The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill

 Catherine's last job ended badly. Corporate bullying at a top TV network saw her fired and forced to leave London, but she was determined to get her life back. A new job and a few therapists later, things look much brighter. Especially when a challenging new project presents itself -- to catalogue the late M. H. Mason's wildly eccentric cache of antique dolls and puppets. Rarest of all, she'll get to examine his elaborate displays of posed, costumed and preserved animals, depicting bloody scenes from the Great War. Catherine can't believe her luck when Mason's elderly niece invites her to stay at Red House itself, where she maintains the collection until his niece exposes her to the dark message behind her uncle's "Art." Catherine tries to concentrate on the job, but Mason's damaged visions begin to raise dark shadows from her own past. Shadows she'd hoped therapy had finally erased. Soon the barriers between reality, sanity and memory start to merge and some truths seem too terrible to be real... in The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill.

An emotionally fragile woman heads to an old mansion, to catalog an enormous collection of antique dolls and hoards of creepy puppets. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters she is expected to stay in the house until the job is complete. The owner's appearance is unnerving to say the least. She and her maid are rude and sullen, There is no phone service, and the job will take longer than planned since the owner seems weirdly intent on dragging it out.

 The main character Catherine has suffered multiple traumatic incidents and after years of therapy and learning how to deal with what she is told is her "paranoia" she does not always trust her own judgement.  

There is a pervasive atmosphere of wrongness in the house that would have had me saying take this job and shove it, but sadly Catherine ignores her gut feelings.

This was a deeply disturbing gothic horror, slightly reminiscent of "Burnt Offerings."

4 out of 5 stars.

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The Last Slaughter BY Douglas Ford

 As the land withers under a changing climate and resources grow scarce, a hungry family confronts a dark legacy. An old storehouse holds an ancient an imprisoned girl who can bestow bounties of food and prosperity. But in return she requires sacrifices.Her ancient power contains the truth they must face. You can deny family, but you can’t deny blood.

John grew up never knowing his dad, but knowing who he is and resenting him all the same. His mother Laura has told the story many times. How her "date" with a rich boy led to having to run home beaten and bloody, and soon to be a single mom.

This resentment festers into hatred because John and his mother struggle to make ends meet, while his father has wealth and property that John will never inherit.

An act of vandalism leads John to a shocking discovery and his life will never be the same.

The Last Slaughter is a riveting folk horror where sins of the past come home to roost. It's a quick read so I can't say much else about the plot without spoiling it so I'm just going to say this was an awesomely entertaining read full of unnerving surprises.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Douglas Ford

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Our Fathers' Burden by William F. Gray

 Tragedy strikes Harry’s family leaving him with nothing but sorrow, grief, and a mysterious box whose contents leave him shaken to the core. Everything he thought he knew about his father teetered on the edge of lies. Despite this, he decides to carry out his late father’s final to meet up with some of his old friends whose fathers had been best friends with his own - for a traditional camping trip their fathers had taken annually in years passed. But what they find up there in the Appalachian Mountains, and the mysterious circumstances that sent them there, reveal that their fathers had kept a terrible, deadly secret. And now that burden is theirs, and they must pay the price.

Our Fathers' Burden is a terror in the woods type creature feature. If you like those you'll probably enjoy this one.

Five men who grew up taking part in an annual hunting trip with their fathers are reunited after the last living father kills himself and leaves behind a mysterious box of cassette tapes with a final wish that his son gather the other men together in the Appalachian Mountains to listen to them at their old hunting spot.

It's hard for me to review this without giving too much away so I will just say it touches on depression, grief, and deep dark secrets on top of the horror aspects. There's a lot going on and much to unpack in this book. Sometimes I lost track of who was who and which son belonged to which father or who was the most dysfunctional. The flashbacks didn't really help me get to know the fathers or sons any better. They seemed nearly interchangeable to the point that maybe one or two characters could have been eliminated from the story altogether.

All in all it is worth a read if you enjoy this type.

3 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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These Things Linger by Dan Franklin

 When Alex Wilson's estranged uncle unexpectedly dies, Alex realizes he would do just about anything to make peace with the man who had raised him as his own.
He'd even reach out to the dead.

But things more dangerous than ghosts haunt his uncle's broken down trailer and the nearly abandoned one-gas-station town of Fair Hill just beyond. Things that can devour the living and the dead alike, and are all too ready to answer his call.

Some parts of our past never really leave us. There are things that don't know how to die.

These things linger.

Dan Franklin's supernatural thriller novel These Things Linger is a twisting and unforgiving tale of desperation, depression, heritage, and of other hungry, vicious things.

Alex Wilson never put much stock in the supernatural. Not even when he witnessed a strange occurrence after participating in an unfinished ritual with a girlfriend years ago.

But now that his uncle has passed away, with so much unresolved between them, he would do anything to talk to him one last time. Desperate for closure he uses the half-remembered spell from his youth, and something answers his call.

Alex is now the target of an evil entity, putting his life and the lives of his fiancé and their unborn child in peril. Can he undo what has been done?

What has begun as a doleful tale of loss and regret soon plunges into all out terror when the entity shows its power. Dan Franklin is adept at building empathy for the characters on one hand while ratcheting up the fear of a grim outcome on the other. It made me wonder what I would risk for a chance to speak to loved ones a final time, but it also drives home the point that if you have something to say or hard feelings to clear up you shouldn't put it off until it's too late. Do not disturb the dead, you never know what may be waiting to come through from the other side.

I received an advance copy for review.

4 out of 5 stars

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The Changeling by Victor LaValle

 

When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word IMPROBABILIA. Now Apollo is a father himself–and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. Irritable and disconnected from their new baby boy, at first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go even deeper. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act–beyond any parent’s comprehension–and vanishes, seemingly into thin air.

Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest, which begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts, takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.

This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It’s a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we’re lucky.

I've been wanting to read more by Victor Lavalle ever since reading Lone Women. In fact, as soon as I finished that I bought several more of his books. However, this one did not quite meet my expectations.

I didn't mind that it started off as a love story that turned into a mystery. I didn't mind that it took a long time for the child produced by the first love story to grow up and begin his own love story, although quite frankly I am not into love stories. 

What I did mind was how long it took for anything remotely spooky to happen, and that once it did, it just turned into a mystery again. I was expecting something scarier from the way I have heard others talk about this book. I was not prepared for a long drawn out fairy tale/fantasy type read, which is just not my thing. Also, the constant referring to their new baby as "the kid" grated on my nerves after a while.

By the middle of the book I was skimming the pages hoping for something exciting to happen. I was mostly bored with this story and glad when it was over. You may enjoy it more than I did, others certainly have. It's even been made into a TV show so there must be something to love about it. Some books are just too crazy even for me.

2.25 out of 5 stars

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The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden

 

Across Italy there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild—selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought. There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbor refers to as The House of Last Resort. Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years…and how many people died in the strange chapel inside. While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina…something stirs.

This is in part, a love story between Tommy and Kate, a mystery of what caused the rift between Tommy's father and grandfather, and the unraveling of dark family secrets.

Tommy and Kate seize an opportunity to own a beautiful house in Italy for practically no money. All they have to do is fix it up. It's a huge change for them from living in the United States, but Tommy has family there and they hope with a little time and effort they can convince some of their friends to follow in their footsteps to revive the economy in the half empty town.

When Tommy's grandmother sees which home they've chosen she is angry and fearful but won't say why.

Bumps in the night and slamming doors lead the couple to entertain the idea that their house may be haunted, but it took longer than I would have liked for the reveal of why their home is known as the House of Last Resort.

The pace was slow for the first part of the book. There were some odd occurrences but nothing really scary happened until close to the halfway mark when a shocking event led to the exposure of family secrets, Something happened at this point that just plain scared the bejeezers out of me.

The final third of the book is terrifying and the conclusion is a knock out.

My thanks to St. Martin's Press.

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