book.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

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Odium II: The Dead Saga by Claire C Riley-a review

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ODIUM II : THE DEAD SAGA by Claire C Riley-a review

Odium II

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About the book: Release Date May 9, 2014

Fortune favours…the DEAD!

Some secrets are too horrific to ever be forgiven, and some people should never be trusted.

Tortured, starved and on the run, Nina thinks she’s faced the worst that mankind has to offer, but she’s wrong. She may have survived this long, but she’s not come out of it unscathed, and there’s worse to come.

Nina’s trusty Doc Martins are showing signs of the zombie Apocalypse, and she isn’t faring much better. With her snarky attitude guaranteed to get her in trouble, Nina needs to forgive the past, and to live once more in the present, and learn that sometimes she needs to place her trust in other people.

Because when people are faced with the end of times, they’ll do anything to survive.

••••••••••••

REVIEW: ODIUM II The Dead Saga is the second instalment in Claire C Riley’s contemporary, zombie horror series focusing on a group of people attempting to survive in a world infested with the walking dead. The definition of odium is hatred accompanied by disgust or intense dislike; hatred caused by a despicable act; hatred and condemnation; and can be applied to many different aspects of the storyline and series. Told in first person POV through the eyes of the feisty, alpha and oft times irritating heroine Nina, the storyline is interspersed with a tale about another couple struggling to survive. It is their tale that will come full circle in the final pages of Odium II.

The storyline follows a group of survivors and the trouble they encounter on the road looking for supplies and a safe place to live. If all of this sounds familiar then you are correct. Fans of The Walking Dead will see many parallels, similarities and plot points including an aggressive female heroine who battles with herself and the others all the while carrying a sword as her weapon of choice. Our band of misfits must face off against an enemy of the undead as well as a group of people known as The Forgotten. The Forgotten are those survivors who were not allowed into the government refugee cities and were cast out on their own. These groups of people are determined to destroy the walled cities and take down everyone who stands in their way.

Claire C Riley has written a story of survival-from the search for food and supplies to the destruction of people, places and relationships. As our heroine Nina learns to trust the people in whom she has placed her survival she will discover that everyone hides a secret –but some more evil than others.

ODIUM II The Dead Saga is an interesting take on the zombie storyline with a twist that will spike your curiosity about the what-ifs and whys. Claire C Riley puts a spin on the walking dead scenario that will reveal itself in the next instalment-of course we are hoping for a HEA but there is rarely any happiness in the world of the zombie apocalypse.

Copy supplied by the author.

Reviewed by Sandy

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Mythical (Heart of Stone #1) by C.E. Martin

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Mythical (Heart of Stone #1) by C.E.Martin

MYTHICAL (Heart of Stone #1) by C E Martin

MYTHICAL is a YA/teen novel (released June 2012) written in a mixed genre including paranormal, science-fiction, horror and fantasy. The novel and its’ characters read like a comic-book storyline without the pictures, but you can use your imagination as the author manufactures an action-reel of adventure with his telling of the story.

18year old Josie Winters and her friends are having one final camp-out and dirt bike excursion before heading off to college. What they didn’t expect was to find the charred remains of a boat in the middle of the desert complete with its’ own badly decomposing corpse riddled with unnatural wounds and a gaping hole where his heart once beat. But upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a body at all, but a statue—or was it?

Mark Kenslir needed water. Finding himself burned, injured and without the ability to heal himself. Mark wanders into a campsite that included a cooler full of bottled water and a group of armed teens ready to end his life-again. But it is Josie who recognizes the badly injured man, and to everyone’s horror, it is the corpse from the misplaced ship in the desert.

Mark’s ability to heal becomes exponentially faster with the addition of water, as does his strength and speed. Weapons, military style manoeuvres and a slew of specialized abilities will come in handy as Mark and his foundlings including Josie and Jimmy, must outrun and out smart the FBI, Special Ops Forces and teams of ‘super heroes’ brought in by the military. But isn’t Mark one of the good guys?

As Mark’s memory returns, he begins to recount to Josie and Jimmy how it is he found himself in the desert and to their horror, Mark is not completely human. And there are more ‘parahumans’ just like him. But it was his last assignment that went horribly wrong and Mark knows that whatever he was hoping to capture is still out there-looking for its’ next meal. Not only does Mark encounter the ‘beast’ that stole his heart, but he and Josie soon become the targets of the US Special Forces and their elite group of super-human heroes. As the ‘beast’ grows in power, so do the number of recovered and missing bodies without a heart.

To be honest, I am not sure in which direction to point the reader as it pertains to the age level of the storyline. The intended audience is young adult and teen, but many of the military references require a guideline for description and definition. As well, the dialogue is fairly simple, almost adolescent at times, which leads me to presume, it is intended for a younger audience. The passages waver between smart intelligent descriptive narration and then drop to a more-simpler text as though there are two distinct writers. There is plenty of ‘blood, guts and gore’, graphic violence, dismemberment and beheadings, as well as sci-fi military-style weapons and experiments, and the paranormal phenomenon of otherwordly creatures and shapeshifters.

The young adults carry guns, knives and tasers as though they were pieces of jewelry and are quick to use their weapons without benefit of doubt. C E Martin deftly avoids a complete explanation as to how Mark and the others became part of an elite operation of super soldiers, but reveals small bits of information when necessary for impact. Like our hero’s memory, I guess that information will be revealed a little at a time and on a need to know basis. Book 2 in Martin’s Mythical series should hopefully reveal more about how and why our hero and his fellow super soldiers are the way they are.

MYTHICAL is an interesting story and one that will captivate some readers but I found that many of the passages were very violent especially for younger audiences. Mythical is not for everyone. Although many YA novels are enjoyed by readers of all ages, there should be a warning as it pertains to the graphic nature of the content.

 I am well aware that young adult readers are very knowledgeable and most are able to distinguish between reality and fiction, but sometimes a line has to be drawn and if that line is only a few words of warning-CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE-then I will be happy.

LINKS TO PURCHASE::  At the time of the posting MYTHICAL was .99 cents from the following suppliers
Amazon Kindle
Smashwords
B&N Nook

Copy supplied by author.

Reviewed by Sandy

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