Bark At The Ghouls

I read this a little bit ago but books don't expire and I'd like everyone to read it!  Inheriting Her Ghosts by S.H. Cooper Released July 2021 Source: My TBR Goodreads  | Amazon Inheritance often comes with strings attached, but rarely are they as tangled as those hanging over High Hearth. When Eudora Fellowes learns she's the sole heir of her estranged great-aunt's seaside manor, she believes it will be the peaceful escape she's longed for. What awaits, however, is a dark legacy shrouded in half a century of secrets, and it doesn't take long before Eudora realizes she's not the only one to call High Hearth home. My 2 Cents for Free! I read S.H. Cooper’s book The Festering Ones last year and enjoyed it quite a bit. It featured a strong protagonist who is fearless and determined to get to the root of the mysteries - even if she has to put herself at risk to do it. Inheriting Her Ghosts has another great heroine and it is very mysterious and ghostly and full...

I read and reviewed this one a little bit ago but forgot to post it here. But it's never too late to discover a new read, right? Sundial by Catriona Ward Released March 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads  | Amazon Sundial is a new, twisty psychological horror novel from Catriona Ward, internationally bestselling author of The Last House on Needless Street. You can't escape what's in your blood... All Rob wanted was a normal life. She almost got it, too: a husband, two kids, a nice house in the suburbs. But Rob fears for her oldest daughter, Callie, who collects tiny bones and whispers to imaginary friends. Rob sees a darkness in Callie, one that reminds her too much of the family she left behind. She decides to take Callie back to her childhood home, to Sundial, deep in the Mojave Desert. And there she will have to make a terrible choice. Callie is worried about her mother. Rob has begun to look at her strangely, and speaks of past secrets. And Callie ...

Why did I wait so long to read this book (that I bought in 2016 😅)? My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix Released May 2016 Source: Purchased with my own $ Goodreads  | Amazon Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fifth grade, when they bonded over a shared love of E.T., roller-skating parties, and scratch-and-sniff stickers. But when they arrive at high school, things change. Gretchen begins to act….different. And as the strange coincidences and bizarre behavior start to pile up, Abby realizes there’s only one possible explanation: Gretchen, her favorite person in the world, has a demon living inside her. And Abby is not about to let anyone or anything come between her and her best friend. With help from some unlikely allies, Abby embarks on a quest to save Gretchen. But is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil? My 2 Cents for Free! I waited far too long to read this book and thought I had ruined the experience by watching the movie first but nah. I lik...

This was such a fun audio! The Only One Left by Riley Sager Released June 2023 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon Bestselling author Riley Sager returns with a Gothic chiller about a young caregiver assigned to work for a woman accused of a Lizzie Borden-like massacre decades earlier. At seventeen, Lenora Hope Hung her sister with a rope Now reduced to a schoolyard chant, the Hope family murders shocked the Maine coast one bloody night in 1929. While most people assume seventeen-year-old Lenora was responsible, the police were never able to prove it. Other than her denial after the killings, she has never spoken publicly about that night, nor has she set foot outside Hope’s End, the cliffside mansion where the massacre occurred. Stabbed her father with a knife Took her mother’s happy life It’s now 1983, and home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora after her previous nurse fled in the middle of the night. In her seventies and confined ...

Here's an oldie I just discovered. It's book #2 of a series and of course I read them out of order 😄 When Beauty Tamed the Beast by Eloisa James Released January 2011 Source: Library Borrow Goodreads  | Amazon Miss Linnet Berry Thrynne is a Beauty... Naturally, she's betrothed to a Beast. Piers Yelverton, Earl of Marchant, lives in a castle in Wales where, it is rumored, his bad temper flays everyone he crosses. And rumor also has it that a wound has left the earl immune to the charms of any woman. Linnet is not just any woman. She is more than merely lovely: her wit and charm brought a prince to his knees. She estimates the earl will fall madly in love—in just two weeks. If she decides to be very wicked indeed... what price will she pay for taming his wild heart? My 2 Cents for Free! I wasn't so sure about this book when I first started it. It was a bit convoluted and a little irritating if I'm being completely honest.  Everyone assumed the heroine was pregnant be...

I love me a weird book and this is a weird book! Rouge by Mona Awad Released September 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads |   Amazon From the critically acclaimed author of Bunny comes a horror-tinted, gothic fairy tale about a lonely dress shop clerk whose mother’s unexpected death sends her down a treacherous path in pursuit of youth and beauty. Can she escape her mother’s fate—and find a connection that is more than skin deep? For as long as she can remember, Belle has been insidiously obsessed with her skin and skincare videos. When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Be...

This is a dark and beautiful tale of body horror. The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw Released May 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon From USA Today bestselling author Cassandra Khaw comes The Salt Grows Heavy, a razor-sharp and bewitching fairytale of discovering the darkness in the world, and the darkness within oneself. You may think you know how the fairytale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now, her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood, and the three 'saints' who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruellest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive. My 2 Cents for Free! Khaw’s previous release, Nothing ...

Drop everything. THIS BOOK IS SO GOOD! If you like coming-of-age horror you must read it. Wasps in the Ice Cream by Tim McGregor Released February 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon What happens when you fall for the girl everyone hates? Summer 1987: Mark Prewitt's only priority is to avoid his dad's new wife and waste time with his friends, but idle nights are the devil's handiwork. When his friends decide to pull a cruel prank on the reclusive and strange Farrow sisters, Mark regrets caving in to peer pressure. Wanting to make amends, Mark is drawn into the mysterious world of the Farrow girls, finding a kindred spirit in the middle sister, George. She is unlike anyone he's ever known; a practicing witch who uses folk magic to protect her family. They bond over books, loneliness, and homemade spells. She even invites Mark to join a séance to contact her dead sister, who died under mysterious circumstances. Keeping their relationship se...

  Recent Mini Reviews Sometimes the less said the better. Or sometimes I'm just feeling lazy. Camp Scare  by  Delilah S. Dawson ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I had some trouble with The Violence by this writer (wrong book/wrong time) but I highly recommend Camp Scare to middle schoolers and to anyone that likes a creepy campground setting and stories about growing up as an outcast and standing up for yourself even when people refuse to believe you. It's about bullying, and mean girls and creepy goings-on and I could not stop listening. Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune ⭐⭐⭐⭐ This is a warm tale of second changes after you've effed up your first. Hey, it happens. I enjoyed it so much. It's cozy, sweet, snarky, funny and also so very sad at times. It felt a little overlong on audio but that might just be me but I never felt the urge to quit because I needed to know how this ended for all of these people I'd become so invested in. Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dar...

Another five-star read. Who am I?! Suckerville by Chris Sorensen Released June 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon A CREATURE FEATURE WITH TEETH... JD Speers is having a stretch of bad his wife left him, the law is on his tail, and to top it all off, bloodsucking leech people are attacking his favorite bar. Together with his buddy Rowdy and the barflies of Doc’s Dockside Tavern, JD must stop the suckers before they spread their contagion up and down the Mississippi River. "With Suckerville, Sorensen crafts a masterful tale that rips and roars its way through 80's Monster Movies and survive-at-all-costs horror fiction in a way that'll have readers salivating!" - Steve Stred, 2X Splatterpunk-Nominated author of Mastodon , Father of Lies and Churn the Soil "This is the most fun I've had with a book in a long time. Wonderful characters, disgusting gore and violence and a sense of humour that had me smiling like a loon." - Kend...

Finally, a five-star read. Whew, what a relief! A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher Released March 2023 Source: Received for Review Consideration Goodreads   | Amazon A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family. "Mom seems off." Her brother's words echo in Sam Montgomery's ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone. She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam's excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out. But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be. Gone is the warm, cluttered charm her mom is known for; now the walls are painted a sterile white. Her mom jump...

This is such a painful and powerful read. Three Days In The Pink Tower Released July 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction  |   Goodreads   | Amazon Josey Claypool begins the summer before her senior year at a carnival, where a fortune teller with milky-white eyes gives her a foreboding tarot reading. She’s spooked, but nothing could prepare her for the following day when two strange men show up at her front door. Josey is kidnapped at gunpoint and brought to a pink cabin in the woods where she is held prisoner. In her darkest moment, the fortune teller appears and gives her a deck of tarot cards, which she must cast and interpret in a fight for her life. In this work of speculative autofiction, award-winning author EV Knight reclaims the narrative of her own past in an exploration of trauma, agency, and survival.  My 2 Cents for Free! Several reviewers have already said this book is not an easy one to read (or review) and they’re not exag...

This was a very well-written collection of speculative fiction. Chasing Whispers by Eugen Bacon Released September 2022 Source: Received for Review Consideration Dark Fiction  |   Goodreads   | Amazon Chasing Whispers is a unique Afro-irrealist collection of Black speculative fiction in transformative stories of culture, longing, hybridity, unlimited futures, a collision of worlds and folklore. It contains 13 stories, 11 of which are original, with a commanding introduction by D. Harlan Wilson. The collection is aligned with the themes of Eugen Bacon’s other fiction, and her recognition in the honor list of the 2022 Otherwise Fellowships for “doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction.” Chasing Whispers casts a gaze at mostly women and children haunted by patriarchy, in stories packed with affection, dread, anguish and hope. The connecting theme is a black protagonist with a deep longing for someone, someplace, something… and a recurring phrase in each st...