Genre: Young Adult Fiction / Horror

One House Left by Vincent Ralp..

Posted 06/17/2024 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If you’re a fan of urban legends, then One House Left by Vincent Ralph is definitely a book you should check out. Playing around with Bloody Mary or Death Number 999-9999 is one thing, but living in an urban legend? That’s a whole different story. For the most part, I wasn’t overly attached to our main character, Nate. Something was off about him – and not just the fact that he was oddly obsessed with Murder Road and keeping people away from there. He just wasn’t a character that I really connected with, to be honest. But sometimes you don’t need to connect with the characters. I loved Max – she was someone I’d probably have been friends with when I was in high school. She’s fiery but she also has a soft side. She’s my favorite of the characters in this book. The other two main characters, from whose point of […]

The Lamplighter by Crystal J. ..

Posted 05/23/2024 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I have to say – this book would have been a great read in October and indeed, I may have to re-read it for October. This book is perfectly creepy, what with a fog that covers the town of Warbler every evening. Even creepier when you discover where that fog originates from. I loved Temperance. She is fiesty and protective of those she loves. Her insistence on making her own way and working as the lamplighter, as well as her troubles as the lamplighter because she is a woman are a grim reminder that even today, women are not always seen as equals to men. Prudence is another character I was fond of. She is fiesty, loyal, and protective as well, but in her own way. The sisters have very different ways of living their lives, which is well played out in the book. Gideon… well, at times I liked […]

Too Scared to Sleep by Andrew ..

Posted 03/28/2024 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

Come on, it’s horror. You know I had to give it a shot. It’s meant for teens/young adults, so it isn’t super scary – or maybe I’m just so jaded when it comes to horror that nothing really scares me anymore. I was pleasantly surprised at the stories. A lot of the time when I find horror anthologies by authors I haven’t heard of, they’re either not good at all or there are only one or two good stories with the rest being mediocre at best. Not true with this anthology. All of the stories were really good. Again, not as scary as I’d have liked, but this wasn’t written with adults in mind, so there is that. Younger teens and tweens would probably find this book scarier than I did. My favorite stories in the book are “The Secret Sister”, “Stage Fright”, and “The Bone Fairy”. That’s not to […]

The Haunting by Natasha Presto..

Posted 10/20/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

If you’re looking for a Halloween themed YA horror novel, you won’t go wrong with **The Haunting**. But be warned, the title has nothing to do with ghosts. Characters We have a group of friends, one of them being ostracized by the town and the rest of the friend group – except for one person. They’re great characters, although you really only deal with two or three of them for most of the book. You’ll see Penny, Nash, and Zayn more than you’ll see any of the others, but they’re all mentioned several times as well. We don’t have a whole lot of background on any of them, but we don’t really need it and they’re written well enough that it doesn’t matter. Atmospere It’s a serial killer at Halloween – what more could you ask for in an atmosphere? It isn’t Michael Myers (and we can all be thankful for […]

Hatchet Girls by Diana Rodrigu..

Posted 10/15/2023 by Charli in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

I’m going to be honest – while I did enjoy Hatchet Girls, I’m not going to say it was my favorite read of 2023 by any means. The characters were good, some had more background than others, and in some cases, I think some of the characters could have used a bit more background. The plot was pretty unique and I really enjoyed it, as well as the writing style in the book. Unfortunately, I guessed the “bad guy” way too early in the book and it kind of spoiled the book for me because of that. However, I did enjoy the way the book ends because it was pretty cool. All in all, I gave the book 3 stars because to be perfectly honest, while it was a pretty good read and worked well for Spooky Season, it just wasn’t a favorite of mine.