Review: Bone White by Ronald Malfi

Bone White by Ronald Malfi

My Rating:

I would like to thank Kensington Books for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

There was a lot to love about Bone White but I found myself losing interest somewhere along the line. It started off great and I was thoroughly enjoying it but it slowed down nearer the middle and I wasn't as invested in the story as I had been up to that point. It's not that I was bored, I think the suspense was overshadowed by the main characters initial lack of direction once he reached the town of Dreads Hand and the repetitive way that every person in town seemed to treat him. The build up stagnates and meanders along for too long and although it does pick up again the dread and suspense never recovers enough for the ending to be as satisfactory as it should have been.

That being said, the writing was great and the descriptions of the surroundings were vivid and easily pictured in the mind's eye. The atmosphere really drew me in and the feeling of the cold and isolation of the forest came across well. It's just a shame that the middle section of the story didn't work for me.




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Review: Savage Jungle by Hunter Shea

Savage Jungle by Hunter Shea

My Rating:


I would like to thank the publisher for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

Natalie and Austin McQueen set off on another adventure following on from their revenge on good ole Nessie. Like Loch Ness Revenge it's one that's not to be taken too seriously and just enjoyed for what it is. It's a fast, fun, and easy read. It's every bit as enjoyable, humorous, fast paced, and as cheesy as the previous instalment, with lots of madness, creatures, action and adventure.

Well worth a read.




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Review: A Life Removed by Jason Parent

A Life Removed by Jason Parent

My Rating:

Detectives Bruce Marklin and Jocelyn Beaudette have put plenty of criminals behind bars. But a new terror is stalking their city. The killer’s violent crimes are ritualistic but seemingly indiscriminate. As the death toll rises, the detectives must track a murderer without motive. The next kill could be anyone… maybe even one of their own.

Officer Aaron Pimental sees no hope for himself or humanity. His girlfriend is pulling away, and his best friend has found religion. When Aaron is thrust into the heart of the investigation, he must choose who he will become, the hero or the villain.

If Aaron doesn’t decide soon, the choice will be made for him.

Yet another excellent book from Jason Parent. This was a lot of fun to read and I enjoyed every minute of it. I was engrossed from start to finish and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. The characters are well written and fully fleshed out and there are plenty of twists to keep you on the edge of your seat. The descriptions were vivid and at times had me cringing but I couldn't look away from the page.

A Life Removed has a wee bit of everything that I enjoy: crime, thriller, police procedural, action, and horror, and there is plenty of each to please every reader. It never ceases to amaze me how well Jason Parent can meld different genres together and produce something that is a lot of fun to read rather than a hot mess.

The only mistake was mine... I picked it up late at night and ended up awake into the wee small hours because I kept having to read just one more page...

Definitely one I would recommend.




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Review: Just Add Water by Hunter Shea

Just Add Water by Hunter Shea

My Rating:


I would like to thank the publisher for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

Just Add Water was a lot of fun. Pure unadulterated trashy 80s horror kind of fun. It's packed full of blood, gore, and dark humour and was a blast to read. It's not a book to be taken seriously, but one where you have to just have fun with it and enjoy for what it is.

That being said, I was tearing through the pages and thoroughly enjoying myself and then all of a sudden was completely pulled out of the story. I initially thought it may have been a case of me reading too fast because I was having so much fun, but on re-reading it I discovered quite a silly inconsistency that should have been easily caught during editing. Up until that point, I had been having a riot and loving the ridiculousness and the chaos but I had been reminded I was reading and my immersion faded.

I did still enjoy the book a lot, it's just a shame that something that should have been easily caught and fixed during editing ruined the flow and immersion so early on.



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Review: You Will Grow into Them by Malcolm Devlin

You Will Grow into Them by Malcolm Devlin

My Rating:

I would like to thank Unsung Stories for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

The world is a far stranger place than we give it credit for. There, in the things we think familiar, safe, are certain aspects. Our fears and desires given form. Moments that defy explanation. Shadows in our home.

In Malcolm Devlin’s debut collection, change is the only constant. Across ten stories he tackles the unease of transformation, growth and change in a world where horror seeps from the everyday. Childhood anxieties manifest as debased and degraded doppelgängers, fungal blooms are harvested from the backs of dancers and London lycanthropes become the new social pariahs. The demons we carry inside us are very real indeed, but You Will Grow Into Them.

'You Will Grow into Them' is a solid selection of short stories. The stories are varied and different and have a dark unsettling undercurrent. The author's writing style is engaging and draws the reader in, he manages to give the reader just enough information to get the story across while at the same time leaving room for the reader's imagination. This allows the reader to fill in the gaps and to embrace the strangeness and fantastical and let their imagination run with it.

While I didn't find them to be scary, I did enjoy the strangeness and unsettling feel of them. They made me think, had me reading between the lines and contemplating the effect and affect, and the reasoning behind what was taking place. I can't say I was a fan of every story in the collection, some stood out more than others. My two favourites in the collection were 'Her First Harvest' and 'We All Need Somewhere to Hide'.

As a whole, I would say that 'You Will Grow into Them' is a 4 star read. I did, however, rate each story individually as I read through the collection and you can find those ratings below:

1 - Passion Play - 3 stars.

2 - Two Brothers - 3 stars.

3 - Breadcrumbs - 4 stars.

4 - Her First Harvest - 4.5 stars.

5 - We All Need Somewhere to Hide - 5 stars.

6 - Dogsbody - 3.5 stars.

7 - Songs Like They Used to Play - 2 stars.

8 - The Last Meal He Ate Before She Killed Him - 2 stars.

9 - The Bridge - 3 stars.

10 The End of Hope Street - 4 stars.



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Review: The Wicked by James Newman

The Wicked by James Newman

My Rating:


 I received a free copy of The Wicked via LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Well, that was a lot of fun. The Wicked is everything that I loved about the good old fashion trashy horror novels of the 80's. It's a bit of a car crash. It's cheesy, it's gruesome, it's fast paced, it's your stereotypical good vs evil horror, but that's why it's so good. It's a roller-coaster ride that blasts through the doors of every ghost train and haunted house in the park without allowing you to catch your breath in between. There's no fancy prose, no heavy wordy detail, no pages and pages of world building or character building. It's straight up horror, no bells or whistles and I had a blast reading it.

Definitely one I would recommend.



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Review: Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley

Beautiful Sorrows by Mercedes M. Yardley

My Rating:


I received a copy of Beautiful Sorrow through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

I don't often read short story collections and when I do I tend to read them one story at a time in-between reading other books, but in this case, I was so captivated by the individual stories that I read them one after the other. They were all enjoyable but my favourite has to be The Boy Who Hung the Stars.

Beautiful Sorrows is the first of Mercedes M. Yardley that I have read and I have to say her writing is truly beautiful. It has a wonderful peculiar and ethereal quality to it. In fact, many words came to mind while reading: poetic, haunting, mystical, melancholy, surreal, to name a few. Her style truly is unique. I've never read anything quite like it before. Not only were her stories beautiful but they were also heartbreaking, chilling, and dark, all at the same time.

Reading Beautiful Sorrows was like experiencing the wonder and beauty of fairytales for the first time as a child, but in grown up form.



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Review: Skitter (The Hatching #2) by Ezekiel Boone

Skitter (The Hatching #2) by Ezekiel Boone

My Rating:


I would like to thank Atria Books for providing me with an advanced reading copy of this book.

Skitter is book two in The Hatching trilogy. Having read and loved book one I was keen to make a start on book two. I enjoyed the first book but hated that it finished on a huge cliffhanger so you can imagine how disappointing it was to discover that the author leaves the reader hanging on the edge of yet another cliff at the end of the second book. I hate cliffhangers, they are annoying and frustrating and put me off reading more of the series because I feel like the author is trying to manipulate me into buying their next book- want to know what happens next? Yes? Great! Come back in a year and give me X amount of pounds and maybe I'll tell you more, and if you're lucky I might throw in yet another cliffhanger just for shits and giggles so you'll buy the next one after that. If your book is good, that alone is enough to make readers want to pick up the next one.

Skitter suffers from middle book syndrome. It wasn't as engaging or as fast paced and it also lacked the action and danger that was prevalent in the first book. It didn't have the same effect as the first book, I wasn't anywhere near as creeped out by it. It only progresses the storyline a few steps forward and you learn a little more about the spiders, but a little, and a few steps are not enough. It hardly progresses at all and nothing is resolved. It felt like a placeholder, something to keep the wolves from the door until the final book is released. There was nothing to get my teeth into, nothing to make it stand out on its own. It read more like an extension of The Hatching rather than an individual book. It picks up from where The Hatching left off and slowly ambles along for most of the book, the pace does pick up very near the end but very quickly leaves the reader hanging onto yet another stinking cliffhanger.

I have to say, I feel rather disappointed and let down by Skitter. It was OK but I expected more. I will still read the next one, it's the last in the trilogy so surely there won't be a cliffhanger, right? I hope so!



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Review: Jackals by Stuart R Brogan

Jackals by Stuart R Brogan

My Rating:


I have to say, I'm kind of fed up with a lot of the horror books lately. A large proportion of the horror released of late has been either the same old stories told in a slightly different way or are labelled as "extreme horror" and are full of violence and gore thrown in for nothing more than shock value with no real plot to speak of. But, I'm glad to say that that wasn't the case with Jackals.

How far would you go to protect the ones you love? Who can you trust when the seeds of corruption and violence have wormed their way into every crack?

Jackals was one heck of a wild and gory ride. It's most definitely not a book for the faint of heart. The action kicks off in great gory detail almost immediately and keeps you on the edge of your seat to the very end. The author takes the reader on an action-packed adrenaline ride to the deepest darkest depths of depravity and exposes the sadistic, twisted, and primitive side of human nature.

"They are without doubt some of the most dangerous people out there and the worrying thing is that ninety-nine percent of the population doesn't even know they exist..."

Nobody is what they seem. Take nothing, and no one, for granted. Heroes and villains emerge in the most unlikely of places. There is no safe place for the reader or the characters. The twists and turns keep you on your toes, they mess with your head, you're never quite sure what's around the corner or who's going to turn on you next.

Definitely one I would recommend.



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Jackals, Synopsis

From the aftermath of a brutal massacre at a rural police station, two survivors leave behind a swathe of bodies and a cryptic sigil painted on the wall, in blood.

A disgraced Detective Inspector begrudgingly starts to investigate the crime scene but as the facts begin to emerge the trail appears to lead into the highest echelons of power, making the policeman himself the next target.

As the conspiracy spirals ever deeper and with no-one to trust, both prime suspect and policeman are forced into an unlikely alliance to prove, not only their innocence, but the existence of a force so ingrained into our society, it could rewrite the very fabric of human nature.

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Stuart R Brogan, Biography

Stuart R Brogan is a former nightclub bouncer and unwaveringly proud Heathen who loves nothing more than expanding people’s minds with Pagan related Non-Fiction or blowing people’s brains out with fast paced, gut wrenching, thrilling horrors.

Harley lover, extreme metal drummer and avid movie nerd, Stuart has never followed the crowd but instead carved his own path and danced to his own tune. Since his early years, Stuart found escapism in both the written word and the silver screen. A huge fan of 80’s Action / Horror movies such as The Thing, Aliens, Predator & Die Hard and literary heroes such as Shaun Hutson, Clive Barker, Richard Layman and Brian Lumley, Stuart endeavours to bring an unapologetic cinematic eye to his fiction in the hopes of rekindling his childhood sense of wonder, all whilst blowing through vast amounts of ammunition down his local shooting range.

Stuart currently resides in Glastonbury, UK with his long-suffering wife and man eating Shih-Poo dog “Poppy” where he co-owns a kick ass Viking / Asatru shop, fiercely named “Shield Maiden”





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