{I've Been Reading} Small Town Slasher

 Small Town Slasher by Stephanie Rose 

This book had me immediately hooked. It's like a slasher film with lots more room for character development and Jenna is a great protagonist. I loved the chance to walk in her shoes for a couple hundred pages and I especially love that the author didn't immediately date the book by making specific references. We can all imagine what "those most overplayed Christmas song ever" is or what current events Jenna is alluding to and, even if we don't come up with the exact ones the author intended, it still works. Once the killings started and the plot moved away from Jenna, I found myself enjoying the read a little less, but overall it's a fun fast paced treat for horror fans. 

The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts by Kim Fu

Eleanor's mother has always taken care of her, doing her laundry and cooking her meals and all of the other tasks that make up adult life. Then her mother is dead and Eleanor is alone. She has her career as a therapist, her inheritance, and a real estate agent who quickly walks her through the process of buying a house in an abandoned development far from town. Imagine The Haunting of Hill House, but the threat doesn't come from the ghosts, it comes from the structure itself.  The story is definitely bleak and moves slowly, but I couldn't look away from the nightmare that was Eleanor's life. For me, one of the most interesting parts was watching her try to help her clients when she couldn't help herself. The book wasn't what I expected, but I enjoyed the experience of reading it. 

What Digs Itself Free by Stoney Brooks

The most effective part of this book for me was the jarring transition between an extremely dark prologue to Zap Rogers. Host of a popular and long-running show about ghost hunters, Zap is determined to regain his former popularity, whatever it takes. He'll buy new equipment. He'll consider hiring new cast members and changing his look. Zap is a jerk, and he's not an entertaining one. I didn't care if the ghosts got him or if he lost his show. 

Discloure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} The Whisking Hour

 The Whisking Hour by Ellie Alexander 

I've been really enjoying Ellie Alexander's Bakeshop mytery series even though I've only read a handful of them. It's easy to jump in and get a sense of the characters without reading the previous twenty-one titles. This one is set in Ashland, home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the main character, Juliet Caphshaw. One of her best friends has asked her to cater a murder-themed dinner for the cast of his latest production and Juliet the staff of her bakery, Torte,  have gone all out with the decor and menu. When a body is found in one of the dressing rooms, they scurry to modify the menu and figure out the identity of the killer. I love that this book focused on Lance, a character I didn't get to know very well in the previous books. Juliet's world is fun to experience for a few hours and I look forward to catching up with the rest of the series. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} Adrift

 Adrift by Will Dean 

A married couple and their son, living on a Britist canal boat in Illinois and moving farther and farther from town, begin to unravel. This book reminded me of The Shining, without the supernatural elements  or extreme isolation. Imagine what would have happened if Wendy was writing a book and Jack realized it was better than his own efforts -- that's the awful situation facing the wife in this book. I've got mixed feelings about it. The tension and sense of dread are agonizing. I kept wanting to scream at the characters to do something, anything, to stop what was happening to them. My one complaint about the book is that it didn't feel like it was set in the United States. Some of the details and descriptions felt "off" and a few were absolutely glaring. 

House of Splinters by Laura Purcell

This wonderfully creepy book tells the story of Belinda Bainbridge who moves with her husband and children to his family's estate.  I didn't realize when I first picked it up that this is a prequel to another book, but that didn't interfere with my enjoyment at all. I don't think I've ever read a ghost story set in the 1700s, so it was a neat change of pace. Belinda fears for her children's safety, both from the perils of an old moldering house and  from the "silent companions," wooden figures that seem to be lurking around every corner. (These are a real thing -- look up "dummy boards" if you're curious about them.) I can't wait to read more by this author. 

A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage by MK Oliver

Lalla Rook's priorities are....interesting. She's just as concerned with convincing the other moms at her four-year-old son's birthday party that she made his store bought cake as she is with the body still leaking blood into her living room rug. Driving around with a dead man in the back of her SUV doesn't seem to phase her at all. As long as her daughter gets admitted into that exclusive private school and she can move her family into a more expensive house, she'll be satisfied. The writing is good enough and the plot twists in some interesting ways, but I really didn't care what happened to the protagonist. She lacks the charisma that's kept me turning pages in other books with serial killers as the main characters.  

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} Trad Wife

 The Ravine by Maia Chance 

Set on an island in the Pacific Northwest, this wonderfully creepy thriller kept me turning pages until the end. I love folk horror and this is a fascinating slow burn that definitely delivers. After struggling with her fertility for years, Harlow steps away from her high stress job and moves with her husband and stepson to his childhood home. She has little in common with her next door neighbor or the other moms who take their children to KinderWild, a forest preschool that seems a little too cultish. An island full of nearly identical blonde children, strange religious symbols, her husband's late night trips into the forest and odd behavior.... this book was right up my alley!  

Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer 

This was a wild read!  Camille is a wannabe influencer with a perfect home and a wealthy husband who buys her everything she needs to create their perfectly curated life. What she can't order online -- the thing she knows will absolutely explode her subscriber count -- is a baby, but as hard as she tries, she's not getting pregnant. So she visits the creepy old well behind her house and throws a shiny penny in (her less aesthetically pleasing change goes into donation boxes) and a demonic creature comes to her and before she knows it, she's trying to figure out how to write social media posts documenting a pregnancy that's moving way too fast. I've been a stay a home mom for a loooong time, so I don't get as riled up about the whole tradwife thing as a lot of people seem to. But Camille is grating. Her bamboo dish drainer and hand stitched dishtowels and perfect outfits, not to mention her relationship with her husband, are absolute rage bait. But that Rosemary's Baby twist she willingly threw into her own life? I didn't have to like Camille to enjoy reading about her. 

The Body by Bethany C. Morrow

The book opens with a car crash and, as Mavis calls her husband and he hurries to her side at the hospital, their reactions had me guessing at their relationship and what was actually going on between the two of them. The whole focus of the story is on their marriage and their vows to one another. I feel like I should have loved this one. The type of horror is right up my alley but, for whatever reason I can't put my finger on, the horrific events didn't have much impact when they actually happened. They almost seemed like an afterthought compared to other details. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies.