Bark At The Ghouls

This was really fun on audio. My 2 Cents for Free! Dollface by Lindy Ryan Released February 2026 Source: Netgalley See more @  Goodreads This is a fun thriller/slasher with a horror writer as the main character that grabbed me from the chilling opening scene. It’s not heavy or depressing, even though it could have been due to the content, and it’s pretty fast paced and a fun slasher is always a good way to escape the world for a few hours. If you enjoy audio, it’s definitely the way to go with this one. The narrator does a fantastic job voicing all of the characters but especially the main character who sounds appropriately stressed and relatable. Jill, her husband, their young son and their golden retriever Lugosi have recently moved to a creaky not creepy house in suburbia for his job. She’s a horror writer struggling with a new story idea and has some insecurities about fitting in and being known as the horror tee wearing weirdo mom. But she is who she is, and I liked that she d...

This was a weird one! My 2 Cents for Free! Wide Open by Jessica Gross Released August 2025 Source: Netgalley See more @  Goodreads I listened to this book on audio. Thanks to Netgalley and the author and pub! The narrator Alice Whey is very perky and sounds younger than the 30ish main character but she’s easy to listen to. Her cadence reminds me of a romance narration but since a lot of this book is about a romantic relationship (albeit a wholly unhealthy one) that makes sense. Anyhow, radio host Olive is 33 (I think, I didn’t write it down) and wants a partner real bad. Really bad. Like annoyingly, can’t-think-of-anything-else bad. I once knew someone like this, and the character portrayal felt very realistic in a story that is otherwise kind of wild. Olive quickly forms an obsessive attachment to a young surgeon she meets while volunteering. Fortunately for her, he is a happy go lucky type and seems to not mind her often too clingy affection and attention. But she has a we...

Botanical horror is having a moment and it's a beautifully disgusting thing. My 2 Cents for Free! Hazelthorn by CG Drews Released October 2025 Source: Netgalley Get it at your local library or see more @  Goodreads Hazelthorn includes everything that bugged me a little about Don’t Let the Forest In because I am she of little patience, including the endless pining, the memory gaps and small glimpses of pained but forgotten histories and it is very angst heavy, but I loved all of it. Maybe I was just in the right mood? Or perhaps it's just a very good book. It’s earthy and mysterious and sometimes pretty bloody and gross and all of it is pretty damn haunting. Evander is a lonely, sickly teenage boy who has been wasting away in an old mansion. His door is locked until one day it isn’t . . . The writing is beautifully evocative. Or at least I think so. At one point Evander thinks about himself, “He is an autumn leaf. Meant to be pressed between the pages of an old book and forgotte...

Do not be sucked in by the cover alone like me! Bad Reputation by Nicole Edwards   Romance Released October 2017 Amazon  ♦  Goodreads Meet the most wanted players in sports . . . one ridiculously hot alpha male at a time. Chase: With a nickname like “Sin,” it’s no wonder they call me the bad boy of hockey. Opponents curse me. Fans scream my name—in the arena and in other, much more private places. Penalties or not, I’m not afraid to dish out a little pain. But pleasure? That’s my weakness. And no one knows it better than my best friend, Cassie Desrosiers. I’d have to be blind not to notice her rocking body and teasing grin. So when she invites me along on a trip to Vegas, my curiosity isn’t the only thing that’s aroused. Cassie: Chase Barrett is a world-class A-hole. As his best friend, I’m allowed to call him on his BS. Who else is going to do it? Certainly not the puck bunnies swooning at every flex of his biceps. Everyone knows that Chase is the love-’em...

Should've DNF'd this one . . . Mrs. Fletcher by Tom Perrotta Fiction , Released July 2017 Amazon  ♦  Goodreads From the bestselling author of The Leftovers and Little Children comes a penetrating and hilarious new novel about sex, love, and identity on the frontlines of America’s culture wars. Eve Fletcher is trying to figure out what comes next. A forty-six-year-old divorcee whose beloved only child has just left for college, Eve is struggling to adjust to her empty nest when one night her phone lights up with a text message. Sent from an anonymous number, the mysterious sender tells Eve, “U R my MILF!” Over the months that follow, that message comes to obsess Eve. While leading her all-too-placid life—serving as Executive Director of the local senior center by day and taking a community college course on Gender and Society at night—Eve can’t curtail her own interest in a porn website called MILFateria.com, which features the erotic exploits of ordinary, middle-ag...

I apologize in advance for the deluge of new but quickly getting old reviews that is about to hit you this week. I am terribly behind in posting them! Halloween Carnival by Robert McCammon, Kevin Lucia, John Little, Lisa Morton & Mark Allan Gunnells Horror Short Story Collection  Released October 2017 Amazon  ♦  Goodreads STRANGE CANDY by Robert McCammon Chocolate bars and sour suckers are trick-or-treat staples, but beware the odd sweet at the bottom of your bag. You never know who it’s from—or what it might do to you. THE RAGE OF ACHILLES by Kevin Lucia Father Ward should have heeded the warnings about hearing confession on All Hallow’s Eve. Because a man is about to tell him a secret more haunting than any he has heard before. DEMON AIR by John R. Little Fear of flying is not uncommon. But on this transpacific airline, the real danger isn’t the flight itself. It’s whoever—or whatever—is up in the air with you. LA HACIENDA DE LOS MUERTOS by Lisa ...

I won this book from Bookishfirst , Netgalley's sister site for readers. I'm thrilled to receive a real book as a win but I honestly wasn't expecting to win anything and, crap, now I have three weeks to get it read!! I don't know if I can handle the pressure. Patrick is unconcerned.     For those who don't know, Bookishfirst features excerpts of a handful of upcoming releases. They ask that you read any that tickles your fancy and write a review of the excerpt and then you'll get tossed into a lottery to win the actual book. If you win, you have three weeks to write the review (yikes, the stress!). You will get points for any excerpt you read and any reviews you submit and when you gather enough points you can choose a free book. I thought this was a very strange new thing (who the heck reviews excerpts? and why do they want reviews of them anyway?) but I'm curious and nosy and signed on to see what it was all about. At first I thought this was ...

Make sure you're not that house. You know the one. The lights are out and there is not even a bowl of teeth rotting candy left out for the little beggars . . . The Halloween Children by Brian James Freeman & Norman Prentiss Horror Fiction Released June 2017 Amazon ♦ Goodreads The Halloween Children are watching—they’re always watching in this chilling novel of suburban horror from Bram Stoker Award winner Norman Prentiss and Brian James Freeman of Cemetery Dance Publications. The accommodations at Stillbrook Apartments aren’t exactly glamorous, but they’re quiet, affordable, and well maintained. The handyman is usually available to help with a leak or a broken bulb, his wife and two adorable kids often tagging along. When occasion dictates, the neighbors gather to wish each other well and spread the requisite holiday cheer. Everything’s very nice. Very normal. But as Halloween approaches, strange occurrences are happening all around Stillbrook. The children te...

For those concerned about the yes/no button installation outlined in my previous post , Netgalley has chosen to remain silent. In fact, they have removed all comments from their initial blog post   and have shut off the comment feature on the post after leaving this vague PR statement: netgalley-admin says: August 18, 2017 at 5:09 pm Hi all! We love and appreciate all the thoughtful input we’re getting from the NetGalley community about these new features. We are actively collecting and analyzing all the comments we’re seeing across various channels, and incorporating your feedback into future changes. Stay tuned, and thank you for your dedication to NetGalley! They have also been deleting comments on their Facebook post and muting their Twitter feed comments regarding reader concerns. Maybe I've read too much dark fiction, but this does not bode well.

Bloggers, I know you love your Netgalley. Or, if you're anything like me, you have a love/hate relationship with them. Love? Hey, free books and you get them early. All you have to do is review them and you do that anyway, right? Hate? Well, it's self-loathing really. Personally, they test my willpower and suddenly I'm requesting and not touching my physical tbr pile in over a year! I love the fact that Netgalley is a separate entity from the usual book haunts. It is all about getting books into the hands of reviewers, librarians and book sellers so they, in turn, can get the word out. Netgalley has been a safe haven away from the sometimes drama filled world of review/reviewer/blogger drama and competition. We request our books and we walk away, hoping for a few requests to come through. We've all been on the same playing field. But after receiving an email from them two days in a row, I fear things may be changing. Please tell me I am wrong. If you have not seen the...

Coco Butternut  by  Joe R. Lansdale Released: January  2017 Mystery/Thriller Hap & Leonard Series Amazon  ♦  Goodreads Coco Butternut marks the always-welcome return of Joe R. Lansdale’s dysfunctional duo: Hap Collins and Leonard Pine. As usual, wherever Hap and Leonard go, trouble seems to already be there, awaiting their arrival. And in the case of this twisty, hilarious, and heartfelt new novella, Lansdale sends his heroes to Oak Rest mortuary and cemetery to grapple with the living and the dead—both canine and human. When the mummified corpse of a beloved prize-winning dachshund named Coco Butternut is stolen from her final resting place, Hap and Leonard are hired by the owner to get her body back. The job is straightforward: they must simply exchange a bag full of cash for the missing pooch’s mummy. But they can feel something’s not on the up-and-up, and how right they are. With assistance from Hap’s significant other, Brett, and his daugh...

Amazon  ♦  Goodreads Nightmares   edited by Ellen Datlow Short Horror Story Collection   Released: November 2016, 432 Pages Unlucky thieves invade a house where Home Alone seems like a playground romp. An antique bookseller and a mob enforcer join forces to retrieve the Atlas of Hell. Postapocalyptic survivors cannot decide which is worse: demon women haunting the skies or maddened extremists patrolling the earth. In this chilling twenty-first-century companion to the cult classic Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, Ellen Datlow again proves herself the most masterful editor of the genre. She has mined the breadth and depth of ten years of terror, collecting superlative works of established masters and scene-stealing newcomers alike. My Thoughts I received the ARC from Netgalley. Thanks, Netgalley! I guess this averages out to 3.5? I'm too tired to do the math so a 3 it is. Holy crap this book took half my life to read. It...

The Secret LIfe of Souls  by Jack Ketchum & Lucky McKee Dark Fiction At the heart of this psychological suspense novel is the haunting depiction of a family’s fall and the extraordinary gifted dog, Caity, who knows the truth. As the drama unfolds Caity evolves from protector to savior, from scapegoat to prop, and eventually, from avenger to survivor. She is an unselfish soul in a selfish world—and she is written with depth and grace by authors Ketchum and Mckee, who display a profound understanding of a dog’s complex emotions. With her telling instincts and her capacity for joy and transformative love, Caity joins the pantheon of great dogs in contemporary literature.   Eleven year old actress Delia Cross is beautiful, talented, charismatic. A true a star in the making. Her days are a blur of hard work on ­set, auditions and tutors. Her family—driven, pill­-popping stage mother Pat, wastrel dad Bart, and introverted twin brother Robbie—depends on her for their upsc...