Wishlist | What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall

What Lives in the Woods is a mystery/thriller novel by Kate Alice Marshall.

They were eleven when they sent a killer to prison . . .
They were heroes . . . but they were liars.

Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her seventeen stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes.

And they were liars.

For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods—no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.

I'm just here to fan girl about another Kate Alice Marshall book coming soon. I think this is an adult mystery/thriller! I've loved Marshall's YA books, and I've loved her MG books. Yes, please, to an adult thriller! But I'll read anything she writes at this point.

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This post is being shared as part of Can't-Wait Wednesday over at Wishful Endings.

Review | These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall

Source: preordered purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

These Fleeting Shadows is a young adult horror novel by Kate Alice Marshall.

Helen Vaughan doesn't know why she and her mother left their ancestral home at Harrowstone Hall, called Harrow, or why they haven't spoken to their extended family since. So when her grandfather dies, she's shocked to learn that he has left everything—the house, the grounds, and the money—to her. The inheritance comes with one condition: she must stay on the grounds of Harrow for one full year, or she'll be left with nothing.

There is more at stake than money. For as long as she can remember, Harrow has haunted Helen's dreams—and now those dreams have become a waking nightmare. Helen knows that if she is going to survive the year, she needs to uncover the secrets of Harrow. Why is the house built like a labyrinth? What is digging the holes that appear in the woods each night? And why does the house itself seem to be making her sick?

With each twisted revelation, Helen questions what she knows about Harrow, her family, and even herself. She no longer wonders if she wants to leave…but if she can.

I read These Fleeting Shadows this past week with the Horror Spotlight discord group.

I am such a fan of Kate Alice Marshall. Marshall's books are always so imaginatively dark. These Fleeting Shadows was weird and romantic and heartbreaking, and I loved it.

Helen's grandfather passed away, and he left her Harrowstone Hall and his fortune. There was a catch to the inheritance and the rest of Helen's family was left out of the will. There are a lot of family secrets in the Vaughan family, and Harrowstone Hall is a strange place. You can tell things definitely aren't as they seem. Dreams and reality intertwine in the halls of Harrow and in the minds of the people who stay there.

These Fleeting Shadows has been described as Knives Out meets The Haunting of Hill House which sounds lighter and more humorous than the tone we actually get in These Fleeting Shadows. These Fleeting Shadows is dark and cosmic and maddening. It's H.P. Lovecraft meets Arthur Machen meets Kate Alice Marshall. It brought back the same unsettled feelings I felt in Our Last Echoes. It's also Sapphic and beautiful.

I loved the characters in These Fleeting Shadows. I couldn't help but feel for our main character Helen. She and her mother fled Harrow when she was young, but Helen didn't know why. She grew up only having her mother and Simon (her mother's boyfriend). With the help of the Harrow Witch and her cousins, she slowly unravels all of the Vaughan family secrets during the time she is forced to spend in Harrow.

If you've never read Kate Alice Marshall, you can absolutely start here. It's a great introduction to what her books are like, and I think These Fleeting Shadows has a stronger ending than her other books. If you are already a fan of Kate Alice Marshall, this is a must read.

4.5/5 stars
⭐⭐⭐⭐💫
 

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Recent Updates and Currently Reading | November 27

I hope you all had a wonderful week and a wonderful Thanksgiving to those of you who had Thanksgiving. I took some time off of work, and I was able to spend some time reading. 

I usually spend my Novembers catching up on my Book of the Month books and the Goodreads nominees, and that's exactly what I've been doing. I hate that the Goodreads Awards are so short now. We used to have a lot longer timeframe to read the nominees. I feel like I read pretty widely this year so that makes me happy.

Posted Last Week

Review | Unmasked by Lorien Lawrence ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - I love this series. Check out my review if you enjoy (or have someone in your life who enjoys) middle grade books.

Finished Reading

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫 - I loved this! I'll have a review posted later this week.

One Piece, Volume 7 by Eiichiro Oda ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This is my favorite volume so far. I'm going to round up some mini reviews soon.

Things We Do in the Dark by Jennifer Hillier [dnf] - This started out great, but it became too much for me. Too many POVs, too many storylines, too many timelines. I just don't have that kind of focus this year. This is probably my fault, and I could likely love it at another time.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - I'm excited to have finally read this. I enjoy Alice Feeney's books. I'll have a review out for this later this week or next.

Currently Reading

I finished Daisy Darker this morning, and I have no idea what I'm going to pick up. I can't decide if I'll finish the books I've been stuck in the middle of or pick up something entirely new today.

Currently Watching

Where the Crawdads Sing - I enjoyed this, but "the book was better". 😊

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - This was great. It was a bit tough emotionally, but it was a great movie.

A Kismet Christmas - This was cute.

Nope - I loved Nope! This was a surprise for me, and I loved it. If you love scifi horror, please watch it.

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, Book Date’s It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Review | Unmasked by Lorien Lawrence

Source: preordered purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

Unmasked is the third book in Lorien Lawrence's Fright Watch series.

The third book in the spine-chilling Fright Watch series follows the local monster mask maker—and a mask that comes to life on Halloween nightHaving suffered from anxiety attacks since she was eight years old, creating monsters has become a sort of therapy for Marion Jones: When she sculpts and paints, her fingers don’t tingle, the heaviness lifts from her chest, and she can actually breathe. So instead of grabbing pizza and milkshakes after school like most other kids in South Haven, Marion holes up in her room, working away on her monsters. And it’s paid off, because she’s just finished her first full-face mask: a gruesome sea monster she’s named Winston.

However, Halloween arrives with a Super Blue Blood Moon, and its powers somehow manage to bring Winston to life. To make matters worse, Marion’s crush, Tyler Dash, becomes the object of Winston’s possession as soon as he tries on the mask, turning him into a red-flannel and Converse high-top wearing Creature from Connecticut. Marion has no choice: She has to follow Tyler to the Halloween dance to try and stop him. Will she be able to figure out what’s happened to Tyler and stop the monster from wreaking further havoc on the school? Or has she made a real-life monster that’s here to stay?

Aw, I love this series.

Unmasked is the third book in Lorien Lawrence's Fright Watch series. Unmasked was different than the first two books (The Stitchers and The Collectors), but I loved it just as much! The first two books follow Quinn and Mike as they do sort of a supernatural neighborhood watch. Unmasked follows a new character named Marion, but Quinn and Mike are both in this story as well.

I loved Marion. Marion is a makeup artist. She's shy and she's anxious, but she loves special effects makeup. In Unmasked, she makes her first full-size mask of a finfolk creature she names Winston. Even though she is shy and she doesn't have a lot of friends, she has a side job of doing makeup for the kids at school for special events. Unmasked is set at Halloween, and Marion is doing a lot of makeup for the school dance. As Marion's mom says, "there is magic in makeup". When you combine Winston and the super blue blood moon and a school dance by the ocean, things get wild like they do in the Fright Watch town of South Haven.

This series is so much fun, and I'm so glad Marion has been added to the Fright Watch team. I think this series can last a long time, and I'm here for it.

As a middle grade horror reader, I really loved the fact that in Unmasked there were no dead parents, the siblings got along, the parents were present and loving, and it was a nice story about growing up and making friends. (This is not common in the middle grade books I've read.) I, obviously, loved the horror, too.

If you enjoy reading middle grade, I recommend the Fright Watch series. You don't have to read the first two before reading Unmasked, but I would still recommend starting at the beginning and reading all three.

4/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

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Recent Updates and Currently Reading | November 20

We are heading into the time of year where I reset. I always take the week of Thanksgiving off, and I get holiday time off for Christmas/New Years. I get to spend a lot of time reading and just enjoying books, and I always go into the new year feeling like it will be THE YEAR that I stay on top of my TBR (lol). That never happens, but I do enjoy this time of year and January.

Our Thanksgiving plans are a little bit up in the air for this week. We usually host at our house, but we have family with COVID so it may just be us for Thanksgiving. It's like we are still living in lockdown. 

I have a very important question - what is your favorite thing to eat on Thanksgiving? I was planning to make some mulled wine for the first time this year, but I think that may be a bit much without guests!

Posted Last Week

Book Review | The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen ⭐⭐⭐★ ★ - Go check out this review for my thoughts.

Finished Reading

One Piece, Volume 6 by Eiichiro Oda ⭐⭐⭐★ ★ - Well, damn. I read this twice. I was reading One Piece digitally from my library, and I thought I was in the middle of volume 6 when my time ran out. I found out my library has print copies (YAY!) so I started this one over from the beginning. Turns out I had actually read the whole thing and left off in volume 7!

Currently Reading

These Fleeting Shadows by Kate Alice Marshall - We have a big buddy read going on the Horror Spotlight discord for These Fleeting Shadows. I love Kate Alice Marshall's books, and I'm enjoying this one.

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher - I'm also listening to Nettle & Bone. I'm about 40% in. I will probably finish this one today after These Fleeting Shadows.

One Piece, Volume 7 by Eiichiro Oda - Character backstories are going to be my favorite volumes in One Piece. I loved Usopp's backstory in a previous volume, and this backstory of Red Shoes Zeff and Sanji has me shook!

Currently Watching

Ghosts of Christmas Always - I really enjoyed this one! It's a twist on Dicken's 3 ghosts, and I loved it.

A Cozy Christmas Inn - This one was fine. It was your typical Hallmark head-back-to-your-past Christmas movie, and I'm already forgetting how it ended. In love I assume.

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, Book Date’s It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Review | The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Source: personal purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

The Golden Couple is a mystery/thriller from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen.

The next electrifying novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo behind The Wife Between Us.

Wealthy Washington suburbanites Marissa and Matthew Bishop seem to have it all—until Marissa is unfaithful. Beneath their veneer of perfection is a relationship riven by work and a lack of intimacy. She wants to repair things for the sake of their eight-year-old son and because she loves her husband. Enter Avery Chambers.

Avery is a therapist who lost her professional license. Still, it doesn’t stop her from counseling those in crisis, though they have to adhere to her unorthodox methods. And the Bishops are desperate.

When they glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

Most of my friends have given The Golden Couple four or five stars. I'm not sure why The Golden Couple didn't wow me as much as it seems to have wowed other readers. It may just be when I chose to give it a read.

I've only read one other book by the writing duo of Hendricks and Pekkanen, but I enjoyed it. I was looking forward to reading The Golden Couple. While I wasn't disappointed and I did enjoy The Golden Couple, it was mostly just okay for me..

The characters were all unlikable for me which I really enjoyed in the beginning, but the book seemed to lose its focus and honestly so did I. This is a hard review to write because I did enjoy it, but I don't have much to say about it. The Golden Couple did keep me guessing, but for some reason I just wasn't very invested. It could simply be the fact that I was in a book hangover from the five-star read that I read just before this one that had me guessing but was not predictable whatsoever. The Golden Couple may have just fallen prey to having to follow a very unexpected book that worked for me on a level that The Golden Couple just didn't meet.

If you've read and enjoyed other books by Hendricks and Pekkanen, I would definitely recommend you check this one out as well. I have another book on my shelf by Hendricks and Pekkanen that I would still like to go back and read. This one just didn't wow me outside of being a well-written thriller with unlikable characters.

I listened to the audio, and I thought the narrators did a great job. The Golden Couple won't make it onto my list of favorite thrillers for the year, but I enjoyed the time that I spent with it.

 

3/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐★ ★

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Recent Updates and Currently Reading | November 13

Happy weekend, friends! How was your reading week? I managed to read a few things so I'm thrilled about that.

Posted Last Week

Book Review | The Clackity by Lora Senf ⭐⭐⭐★★

Book Review | Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Finished Reading

What If? by Randall Munroe ⭐⭐★★★ - The subtitle for this is Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. It was my book club's pick for November, and honestly not for me.

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen ⭐⭐⭐★★ - This was good.

Unmasked by Lorien Lawrence ⭐⭐⭐⭐★ - I love this series and recommend it for middle grade readers!

Currently Reading

Fairy Tale by Stephen King - I made more progress on Fairy Tale. I like it, but it feels long right now.

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne - I'm excited to finally be reading this. So far I'm not sucked in, though.

Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier - I'm enjoying this graphic novel. One of the main characters has cystic fibrosis.

Added to the TBR

The Hollow Kind by Andy Davidson - THANK YOU to my bestie for sending me The Hollow Kind. I love Andy Davidson's books and my sweet friend, too. ❤️

1-2-3-4, I Declare a Thumb War by Lisi Harrison and Daniel Kraus - Thank you to the publisher (Union Square Kids) for sending me the first book in the Graveyard Girls series.

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth - I was so excited to see White Horse in my Book of the Month selections. That's two months of horror in a row. I hope they keep this up!

Currently Watching

Barbarian - This movie is wild, and I loved it. If you need a horror movie to watch, check out Barbarian.

Jolly Good Christmas - I watch a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies even though I don't find most of them to be very good. 😂 I thought this one was good!

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, Book Date’s It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Review | Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey

Source: library borrow. This is a review of my reading experience.

 

Just Like Home is a horror novel by Sarah Gailey.

 

“Come home.” Vera’s mother called and Vera obeyed. In spite of their long estrangement, in spite of the memories -- she's come back to the home of a serial killer. Back to face the love she had for her father and the bodies he buried there.

Coming home is hard enough for Vera, and to make things worse, she and her mother aren’t alone. A parasitic artist has moved into the guest house out back, and is slowly stripping Vera’s childhood for spare parts. He insists that he isn’t the one leaving notes around the house in her father’s handwriting… but who else could it possibly be?

There are secrets yet undiscovered in the foundations of the notorious Crowder House. Vera must face them, and find out for herself just how deep the rot goes.

I think I've placed every one of Sarah Gailey's books on my wish list as they were released, but Just Like Home is the first book of Sarah Gailey's that I've actually read. Their books always seem to get mixed reviews so I've never taken the plunge until now. Just Like Home was voted as the November read along selection for the Horror Spotlight discord group. I'm so glad that it was, and I'm so glad that I finally got to read a book by Sarah Gailey.

I loved this book! The writing was so wonderful, and the story was so unexpected. It was creepy, it was imaginative, it was super weird, and it never went in the direction that I was expecting. Just Like Home was so fun to read.

In Just Like Home, Vera's awful mother is dying and has called Vera back home. Throughout Just Like Home, we see both the present time with Vera and her mother as well as Vera's childhood and what happened with her father and her mother and why she left the Crowder House to begin with. It's dark and it's creepy, and I couldn't look away.

Just Like Home really worked for me. I think I can see why Sarah Gailey's books would have mixed reviews, but I also think I may be the right reader for their stories. I'm excited to go back and pick up their back catalog because I really loved Just Like Home. It had such a great mix of being scary and being weird and keeping me hanging on to find out what was going to happen next. This book was oddly horrific, and I want more of it. I think most of their books have been more fantasy than horror, but I'm looking forward to finding out what each one is all about.

It's best to go into Just Like Home as blind as possible so I'm not going to give any more details on why I loved it so much. If you like domestic thrillers or horror or Sarah Gailey - don't miss out on this one. I highly recommend it.

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Review | The Clackity by Lora Senf

Source: preordered purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

The Clackity is a middle grade horror novel by Lora Senf.

Reminiscent of Doll Bones and Small Spaces, this “delightfully eerie” (Erin A. Craig, New York Times bestselling author of House of Salt and Sorrows) middle grade novel tells the story of a girl who must rescue her aunt by entering a world of ghosts, witches, and monsters to play a game with deadly consequences.

Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, the local paranormal expert. Des doesn’t have many rules except one: Stay out of the abandoned slaughterhouse at the edge of town. But when her aunt disappears into the building, Evie goes searching for her.

There she meets The Clackity, a creature who lives in the shadows and seams of the slaughterhouse. The Clackity makes a deal with Evie to help get Des back in exchange for the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie reluctantly embarks on a journey into a strange otherworld filled with hungry witches, penny-eyed ghosts, and a memory-thief, all while being pursued by a dead man whose only goal is to add Evie to his collection of lost souls. Will she ever find Des, or is The Clackity planning something far more sinister?

I bought The Clackity because it's a middle grade horror novel and the synopsis sounded awesome. In The Clackity, Evie's aunt has disappeared and Evie must enter a supernatural world filled with challenges to get her back.

I had managed to talk myself into thinking The Clackity had something to do with Halloween. I guess because it has the perfect Halloween cover with orange and black and greys and a wonderfully spooky illustration. The Clackity can definitely be read at any time, though. It's not set at Halloween, it just has a wonderful vibe to the book that does make it perfect for spooky season.

The illustration isn't limited to just the cover. The entire book has those awesome spooky illustrations sprinkled throughout the chapters. It really is a beautiful book.

As for the story, The Clackity is creepy and imaginative. In fact, The Clackity is so imaginative, I think it would appeal to fans of Catherine M. Valente. In the world that Evie enters, she has to go through all of these different settings and encounter different ghosts and monsters. It reminded me quite a bit of Coraline as well.

In the end, my rating for The Clackity is entirely subjective. I feel like I need to offer up some bigger explanation for why I'm only giving this three stars, but the truth is I loved getting to enter Senf's imaginative world and I loved the relationship between Evie and her aunt. Three stars means I liked it, and it just fits for me here.

 

3/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐★ ★ 

 

 

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Recent Updates and Currently Reading | November 6

The Astros won the World Series. It's been a rough few years for Astros fans, and that was a hell of a series.

Is anyone participating in National Novel Writing Month? I am, and it's going so-so this year. I love participating, though. My writing tastes have changed a lot over the years, and it's kind of fascinating.

I managed to post some reviews last week, and I'm still reading - so that's good news on the book front! I have a little bit of a freak out every November because the year is about to end and I've read a fraction of the books I had planned to read. My reading probably always picks up this time of year especially once Goodreads announces the Goodreads Choice Awards. I like to squeeze in a few more new release books before I vote.

Posted Last Week

Book Review | Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes by Eric LaRocca ⭐⭐★★★

Unlikable Characters That I Love to Love

Book Review | The Doll in the Garden by ⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Finished Reading

Just Like Home by Sarah Gailey ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - This was my first Sarah Gailey, and I loved it. Just Like Home is the Horror Spotlight November readalong pick if you want to join us on the Horror Spotlight discord.

Currently Reading

The Golden Couple by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen - Getting back to this one today!

Added to the TBR

Glassheart by Kate Alice Marshall - This is the final book in Kate Alice Marshall's Thirteens trilogy. I still need to read book 2 as well. I'm hoping to read them by the end of the year or early next year because I adored book one.

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This post is being shared as part of The Sunday Salon at Readerbuzz, Book Date’s It's Monday! What Are You Reading? and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

Review | The Doll in the Garden by Mary Downing Hahn

Source: personal purchase. This is a review of my reading experience.

The Doll in the Garden is a middle grade horror book by Mary Downing Hahn.

From ghost story master Mary Downing Hahn, the haunting tale of a mysterious doll discovered in a young girl's garden, and its owner, a girl from seventy years in the past, who wants it back.

A suspenseful story of unexpected connections between present and past. Ashley and her mother need their new apartment to work out, but everything Ashley does seems to upset the irritable and unforgiving landlady. When Ashley makes friends with the girl next door, Kristi, they uncover a wooden box containing a well-loved turn-of-the-century doll. Ashley wants to keep the doll for herself, but Kristi has other ideas. So does the doll's original owner, a girl who died decades ago, but whom Ashley meets when she follows a mysterious white cat through a hedge. Can Ashley bring peace to the girl and resolve her own present-day challenges?

My journey through Mary Downing Hahn's books continues with The Doll in the Garden.

I adored The Doll in the Garden. It was emotional and wonderful and a ghost story I would have really loved as a kid. It's a ghost story I really loved as an adult.

One thing I am noticing about Mary Downing Hahn's books is the parents are present in her stories. I mentioned in my review of Wait Till Helen Comes that all of Hahn's characters are generally annoying – including the adults. But I loved the main character's mom in The Doll in the Garden. She was wonderful, and her relationship with the main character Ashley was wonderful.

Ashley's dad passed away from cancer, and she and her mom moved from Baltimore to Monkton Mills to rent the top floor of a grumpy old lady's house. After Ashley and her new friend Kristi discover a doll buried in the garden, a white cat takes Ashley on a journey to discover the original owner. I absolutely loved the magic that was used with the ghost elements. It was creepy and imaginative, and I can't get enough of that.

The Doll in the Garden packs a lot about death and grief and regret into this one little book. There are so many parallels between the ghost and Ashley's father. The Doll in the Garden really got me in the feels. It also has me excited to read more from Mary Downing Hahn.

I never see or hear anybody talking about The Doll in the Garden. If you or someone you know is a fan of Mary Downing Hahn, this is a great book to put on your radar. Honestly, the cover isn't that great, but the story is wonderful. Just be sure you prepare your heart for this one.

 

4/5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

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