Of Foster Homes and Flies by Chad Lutzke

 

Denny is a 12-year-old neglected boy who's been studying all year for the upcoming spelling bee. But when his alcoholic mother dies in her sleep, he suddenly faces foster care. To ensure he still competes in the school event, he hides his mother's death for one week so he can have a chance at something he so desperately needs. Something to be proud of. Something his dad would have been proud of: A win.

A heartfelt and tragic coming-of-age tale in the setting of a hot New Orleans summer.

I took a quick break from reading ARCs to finally crack open a book that has been waiting in my Kindle for years. If you know me, you know that's a rare occasion. I needed to pick a quick read that wouldn't let me down. I'm glad this is the one I chose.

12 year old Denny lives with his abusive, alcoholic mother. He pretty much has to fend for himself other than the occasional pop-tarts she leaves on the table for him in an unspoken acknowledgment of the guilt she feels for what she's done. Maybe that's not as much effort as she puts into the eggs she cooks for her dog but that's really not the dog's fault so Denny isn't jealous. 

In spite of his wretched home life, Denny has one thing he's looking forward to. He's been preparing for the school spelling bee and he is more than ready to win. He has spent the year regretting his decision not to enter last time and he won't let anything stop him this year. But with one week to go until the spelling bee, his mother drinks herself to death, leaving him with visions of foster homes, and being carted off to who knows where, should anyone find out. So he does what he has to in order to compete. He keeps her death a secret for the week.

This was a heartbreaking, bittersweet, coming of age tale. While Denny is in a hopeless situation, cast adrift in circumstances he will have no control over, he clings to the one thing he wants most, something to be proud of. Will he get his chance? I really wanted him to. The author has a talent for creating characters that are impossible not to connect with.

5 out of 5 stars

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The Night Crew by Brad Ricks

Vampires, vengeance, and a quest for survival—The Night Crew is a heart-pounding supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

After the brutal murder of his wife, Michael White is thrust into a world of unimaginable horrors. With no help from the local authorities, he embarks on a personal investigation that uncovers a chilling truth—vampires are real.

When he confronts his wife’s killer, he discovers the true nature of the monster who tore apart his life—a bloodthirsty vampire who has already claimed countless victims. On the brink of becoming the undead himself, Michael is saved by a team of vampire hunters known as The Night Crew. They offer him a chance at revenge and a shot at redemption.

Teaming up with these skilled hunters, Michael must navigate a dark, dangerous world filled with vampires and other supernatural creatures. But the road to vengeance is fraught with peril, and Michael’s humanity is at risk as he battles to destroy the creature that killed his wife.

Will Michael be able to seek vengeance against the vampire that shattered his life while retaining his own humanity, or will he succumb to the darkness that threatens to consume him?

Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Where Stories Come Alive!

Michael White returns home from work one night to a real-life nightmare.

He sees his wife through the window lying in a pool of blood. He thinks she must have hit her head, but then he sees it. Someone feeding on her. He tries to fight it off, but its superhuman strength makes that impossible.

Wracked with grief, and harassed by a cop who wants to blame him for the murder he vows to hunt down the killer, but he is not prepared for what he finds.

This was an action-packed, suspenseful, and blood-soaked read. The fast pace and heart-pounding search for the killer had me on the edge of my seat and was equaled only by my fear of what would happen once he was found. This is a book that straddles the line between horror and action thriller while fitting snugly into both categories.

My thanks to Crystal Lake Publishing for the e-ARC.

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NORO by William F. Gray

 As a blizzard hits their rural Wyoming homes, Jonah Miller and his neighbor Con think the worst thing they have to worry about is being trapped and isolated with their dogs.

Then Con’s German Shepherd gets out in the middle of the storm after a mysterious meteor crashes out in the woods, forcing Jonah and Con to learn that there’s far more to fear than the cold and the snow piling up outside their doors...

John Carpenter’s THE THING meets CUJO and THE TROOP in NORO, a horror novella about two men’s fight for survival against an alien parasite searching for its perfect host.

Jonah and Con are neighbors and an approximation of friends. Con is a younger, affable man. Jonah is an older curmudgeonly type who lives alone with his dog Noro, and the guilt of what happened to his wife. He thinks he needs no help preparing for the storm, but this is his first winter at the cabin.

There's more to worry about than being snowbound when a meteor crashes in the woods. Con and his dog are the first ones on the scene, and unfortunately for them, the meteor has carried something alien and deadly to earth.

I loved the interaction between Jonah and Con. Even though Jonah seems to sometimes resent that his younger friend knows more than he does, when it really counts Jonah steps up to help. This was a perfect read for a cold winter's day. It's an adrenaline-fueled sci-fi horror that the author has also managed to pack with loss, grief, sacrifice, and gruesome body horror. I don't know how such a vast amount of sorrow and apprehension fit into 132 pages. 

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications for the e-ARC 

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The Poorly Made and Other Things by Sam Rebelein

 There’s something wrong in Renfield County.

It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew The Giant in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.

These are their stories.

In “My Name Is Ellie” a young girl uncovers disturbing secrets hiding in the walls of her beloved grandmother’s home. An unassuming box, built with reclaimed wood, connects a grieving widower with his late wife’s lingering spirit in “Hector Brim.” In “Detour” a father, desperate to return home, finds himself trapped in a dizzying maze, haunted by stories of lurking monsters that live off the remains of weary travelers.

Playing with the uncanny to explore themes of loneliness and grief, Sam Rebelein returns upstate to unravel the mysteries of Renfield. But regardless of what started the trouble, there’s one thing of which we can be for those living here, the nightmare is far from over.

The Poorly Made is anything but! This is an outstanding collection of wicked tales connected by the evil that seeped into the wood, water, and land of Renfield County and spread through the country in the form of blood-stained souvenirs.

At the start of the book and in between each story is a frantic series of emails from a woman who is desperate to connect with her brother to share what she has learned about Renfield and its connection to their mother's death. These emails provide insight into the dark history of Renfield and the far-reaching consequences suffered by those who have come in contact with it. They also help to create a sense of urgency because for goodness sake why doesn't he answer her?

As for the stories themselves, they bring the tangible fear of finding yourself on a road that never ends, body horror, cannibalism, lost souls, and more. They are dark, disturbing, and imaginative. The writing is impeccable. This is the first time in a while that I have felt truly lost in a book as if the vivid descriptions made the real world disappear.

5 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to William Morrow for the e-ARC

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Listen to Your Sister by Neena Viel

Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.

 

Calla, Dre, and Jamie are siblings without parents. Their father is deceased and their mother may as well be dead since she is less than useless. Calla has taken custody of teenage Jamie, with promises of help and support from middle sibling Dre, but that never did amount to much more than empty words.

"To raise a child was to guard them. To raise a child was to let them find their own path."

 Jamie has always been a handful, and Calla is plagued with nightmares and visions of both brothers deaths. It's been a struggle all along to keep Jaimie out of serious trouble and she prays to whatever is willing to listen, to keep him safe. She is exhausted, and resentful, yet fiercely loyal in her love for her brothers but she is pushed beyond her breaking point. How can she protect them both at the same time? She is only one woman. Isn't she?

I can't say much else about the plot without spoiling it for you. So I will just say it's an original, imaginative, humorous yet horrifying debut novel. 

"He'd knocked over a guest book, or possibly the Necronomicon because the last guests of this cabin were probably the undead skeletons in the basement."

This is a remarkable story of family, love, dysfunction, and grief. It is alternately hilarious, frightening, and heart rending. If you are in the mood for something wild and weird this is it.

My thanks to St. Martin's Griffin for the invitation to read an early e-copy.

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The Apartment by Kevin Bachar

An unholy being is unleashed in the terrifying novel From the EMMY-award-winning producer and screenwriter of the LIONSGATE horror film THE INHABITANT. What if the horrors of the past seeped into the present? THE APARTMENT is a place where every hallway, door, and staircase leads to madness. And where a serial killer by the name of THE HARVESTER has decided to stalk their victims.

Benjamin and his girlfriend Katherine move to New York City. Instead of stylish Manhattan, or hip Brooklyn, the couple end up on Roosevelt Island, a spit of land in the middle of the East River.

It's secluded and steeped in sordid history. The place was once known as the ‘Island of the Damned’ when it was home to a prison, a smallpox hospital, and a mysterious building where strange experiments occurred.

Katherine starts to feel isolated and is tormented by terrifying dreams. She also notices changes in her boyfriend, subtle things and some not so subtle, like how he now eats with his left hand. Even his voice sounds different to Katherine, but is all this in her mind, or has Benjamin become host to a horrifying entity from the past?

When Kat was a child, she had a gift of seeing more than physical sight. She could converse with her dead grandmother, see a harbinger of doom, and her father was not above taking advantage of her ability to cheat at cards.

Now, as a grown woman, this ability has left her. She leads a reclusive life, working at home and rarely venturing out due to health reasons.

Her safe and simple life is upended when she agrees to move to New York City to be with her boyfriend, where he has found them a lovely apartment in a building that used to be an asylum.

The dark past of this, and other buildings on the island make this a dangerous place for someone with Kat's sensitivities. Murders coincide with her arrival and she is no longer sure she can trust her boyfriend. Written in such a way that I was also unsure who to trust, the author was able to weave a suspenseful and unnerving tale.

A touch of reality adds to the spine-tingling quality of this novel. Roosevelt Island does exist and was home to a prison, an insane asylum where patients were treated with torture and abuse, and a smallpox hospital where many died. It's not out of the realm of possibility to think that such a place is haunted.

4 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to Kevin Bachar for the e-copy

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A Light on the Bayou by C. S. Magnuson

 Lola Davis—formerly Achelois Brightwood—is startled when someone from her past locates her to deliver news of her father's passing, a man she hasn't spoken to in twenty years.

Cypress Cove, the rambling house on the banks of the Texas bayou, is now hers, and Lola is being summoned to claim it.

But she no longer remembers anything about it or the town of Oleander. As if it's been erased from her memory...

Lola soon realizes that Oleander harbors a dark secret, one told in horrific images displayed in The Gallery plagues, war, mutilations...torture...

But just what do those secrets have to do with Lola's presence at Cypress Cove, and to what extent was Lola herself a participant?

Lola made it out of Oleander once. Will she be so lucky a second time?

Lola Davis doesn't remember much about her childhood. Still, she has carried the trauma of losing her mother and being sent away by her father, never to see him alive again. It's been 20 years since she had any contact with him when she gets the phone call that he has died.

She and her husband make the long trip to Cyprus Cove, the house she hated as a child, to settle her father's affairs. The townspeople speak highly of her father, almost as if they were his adoring fans. They have strange customs and a cult-like philosophy that would have sent me packing immediately. The longer Lola stays the harder it is to get out. She never felt she belonged there but the town does not want her to leave.

Secrets are revealed slowly on two timelines. There is the present day and flashbacks to 20 years ago as Lola tries to piece her memories together. I was never sure whether or not to trust what Lola was experiencing due to her drug addiction.  I didn't care for the husband at all, who seemed an odd combination of naive and manipulative.

I loved the atmosphere! The rickety dock, the oppressive heat, and the pervasive sense of wrongness that carried through the whole length of the book hooked me right away. They say you can't go home again, but in horror, that should be changed to: you shouldn't go home again if you managed to escape the first time. I recommend this book for any reader who enjoys evil little towns where outsiders are never safe.

4 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

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Our Winter Monster by Dennis A Mahoney

 

For the last year, Holly and Brian have been out of sync. Neither can forget what happened that one winter evening; neither can forgive what’s happened since. Tonight, Holly and Brian race toward Pinebuck, New York, trying to outrun a blizzard on their way to the ski village getaway they hope will save their relationship. But soon they lose control of the car—and then of themselves.

Now Sheriff Kendra Book is getting calls about a couple in trouble—along with reports of a brutal and mysterious creature rampaging through town, leaving a trail of crushed cars, wrecked buildings, and mangled bodies in the snow.

To Kendra, who lost another couple to the snow just seven weeks ago, the danger feels personal. But not as personal as it feels to Holly and Brian, who are starting to see the past, the present, and themselves in a monstrous new light . . .

Holly and Brian are a couple on the rocks. Things have never been the same between them ever since "The Bad Date" occurred. It takes quite a while until we are allowed to know what happened on that particular date that changed their happy relationship into a shell of what it used to be. All we know is that there are some serious cracks in their bond, and they are headed on a getaway to a small sky village in hopes of mending their relationship, or maybe just calling it quits altogether.

Unfortunately, the weather has other plans for them. After losing control of the car in a blizzard they also lose each other. They are separated in the storm but they are not alone. There is something monstrous with them.

I loved the first part of this book.  After a while, it got repetitive with so much running, hiding, escaping, and leaving cell phone messages for each other over and over. Still, I mostly enjoyed this bitterly cold tale.

The monster itself was somewhat unexpected. It was an interesting take, although never fully explained, but I guess horror doesn't need to make perfect sense and would be boring if it did. The back-and-forth bickering between the couple, and the fear of speaking what they truly meant felt realistic and will probably be uncomfortably familiar to anyone who ever spent time in a crumbling relationship.

4 out of 5 stars.

My thanks to Hell's Hundred.

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