Myrrh by Polly Hall

Myrrh has a goblin inside her, a voice in her head that tells her all the things she's done wrong, that berates her and drags her down. Desperately searching for her birth-parents across dilapidated seaside towns in the South coast of England, she finds herself silenced and cut off at every step.

Cayenne is trapped in a loveless marriage, the distance between her and her husband growing further and further each day. Longing for a child, she has visions promising her a baby.

As Myrrh's frustrations grow, the goblin in her grows louder and louder, threatening to tear apart the few relationships she holds dear and destroy everything around her. When Cayenne finds her husband growing closer to his daughter, Cayenne's stepdaughter, pushing her further out of his life, she makes a decision that sends her into a terrible spiral.

The stories of these women will unlock a past filled with dark secrets, strange connections; all leading to an unforgettable, horrific climax.

To be honest this book almost landed in my DNF pile. The synopsis was intriguing, and the blurb comparing it to one of my favorite authors compelled me to read it, but once I started it was a slog to get through. It felt much longer than its 128 pages and I kept checking to see how much longer I had to go. 

I really wanted to love this but I can't. It's not horror. It's confusing what one character has to do with the other until you realize how it's forced to be connected, and it just doesn't work for me at all. Learning what the "goblin" is left me feeling cheated.

You may enjoy it more than I did but it's not one I can recommend.

My thanks to Titan Books.

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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