Horseman by Christina Henry

 

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

Christina Henry is one of my favourite authors without a doubt. I have enjoyed her recent journeys into entirely original work but a part of me has sorely missed her ability to adapt traditional tales with that fantastic horror spin and tone. Horseman satisfied all of those cravings and more.

Horseman is the story of Ben, a trans teenager from the town of Sleepy Hollow. The headless horseman legends have always plagued his town but things become a bit too real when the corpse of a child is found with his hands and head missing. Ben decides to investigate but is held back by his grandma and grandfather, the former of which thinks it is unladylike to traipse around the woods and the latter of which seems to have secrets of his own.

This is a largely original horror story which only uses elements of the Sleepy Hollow mythos, often to great effect. Ben was a fantastic main character and I felt the trans identity stuff fit well with the themes of the novel (take this with a pinch of salt as I am not trans). Parts of this book felt a little slow or like not a huge ton was happening, but the creepy atmosphere was always there and I was never entirely sure what was going on in a good way. The characters as always are incredibly strong and they really helped add to the compelling nature of the book.

Overall, this is a solid effort from Henry and one I definitely recommend checking out, especially around the spooky autumn season. It's an interesting story with plenty of creepy elements and a strong main character, with added trans rep as a bonus. It's not my favourite book by Henry but it's a fantastic horror book and well worth the read.

Overall Rating:

.5

Trigger warnings clarity: Lots of gore/graphic descriptions of dead bodies. Transphobia comes from characters aimed at the main character, not from the nature of the book itself. There is attempted rape

Halloween Night on Monster Island by Clark Roberts

I was offered a free copy of this book by the author. However, it was available on Kindle Unlimited at the time and so I read it through that. All opinions are my own, genuine ones.

I was the biggest fan of Goosebumps back in the day and honestly, I still am. I was really intrigued by the premise of this book as evil theme parks and Halloween check a lot of my horror boxes, and the promise of Goosebumps-like thrills drew me in. Delightfully, this book managed to provide everything I could hope for and more.

Halloween Night on Monster Island is the story of a group of children who go to stay with their mysterious Uncle Victor for Halloween. Victor happens to own a spooky theme park called Monster Island which the kids have all to themselves, except for Victor's young assistant and the creepy park caretaker. Things start to get a little too spooky though as it seems like real monsters might be on the island.

I mean it as the biggest compliment when I say this book perfectly captures the tone and unique feel of Goosebumps. I'd actually argue it's a little better than the modern books. The cliffhangers for each chapter are more subtly done, the characters a little more fleshed out and less interchangeable. I had an absolute blast reading this book and it is perfectly designed to read to your child at night. The chapters are very short which makes it easy to make sure you can time readings and they don't go on too long, and the aforementioned cliffhangers would make a child want to keep reading on.

Overall, I cannot recommend this book more. It's perfect for the spooky season or just for the child/child at heart who loves old school Goosebumps-type stories. I was pleasantly surprised by just how good this book was and it is well worth checking out.

Overall Rating:

.5