Horror – Home Sweet Houser

Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky

December 9, 2019 homesweethouser

I have to admit when I saw that this book was 700+ pages, I was kind of intimidated. I generally am not a fan of long books because they tend to be long for the sake of being long. However, one of my favorite things about this book was the journey. The order in which information was given to the baby took me as the reader on a ride from start to finish and I was constantly trying to figure out what would happen next.

I thought the story was extremely unique. A boy goes missing for 6 days and when he reemerges strange things start to happen in the town. But it took me forever to figure out what the strange things had to do with each other, which held my attention.

I will say that toward the end, the story started to get a little too weird and convoluted for my taste, and I did have some unanswered questions in the end that I wish I had more clear cut answers to. I would say that the first half of the book was a 5 star read but the second half ended up being closer to a 3 star read. So I’ll split the difference and give the book 4 stars overall.

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Stephen Chbosky, and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to review.-

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Horror, Thriller

The Whisper Man by Alex North

November 10, 2019 homesweethouser

The Whisper Man by Alex North

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Love. Love. Love.

I’m a thriller lover and unfortunately the genre is so saturated that it’s difficult to find something unique, surprising, unexpected, and creepy. The Whisper Man hit it out of the park on all accounts.

There were so many parts of this book where I found myself sincerely shocked by some of the twists which is generally not the case when I read thrillers. And the story itself was just disturbing enough to give you the heebie jeebies.

The characters were authentic and flawed in a way that felt so real. I felt their struggles.

I would love to see this book made into a movie. It would make a great film for the Halloween season.

If you like thrillers, go read this one now. You’ll thank me later.

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Alex North, and Celadon Books for the opportunity to review.-

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Audiobook Review, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

The Possession by Michael Rutger

July 31, 2019August 2, 2019 homesweethouser

The Possession by Michael Rutger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After falling in love with The Anomaly last year (it was definitely in my top 18 of 2018) I almost squealed when I found out author Michael Rutger was publishing a sequel.

Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the same connection with The Possession. It wasn’t bad. It just didn’t give me all the feels the way The Anomaly did. The great thing about The Anomaly is was how Michael Rutger incorporated elements of science and created a paranormal story line that in the realms of my imagination could have been true. The science all made sense and I thought the outcome was pretty genius. Unfortunately in The Possession I felt like he leaned more on the paranormal and less on the scientific which is where is kind of fell apart for me.

There were times in the middle where the story got a little convoluted, confusing, and muddled. I had a hard time picturing some of the paranormal elements in my head. I wasn’t sure what was going on at times.

And although it ended up wrapping up well, I didn’t feel that it was as strong as the first book in the series. But still worth checking out if you enjoyed The Anomaly.

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Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

June 22, 2019 homesweethouser

Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Out July 2nd! Pre-order from Amazon here!

Lord… I don’t even think I can do this book justice with a review. What can I write that will explain how I felt after finishing? I was just taken on an absolutely phenomenal ride by Riley Sager.

Let me first start by saying that I fell in love with Sager after reading his first two novels, Final Girls and The Last Time I Lied. I feel like sometimes authors who come out with a smash hit tend to let me down when I read their sophomore novels. Well The Last Time I Lied did anything but disappoint. And reading Sager’s junior novel, Lock Every Door, I’m officially bowing down to a master of thriller/mystery/horror.

I honestly did not think I would get my hands on this book as it’s one of the most sought after books of the summer. So huge thank you to Dutton for allowing me the opportunity to review.

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When I started reading this book, it slightly reminded me of The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney (another author I adore). Jules is dead broke. She gets fired from her job. She stumbles upon her live in boyfriend cheating on her (in the act) and finds herself couch surfing with a friend and with nowhere to live. Life’s not going very well. Until she finds an ad in the paper looking for an apartment sitter at a highly prestigious New York City apartment complex… getting paid $4,000 per month. She cannot believe her luck and good fortune. Until things start to get weird. Which is where I’ll stop this synopsis because you really need to experience it for yourself.

As the book went on, it reminded me of the Oscar-nominated movie Get Out. If you’ve ever seen the movie, you’ll understand what I mean when you read the book.

Things I’m Raving About:
1. The juxtaposition between poverty and wealth. Sager played with this concept in several different ways throughout the story and did it in a way that didn’t get preachy but highlighted the differences in the lives of those with money versus those who struggle financially. I felt Jules’s helplessness and hopelessness as she worked to get herself out of her current financial situation.
2. How everything tied together. There were so many little details placed strategically throughout the story that wouldn’t even strike you as being relevant. But Sager surprised me dozens of times by looping back to things that happened several hundred pages earlier and perfectly tying up all the loose ends.
3. The uniqueness of the story. I honestly had no idea where this story was headed. I kept trying to guess as I always do with thrillers. And let me make a pretty bold statement… I feel confident that you are NOT going to see the major twist coming. It threw me completely off my game in the best way.

Things I’m Not Raving About:
1. Nothing
2. Nothing
3. Nothing

There is so much more I want to say but for the sake of brevity I’ll just say that I’m confident Sager has another smash hit in Lock Every Door and I think readers will be raving across social media for months to come.

-I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Riley Sager, and Dutton for the opportunity to review-

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Audiobook Review, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

March 7, 2019 homesweethouser

The Killing Lessons by Saul Black

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Warning! Warning! Dark and disturbing material ahead!

One of my fellow book lovers posted about The Killing Lessons on Facebook and I quote, “I’m only an hour and half in and convinced the dude who wrote this is a serial killer (sure he’s a lovely man but no one writes like this without having done it himself.)”

Intriguing!

And what do I do? Immediately add it to my TBR.

So here I am a couple months later having just finished, and I have to say I agree! What a disturbing, psychotic, and horrifying story. It reminded me a lot of an episode of Criminal Minds on steroids.

This book is not a “whodunit” like most mystery novels. The “who” is divulged within the first few pages when a woman and her son are brutally murdered by a team of two sadistic men. And they aren’t their first victims. What follows is a game of cat and mouse as Detective Valerie Hart attempts to track down the serial-killing duo before another victim succumbs to their psychotic games.

I have to say, call me a weirdo. I liked it. The content was difficult to stomach at times, but the thought Saul Black put into the story was commendable. Despite multiple subplots, the story flowed extremely well and kept me engaged. And the narrator of the audiobook created the perfect amount of tension to keep me on the edge of my seat waiting for what happened next.

The one negative for me was the length. I feel like I say this a lot, but I don’t mind length if it is purposeful. In this case, I felt like a few parts dragged on and could have been slightly more succinct. But overall, that’s the only thing I can complain about.

If you have a strong stomach and don’t mind stories that live on the dark side…. or, if you’re a Criminal Minds fan, this is a book for you!

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