Bark At The Ghouls

This book brings the ick. 🍄 My 2 Cents for Free! Girl In the Creek by Wendy N. Wagner Released July 15, 2025 Source: Netgalley Get it at your local library or see more @  Goodreads Erin is a young  journalist who heads to a small town an hour out of Portland to write an article. Faraday is tucked away and filled with woods and mushrooms and rot, as well as poachers and murderers of people. People go missing and no one seems to care very much. There’s definitely a terrible story here but it’s also personal for her as her beloved brother went missing in the area a few years earlier. Erin meets up with a podcasting group and a bunch of their friends and, for the life of me, I couldn't tell you much about any of them because they all sort of hang around on the periphery (waiting to get picked off, it seems to me) and we don’t get to know them as people which was a frustrating experience. They’re all young and beautiful and smart but none of them have developed personalitie...

This started out amazing but lost me along the way.  My 2 Cents for Free! Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou Released April 2025 Source: Purchased from local indie bookstore Get it at your local library or see more @  Goodreads Sour Cherry is a retelling of the murderous Bluebeard, he of the penchant for collecting and murdering wives. He's no different here. The story starts out when he's just a "little lord". He's an odd child, whose nails grow at a frightening pace, and he can't seem to fit in with the other children. His wetnurse cares for him when no one else can quite bring themselves to. Is he an evil seed, is he truly cursed or is it the lack of nurturing? We shall never know but as the story goes along any sympathy I was able to dredge up for him was soon lost. The book has some beautiful language, but the story is oddly composed. It takes its time getting started. We get to know Bluebeard as that strange child I mentioned above. This section is a goo...

  Recent Mini Reviews Let's face it, most of my reviews lately are what most people consider "mini" anyhow. Most of the time I'd rather be reading than writing an essay deconstructing every part of a book, so it is what it is. Here are the quick takes and the thoughtless thoughts about the recent(ish) books I've read. This week it's a mix-up of genres. Nothing rated higher than a three but sometimes that happens. When She's Shy  by  Ruby Dixon ⭐⭐⭐ I haven't read anything in the Risdaverse (unless those blue alien books are Risdaverse books? If so, I'm a dummy because I have read a few of them) but this stands all on its own pretty well and now I want to read more so I guess it did its job. I didn't have any pesky questions besides is "Risadaverse" set on Not Hoth? It's short (less than 50 pgs, I think) and the romance is super rushed because, well, it's less than 50 pages but it's a sweet and quick read. No real character...

This was a little on the meh side for me. Witches Get Stuff Done by Molly Harper Released September 2023 Source: Kindle Unlimited Goodreads  | Amazon Juggling newfound witchy powers, a house full of ghosts, and verbal battles with the handsome local librarian is almost too much for a new witch to manage. A new witch with a coven, however, can get so much more done... From the moment Riley Everett set foot in Starfall Point, magic bubbled inside of her. But with only her late aunt's journals and a cantankerous live-in ghost butler to instruct her on all things witchy—including her newly inherited Victorian haunted house—Riley seeks out a coven for sisterhood and support. The last person she expects to be drawn to is the town's frustrating, yet ridiculously attractive head librarian. Edison Held knows almost everything there is to know about Starfall Point, but Shaddow House was always off-limits, thanks to its elusive owner. If he can convince the new owner, Riley, to let him ta...

I've seen a lot of love for this author. Maybe I've chosen the wrong book? Or maybe I have terrible taste. You've Lost A Lot of Blood by Eric LaRocca Released March 2022 Source: Found in a Little Free Library! Goodreads  | Amazon A disturbing new vision of terror from the author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke. "Each precious thing I show you in this book is a holy relic from the night we both perished-the night when I combed you from my hair and watered the moon with your blood. You've lost a lot of blood . . ." My 2 Cents for Free! I’ve never read this author before and found this book inside one of the Little Free Libraries that I steward so I grabbed it up before someone else could (I've since returned it to another Little Free Library). I saw some buzz about this author online and for some reason, I was under the impression that their writing was grossly extreme but that might just be my brain being forgetful and mixing things up. Or m...

This one frustrated me a little. Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson Released August 2022 Source: Borrowed from Library Goodreads  | Amazon Turns out that reading nothing but true crime isn’t exactly conducive to modern dating—and one woman is going to have to learn how to give love a chance when she’s used to suspecting the worst. PhD candidate Phoebe Walsh has always been obsessed with true crime. She’s even analyzing the genre in her dissertation—if she can manage to finish writing it. It’s hard to find the time while she spends the summer in Florida, cleaning out her childhood home, dealing with her obnoxiously good-natured younger brother, and grappling with the complicated feelings of mourning a father she hadn’t had a relationship with for years. It doesn’t help that she’s low-key convinced that her new neighbor, Sam Dennings, is a serial killer (he may dress business casual by day, but at night he’s clearly up to something). It’s not long before Phoebe re...

I think I was too grumpy for this one. Sign Here by Claudia Lux Released October 2022 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads   | Amazon A darkly humorous, surprisingly poignant, and utterly gripping debut novel about a guy who works in Hell (literally) and is on the cusp of a big promotion if only he can get one more member of the wealthy Harrison family to sell their soul. Peyote Trip has a pretty good gig in the deals department on the fifth floor of Hell. Sure, none of the pens work, the coffee machine has been out of order for a century, and the only drink on offer is Jägermeister, but Pey has a plan—and all he needs is one last member of the Harrison family to sell their soul. When the Harrisons retreat to the family lake house for the summer, with their daughter Mickey’s precocious new friend, Ruth, in tow, the opportunity Pey has waited a millennium for might finally be in his grasp. And with the help of his charismatic coworker Calamity, he sets a plan in motion. But things aren’...

“What harm could a ghost do? 👻 The Spite House by Johnny Compton Released February 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he’s desperate for money–it’s not easy to find safe work when you can’t provide references, you can’t stay in one place for long, and you’re paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you. When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them. The job calls to E...

Hmmm . . . what to say about this one? Little Secrets by Jennifer Hillier Released April 2020 Source: Library Borrow Dark Fiction  |   Goodreads  | Amazon Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They're admired in their community and are a loving family—until their world falls apart the day their son Sebastian is taken. A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding Sebastian, she learns that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman. This discovery sparks Marin back to life. She's lost her son; she's not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. Permanently. All it takes to unravel a life is one little secret... Overwhelmed by tragedy, a ...

Here I am with another 2 1/2 star review 😬 I do still like books. Truly I do. My Sweet Audrina by V.C Andrews Released 1983 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   |  Bookshop V.C. Andrews, author of the phenomenally successful Dollanganger series, has created a fascinating new cast of characters in this haunting story of love and deceit, innocence and betrayal, and the suffocating power of parental love. Audrina Adare wanted so to be as good as her sister. She knew her father could not love her as he loved her sister. Her sister was so special, so perfect -- and dead. Now she will come face to face with the dangerous, terrifying secret that everyone knows. Everyone except...  My Sweet Audrina.  My 2 Cents For Free! “Just trust whatever Papa tells you.” 😩 Sometimes you reread a book and think “wow that really held up. I’ve always had impeccable taste” and you pat yourself on the back for being such a smart...

I'm back with a 2.5 star review. Sorry in advance 😬  The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson Released February 1, 2022 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   |  Bookshop A mysterious plague that causes random bouts of violence is sweeping the nation. Now three generations of women must navigate their chilling new reality in this moving exploration of identity, cycles of abuse, and hope. Chelsea Martin appears to be the perfect housewife: married to her high school sweetheart, the mother of two daughters, keeper of an immaculate home. But Chelsea's husband has turned their home into a prison; he has been abusing her for years, cutting off her independence, autonomy, and support. She has nowhere to turn, not even to her narcissistic mother, Patricia, who is more concerned with maintaining the appearance of an ideal family than she is with her daughter's actual well-being. And Chelsea is worried that her daughters will be trapped just a...

This one was a wee bit of a disappointment. The Cousins by Karen M. McManus Published December 2020 Dark Fiction   |   Goodreads   |   Amazon   |  Bookshop From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of One of Us Is Lying comes your next obsession. You'll never feel the same about family again. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story are cousins, but they barely know each another, and they've never even met their grandmother. Rich and reclusive, she disinherited their parents before they were born. So when they each receive a letter inviting them to work at her island resort for the summer, they're surprised . . . and curious. Their parents are all clear on one point--not going is not an option. This could be the opportunity to get back into Grandmother's good graces. But when the cousins arrive on the island, it's immediately clear that she has different plans for them. And the longer they stay, the more they realize how mysterious--and dark--...