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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