Slasher Witch at the Waterpark by Penny Moonz

 I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and Victory Editing NetGalley Co-op in exchange for an honest review.

What an absolute blast this book is!

Slasher Witch at the Waterpark is a farcical horror comedy book about a witch killing a bunch of people at a waterpark. It is equal parts ridiculous and fun, with a lot of creative deaths and details which made this book such a delight to read. An ancient witch getting drunk off frozen margaritas whilst she murders dozens of people? Timeless.

There's honestly not much else to say about this book. The title tells you what you are in for, and it certainly delivers. I will say, I genuinely did love the range and creativity behind the deaths and the horror. Parts of the waterpark start coming to life, sea creatures reign terror and the skies open up to meteorological horrors. There are a few gross moments to be aware of but I am usually quite sensitive to certain elements (bodily fluids etc) and I found it manageable. If you're looking for a fun horror read that is goofy in all the right ways, I cannot recommend this more!

Overall Rating:

.5

This Little Family by Ines Bayard

 

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher 4th Estate in exchange for an honest review.

Occasionally you read a book that will haunt you forever. This is one of those books.

This Little Family is not really the book I expected going in and I think the blurb is actually fairly misleading. This is not really a psychological thriller or horror, except in the sense of it being a real-life horror. This is the story of Marie, a poor woman who is raped by her boss and then through a series of circumstances, forced to give birth to the child. She then goes through some of the worst postpartum depression I've ever read about, all depicted and described in heart-breaking detail.

This is not the kind of book someone 'enjoys' but I absolutely could not put it down. The writing is superb and there is a kind of car-crash fascination with the constant barrage of bad luck and psychological trauma Marie goes through. I kept reading hoping something would work out better for her, knowing from the prologue that it wouldn't. At the same time, this book is incredibly honest and sensitive in the way it portrays Marie (in my opinion at least). Nothing is gratuitous or unnecessary, and it all feels like a very real portrayal of someone's pain.

If you're looking for a reading experience that might profoundly change you as a person or a deep exploration of a truly awful situation, then this is the book for you. If you want a typical thriller with twists and turns and psychological tension, then ignore the marketing. Thankfully this book ended up appealing to me anyway, far more than most thrillers can, but I do wonder how many people will be mislead and unfairly rate the book due to the poor choice of marketing. It really does deserve better

Overall Rating:

Lord of the Fly Fest by Goldy Moldavsky

 

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

This book is completely different tonally than what I was expecting from the cover. This looks kinda like a horror/thriller, but really it's a straight contemporary in tone. Lord of the Fly Fest is a retelling of Lord of the Flies, shifted to be a YA comedy. Our protagonist Rafi runs a true crime podcast and decides to attend the next big music festival, Fly Fest, to try and interview popstar River Stone. River's girlfriend went missing and Rafi is convinced he killed her, though her conviction looks more like she has a crush on him at times.

As mentioned, this book is pretty much a straight comedy. One of the main model characters is called Hella Badid, the name that made me realise I wasn't getting the horror I wanted. It's also way more like Lord of the Flies than I expected, with characters and some (loose) plot elements being lifted from it. This may sound odd and if it does, that's because it is. The end third of the book tries to ramp up the serious plot developments with increased comical farce, and the result is very hard to get what the author was going for.

Once I got over my disappointment about the lack of horror, this book was fine I guess. It feels a little dated already, making fun of influencers and popstars in a way which feels very 2016. Characters are often clear parodies of real people (Hella Badid, James Charles -> Jack, Harry Styles -> River Stone) and it all feels a bit mean. The main character is mocked mercilessly for running a podcast, even though podcasts are mega popular and tons of influencers either have their own or frequently guest on them.

I will say, I really enjoyed the audiobook. I think the narrator does some fun voices for the characters, and it was a lot more palatable to hear the humour than it would have been to just read it on the page. If you do decide to pick this up, the audiobook might be the way to go.

Ultimately, this book was a fun time but it's a big step down in my opinion from Moldavsky's other work. I also think it needs clearer marketing to avoid disappointed readers

Overall Rating:

Baby by Annaleese Jochems

 

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

It feels almost criminal to give a book like this 3 stars because it is anything but average, but I am not sure how else to represent my feelings about it.

Baby is the very weird story of two women who spontaneously decide to run off together. One of them is a 21 year old named Cynthia, who acts more like an 18 year old. This boat is sort of her dream, and most of the book focuses on things from her perspective. Anahera is her older ex-yoga instructor turned mother figure turned inappropriate crush. The book focuses on this very uncomfortable relationship dynamic, as well as what happens when they are joined by a mysterious man who upsets their dynamic.

This book is incredibly unique and not entirely coherent. I think I wanted a more coherent experience to be honest; I love stories about dark female friendships, and this had a lot of promise, but it remains a little too out there and disconnected from reality for any of the unpleasant elements to hit right. Cynthia is a deeply disturbed woman who is emotionally juvenile. You never quite learn what Anahera's deal with, which I think is a real shame. There are hints that Cynthia's viewpoint is skewing things at various points, but it's missing that other side which would really make the horror-esque elements hit home.

The other thing to mention about this book is that it's incredibly disgusting with its description. I get nauseated quite easily and large passages of this book were deeply unpleasant, with no real reason for it. There's a lot of stuff revolving around physical description or bodily fluids that I could have done without.

Finally, the ending was the most disappointing aspect of this book for me. If it had a punchier ending, I think I would have given this book 4 stars despite its flaws. But it just kind of ends with no real bite, and while I get what it was going for, I wanted something more.

Overall, I think there are books which do this concept better (Social Creature springs to mind) but I can't say I regret reading it. It's a bizarre time and I think it will stand out in my memory for that fact alone. Some people will absolutely love this book because it's not the kind of story you can be 'indifferent' to really. If you think you might be one of them, give it a try

Overall Rating:

Untold Mayhem by Mark Tullius

 

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

Trigger warning tags might not be entirely accurate for this book due to the length and my memory. Please contact me if you are worried about a tag not included on the post and I will do my best to find out for you.

Untold Mayhem is a fantastic collection of 24 horror stories and a cast of 6 narrators, making for a brilliant audiobook experience. Each new story will rotate to another narrator so it's really easy to keep track of, and the change in voice means you are compelled to pay attention as well. As for the stories themselves, there is a huge range and a lot to enjoy for horror fans. I will say that several of the stories get really graphic on different aspects (sexual, violent, disgusting etc) so this is not for the faint of heart. However, I found it relatively easy to skip over the aspects less appealing to me.

I am struggling to get a complete list of the titles of the stories so instead I will discuss the subject matter of some of my favourites without the titles. One I really enjoyed was about two businessmen who were having a disagreement and so paid a mediation company who promises to help them resolve it, no matter what. That was dark and built up well. The second story about a man introducing his date to his art collection was also really great, and 'Taking Out the Trash' was so dark but very well written.

Overall, if you're looking for a short and decidedly not sweet horror anthology collection, Untold Mayhem is absolutely one to check out. I strongly recommend checking out the audiobook version as well as it gave a great experience of the book and I really enjoyed listening to the stories around other tasks. Each story is pretty short so it was easy to listen the way I wanted and not forget important details the way I might with a longer book. Tullius's writing is very strong and I am looking forward to checking out some of his other anthologies.

Overall Rating:

The Passengers You Cannot See by The Behrg

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pricks Like Thorn media in exchange for an honest review.

I've read quite a lot of horror anthologies recently. I'm going to be honest, this one didn't really stand out. That might seem harsh but it's not necessarily a bad thing. The stories in this collection for the most part were fine. Some were really good-Kill Your Darlings for example is a fantastic story about an author who pushes the whole 'write what you know' thing too far. Still Born was a heart-breaking and chilling tale about a couple dealing with the title topic. But putting those two aside, the other stories in this collection are just sort of all right. There was only one I actively disliked and that was due to me not being able to cope with the content (Scabs if you're curious). I definitely think this collection is worth a read and the author is clearly talented when it comes to themes. It lacks many of the problems I've had with previous anthologies and it's just a shame that more of the stories didn't blow me away.

Overall Rating:

Growing Things & Other Stories by Paul Tremblay

I received a free copy of this book for review thanks to William Morrow and Edelweiss.

Oh boy. I really honestly thought I would love this short story collection. I read A Head Full of Ghosts by Tremblay earlier this year and really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to experiencing a greater range of his work through an anthology. Sadly this book was not designed for the casual reader. Honestly I was surprised by the sheer amount of references to his other work present in this and, as someone who has only read one of his books, I did not find the stories easy to understand despite not getting those references. This was my major problem with the anthology and I found myself skimming and skipping stuff as a result. Maybe if you're a mega-fan then you would get a lot more out of this but I also feel that this should stand on its own as a collection rather than relying on knowledge of other works.

My other main problem is I just wasn't that interested in many of the stories. Normally I review every single story for an anthology but for this one I would be repeating myself a lot so I'm just going to mention a couple and do my overview stats.

Number of stories: 19
Number I liked: 2
Number which were okay: 3, maybe?

Something About Birds-A somewhat meta creepy story about birds where a journalist writes about meeting a horror author who wrote a creepy story about birds. Okay, so this one definitely felt like I was maybe missing something from the context but it was one of the few where it didn't matter and I still got absorbed into the story. It was probably my favourite of the collection and it had creepy moments whilst still making sense.

A Haunted House is a Wheel, Upon Which Some Are Broken-A choose-your-own adventure story about a woman visiting a haunted house. Despite the page numbers not being available for the ARC (meaning that I could not choose my own adventure but had to read it linearly) this was a very beautiful story and I loved every minute of it. A tied favourite with the previous story and this would probably be my favourite had I been able to read it in the way it was intended.

These two stories save it from being a one star read for me. Now for some of my least favourites:

Notes from the Dog Walkers-An incredibly meta story which is exactly what it says on the tin. This story just went on and on and on and I tried to read all of it but it was just getting worse and worse. I have actually read the work I needed to in order to get this reference and yet I still didn't get it which is a terrible sign. It was very surreal and read very narcissistic to me. Only for mega-fans I feel.

That's the only one I can talk about in detail as I have forgotten the rest. Sorry.

Overall, I am deeply disappointed I didn't enjoy this. It won't stop me from reading Tremblay's other books and being excited for them but I think I'll avoid his short stories from now on. I understand Tremblay is a huge author but it seems a strange decision to release a collection which is so alienating to people who don't know his work inside and out. I wish I could have given this a more positive review.

Overall Rating:

The Heartbreaker by Mark Young

I picked this collection up on a whim through my Kindle Unlimited subscription and I am very glad I did! At first I was a little worried when I started because the first story is not really horror at all and I'm not much of a sci-fi/fantasy person. Thankfully the rest are primarily horror. As per usual with my anthology reviews, I will go through each story and my opinion of it.

The Heartbreaker-This was not a great start to the anthology, mainly because it's much more of a sci-fi/action story. This is about a soldier who gains a mysterious power and wakes up in a facility after an accident. Not really what I was expecting and so I didn't enjoy it much.

Black Mist-This was a surprisingly deep story about a young girl who has been abused by her stepdad and gets the chance for mystical revenge. It felt on the cusp of problematic with some of the details, but this was one of the stories with the characters I was most invested in and I couldn't predict where it was going.

Curse of the Dreamweaver-This was a solid little fable about a footballer who doesn't appreciate what he has in his life. It's predictable and a little confusing in its description near the end. It also had some imagery that made me feel physically sick which wasn't great. However, it told a good story and there was some interesting stuff happening.

The Artist-This is about an actress who catches the eye of a mysterious man who decides he wants to paint her. It was fairly predictable but told well and had some nice elements revolving around the main character being an actress.

Let's Not Talk About Kevin-A boy named Kevin has been chained up by his family. This story has an interesting start and subverts expectations but it felt a bit lacking? I wanted more detail about what had happened to Kevin and less of the repetitive action sequence it ends with. I feel like this story had more to tell.

Heavenly Waters-A man goes fishing and encounters a mermaid. Sexy times ensue followed by horrific times. A fairly linear plot but it doesn't suffer for this. The sexual elements are...interesting.

The Good Boy-This was about a man whose son has gone missing. His wife claims to be visited by their son's ghost and tells him to go search a cave for him. Again, there was a little confusion in the details of what was happening but it had a cool premise and a creepy atmosphere.

Living With Your Parents Can Be Murder-Did not like this story. It's about a 42 year old man living with his parents and he has like a devil on his shoulder talking to him the whole time. There were no surprises and the ending was abrupt and weird.

The Vanished-A boy who is bullied accidentally wishes away the entire world except him and his bully. I feel like this could have been better than it was but again, it was a little weird in the execution. It's low on horror elements but it was more my speed than the first story.

The Unforgiving-This one was really cool. This is about a man and his son, and the dad was responsible for bullying someone to death when he was a child. He's experiencing guilt from that in the present day so he goes to talk to his dad about it but creepy stuff starts happening from there. A lot happened in this story and it was all so interesting and hard to predict. It felt like it had enough detail to be fleshed out into a full book, compared to some of the others which are more like snippets of horror.

Gone-Oh god, this one is weird. A man gets bitten by a mosquito and then...stuff happens. Very gory and full of disturbing details, but also it doesn't go where I expected it to which was a nice surprise. Perhaps the weirdest story which is saying something.

The Diary of Ethel Edie Browne-A woman moves into her new house and discovers an old diary with dark secrets. The characters in the present day were very odd-acting but the diary part was compelling and I really liked where the story went, even though it used something I'm usually not a fan of.

Protege-A man goes to interview someone and bad things happen. This was a really good story to end on and has some genuinely scary/disturbing moments in it. This was probably the story closest in tone to a modern horror movie.

So overall, this is a good little collection of horror stories. The writing style is decent and straightforward which is how I like my horror. There is a fair amount of gore, some sexual content in certain stories and also gross-out stuff (which I am particularly sensitive to and so found difficult to read). I would recommend checking this out if you're looking for some short horror to devour quickly. There are definitely some gems in here.

Overall Rating:

.5