Tag: NetGalley

The Horror at Pleasant Brook – Kevin Lucia

Halloween is almost here. The pumpkins have been carved. The corn maze is ready to go. You may have noticed the streets of Pleasant Brook are quieter than usual, though.

Maybe it’s because people are working and studying remotely at the moment. Or maybe it’s because people have been masking recently, and not just because of COVID.

“It was because of the weirdos in masks.”

This is all Lisa Owen’s fault.

If you’re unfortunate enough to be written into this book, it’s more than likely you’ll wind up splattered across its pages.

I absolutely intended to remember the names and backstories of everyone I met but then abandoned this lofty idea when I realised that the average time between meeting a person and seeing their insides was about a chapter.

After getting to know a bunch of the nearly departed, I settled in and waited for the book to tell me who the main characters were going to be. Not that being a main character gives you immunity from the virus spreading through this increasingly sleepy town.

There’s blood, there’s gore and why yes, that person is spineless. It’s carnage in Pleasant Brook this October and thankfully it’s the descriptive kind.

The thing’s head exploded. Not only exploded but damn near disintegrated into an expanding geyser of gristle which splattered all over its shoulders and ruined neck, leaving nothing behind.

Maybe you shouldn’t choose a favourite character.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Crystal Lake Publishing for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

This Halloween, a malevolent, creeping horror invades a small, isolated town nestled deep in the Adirondacks. It cares nothing for this town’s secrets, prejudices, or flaws. Its only desires are to consume everything in its path and spread, until nothing else remains.

A small group of people stand in its way. They are the leftovers, the ignored, the excluded, and the dismissed. However, as the evil grows, they prove to be the only ones strong enough to stand and fight.

But how can they prevail against this power? It is ancient, pitiless, and unstoppable.

It is The Horror at Pleasant Brook.

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Graveyard Girls #2: Scream for the Camera – Lisi Harrison & Daniel Kraus

Illustrations – Flavia Sorrentino

“Come, ghost,

Come, monster,

Come, devilkin,

Tonight’s story is about to begin.”

The Graveyard Girls are trying to make contact with Silas Hoke, Misery Falls infamous murderer. The mystery surrounding him was amped up when they recently found his grave. His empty grave.

A missing corpse that had yet to be un-missing.

They tried reaching him via Ouija board and they made contact, just not with Silas.

I like all of the Graveyard Girls but enjoy spending time with them even more when they’re all together. That’s when we get to hear their scary stories, after all. The story in this book is photography based, ‘Scream for the Camera’, and it’s a fun, creepy one.

Each girl is dealing with something difficult in this book.

Something weird is happening.

Sophie has a crush. Although I’m not anti bad boy, I was very anti the way he was treating Sophie and not the hugest fan of how this part of the story resolved.

Gemma is busy working off her G-Tone mistake.

Whisper is on the hunt for a grave robber. Her investigation begins at home.

Frannie dreams of stardom. It’s a shame about the theatre curse.

Zuzu’s old friends don’t know about her new friends yet but that’s the least of her problems. It’s very possible that she’s possessed.

I love the focus on friendship and the overarching mystery, which I’m guessing will continue over the course of the series. Gemma’s story was my favourite in this book.

I would have absolutely adored this series as a kid and, to be honest, probably would have found it scary at times. I’m keen to see how the individual stories and the mystery surrounding Silas Hoke play out.

Favourite no context quote:

“We don’t have time to be eaten by a plant!”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Union Square Kids, an imprint of Union Square & Co., for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s been a month since the events of 1-2-3-4, I Declare a Thumb War, when the Graveyard Girls — Gemma, Whisper, Sophie, Frannie, and Zuzu — discovered Silas Hoke’s empty grave. A month, and no answers. That changes when messages from the other side start to creep up on the Graveyard Girls. Gemma’s good-luck charm. The skull in Whisper’s spilled milk. Sophie’s vanishing phone. Frannie’s theater curse. And Zuzu’s possessed Jōurnal. Who is trying to reach them … and why?

The good news: There might be one person with some answers. The bad news: She’s a mortician … with a deadly secret.

Speaking of bad news, straight-A Sophie is quickly sliding down the scale to becoming a B-flat friend. She is spending way more time hanging out with “Danger Me” and way less time with the Graveyard Girls and her schoolwork. Will her scary story be enough to win back her pals, or will her picture-perfect life become the ultimate photo bomb?

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Confetti Realms – Nadia Shammas

Artist – Karnessa

Colourist – Hackto Oshiro

Letterer – Micah Myers

After polishing off their pancakes and coffee at the diner, Marissa, Ty, Radwa and Garrett make their way to the cemetery to get drunk and summon a ghost. It is Halloween, after all.

At the cemetery, the group find a nineteenth century mausoleum. Inside is essentially a cabinet of curiosities, including a creepy automaton.

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To all the dreamers who seek what is lost: make a wish

Naturally, everyone makes a wish and then … they’re not in New Jersey anymore.

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It turns out creepy automaton guy is Tom. Tom wants to attend the ball but he’s missing some teeth and the way he sees it, Marissa, Ty, Radwa and Garrett are just the boozed up kids he needs to retrieve said teeth.

Having only just arrived in Confetti Realms, the kids don’t know the lay of the land. It’s a good thing Tom has a map.

The kids brought their baggage with them so there’s some friendship dramas and misunderstandings to clear up along the way. There’s also a bunch of creatures to meet and bargain with in their quest for the missing molars.

I particularly liked the axolotl wearing pearls and Moira. I wanted to spend more time with Moira and learn her backstory.

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I initially really liked our four accidental dimension travellers. However, their arguing distracted me at times from fully appreciating the details of the world they had been transported to and the array of characters that inhabited it.

I loved the artwork and the colour palette. I enjoyed exploring this world but would have liked to have had more of a chance to get to know the creatures I was introduced to there.

This was a fun Halloween read that made me crave pancakes and add riding a giant centipede to my bucket list.

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Thank you so much to NetGalley, Maverick and Mad Cave Studios for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

On Halloween night, when the moon is full, teenagers get up to mischief. But when an encounter with a giant, sentient puppet in a graveyard sends four teens to a mysterious dimension called the Confetti Realms, they must overcome obstacles in their own friendships – and collect the debted teeth owed to the puppet – in order to make their way home.

But the allure of staying in a fantasy world is a hard one to beat, and going home to their normal lives is starting to sound less and less appealing for some. Will these friends return home?

Featuring a diverse cast of characters, this Tim Burton-esque, comedic, modern, and high-energy story is written by Eisner Award-winner Nadia Shammas, with art by Karnessa and colours by Hackto Oshiro.

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Earthdivers, Vol. 1: Kill Columbus – Stephen Graham Jones

Artist – Davide Gianfelice

Colourist – Joana Lafuente

Letterer – Steve Wands

Cover Artist – Rafael Albuquerque

It’s Stephen Graham Jones. It’s time travel. It’s a sci-fi slasher.

Even if I wasn’t already convinced by those selling points, I would have only needed to take one look at Rafael Albuquerque’s incredible cover artwork to decide I needed this graphic novel in my life.

Welcome to 2112. It’s a good thing time travel exists so we can go back and prevent the apocalypse which, if I’m being completely honest, arrived later than I thought it would.

So, who in our group of outcasts are we going to send back in time to save the world? Humanity’s best hope is … a linguist with no fighting experience.

Go back in time. Kill Columbus. Save the world from America.

I hope Tad’s ready for a steep learning curve.

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This volume includes the first six issues of the series. I love the concept and am keen to find out what the world will look like if Tad succeeds in his mission. I think I need a reread, though, to remove some lingering questions marks above my head.

While I had no trouble following what was happening in 1492, 2112 baffled me at times. I ended up borrowing the six individual issues from the library but they didn’t include the helpful summaries I was hoping would help me fill in the blanks.

I expect my experience with this graphic novel will mirror that of the first volume of Monstress. At first I didn’t really get it. A reread converted me and it became one of my favourites. I’m looking forward to saying the same about Earthdivers.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and IDW Publishing for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

The year is 2112, and it’s the apocalypse exactly as expected: rivers receding, oceans rising, civilisation crumbling. Humanity has given up hope, except for a group of Indigenous outcasts who have discovered a time travel portal in a cave in the desert and figured out where everything took a turn for the worst: America.

Convinced that the only way to save the world is to rewrite its past, they send one of their own — a reluctant linguist named Tad — on a bloody, one-way mission to 1492 to kill Christopher Columbus before he reaches the so-called New World. But there are steep costs to disrupting the timeline, and taking down an icon isn’t an easy task for an academic with no tactical training and only a wavering moral compass to guide him. As the horror of the task ahead unfolds and Tad’s commitment is tested, his actions could trigger a devastating new fate for his friends and the future.

Join Stephen Graham Jones and artist Davide Gianfelice for Earthdivers, Vol. 1, the beginning of an unforgettable ongoing sci-fi slasher spanning centuries of America’s Colonial past to explore the staggering forces of history and the individual choices we make to survive it.

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Sheets #3: Lights – Brenna Thummler

You know when you can’t wait to read the final book in a series but at the same time you don’t want to read it because once you reach the end, it’s the end? Welcome to my Sheets dilemma.

Marjorie and Wendell have lived in my heart for five years now. Eliza joined them two years ago. Lights gave me Wendell’s story, which I have needed to know since the day I met him, but I’m still not ready to say goodbye to this trio of outcasts.

I love them individually but I love them even more when they’re together. That’s not to say I wasn’t ready to give one of the characters a talking to at one point, but they came good in the end.

Grief and loneliness have weaved their way through this trilogy, and sadness and some anger have accompanied them. There’s also been friendship, messy and complicated, but also wonderful.

I loved Tierney at first sneer. For someone who could have been cast as the villain, and was in many areas of her life, she had a complexity that drew me to her. I kept wanting more page time with her.

After being wowed by the artwork in the first two graphic novels in the series, I expected a lot from this one and wasn’t disappointed. Before you read a word, you know from the colour palette alone that you are in the world of Sheets.

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It’s inviting and soothing and lovely. Wendell’s past came with its own set of colours so, at a glance, you knew which time period you were in. Young Wendell is absolutely adorable.

Am I sad that it’s over? Of course. Am I glad I was along for the ride? Absolutely.

Bring on whatever Brenna Thummler creates next.

“How could anyone forget you?”

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Thank you so much to NetGalley and Oni Press for the opportunity to read this graphic novel.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Marjorie Glatt’s life was forever changed the day she discovered a group of ghosts hiding in her family’s laundromat. One of those ghosts was Wendell: a lonely phantom turned Marjorie’s best friend. When he and Marjorie are joined by ghost-enthusiast Eliza Duncan, the three friends band together in friendship, bravery, and all things paranormal.

Wendell died far too young and now must wander the Land of Humans with nothing more than a sheet for a body. He knows how he died — a tragic drowning accident — but lately he’s grown curious about his past life. He wants to know more about why he died, not just how he died. It’s not easy, though, since Wendell’s memory of his human life has grown increasingly blurry. With Marjorie and Eliza’s help, they set out on a journey to find out more. When they hear a rumour about Wendell’s death, they wonder if it might not have been an accident after all. Meanwhile, Marjorie and Eliza’s friendship is tested when Marjorie starts to befriend the very people who used to bully Eliza.

In the third and final instalment of the Sheets trilogy, Wendell will finally uncover the truth of his human life. Marjorie and Eliza will learn that some people really can change. Most of all, they start to see that everything can cast shadows, but if you look hard enough, you can find the light.

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A Study in Downing – Ava Reid

Effy has read her copy of Emrys Myrddin’s Angharad so many times she can quote entire chunks of it verbatim. A student of architecture (because women aren’t allowed to study literature), Effy has a unique connection to the story.

Though she had read Angharad for the first time at thirteen, she had been dreaming of the Fairy King long before that.

When she learns that designs are being sought for Hiraeth Manor, which will house the recently deceased national treasure’s writings, Effy jumps at the chance. While the odds are slim that a university student a mere six weeks into their degree will be chosen, Effy’s determined to make her design stand out.

Upon arriving at Hiraeth Manor, Effy meets Ianto Myrddin, Emrys’ son, and Preston, a literature student. Ianto is … odd and she’s not a fan of “smug, pedantic” Preston. (Effy’s words, not mine.)

Effy’s disdain for Preston grows when she learns the focus of his study, to discredit Emrys Myrddin. Fair enough, too. If your intention is to cast aspersions on one of my favourite authors, we’re going to have a problem.

A book featuring a character who’s this passionate about a book was always going to end up on my radar. Set it in a location like Hiraeth Manor, which you should really explore yourself before anyone describes it to you, and I’ll be planning a road trip. Add fear, uncertainty, some trauma, magic and a mystery to solve, and consider me sold.

I may have to rethink my ‘I don’t do romance’ stance. Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries and now this book have both well and truly sucked me in, and I haven’t had a problem with the romance components of either. I was actually looking forward to the characters finally getting their acts together and declaring their love.

“Oh, stop it. You’re being so relentlessly you.”

And now I must retreat into the forest to contemplate my fractured bookish romance worldview.

This book describes dissociation in one of the most authentic ways I’ve ever read. The impacts of the trauma Effy has experienced also rang true.

The writing is beautiful, even when it’s describing darkness. It took me much longer than I expected to finish this book, not because I wasn’t enjoying it but because I wanted to linger over each sentence. I didn’t want to miss a thing and I’m keen for a reread.

I’ve agonised over this review for weeks. There’s so much I want to say but I don’t want to ruin anything. I expect this will be one of my favourite reads of the year.

But if fairies and monsters were real, so were the women who defeated them.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Effy has always believed in fairy tales. She’s had no choice. Since childhood, she’s been haunted by visions of the Fairy King. She’s found solace only in the pages of Angharad – a beloved epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, and then destroys him.

Effy’s tattered copy is all that’s keeping her afloat through her stifling first term at her prestigious architecture college. So when the late author’s family announces a contest to design his house, Effy feels certain this is her destiny.

But Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task: a musty, decrepit estate on the brink of crumbling into a hungry sea. And when Effy arrives, she finds she isn’t the only one who’s made a temporary home there. Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar, is studying Myrddin’s papers and is determined to prove her favourite author is a fraud.

As the two rival students investigate the reclusive author’s legacy, piecing together clues through his letters, books, and diaries, they discover that the house’s foundation isn’t the only thing that can’t be trusted. There are dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspiring against them – and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

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For Girls Who Walk Through Fire – Kim DeRose

Every week Elliott attends a sexual assault support group for teenage girls. Every week Elliott hears the stories of the other girls in the group. Every week Elliott becomes more and more certain that nothing is changing.

Elliott is sick of talk. She’s sick of the perpetrators not being held to account for their actions.

“I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I think it’s time we take matters into our own hands.”

Elliott is ready to do something new and she thinks The Book of Reflection could hold the answers. Now all she needs is a coven.

“For when brought together with a coven – and only with a coven – will the spell most suited to the conjuring witch be summoned. Those who would suppress and destroy you stand not a chance when confronted with the power that lies within these pages.”

Going into this read, I thought I’d be entirely on board with a story of revenge, where victims take back their power while dealing a dose of ‘let the punishment fit the crime’ to those who have violated them. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that, while I’m big on fairness and justice, revenge is actually not something that motivates me.

The more I read, the more uncomfortable I became with the results of the revenge. By spending so much time focused on the perpetrators, the girls weren’t learning ways to manage the impacts of their trauma.

The way the revenge took place left the girls in a passive role. The book, rather than the girls, chose the spell for each perpetrator and until it was cast the girls didn’t know what the result would be. While the girls each decided they wanted revenge, not having agency in deciding its form didn’t feel like an especially trauma informed way of going about it.

I appreciated that this book clearly shows that sexualised violence takes many forms. Those who have experienced it come from all walks of life, as do those who choose to commit those crimes. The short and long term impacts look different from survivor to survivor and healing is most certainly not one size fits all.

While revenge definitely plays a significant role in this book, connection and healing are also explored so while you may walk through the fire with these girls, there’s also hope.

Because here was the truth of walking through fire: it was excruciating, and it burned, and it turned you to ash. But flames did more than burn. Flames also brought light.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Union Square & Co for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Those who would suppress and destroy you stand not a chance when confronted with the power that lies within these pages …

Elliott D’Angelo-Brandt is sick and tired of putting up with it all. Every week, she attends a support group for teen victims of sexual assault, but all they do is talk. Elliott’s done with talking. What she wants is justice.

And she has a plan for getting it: a spell book that she found in her late mom’s belongings that actually works. Elliott recruits a coven of fellow survivors from the group. She, Madeline, Chloe, and Bea don’t have much in common, but they are united in their rage at a system that heaps judgements on victims and never seems to punish those who deserve it.

As they each take a turn casting a hex against their unrepentant assailants, the girls find themselves leaning on each other in ways they never expected — and realising that revenge has heavy implications. Each member of the coven will have to make a choice: continue down the path of magical vigilantism or discover what it truly means to claim their power.

For Girls Who Walk Through Fire is a fierce, deeply moving novel about perseverance in the face of injustice and the transformational power of friendship.

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All Hallows – Christopher Golden

Welcome to Parmenter Road. For a decade now, your Halloween night tradition has included braving the jump scares of the Haunted Woods, the brainchild of Tony Barbosa and his now 17 year old daughter, Chloe. They’ve added more scares to the path this year, the Haunted Woods’ final year.

You didn’t take a glow stick into the woods with you tonight because you wanted to savour the full experience. It was worth the wait and you’re going to really miss this long standing Halloween tradition next year.

Now you’ve faced down the banshee, you wander over to the Koenigs’ block party. On your way, you think of Zack and Ruth Burgess. You’ve heard rumours about that couple so you told your kids to skip their house when they’re Trick-or-treating. You can’t be too careful these days, after all.

You usually keep to yourself but even you aren’t immune to the gossip you’re hearing at the party tonight. Sure, you feel bad for the lives that are imploding all around you but there’s also a part of you that’s relieved your marriage and your kids aren’t part of tonight’s fodder. At this distance, you can almost imagine this is all playing out on Wisteria Lane.

Hold on. Who’s that? There’s a kid approaching you, wearing a costume that looks like it’s seen better days. You thought you knew all of the kids in the neighbourhood but you’ve never seen them before. You wonder if they’re okay.

“He’ll find me. He always finds me.”

Hmm, maybe not. As you start to ask them what’s wrong, who always finds them, you notice someone getting closer. You’ve definitely never seen them before. You would have remembered someone that tall. Is that who the kid’s so terrified of?

Are those … candle flames where their eyes should be?

If you like to get to know your horror victims before they’re sliced and diced, this is the book for you. If you want to see people’s insides become their outsides, this is the book for you. If Halloween isn’t a day of the year but a state of mind for you, this is the book for you. If you desperately want to visit the place the horrors have come from, join me in hoping for a sequel.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unravelling. The Barbosas have opened their annual Haunted Woods attraction in the forest behind the house they’re about to lose. The Sweeneys are fighting about alcoholism and infidelity on their front lawn. Up the street, a high-school senior is about to have her secrets exposed, while down the street, the truth about Ruth and Zack Burgess turns out to be even more horrifying than the rumours ever were. 

And all the while, four children who do not belong are walking door to door. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. Children who seem terrified, and who beg the neighbourhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The Cunning Man. But with families falling apart and the community splintered by bitterness, who will save the children of Parmenter Road? 

All Hallows. The one night when everything is a mask…

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Big Bad – Chandler Baker

There’s an order to these things, a way that events must unfold.

Sam knows all too well what can happen when things don’t go to plan so he makes sure everything is done just right. What’s not part of the plan, though, is his wife, Rachel, arriving home late.

With wolves too close for comfort and an unexpected visitor at the door, thing are about to go bad, in a big way.

While I was here for the horror, unexpected bonuses came in the form of Odie and June, Sam and Rachel’s daughters. Odie tries to be a good big sister, despite June being June. As I waited for the inescapable bloodshed, Odie warmed my heart. She’s determined to protect her younger sister from something neither of them understand and I was in awe of her courage.

“There are things we’ve never told you.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

For a family trying to make an isolated farmhouse into a home, fear and rage are getting harder to control in a primal short story by the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Network and Cutting Teeth.

The Strauss family is on knife’s edge. Sam is a resentful stay-at-home dad. Rachel feels the restlessness in her blood returning. Their children are getting out of hand. And a recent mudslide has forced the wolves out of the woods to look for food.

As dusk falls and tensions rise, the family must come together to survive the night —from the threats outside and those within.

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Best of Luck – Jason Mott

Have you ever had a friend with a charmed life? Will’s best friend of twenty years, Barry, has had a recent string of good luck, resulting in all round prosperity. Meanwhile, Will’s luck appears to have run out.

Will knows where his luck has gone, though. He’s so sure, in fact, that he shows up at the architectural masterpiece Barry calls a home with a shotgun. It’s time to introduce Barry to Henry.

I wasn’t sure which of the friends was going to have the worst day but when someone brings a gun to a confrontation, you know it’s not going to end well. Although I had hoped for a specific outcome, the way the events unfolded made more sense.

“Sometimes you have good luck. Sometimes you have bad luck. Everything can ultimately be traced back to luck in some form, right?”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Once Upon a Blurb

Did you ever hear the one about the man with a string of bad luck? The worst is still to come in a chilling short story of an insatiable friendship by the New York Times bestselling author of Hell of a Book.

For best friends with vastly different fortunes, what’s left to hash out other than a forced confession at gunpoint? All that the destitute, sickly and grieving Will demands is that monstrously successful Barry admit to draining all the luck right out of him. Like blood. As the standoff escalates, the truth is not the only thing ready to come out.

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