Melissa Albert: "The Children" (ARC Review)

Title: The Children [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Melissa Albert [Instagram | Goodreads]
Genres: SPOILER - revealing the genre(s) would ruin your reading experience...If you want to go into the book without knowing anything vital about it, I recommend not reading the Labels at the end of my review either. No need to worry though - the review itself will be spoiler-free...
Year: 2026
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Visceral, immersive, haunting, with a denouement you won't see coming. Makes you care deeply for the characters (especially the protagonist's younger self).
Cons: The writing gets too purple at times.
WARNING! Death, murder, suicide, self-mutilation, fire, bugs. Child neglect/exploitation, pedophilia, infidelity, alcohol abuse.
Will appeal to: Those who like a familial saga with a twist. Those who muse about the relationship between life, art and fame.

Blurb: Guinevere's late mother, Edith Sharpe, needs little introduction. Bestselling author of the unendingly successful Ninth City series, her books brought so much joy and inspired the imagination of countless children the world over. Guin's childhood with her mother, brother Ennis and her actor father was a blissful, bohemian affair, filled with continuous laughter and surrounded by artistic types in their Vermont barnhouse. At least, this is the story Guin presents as she prepares for the press tour for her upcoming memoir about life in the Sharpe family. Now estranged from her brother and her parents long dead after a devastating fire, strange events threaten the veneer of serenity and familial harmony Guin is keen to project. Ennis, now a notorious artist with a troubled past, announces a new installation – his first since a disastrous last show one year prior – simply entitled Mother. And Guin can't help but worry that the truth behind their idyllic childhood is about to blow her world apart. (Goodreads)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc (UK & ANZ) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

GRIM(M) AND GORGEOUS

I have a confession to make: The Children was my first Albert book. I took a chance on it based by the synopsis alone, not really knowing what to expect (except for dark-fairy-tale vibes, according to the reviews of her backlist) - but upon parting with the last page, I immediately proceeded to add all her previous novels to my TBR list, top priority. Yes, it's THAT good. But you want to know what, precisely, is so good about it, and it's not easy to explain without entering spoiler territory. Anyhow, I'll try...

So: I won't tell you if The Children is a contemporary book with an unreliable narrator, or an exquisite (if dark) exercise in magical realism, or a straight-up supernatural tale, or all these things combined. But I will tell you this: The Children is an ode to the power of art - the power to save, or the power to damn, depending on certain circumstances. It's a dark fairy tale (yeah, indeed - in the vein of Albert's past books) unleashed in the real world. It's the story of a dysfunctional family and a predatory house. It's horrifying and spellbinding, bitter and beautiful, very meta yet unmistakably human (with all that entails). If you're like me, these things alone will probably seal your deal with this novel. But in case you need more practical details, feel free to read on... [...]

Quinn Connor: "Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves"

Title: Cicadas Sing of Summer Graves [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Quinn Connor [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Contemporary with a Twist, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2023

Age: 16+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age, and it's indeed marketed to that demographic, but it can be read by mature teens. There are far more graphic YA books out there)

Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Atmospheric, spellbinding, inventive, full of heart. Centers on a set of unique, diverse characters.
Cons: Tendentially slow (if you prefer stories with more than a modicum of action). Leaves some questions unanswered.
WARNING! Violence, body horror (though in one case it's actually more poetic than disturbing), blood, drowning/near drowning. Bullying/toxic friendship, panic attacks/disorders, grief, racism, classism.
Will appeal to: Those who like stories with their roots in a troubled/tragic past. Those who enjoy a mixture of cozy and unsettling, beauty and horror. Those who have a thing for characters both haunted and haunting.

Blurb: Prosper, Arkansas had not always been this way. Years ago, at the height of the summer swelter, in the wake of an unexpected storm, the local dam failed and the valley flooded - drowning the town and everyone trapped inside. The secrets of old Prosper drowned with them. Now, decades later, when a mysterious locked box is pulled from the depths of the lake, three descendants of that long-ago tragedy are hurled into another feverish summer. Cassie: the reclusive sole witness to an impossible horror no one believes. Lark: a wide-eyed dreamer haunted by bizarre visions. June: caught between longing for a fresh start and bearing witness to the ghosts of the past. Bound together, all three must contend with their home's complex history - and with the ruins of the town lost far beneath the troubled water. (Amazon)

Review: In 2024, I got the chance to read an ARC of Connor's second novel The Pecan Children, and I fell in love. That experience compelled me to seek their first one (I say "their" because Quinn Connor is actually the pen name for a writing duo, Robyn Barrow and Alex Cronin), which cemented them in my favourite-author pantheon. So here I go again, gushing about their debut book that doesn't read like a debut at all...

PAST IS PROLOGUE

If The Pecan Children was a (mind-bending) "allegory of decay in small-town America" (to quote the editorial notes), CSOSG deals with a dark page of the country's history, and sacrifices the big twist(s) for a slow but steady crescendo of reveals, a trickle of often uncanny details painting the picture of a small lakeside community and the way a tragic event that occurred many years prior continues to shape its present. The fictional town of Prosper is inspired by a real Arkansas one (Buckville) that was intentionally flooded in the 1950s, causing the displacement of many struggling farmers, a number of them Black and Native Americans. Cicadas gives an even more appalling spin to that story - and many others of the same kind - whose extent will only be apparent towards the end of the novel. On the backdrop of that tragedy, the authors entwine the lives of three young women (and the teen brother of one of them), each haunted in a different way, and craft a story of generational trauma, family ties, sense of belonging/legacy, human connection, ghosts of the past (both literal and figurative) and hope for the future. The protagonists are from diverse ethnicities (which ties in with the story), sexual orientations and ways of life, marked by different familial histories or survivors of different traumas, but the narrative manages to bring them together organically and effortlessly, and each one of them gets her chance to steal the scene - though I must admit having a soft spot for June and her intensity, that manifests itself in an impossible, ultimately poetical guise. [...]

Melissa Caruso: "The Last Soul Among Wolves" (ARC Review)

Title: The Last Soul Among Wolves [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: The Echo Archives (2nd of 3 books)
Author: Melissa Caruso [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Multiverse, Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 16+ (the characters are all adults, and the book is indeed marketed to adults, but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fresh take on the multiverse trope with strong world-building. Engaging characters. Lots of intriguing action and a few well-placed twists  The story leaves plenty of room for a new installment, but doesn't end on a cliffhanger.
Cons: The murder mystery isn't near as exciting as the magical quest. The main character comes across as more vulnerable and less resourceful than she did in Book 1.
WARNING! Blood, body horror, torture.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy modern fantasy, vintage detective stories, (deadly) alternate realities, former-enemies romances that don't swallow the plot, and new moms being badass.

Blurb: All Kembral Thorne wants is to finish her maternity leave in peace. But when her best friend asks for help, she can’t say no, even if it means a visit to a run-down mansion on an isolated island for a will reading. She arrives to find an unexpected reunion of her childhood friends - plus her once-rival, now-girlfriend Rika Nonesuch, there on a mysterious job. Then the will is read, and everything goes sideways. Eight potential heirs, half of them Kem’s oldest friends. Three cursed relics. The rules: one by one, the heirs will die. The prize for the lone survivor: A wish. And wishes are always bad business. To save their friends, Kem and Rika must race against the clock and descend into other realities once more. But the mansion is full of old secrets and new schemes, and soon the game becomes far more dangerous - and more personal - than they could have imagined. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

KEEPING MOMENTUM

I read the first installment in The Echo Archives series last year - drawn by its alternate-realities premise - and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed a story that ended up involving a few aspects I'm usually less keen on. For those who are new to this universe, a brief introduction (I'm quoting from my review for Book 1):

[...] the setting is a world similar to our own - albeit steeped in magic and giving off an early-20th-century vibe - except in this world twelve layers of reality exist: the root universe, or Prime, and its eleven Echoes, getting more and more grotesque and dangerous the farther you stray from their paradigm.

Our protagonist Kembral belongs to a guild tasked with retrieving people (or things) that get abducted/swallowed by the Echoes. She and her old nemesis (now girlfriend) Rika have barely recovered after saving their hometown from a cursed Echo relic, when they get dragged into a new mess involving not one, but three artifacts this time, in which the lives of eight people (half of them old friends of Kembral's) are at stake. I'm happy to report that TLSAW doesn't suffer from second-book syndrome - not at all. Weaving multiverse madness with a cozy (so to speak) old-style whodunnit and a still tentative, at times rocky romance, plus drawing on a huge twist from the first installment, Caruso produces an effortlessly entertaining sequel with action, character development and surprises to spare. There are scenes that will have you hold your breath (Kem's power is incredibly fascinating, but comes with very real consequences), and the Echo world and its creatures are vividly depicted. Also, did I say surprises? Because, while some were a tad too easy to see coming in the first installment, the author covered her tracks well this time, and there's a twist in particular - involving one of the new characters - that will elicit horror and compassion at the same time... [...]

B.C. Johnson: "Djinn & Tonic" (ARC Review)

Title: Djinn & Tonic [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: B.C. Johnson [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Thriller or Mystery, Supernatural
Year: 2025
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Original, funny, twisty, cinematic.
Cons: A tad chaotic and a bit heavy on the snarkiness. The sex scenes (see below) may not sit well with everyone.
WARNING! Blood and gore, violence (not of the sexual kind), torture, guns, burns, drowning. Contains two graphic sex scenes (F/M and F/F).
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a mixture of thriller and urban fantasy with plenty of action. Those who can get behind a kickass but dysfunctional heroine.

Blurb: Welcome to Remmy's life: crap work for ungrateful wishers. Her only reward? More wishes, more work. She and her djinn friends have been stuck in 20-something human bodies since Biblical times and - other than a few neat parlor tricks - they can't snap their fingers and make your wish come true. What they do have is a few thousand years of experience making the impossible possible. When Remmy's newest lamp-rubber turns out to be the loathsome owner of a Fortune 500 company with dirty dealings, Remmy finds herself unwillingly descending into a murder mystery that crosses borders, oceans, and every line of human decency. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received this novel from the author in exchange for an honest review. I've been a fan of Mr. Johnson since I started his Deadgirl series in 2013, and I've proof/beta-read some of his books. I swear, though, that I'm going to be as honest about this book as I usually strive to be in my reviews. I wouldn't be of any service neither to the author nor to you potential readers if I didn't. Here goes....

DJINN-IUS IDEA

After bringing the wonderful and epic Deadgirl series to completion, B.C. Johnson swings towards adult lit, but doesn't betray his signature penchant for supernatural mayhem and snarkiness. First thing first - Djinn & Tonic is one of the most original stories I've ever read. Think hard-boiled detective novel without the actual detective and with a band of used-up genies instead. They only retain a small fraction of their original power (that they have to conserve as best as they can, because in human form, they don't have access to its source anymore), but are bound to make their summoners' wishes happen, so they have to resort to unconventional methods (well, unconventional for a bunch of genies, that is...though, now that I think of it...unconventional at any rate). There's also a backstory - albeit small - of how they found themselves in this predicament, and it left me wanting more. D&T is a treasure trove of comic moments and funny banter/inner monologue, plus it has an eldritch, unhinged heroine full of very human flaws and with a more tender core than you might expect, all things considered (but shh, don't tell her 😉). "What would you do if you were an ancient being shoved into a human body since before Christian era and your powers were dwindling, but you were forced to act as if you still had them, or pay a steep price" wasn't on my bingo card for sure, but that's B.C. Johnson for you - and as usual, the result is a rich, engaging story you haven't read the like before. [...]

Ryan Leslie: "The Garden of Before" (ARC Review)

Title: The Garden of Before  [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: The Between (2nd of 2 books)
Author: Ryan Leslie [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural (technically it would be Portal Fantasy, but since I don't have a Fantasy Room on the blog, I decided to shelf this one as Supernatural - that's the closer I could get), Multiverse, Sci-Fi, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Imaginative, engaging and visually stunning. Rich in worldbuilding and character development/dynamics.
Cons: The main characters' unusual inner strength requires a little suspension of disbelief.
WARNING! Horror and gore, fires, death of a sibling, dismemberment/decapitation, run-over, violence, depression, miscarriage (off-page).
Will appeal to: Everyone who loves game-like structures and larger-than-life scenarios/adventures in their books.

Blurb: For Paul Prentice things have gotten much worse. His house was destroyed in the battle with the Koŝmaro. He's on thin ice at his job, where instead of working he loses himself in the Between's computer game, trying in vain to find explanations. His best friend Jay has transformed into a shadowy killer. Corinne and Supriya have vanished. And it appears his wife, Julie, has finally had enough and left him. Alone and near ruin, Paul receives a familiar visitor with a dire message: they are all back in the Between. Hunted, captured, doomed. For Paul, still wearing the serĉilo's artifact on his wrist, escape was never an option. The game must be played until the end. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary eARC from the author, since I had already enjoyed and reviewed Book 1 in the series, The Between, in 2021, and his second novel, Colossus, in 2024. That didn't affect my opinion and rating in any way.

Also, to help you get your bearings, a small recap of Book 1, for those of you who haven't picked it up yet, but might be tempted to after reading my review for the sequel...

While landscaping his backyard, Paul discovers an iron door buried in the soil. His childhood friend Jay pushes them to explore what's beneath. When the door slams shut above them, Paul and Jay are trapped in a between-worlds place of Escher-like rooms and horror story monsters, all with a mysterious connection to a command-line, dungeon explorer computer game from the early '80s called The Between. Paul and Jay, along with new and old acquaintances, find themselves filling mind-warping roles in a story that seems to play out over and over again...

CHARACTERS SHAKEUP

Now this is how you write a sequel/end of series.

If The Between was an exciting, rich and well-written foray into a terrifying multiverse nexus that you can never really escape even if you manage to get out - not if one of the roles it entails gets a hold of you - The Garden of Before ups the stakes, not only because the main characters are trying to save themselves and/or their loved ones (and in some cases, even to dismantle the place), but also because all their strengths and weaknesses, lights and shadows, come into sharp focus, raising questions about loyalty, revenge, love, sacrifice, and ultimately, what it means to be human. On one hand, Leslie introduces new characters (or, in some cases, not really...I'm not going to spoil the surprise 😉), and even manages to bring back old ones with a clever, poignant stratagem; on the other, he expands the roles of a few protagonists and secondary characters from Book 1, and creates fresh, powerful dynamics. Julie, Supriya and Corinne (along with two "new" female characters, if to a smaller extent because of their limited screen time) steal the scene in this one, which is a welcome change after the abundance of "dude talk" in Book 1 (I have to admit that I wish Jay would have been toned down a bit back then); and all the protagonists, despite being damaged in different ways - or precisely because of that - elicit empathy and/or a fierce attachment on the reader's part. [...]

Chuck Wendig: "The Staircase in the Woods" (ARC Review)

Title: The Staircase in the Woods [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Chuck Wendig [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Brilliant, exciting twist on a popular urban legend and a beloved horror trope.
Cons: The characters aren't easy to like, for different reasons (though it's kind of the point). The political tirades feel random and out of place. The somehow-open ending may not sit well with some readers.
WARNING! Violence, hate speech, suicidal ideation, self-harm, sexual abuse (off-page), emotional abuse, parental abuse, parental neglect, drug and alcohol addiction, bullying, animal abuse. Lots of blood, gore and disturbing imagery, bug horror, vomiting.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy mind-blowing (and hard-hitting) portal fantasies with a psychological angle. Those who like double-timeline narratives.

Blurb: Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what. Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something extraordinary: a mysterious staircase to nowhere. One friend walks up - and never comes back down. Then the staircase disappears. Twenty years later, the staircase has reappeared. Now the group returns to find the lost boy - and what lies beyond the staircase in the woods...(Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Random House Worlds/Del Rey for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

STAIR STRUCK

Apparently, staircases to nowhere in the middle of the woods aren't a rare sight, and in time have become an object of fascination spawning whole threads on sites like Reddit or Quora. Wendig drew on the urban legend according to which these staircases would be portals to other dimensions, wove it with a beloved horror trope (estranged childhood friends reunite to get closure and defeat an old evil), and produced a deliciously disturbing, nightmarishly captivating and completely addictive haunted-house maze, where friendships are tested and individuals must rise above their fears and flaws if they want to get out. (Mind you...don't expect actual ghosts - there are other ways for a house to be haunted...). Told in a now-and-then narrative across a twenty-something-years divide (the author references Covid, so I'd say, more like twenty-five than the twenty accounted for in the synopsis), the story introduces us to five friends who, as teens, swore an oath to always have each other's back, and after a drugged and drunken night in the woods when a member of the group vanished at the top of a supernatural staircase, slowly drifted apart, only to band together as adults in order to solve the mystery when a similar structure reappears.

Now, if you're into (hellish) supernatural mazes, literal twists and turns, videogame-style challenges and psychological horror, it doesn't get much better than this. Granted, this book is disturbing and gross at times (well, MOST times), but it's also creative and addictive and sort of exhilarating. The ending, while not coming with a pretty bow, gives you closure about the things that matter most. If it were only for these aspects, TSITW would be a 5-star read for me. [...]

Mira Grant: "Overgrowth" (ARC Review)

Title: Overgrowth [on Amazon | on Amazon UK | on Goodreads] (Note: I got my copy from the UK-based publisher Daphne Press, so I'm using the UK cover and I'm linking to Amazon UK along with Amazon.com)
Series: None
Author: Mira Grant [Site* | Goodreads]
   *[Note: as I'm writing this review, the Mira Grant site hasn't been updated for a few years]
Genres: Sci-Fi
Year: 2025
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Fascinating, thought-provoking, refreshingly diverse (trans rep, Mexican-American rep).
Cons: The main conflict and the ending may feel problematic to some, depending on how one reads them. 
WARNING! Toddler death (on page), transphobia, death/violence/guns, blood and gore/vampirism, imprisonment, bug horror.
Will appeal to: Those who like first-contact narratives with a twist. Those who enjoy stories of outsiders and found families. Those who are fascinated by alt-biology scenarios.

Blurb: Since she was three years old, Anastasia Miller has been telling anyone who would listen that she's an alien disguised as a human being, and that the armada that left her on Earth is coming for her. Since she was three years old, no one has believed her. Now, with an alien signal from the stars being broadcast around the world, humanity is finally starting to realize that it's already been warned, and it may be too late. The invasion is coming, Stasia's biological family is on the way to bring her home, and very few family reunions are willing to cross the gulf of space for just one misplaced child. What happens when you know what's coming, and just refuse to listen? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Daphne Press for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

PLANTED

In the vein of classics like Little Shop of Horrors, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Day of the Triffids, but with a huge twist (the point of view here is the alien's), Mira Grant's return to full-length fiction is a first-contact-meets-coming-of-age story packed with thought-provoking questions and social/cultural commentary. Set in a very near future (2031) over the span of a month, it chronicles the days preceding a plantlike alien armada's invasion of our planet, and the invasion itself, through the eyes of a hybrid character - alien in nature, human in appearance and by nurture - who both knows (and states) she's an alien and at times doubts she's deeply deluded...but mostly, simply, KNOWS. Then again, she has a lot of questions about herself and her origins, especially because more than thirty years have passed since when she allegedly fell on Earth and claimed the body of three-years-old Anastasia, and her people - who equipped her with a compulsion to announce their invasion plans - are taking their sweet time coming back for her. [...]

Philip Fracassi: "The Third Rule of Time Travel" (ARC Review)

Title: The Third Rule of Time Travel [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Philip Fracassi [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Sci-Fi, Thriller/Mystery, SPOILER - click on the Spoiler button below if you want to know, since revealing the other genre would ruin your reading experience...If you want to go into the book without knowing anything vital about it, I recommend not reading the Labels at the end of my review either. No need to worry though - the review itself will be spoiler-free...
Year: 2025
Age: 18+ (but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Engaging variation on the time-travel trope, with a strong human angle and a transcendental core.
Cons: The side characters are slightly underdeveloped. The metaphysical interlude can feel disorienting.
WARNING! Plane crash, car crash, guns, blood and gore, loss of parents and a sibling, loss of a spouse, stillbirth, trauma, grief, implied misogyny.
Will appeal to: Those who prefer their time travel to be emotion-driven and not necessarily physical (or literal). Those who enjoy a philosophical twist to it.

Blurb: Scientist Beth Darlow has built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time - to any point in the traveler's lifetime - and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it's not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. After Beth's husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella - their only daughter - and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology. Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp. As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK/Orbit for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

EMOTIONAL VOYAGE

Time-travel stories are always entertaining and thought-provoking no matter what, but I was pleasantly surprised by the spin Fracassi put on the trope. As it turns out, you can produce an exciting specimen of time-travel narrative even by having your characters remain fixed in place and only be able to revisit moments of their past...at least if you up the ante by throwing a couple more ingredients into the mix (one of which shall remain unnamed, to avoid spoiling your fun), and ultimately allowing said characters a different kind of agency than the reader would expect. As much as the adventures of a person displaced in a different era or physically reliving the same day can be fun, there's something to be said for a more psychological - and in this case, even philosophical - approach to being untethered from your present. I know, I know...I'm being cryptic, but spoilers are just around the corner. Suffice to say, while Beth is a stationary character, the trips her consciousness makes (and the ones her late husband made before her) spin a twisty (and emotional) web while apparently warping her present - first in subtle ways, then with catastrophic consequences - and won't make you miss the thrill of "real" time travel. [...]

Dan Hanks: "The Way Up Is Death" (ARC Review)

Title: The Way Up Is Death [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Dan Hanks [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Multiverse, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2025
Age: 18+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Inventive and cinematic; hard-hitting yet moving and ultimately hopeful.
Cons: Given the large cast of characters (and the very nature of the story), not all of them get to be sufficiently developed.
WARNING! Blood and gore, dismemberment, torture, near-drowning, human combustion/explosion, body horror, eye horror, rat horror, death of a loved one.
Will appeal to: Those who are in for a wild, brutal yet poetical adventure/mystery that doubles as a reflection on humanity, life and the future.

Blurb: When a mysterious tower appears in the skies over England, thirteen strangers are pulled from their lives to stand before it as a countdown begins. Above the doorway is one word: ASCEND. As a grieving teacher, a reclusive artist, and a narcissistic celebrity children’s author lead the others in trying to understand why they’ve been chosen and what the tower is, it soon becomes clear the only way out of this for everyone…is up. And so begins a race to the top, through sinking ships, haunted houses and other waking nightmares, as the group fights to hold onto its humanity, while the twisted horror of why they’re here grows ever more apparent – and death stalks their every move. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Angry Robot for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

MORE TO IT

This book's premise is impossible to resist if you're the kind of reader whose mantra is "the weirder the better", but I'm here to confirm that, if you take a chance on TWUID, you won't regret being lured in, and you'll end up getting more than you bargained for. The short-and-sweet version of such premise: thirteen everymen and women from the UK (or just passing through) are pulled from their lives and forced to ascend an impossible tower in the skies, all while trying to fathom the how and (especially) the why in the process. From videogame settings to spaceships, from haunted houses to tropical beaches, a series of equally impossible locations (but ones that are somehow tailored to the travellers' past experiences) have the characters play a deadly game of escape rooms, of which they have to figure out the rules as they go. Exciting, isn't it? But if you tend to need a little more meat on your stories' bones, or if the cosmic horror premise and the content warning list left you on the fence about giving TWUID a chance, there are a couple more things you need to know. One: for a book that sheds so much blood and put its characters through the wringer, Hank's latest is surprisingly comforting and life-affirming. Two: for a book that relies so much on nightmarish experiences and frantic escapes, and even comes close to jumping the shark a couple of times (one of which quite literally 😂), TWUID is (also) surprisingly deep, so that you end up forgiving it for not making you care more for its characters (more of that below) or not giving you all the answers (if you're the type of reader who needs them, because to be honest, they're NOT the point here). [...]

Melissa Caruso: "The Last Hour Between Worlds" (ARC Review)

Title: The Last Hour Between Worlds [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: The Echo Archives (1st of 3 books)
Author: Melissa Caruso [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Multiverse, Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 16+ (the characters are all adults, and the book is indeed marketed to adults, but it can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Fresh take on the multiverse trope with strong world-building. Engaging characters. Honest motherhood-vs.-job perspective that still encourages women not to be reduced to the mother role.  The story leaves plenty of room for a new installment, but doesn't end on a cliffhanger.
Cons:  Things only start to get exciting when the characters plunge deeper into the layers of reality. A couple of twists are easy to figure out in advance.
WARNING! Blood, body horror, stabbing, fire, bugs.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy modern fantasy, (deadly) alternate realities/time loops, enemies-to-lovers romances that don't swallow the plot, and new moms being badass.

Blurb: Star investigator Kembral Thorne has a few hours away from her newborn, and she just wants to relax and enjoy the year-turning party. But when people start dropping dead, she’s got to get to work. Especially when she finds that mysterious forces are plunging the whole party down through layers of reality and into nightmare. Most people who fall this far never return. Luckily, Kem isn’t most people. But as cosmic powers align and the hour grows late, she’ll have to work with her awfully compelling nemesis, notorious cat burglar Rika Nonesuch, for a chance to save her city - though not her night off. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

STEPPING UP

I have to preface this review by saying I'm a huge fan of alternate realities and time loops, but I tend to like them more when they're encapsulated in a sci-fi or magical-realism context. I do read fantasy from time to time (low/contemporary/urban), but I have to be completely sold on the book's premise...which was the case with Caruso's take on multiverse, so I took a chance on it - and I'm so glad I did. Basically, the setting is a world similar to our own - albeit steeped in magic and giving off an early-20th-century vibe - except in this world twelve layers of reality exist: the root universe, or Prime, and its eleven Echoes, getting more and more grotesque and dangerous the farther you stray from their paradigm. While it took a bit for the story to get going (I understand that the world-building had to be established, and it makes sense that the main character would look for answers at the party before she faced the outdoors and their mind-bending horrors, but the first couple of Echoes were a tad lackluster), it ultimately found its footing and became exciting and addictive, piling up layers (ha!) of horror, mystery, action, romance, plus character development and more world-building. [...]

Daniel Church: "The Ravening" (ARC Review)

Title: The Ravening [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Daniel Church [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Intriguing premise. Badass and resourceful heroine. Tight action. Fascinating dreamworld.
Cons: The supernatural aspect is a lot less prominent than one would expect, until late in the story. The main character can be abrasive and goes from mistrust to love in a jiffy. The "historical" interpolations are a bit tedious and not really necessary. There's a questionable sex scene, and a string of repetitions ("babe", "girl" "stupid cow") that get old fast.
WARNING! Blood, gore, violence, murder, dismemberment, near-drowning, fire. Familial trauma, kidnapping, imprisonment, forced pregnancy, attempted suicide, homophobia, bullying, copious swearing. Contains a detailed F/F sex scene.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a mixture of thriller and supernatural with plenty of action. Those who can get behind a tough female character without a maternal bone in her body.

Blurb: Jenna's life has always been a fight. From the traumatic and mysterious loss of her mother on a dark woodland road when she was fifteen, to the abusive and controlling boyfriend she's recently escaped, she has learned that trust hurts you in the end. Now Jenna's found what she hopes is happiness with her new girlfriend, Holly. But the world is full of darkness - some of it ancient, some of it closer to home... Evil, and those who serve it, will not let Jenna go. (Amazon excerpt)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Watkins Publishing LTD/Angry Robot for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

MAGICAL CRESCENDO

I'll be honest: I expected The Ravening to be less of an action-y thriller and more of a "classic" supernatural haunting. But though I would have liked to spend more time in the dreamworld Church created because it was super-cool (and because that's how I roll 😉), I appreciated how he slowly introduced more and more supernatural cues into a seemingly average (well, in a manner of speaking) abduction-and-escape story, only to finally give the fantastical elements center stage and reveal the mythological foundations of his narrative (I'm not going to be more specific in order to avoid spoilers, but basically, Church put a wild and creative spin on a well-known classical myth). It's a testament to the author's ability to weave a tale that never lets up - and to come up with a flawed, yet relatable and strong heroine - if I was able to enjoy a story employing one of my less favourite narrative devices (the aforementioned abduction-and-escape), so chances are that those of you who aren't fond of this kind of stories will be entertained enough to read on, and get to the supernatural bits in all their glory 🙂. [...]

Katrina Monroe: "Through the Midnight Door" (ARC Review)

Title: Through the Midnight Door [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Katrina Monroe [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 18+
Stars: 4.5/5
Pros: Creative twist on the magical/evil house trope. Excellent characterisation.
Cons: The supernatural experiences inside the house could have been fleshed out more. A familial problem gets resolved too easily. There's some confusion about the characters' ages (though for all I know, it might have been fixed in the finished version).
WARNING! Blood and gore, implied suicide, self-harm, abuse/child abuse (not sexual), poverty, child loss, kidnapping, stalking, manipulation, alcoholism, vomiting, car-crash imagery, bug horror, fires. On the mental-health side: PTST, paranoia, OCD, depression, grief, guilt, generational trauma.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a visceral examination of trauma and strained sisterly relationships on the backdrop of an atmospheric supernatural thriller.

Blurb: The Finch sisters once spent long, hot summers exploring the dozens of abandoned properties littering their dying town - until they found an impossible home with an endless hall of doors…and three keys left waiting for them. Curious, fearless, they stepped inside their chosen rooms, and experienced horrors they never dared speak of again. Now, years later, youngest sister Claire has been discovered dead in that old, desiccated house. Haunted by their sister's suicide and the memories of a past they've struggled to forget, Meg and Esther find themselves at bitter odds. As they navigate the tensions of their brittle relationship, they draw unsettling lines between Claire's death, their own haunted memories, and a long-ago loss no one in their family has ever been able to face. With the house once again pulling them ever-closer, Meg and Esther must find the connection between their sister's death and the shadow that has chased them across the years...before the darkness claims them, too. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

SISTERS IN HARMS

Haunted/cursed/magical/evil houses have been a horror trope for ages, and 2024 in particular turned out to be rife of novels that put them front and center - I've read three in the last weeks alone, and that's only the tip of the iceberg. This is why it's all the more remarkable that some authors are still able to spin a fresh story around spooky mansions, as it's the case with Through the Midnight Door. I'll be honest though - in this book, it's the complex, often frayed relationship between three sisters (and their characterisation as individuals, or with regard to other people) that steals the scene. That's not to say that the house portion of the story doesn't deliver, though I expected a tad more (I'll come to that in a minute), and there's no denying that the other supernatural occurrences sprinkled throughout the novel are appropriately chilling - but the sisterly dynamic remains the core of the narrative, and a strong one at that. Through the Midnight Door weaves sibling rivalry/dependency, dysfunctional and toxic relationships, familial trauma, mental health issues, yet it's an uplifting story in what its protagonists are doing their best to bring justice to their dead sister, conquer the darkness that's trying to engulf them, and ultimately, find their way back to each other. [...]

Cherie Priest: "The Drowning House" (ARC Review)

Title: The Drowning House [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Cherie Priest [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Supernatural, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Creative premise. Interesting, atmospheric mix of thriller and supernatural (namely, Norse mythology). Strong characterisation/character dynamics.
Cons: The protagonists' bickering and ego trips can get annoying at times. A couple of plot points lack strong foundations.
WARNING! Near-drowning, human remains, fires/explosions.
Will appeal to: Those who like a slow-burn, creepy mystery (but with a frantic climax) on the backdrop of old friendships and even older family secrets.

Blurb: A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers - but decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all. Now they'll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place - and on the way they'll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he's bringing back to Marrowstone Island. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks for providing an ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

DOUBLE ROOM

How many books can you count that start with a housewreck? To the best of my knowledge, there are none; so I was immediately drawn to this story, where a dilapidated mansion washes up on a small town's shore causing the death of an old woman, Mrs Culpepper - not for the reasons you may expect - and the disappearance of her nephew Simon. I mean, the concept is awesome...though the aforementioned house ends up being of less consequence than I anticipated, while Mrs Culpepper's house is more central to the story (not only because Melissa and Leo, the two main characters, camp out in there). There are two levels to the mystery of the ominous mansion on the beach: one of them isn't particularly hard to crack, even before we get the wreckage's backstory (I'm referring to its origins - though where it's coming from NOW it's a different kettle of fish altogether, and we never get an answer for that, even if I have a theory), the rest is revealed bit by bit via some appalling discoveries the two protagonists make inside the other house, the one where they're staying, and thanks to some sniping of their own. The juxtaposition of typical thriller structure and supernatural content (namely, Norse magic/mythology) works very well, and the flashbacks into Melissa, Leo and Simon's childhood/young adulthood under Mrs Culpepper's wing are not only integral to the story (and necessary for character development), but also charming and poignant. [...]

Abigail Miles: "The Building That Wasn't" (ARC Review)

Title: The Building That Wasn't [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Abigail Miles [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Multiverse, Sci-Fi, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2024
Age: 16+ (the book is geared towards adults, but can be read by mature teens)
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Merges a few sci-fi tropes and puts a clever and creative spin on them. Employs a peculiar writing style.
Cons: The pace is slow at times. There's an impalpable distance between the reader and the characters.
WARNING! Blood, torture (mostly off-screen), violence, domestic violence (off-screen), fires, claustrophobic spaces.
Will appeal to: Those who enjoy a creepy twist on the multiverse theory peppered with a generous dose of mad science, a sizeable amount of family secrets and a dash of romance.

Blurb: When Everly Tertium encounters a strange man in the park claiming to be her grandfather, she is invited to visit a mysterious apartment building. There, she finds herself in a constant state of déjà vu, impossibly certain that she’s already lived through these moments, already been introduced to these people, and already visited all of these rooms and floors. So why does she have no idea what’s happening to her? The longer she stays in the building, the more Everly becomes convinced there is more going on than meets the eye. Something is off, time seems to pass differently, and the people living there seem trapped. Slowly, Everly begins to wonder if she is trapped too. But would she even want to leave, if she could? (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to CamCat Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

THROWN FOR A LOOP

The Building That Wasn't is one of those books - the ones you can't review at length lest you reveal too much. One of the genre label I used for it is a spoiler in itself, though it doesn't even begin to encompass the...peculiarity...or madness...of the situation as a whole. By way of introduction, suffice to say that, while the plot relies on a few familiar sci-fi tropes and themes, it combines and twists them (along with some new, intriguing ideas) into a complex, claustrophobic, at times brutal, yet ultimately hopeful tale. In a way, The Building That Wasn't reads almost like a modern (and dark) fable, due to both the writing style and the fractured timeline. As a matter of fact, the narrative weaves back and forth in time, with different characters at the forefront (briefly but effectively including the building itself, which is really cool), and though I guess some of the event depicted will make more sense on a second read, Miles managed to create an engaging web of mystery while giving out a piece of the puzzle at a time, if you pay attention. I must admit I was fooled when it comes to the identity of the mysterious Warden, who runs the building, because there could have been at least another contender for that role (I mean, in my opinion...even if a certain detail should have alerted me, but I interpreted it in a different way), and I didn't expect the story to unfold the way it did; but even if I had, it would have been worth my time nevertheless. [...]

Brandon Jones: "Whirly World"

Title: Whirly World [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Brandon Jones [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife, Thriller/Mystery
Year: 2023
Age: 14+ (I shelved it as Adult because of the characters' age, and it's indeed marketed to that demographic, but it can be read by teens)
Stars: 5/5
Pros: Inventive, entertaining, humorous and emotional.
Cons: Due to the large number of characters, not all of them feel fully realised. The ending doesn't give all the answers.
WARNING! Drowning, fires, claustrophobic settings. We see a character collapse to death in a flashback.
Will appeal to: Those who love creative afterlife settings, carnival rides and accidental heroes.

Blurb: Theme-park blogger Jason Green is dead and his spirit is stuck inside Whirly World, his favorite place to be. What should be a dream come true turns into an abstract nightmare as Jason confronts malevolent forces trapping him there. Desperate to escape, he has to befriend the other ten ghosts inhabiting this afterlife, from a disgruntled hostess crushed under a revolving stage, to a bereft security guard that still thinks it's 1983, and combine their strange powers to dig up the park's mysterious past. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: this title was up for grabs on NetGalley (in the Read Now section). Thanks to Emet Studios (Brandon Jones) for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

FUN FAIR

Afterlife meets theme park with a side of superpowers and time loops, all wrapped in a mystery: a recipe for fun, though peppered with some emotional moments (what with the characters being, you know, dead). For one, the premise is creative and intriguing: eleven employees or patrons of a famous amusement park who died on its grounds find themselves trapped in a ghostly version of the same park. Among them is Jason, a theme-park blogger who in life was probably the biggest Whirly World fan, but isn't necessarily thrilled not to be able to leave the place for mysterious reasons - not to mention, he can't even remember how he died. He sets on exploring the surroundings (which leads to a series of frustrating discoveries - frustrating for him, but again, making for lots of fun on the reader's part), and one by one he runs into his fellow resident ghosts, which creates some amusing dynamics (since Jason has written about their deaths in his blog, and coming face to face with some of them brings out the fanboy in him, if for a moment. [...]

Nadi Reed Perez: "The Afterlife of Mal Caldera" (ARC Review)

Title: The Afterlife of Mal Caldera [on Amazon | on Goodreads]
Series: None
Author: Nadi Reed Perez [Site | Goodreads]
Genres: Afterlife
Year: 2024
Age: 18+
Stars: 4/5
Pros: Creative, riotous yet soulful spin on a series of classic afterlife/rock lifestyle tropes. A love letter to hope and life from the other side of the veil.
Cons: Too focused on the ghostly sex and partying (though it comes with the worldbuilding, to an extent).
WARNING! Suicide/attempted suicide, drug use, alcoholism. Familial abuse, depression, hospital internment, infidelity/promiscuity, grief.
Will appeal to: Those who like life-affirming stories, coming-of-age narratives (even after death) and found families.

Blurb: Mal Caldera - former rockstar, retired wild-child and excommunicated black sheep of her Catholic family - is dead. Not that she cares. She only feels bad that her younger sister, Cris, has been left to pick up the pieces Mal left behind. While her fellow ghosts party their afterlives away at an abandoned mansion they call the Haunt, Mal is determined to make contact with Cris from beyond the grave. She enlists the help of a reluctant local medium, Ren, and together, they concoct a plan to pass on a message to Cris. But the more time they spend together, the more they begin to wonder what might have been if they'd met before Mal died. Mal knows it’s wrong to hold on so tightly to her old life. Bad things happen to ghosts who interfere with the living, and Mal can't help wondering if she’s hurting the people she loves by hanging around, haunting their lives. But Mal has always been selfish, and letting go might just be the hardest thing she's ever had to do. (Amazon)

Review: First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on Edelweiss. Thanks to Titan Books for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.

NEW DIRECTIONS

I have to be honest: the synopsis set my expectations for a different story than the one I got, up to an extent. I figured Mal's attempt to communicate with her sister (and maybe her success in doing so) would be the main focus, along with Mal and Ren's (the medium) doomed love story. It turns out that I was right about the second thing (again, up to an extent) and wrong about the first, because this book encompasses so many more themes and situations - though it mostly boils down to coming to terms with one's own death, forgiving oneself and becoming part of a found family, plus helping the living to change their existence for the better. This could have resulted in a sappy (and fairly typical) tale, except the author made some interesting choices that gave enough of a spin to a series of familiar tropes and managed to keep the narrative sharper and rawer than it could have been. For one, Mal Caldera hadn't reached stardom status yet before she met her untimely death, and she was as flawed and selfish as they come (still is, at the start of her afterlife - though the good thing is, she's self-aware about it). Likewise, if the rest of the cast projects a cliché appearance at first, this soon enough makes room for surprises and unexpected twists (for all purposes, so does the story). The setting and worldbuilding (I'm talking about the afterlife-dimension-on-Earth here) are imaginative and well thought-out, and the ghosts' mythology is the right blend of familiar and fresh. [...]