Still, Dark Places by Christina Graves

 

The Seven Sisters of Still Water. Missing but not forgotten. Memorialized in graveyard stone...

Nora Gray, true crime podcast host, is being called back to her hometown over a decade later by a desperate mother. Another daughter, gone. And Nora knows more than anyone realizes, more than even she remembers.

They call it Skull House, this home back in the woods, rundown, abandoned. And for as long as Nora can recall, the local kids have dared each other to climb the stairs to the top, to brave the ghost of Helaena Barker, who they say waits in the attic behind the door...

But Skull House hides more than tales of ghosts, and it clings tightly to its secrets. Nora is convinced it also holds the missing clues to the Seven Sisters' disappearances and why Nora herself woke up in a field near the house, covered in blood, all those years ago.

While Nora investigates the missing girls, will she be able to trust anyone around her? Will she even be able to trust herself?

Years ago, Nora was found wandering dazed and covered in blood. Her sister was never seen again. Whatever she witnessed was so horrific, her traumatized mind has blocked it from her memory.

Now as a grown woman, she has distanced herself from her past, using a different name and hosting a true crime podcast. During the call-in portion of her show, she is shocked to hear a woman call her by her real name. A woman from her hometown has tracked her down to tell her that her daughter has gone missing just like Nora's sister and the other girls from long ago. 

Reluctantly, Nora agrees to meet with this woman and try to uncover what the police couldn't or wouldn't. Returning to her hometown to solve this mystery may be the key to solving her own.

Told on two timelines from multiple points of view this twisty, emotional, psychological horror was loaded with suspense and surprises. The present-day investigation part moved a little slow for my taste. I found the storyline of the past more compelling than the current day. The ultimate connection between past and present was cleverly written. 

My thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

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Down Into The Sea by Dan Franklin

 Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross is struggling. His father is in prison for murder. His mother has slipped into addiction. Even if he can survive the bullying and the sudden run of disappearances, he has little hope for a future outside of the sleepy Massachusetts fishing town he calls home.

But there is something far more important on his mind.

He found her down beneath the local entertainment pier, and she seems just about perfect. Except for the teeth. But she doesn’t want to simply be a part of his world. She wants more…

From the author of These Things Linger and The Eater of Gods, Down Into the Sea is a vicious twist on coming-of-age horror, on the unyielding, transformative power of desire, and the dangers of standing in its path.

The sins of the father are visited upon Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross. He has had his life upended by events beyond his control. There was a time that he had a happy home life. There was a time when he had friends, and hopes, and dreams. Now he knows only hunger and neglect, with his father in prison and his mother unable to cope, drowning her depression in pills and alcohol. 

He spends most of his energy avoiding bullies, missing his father, and hanging out at the pier. That is where he sees her, a strange looking woman that at first appears to be a corpse in the water. This unusual pair become ill-fated friends.

In between the missing people and occasional carnage, I forgot this was a horror story because fear is only one of many emotions this powerful novella evokes. I could feel Eric's loneliness and his love for his parents. I could feel his mother's shame at being unable to take better care of him. Then there was my own apprehension over his unlikely friendship with this woman under the pier. 

If you're looking for a read that will leave you alternately terrified and heartbroken this is it. I have an emotional hangover from my splash Down Into The Sea.

5 out of 5 stars

My thanks to the author and Cemetery Dance Publications.

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BLOODY HELL: An Anthology of UK Indie Horror Edited by Sarah Jules

 

The United Kingdom is known for its breath-taking beauty, but even the most idyllic of places can harbour dark secrets. Experience twenty-seven brand new horror stories from British indie authors, each set in a unique location throughout the British Isles. Grab a cup of tea, a scone, and remember… they’re only stories.

This fully illustrated anthology is brought to you by indie horror author Sarah Jules, and illustrator Rachael Rose, and features veteran, and debut, British indie horror authors,

"Twenty-seven stories from some of the best the UK has to offer. In this anthology, you’ll find a little something of creepy ghosts, mythical monsters, and deadly killers, all guaranteed to send a shiver up your spine. Grab yourself a cuppa, make yourself comfortable, and check your doors are locked… You might regret it otherwise.” - Justin Boote, author of Soul Searchers.

Vengeful ghosts, Folk horror, strange creatures, and psycho killers leaped from the pages and pulled me into the tales. I was a willing victim, happily spellbound from start to finish. 

Just a few of my favorites were Hungry Is The Bodach by Stuart Knott in which a woman has an ulterior motive for getting her lunkheaded husband up to the family cabin.

The Syn-Eater of Lancaster by MJ Mars is about a sin eater who has finally found a way to turn a good-sized profit for his work but at a terrible cost.

To Be A Man Of Man by J C Michael A new love is not all it's cracked up to be in this twisty surprising tale.

The God Botherers by Ashley Little follows two men on their way to do the Lord's work or at least their interpretation of it.

In Wrong Lane by Stephen Barnard a driver sets out to teach others the consequences of aggressive driving but ends up learning their own lesson.

Pergyl by C S Jones A family arrives at a cabin in the midst of a terrible storm, but there is more to fear than the weather.

Sand by David Watkins is a story worth remembering any time you're on the beach. Especially a lovely secluded beach that you seem to have all to yourself.

The Joke by Tom Carter left me stunned! I don't even know what to say about this one without giving anything away. I'm just going to say it was brilliant.

Brompton Road by Elizabeth Brown is where a content creator sets out to film one of those creepy abandoned place videos but it doesn't go as planned.

I could go on but at this point, I'd be listing the whole table of contents if I named every story that I enjoyed.

This is a huge collection of 27 stories that were much darker than expected and left me saying Bloody Hell that was a good book!

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Authors include:

Stephen Barnard

Marie Sinadjan

Mark MJ Green

Benjamin Langley

Brad Thomas

Elijah Frost

Lee Allen

William Long

Bethany Russo

David K Slater

Dr Stuart Knott

Elizabeth J Brown

Jessica Huntley

MJ Mars

M.L. Rayner

Ashley Lister

Jim Ody

Alexandra Nisneru

EC Samuels

Philip Alexander Baker

Tom Carter

CS Jones

JC Michael

Tim Stephens

David Watkins

And, a bonus Irish story from Leigh Kenny.

The Taste of Tiny Bones by Vincent Heselwood

 

No one knows where he came from...He's what lingers in the shadows behind you when you turn off the lights and race up the stairs...The darkness beneath the bed that keeps your feet tucked tightly under the covers...The Bogeyman...

But Evie "Creepy" Morenson has unknowingly found a way to make him something more than what he was, something much more vicious, something much more hungry...

A simple blog post causes new nightmares to start, new fears that give him new life, and now, something is very, very wrong.

She's lost control of the monster she created, and children are starting to die.

Will she and Detective Ezra Dean find a way to stop him before he goes viral?

You thought you were afraid of the Boogeyman before...Just wait...

Alfie Turner is the first but he will not be the last that the Tat O' Rag Man visits in the dark of night. An insidious presence made of fear and belief that devours its victims as they shriek in terror has come to life.

"What do you want?" he whispered. "To eat you," came the reply.

It spreads like a virus. To see it is to believe in it and to become its target. It's up to one woman, who has lived in fear most of her life to find the strength to stop it. I loved Evie "Creepy" Morenson and her love for books and the written word in general. She reminded me a bit of Stephen King's Holly in her mannerisms and her hyper focused ability to work on a problem.

If you were ever afraid of the dark as a child, if you ever had an unkind babysitter who told you the boogeyman would get you, or a sibling who teased you that something was in the closet, be prepared for those forgotten childhood fears to come roaring back.

The author succeeds in turning the unbelievable into the possible.

My thanks to Horrorsmith Publishing.

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