Nightingale House by Steve Frech

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ Digital in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good haunted house book and this is a brilliant example of the genre. Shortly after moving into the titular house, Daniel loses his wife and is left having to care for his daughter by himself. When she starts being slightly obsessive about her imaginary friend, he is prompted to find out about the history of the house and he starts to realise her friend might not be quite so imaginary...

There isn't much original to tell about the plot of this book but it doesn't need to be original. The strength of this book comes from two things: the characters and the atmosphere. The main character is very likeable and I feel how he deals with grief about his wife is executed very well. He had a great relationship with his daughter and your investment in these characters is what brings the haunted house genre to life.

The atmosphere is also great and it hits a neat tone for a haunted house story. Rather than featuring the ghost of the house doing creepy things, most of the hauntings are related to Daniel's dead wife. You get the horror tinged with sadness and emotion, and it creates a unique, enjoyable tone. I have spent most of this month reading ghost stories and Nightingale House stood out in this regard.

Overall, there's not much else to say about this one. If you love haunted house stories, this is worth checking out. It's an enjoyable addition to the genre, if not hugely groundbreaking.

Overall Rating:

.5

All About Us by Tom Ellen

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher HQ in exchange for an honest review.

What a joy this book was! All About Us is the story of Ben, a man concerned that his relationship with his wife is falling apart. One Christmas Eve, he gains a watch from a mysterious man in a pub and finds himself thrust back in time to various important dates in his life (and his relationship). The blurb is a little misleading because it implies he will go back in time and reverse the initial decision of which girl he picks, but actually the book is not focused on that almost at all. It isn't a question of which girl is better, rather whether he wants to pursue Daphne at all knowing that they might inevitably drift apart. There is also a focus on how he has generally messed up his life outside of the romance, particularly his relationship with his mum and estranged dad.

Firstly, I have read this author's previous book which was co-authored and I'm pleased to find that I definitely loved this author's writing. The characters are brilliant and I was particularly impressed with the protagonist. It would have been easy to make him a stereotype who was bored of his wife and wanted a shiny new partner, but Ben has depth and a lot of heart. He clearly adores Daphne throughout and he was incredibly likeable. I wanted him to work things out and do well, and I was never rolling my eyes at his behaviour. Daphne was similarly great and I loved all the characters and felt connected to them.

The plot is unoriginal on paper but the execution is perfect. I couldn't really tell where it was going even though I should have been able to, and the Christmas elements are also really well done. The book starts on Christmas Eve and a few of the important dates take place on Christmas, but apart from some lovely imagery it isn't super Christmassy. I didn't feel out of place reading this in October and I was concerned I would, so that was a great balance hit.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this book. It's perfect if you want a well-written, interesting romance that you can actually root for. It avoids all of the pitfalls romance books can fall into, and it has convinced me to check out this author's entire backlog now. I am so so glad to find a good romance book written by a male author with a male protagonist that didn't alienate me as a female reader, and to find a book with a lot of heart and charm is always a treat.

Overall Rating:

.5

We Were Restless Things by Cole Nagamatsu

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher RB Media in exchange for an honest review.

I am going to be relatively kind to this book because I think I realised fairly early on that it wasn't for me. Because it was an audiobook, I didn't DNF but I'm not sure that was the right decision. We Were Restless Things is the story about a group of friends who are dealing with the fact their other friend drowned on dry land. There is some magical realism stuff but mostly it seems to be character-focused stuff, which would be fine if the characters were interesting or compelling. I can honestly only remember details about Noemi and Jonas, and I didn't particularly like either of them.

I really really don't like the romance in this book. Noemi is asexual and some aspects of that are portrayed very well, but I am uncomfortable with the fact she is narrated as being very flat and emotionless. Maybe it reads different in the text but I didn't like the association between asexuality and emotional flatness as, while sometimes the case in real life, this is also the stereotype I see most in the media. That aside, the romance is with her step sibling and that's the part I really hate. Sure, they meet as teenagers but I dislike the fact that two teenagers in fiction can't meet and have a platonic relationship, especially when a romantic one is pretty inappropriate. She even uses the 'stepbrother' label to push him away when she's worried about her asexuality which...gross.

Honestly that's all I have retained about this book sadly so I can't say much more. There seemed to be some good magical realism/ghost type stuff but those moments seemed very infrequent. It's a shame because I think this book could have been great if the characters were a little more distinct and interesting. Having said that, if you enjoy magical realism then you will probably get a lot more out of this than me. I was hoping for a Raven Boys-style conversion for me but alas that wasn't to be.

Overall Rating:

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Orion Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.

I was incredibly hyped to read this book and I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. I think the blurb is rather misleading and it gave me the wrong impression of what this book was. Rather than it being a set of alibis/ghost stories presented after the billionaire has died mysteriously, it is instead a short story collection of various people in the building encountering various ghosts before being invited to a dinner with the billionaire. The short stories themselves are only connected by a few characters and the building, so this book resembles more of an anthology than one cohesive narrative. It is only the final story where the billionaire dies and you find out what happens at the dinner party, tying the stories together.

Having said that, once I got over my disappointment with the premise, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The stories can get a little repetitive with the structure, but some of the ghost ideas are exceptionally cool. I particularly liked the haunted smart house, the concierge one and the imaginary friend. Apart from the smart house story, the final one is easily the best. It was a brilliant payoff to the premise promised by the blurb and had much needed (if a bit heavy handed) social commentary.

I do really wish this had been a full length novel. You could have taken 3 or 4 of the characters and focused on them, plus the billionaire. It would have allowed for more interaction between the characters and a deeper exploration of the ghost stories and social themes. But for what it is, Thirteen Storeys is decent. It's a shame the anthology format did it no favours.

Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone who enjoys ghost stories and is looking for one with a more modern/unusual twist. There are plenty of interesting ghost concepts and goings on to enjoy, and the bonus of the last story tying everything together really does make this collection worth a look.

Overall Rating:

.5

Don't Move by James S. Murray & Darren Wearmouth

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Blackstone Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

What a fantastic find! Don't Move is a fast-paced horror book centered around Megan, a woman dealing with a traumatic incident from her past. After losing her husband and son in an awful theme park accident the previous year, she decides to go on a church camping trip. Unfortunately for her, the trip is destined to be plagued by monstrous spiders.

The strength of this book really is the characters. The authors did a fantastic job of making both the protagonist and the side characters compelling in a short space of time, which for me is the key for good horror. I adored Megan and I really wanted her to survive the ordeal. Ricky is not a typical protagonist and I found him very interesting as a result, particularly as you couldn't predict his actions. The other characters don't get much page time but that didn't stop them from being decent additions to the story.

As an audiobook, I found the narration great. I was surprised when it finished to learn it was narrated by one of the authors, but it does make sense as the pacing and sense of excitement was created through the narration extremely well. The narrator was clearly passionate about their work and it paid off.

Overall, this is a great creature horror book. I don't normally like the genre much (I was looking for a spooky audiobook for Halloween) but I recommend it for all fans of horror as you might be pleasantly surprised. I will definitely be looking into other works by these authors and I'm so glad I requested this book.

Overall Rating:

Judderman by D.A. Northwood

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher W.F. Howes Ltd in exchange for an honest review.

Unlike the first of these audiobooks (Holt House), Judderman sadly left me a bit wanting. It's a very rambly sort of story which gives the impression of it being long, even though the whole thing is only about two hours in length. It also suffers from not having distinct voices for the characters, meaning that I found it very difficult to pay attention. It doesn't seem to have much of a plot as a result. It is set in a city and there is some kind of entity and a missing brother, but I kept tuning out due to long sections which were mostly there for atmosphere. It's a shame because I did enjoy the weirdness and unique tone of the first of these audiobooks but this didn't have anything much going for it. As with the first one, this is an old recording and so the sound quality is a little muffled/quiet which matters a lot more in this book than the first due to the monotonous tone. I think I might have enjoyed this more as a physical book but as it stands, I find it difficult to recommend this one.

Overall Rating:

Dead End Drive by Ian Kirkpatrick

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Steak House Books in exchange for an honest review.

Oh boy, this book was a mess. Originally I was going to give it 2 stars for having a decent premise, but having found out that it's based off a boardgame, that means the only things I liked about it aren't original at all.

Dead End Drive is about a family where, when someone dies, the battle for inheritance is a literal battle to the death. After the reading of the will, the person left alive in the morning will inherit everything. How can such a premise go wrong? Well, for starters the premise isn't actually introduced well within the book itself. People just start killing each other with no real explanation, which would have been very confusing if I hadn't read the blurb recently before starting it.

This book has two major problems. Firstly, the writing is not great. The pages are littered with both actual editorial mistakes (understandable for an ARC but there are a lot, far more than any other ARC I've ever had) and just poor writing choices. The characters are bland and, in the worst cases, harmful stereotypes. There is a gay stylist who constantly uses the word 'honey' and who, after murdering a black woman, insists on fixing her 'coarse dark hair'. I'm almost certain the racial implications of this were accidental but yikes.

The pacing is similarly poor. You get introduced to all the characters in very repetitive chapters, and then the one with the most personality instantly dies so you don't have a character you have a connection with. Far from being a bloodbath, the rest of the deaths are then paced very oddly. There is no real sense of tension or fear and none of the characters seem particularly scared or bothered by their situation. Again, the only character who wasn't aware of the bloodbath beforehand is murdered straight away so you don't get the benefits of following an outsider in this horrible situation.

Overall, I sadly can't recommend this book. I ended up skim-reading everything after 50% as I just didn't care enough. It's a shame because a book like this has such potential and some of the humour/horror elements were alright. It just had too little going for it.

Overall Rating:

The Unofficial Disney Parks Cookbook by Ashley Craft

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Adams Media in exchange for an honest review.

I was very curious and a little skeptical when I saw this book. I have never been lucky enough to go to Disneyland USA and so, while I have seen many photos of delicious-looking food online, I have never been able to try any myself. When I saw this book I really wanted to give it a read and I'm so glad I did!

Firstly, this book is perfectly presented. It really captures the Disney feel and I loved how the recipes were divided by park, with a cute map to tell you exactly where each food is sold. I wasn't sure how accurate this book would be in terms of recipes, but it is genuinely all food from the park and it doesn't just stick to the generic recipes either. The effort is clear on every page and it really pays off.

The recipes themselves are pretty varied and there's a great mix. I like how many of them are very accessible and either don't require a great deal to make or else they require things you would likely already have as a cook. I will say, this is an american book and some of the ingredients aren't super common in the UK. This isn't a huge issue as you can usually get the ingredient somewhere (or substitute it) and it was maybe 3 or 4 of the recipes it applied to, but it's something to be aware of as a UK reader.

Overall, this book is a real treat for Disney fans. It was everything I wanted from the title and the recipes themselves seem a whole lot of fun. I definitely recommend it for the Disney fan in your life.

Overall Rating:

Cursed Objects by J. W. Ocker

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Tantor Audio in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderful treat for the spooky season! Cursed Objects is a nonfiction book all about various cursed objects/relics from around the world. It presents a whole host of various objects with their legends and mostly leans on the skeptical side, giving it a really fun and enjoyable tone. I really liked the format of this book. It is split up into fairly small chunks (each segment of the audio book is around 5-10 minutes) which makes for very easy listening. I loved that I could dip in and out of it, and that listening to the end of each section wasn't a huge commitment.

The audiobook itself is pretty short but it is absolutely packed full of information. It covers a large range and variety of cursed objects, and I found every story interesting in some way. I will say, while I did enjoy the audiobook enormously I would probably recommend buying this as a physical book rather than an audio one. It was a great  audiobook but you are told that the physical book has illustrations which I am sad I missed out on, and I think the information would have been slightly easier to digest had I read it with my eyes rather than my ears. But if you want something to listen or experience more casually, then the audiobook is definitely the way to go.

Overall, I strongly recommend this audiobook/book. It's a fun collection of spooky information told well, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

Overall Rating:

It Came from the Multiplex edited by Joshua Viola

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Hex Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Though admitting so might revoke my 'horror fan' badge, I must be honest and say that I've not seen many 80s horror films. I've seen a decent chunk of cheesy, almost comedy horror films though and this was absolutely the tone this anthology was going for. It was a whole lot of fun but I want to make this clear in case people are expecting more of a violent slasher/sexual horror vibe. This anthology is mild on those elements but is all the stronger for it in my opinion, instead serving up some good old cheesy horror fun. I agree with other reviews that it would benefit more from being compared to 60s or 70s horror films.

Number of stories: 14

Great stories: 3

Good stories: 7

Meh stories: 3

Stories using the slur 'gypsy': 1

ALIEN PARASITES FROM OUTER SPACE/RETURN OF THE ALIEN PARASITES FROM OUTER SPACE-I am combining these two stories together as they are essentially one story (a story and its 'sequel'). This was a fun story about a teen who goes to see a movie about alien parasites and realises that the movie may be more real than it appears. I wish the sequel had been included later on in the anthology as it was a little repetitive when it followed straight after the first one and I think I would have enjoyed a break later on. The first one was also by far the stronger story for me with the sequel not being as good. But both were fun romps with some neat details, and they were a good way to introduce the tone of the anthology.

NEGATIVE CREEP-This had the really cool concept of kids being stalked by some kind of entity which behaved in uncertain ways. I really liked how films were incorporated into this story and I thought it was a lot more clever and original than some. It wasn't my favourite but it had strong moments and managed to stand out.

HELLULOID-This was the story where I realised just how strong the cinema/movie theme was. Honestly I don't really remember much about it, apart from that it used film reel in a kind of interesting way but the plot itself wasn't very gripping.

RISE, YE VERMIN!-Some neat lesbian representation here but not much else going for it sadly. It felt like it was a retread of previous stories with the bug and film reel motif, and it really struggled to stand out as unique to me. It was at this point I wondered if all the authors had been given the same specific brief for writing stories.

THE CRONENBERG CONCERTO-A man recounts his personal history of going to the cinema to watch horror films. For most of this story, I was kinda meh. Then something happened and I fell in love. This was deliciously dark and really caught me off guard, which made the ending all the better. I adored this story and I think it will stay in my mind a long time.

CREATURE FEATURE-A fun story about a teen who gets a new job at a very unusual movie theatre. This uses a type of horror I'm not a huge fan of but it really was a more lighthearted horror read and it deserves points for uniqueness. Ended a little abruptly but all in all, a good romp.

INVISIBLE-A chilling tale of a serial killer and how he selects his victims. This was another unique way to incorporate the cinema theme and I really enjoyed it. Parts are definitely hard to read but this didn't skew super graphic which I appreciated. The ending was really neat and dark in a good way.

SCREEN HAUNT-A woman afraid of everything creates a horror movie. This was a little hard to follow but had some great moments and imagery. I really liked parts of it, I just wish it had been told in a clearer style.

THE DEVIL'S REEL-A travelling man comes to a small town and opens up a cinema with a nefarious purpose. A lot happened in this story and I appreciated the pacing and plot elements. It went big scale and fit well into the movie theme for that reason.

ON THE ROCKS-Four teenagers go to see a werewolf film. This ended far too abruptly and was a little predictable, which was a shame because I dug the writing style.

COMING ATTRACTIONS-Four teenagers use a broken panel in a cinema to stay after dark. This story was amazing! I was completely gripped throughout and it actually properly scared me which rarely happens. A definite gem and my favourite of the collection.

LATE SLEEPERS-A student leaves his house in disarray after a family Thanksgiving meal and goes to the cinema. I really liked the main idea of this story and it did have a creeping sense of dread throughout. However, the ending was a little unclear (and not in a good way, just in a confusing way) which was a bit of a shame. Still a strong concept though!

SPECIAL MAKEUP-Okay, so this story has a great idea with the horror item but uh, repeatedly uses the g slur for traveler. And the whole plot is based around a 'gypsy curse'. I was actually pretty shocked to read this because I thought everyone had the memo now that it's not okay but apparently not. It was a shame as well since it was the last story so I was left feeling a bit sour about the whole thing.

Overall, this anthology is a very fun one with a strong theme and some truly great stories. Most of the stories kind of overlap a bit and so I think more variety could have been beneficial, but the second half is much more varied and so I found it more entertaining. Maybe a rejiggling of the order of the stories would have helped? Either way, this is perfect if you're looking for a quick campy read this Halloween and I'm very glad I picked it up.

Overall Rating:

.5