Gallows Hill by Darcy Coates

 

The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations, living and working on the beautiful grounds where they grow their famous grapes. Until the night Mr. and Mrs. Hull settle down for the evening...and are dead by morning.

When their daughter, Margot, inherits the family business, she wants nothing to do with it. The winery is valued for its unparalleled produce, but it's built on a field where hundreds of convicts were once hanged, and the locals whisper morbid rumors. They say the ground is cursed.

It's been more than a decade since Margot last saw her childhood home. But now that she's alone in the sprawling, dilapidated building, she begins to believe the curse is more than real―and that she may be the next victim of the house that never rests...

Margo's ancestors have owned Gallows Hill Winery since long before she was born. She has never been part of the business and seems to have very little memory of ever having been part of the family. She was sent away at a  young age and doesn't know why. She has had no contact with her parents since then, which seemed a bit odd to me since she knew where they were and could have easily reached out at any time to ask why she had been sent away. 

Now both of her parents have died, under unusual circumstances and she has inherited the winery.

She returns to attend the funeral, and settle the estate and learns that her family was cursed. It seems that Gallows Hill once held a real gallows and the angry spirits of those who were put to death there are not at rest. Now the winery has become famous for a very special vintage of wine that is carefully aged in barrels carved from the very hanging tree that saw so much death. 

Gallows Hill aims to be a slow-burn supernatural gothic that may have been better as a novella. 

Lots of confusing details and several repetitions slow the pace. The reason for the curse may have shocked Margot but it was too easy to figure out what was going on with those wine barrels. There were some creepy moments with the restless and angry spirits but the repetition took away some of the enjoyment. Some things just didn't add up. If Margot's parents were so intent on keeping her away from the winery why leave it to her in their will? Why does Margot not know how to charge her phone once in a while? I could go on but it would lead to spoilers. 

I'm going to give this 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 out of 5 where half stars are not allowed.

You may enjoy it more than I did but this one was just not for me.

I received an advance copy for review.

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About the author

Darcy is the USA Today Bestselling author of Hunted, The Haunting of Ashburn House, Craven Manor, and more than a dozen horror and suspense titles.
She lives on the Central Coast of Australia with her family, cats, and a garden full of herbs and vegetables.
Darcy loves forests, especially old-growth forests where the trees dwarf anyone who steps between them. Wherever she lives, she tries to have a mountain range close by.
You can hear about her next book by joining her newsletter

Stinetinglers by by R.L. Stine

 

From New York Times bestselling author R.L. Stine, the master of horror for young readers, comes ten new stories that are sure to leave you shivering.

A boy who hates bugs starts to see them everywhere. A basketball player’s skin starts to almost drip off his hands―but no one else can see it. Three friends find a hole in the ground that just gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger... And each story is introduced by Stine himself, providing a personal touch sure to delight fans.

Laced with Stine’s signature humor and a hefty dose of nightmarish fun, Stinetinglers is perfect for fans of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Stine’s own Goosebumps books. These chilling tales prove that Stine’s epic legacy in the horror genre is justly earned. Dive in, and beware: you might be sleeping with the lights on tonight!

Ten spooky stories for young readers, or like me, the young at heart. I was already an adult when Goosebumps and The Haunting Hour was on tv but that did not stop me from enjoying the show with my son, or buying him all the books, and years later I am still a fan of everything from the Fear Street books to the movies. Naturally, I jumped at the chance to get an early look at this new collection.

I loved the author's notes that tell where the idea for each story originated, and the spooky illustration at the start of each tale.

I think kids will appreciate the fast pace that can easily hold the attention of even the most reluctant readers. In true R.L. Stine style, some stories will have a message like being careful what you wish for and the grass is not always greener in someone else's life.

Not all stories will have a happy ending but the scares are age appropriate. Some of the stories are better than others, and some are just not his best work. I would still recommend this collection but I don't think it's on par with the author's previous works.

3 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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About the author

Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke And Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca

 

Dark, disturbing, cutting-edge horror from an astonishing new voice. The viral sensation that everyone is talking about.

Sadomasochism. Obsession. Death. A whirlpool of darkness churns at the heart of a macabre ballet between two lonely young women in an internet chat room in the early 2000s—a darkness that threatens to forever transform them once they finally succumb to their most horrific desires. What have you done today to deserve your eyes?

Devastating, deeply disturbing, and beautifully written horror from one of the genre’s most cutting-edge voices.

This book contains three short stories that pack a big punch in a small package. They are each quite different and yet share a theme of insecurities and manipulation, a longing to love and be loved, and at least in the first two stories, a desperate need for something to believe in.

In the title story, a chance encounter on a message board quickly spirals out of control in a series of direct messages that leads to death. I am not spoiling anything for you by telling you that it ends this way since the beginning opens with the knowledge that one will not survive. It will make you wonder whether these two met by coincidence or whether one was just lying in wait for a victim. The internet can be dangerous, and you never know who is on that other screen.

In the next story, religion plays such a large role it could almost be considered one of the main characters. Religion and a desperate need to believe is what tears this family apart, builds them back up, and has tragic consequences for all involved.

In the final story, A man has trouble standing up for himself due to a longtime habit of politeness that has been deeply ingrained in his psyche since childhood.

There is no happily ever after to be found here. These stories are bleak, powerful, and ugly, showcasing the darkest side of human nature.

If you like weird fiction, this is for you.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to Titan Books

Available for pre-order

About the author

Darling by Mercedes M. Yardley

 

Darling has its demons.
Cherry LaRouche escaped the claws of Darling, Louisiana at sixteen. When she is forced to return after her mother’s death, Cherry and her children move back into her childhood home where the walls whisper and something sinister skitters across the roof at night.
While Cherry tries to settle back into a town where evil spreads like infection, the bodies of several murdered children turn up. When Cherry’s own daughter goes missing, she’s forced to confront the true monsters of Darling.

Cherry left Darling Louisiana young and hopeful of a better life, with a husband-to-be, a baby bump, and zero regrets. 

That better life didn't last too long or maybe never fully materialized. Now she is older but not a lot wiser, with no choice but to return to her childhood home with her two kids in tow.

This seems like a pretty bad move since someone is killing the town's children and it's not long before Cherry's own baby daughter goes missing, possibly taken by the killer.

I was fully engaged in the story even though it was difficult for me to like Cherry. On the one hand, she was a good mother but on the other hand, she made some pretty dumb decisions that grated on my nerves.

There is also some romance thrown in, by which I do not mean unrealistic gratuitous sex scenes that border on the grotesque as usually passes for romance these days. I mean literally, some things that were romantic until they weren't. And when the romance was over it stopped in a big way. It seemed odd to me that Cherry would want to involve herself in any romantic entanglements in this town. Considering what she had previously been through I expected her to be less naïve.

I won't say that the outcome of what happened with her daughter was entirely predictable, but I did have my suspicions early on, and they were mostly correct.

I'm not sure why I enjoyed this book so much, and yet I did. The town's people were alternately welcoming, and nasty, with such frequency to give me whiplash. I'm not clear on whether something supernatural was involved since it was never fully explained. Maybe I enjoyed shaking my head and rolling my eyes at Cherry while wishing she would make better choices. Still, I am going to give this a 4 out of 5 stars even if I am at a loss to explain what I just read.

My thanks to Black Spot Books

Available for pre-order

About the author

Mercedes M. Yardley is a whimsical dark fantasist who wears poisonous flowers in her hair. She is the author of Beautiful Sorrows, the Stabby Award-winning Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love, Pretty Little Dead Girls, and Nameless. She won the prestigious Bram Stoker Award for her story Little Dead Red and was a Bram Stoker Award nominee for her short story “Loving You Darkly.” Mercedes is the editor of the dark fiction anthology Arterial Bloom. You can find her at mercedesmyardley.com