Horror Archives

Book review: Whistle by Linwood Barclay

December 20, 20252 min read

Whistle by Linwood Barclay dips into the supernatural / horror genres which I don’t usually read. I didn’t realise it when I bought it at the local second-hand bookstore and might not have picked it up had I realised. It’s interesting as I used to love Stephen King back in the 1990s and wasn’t bothered by the unexplainable, but nowadays I need my baddies (antagonists) to be soused in realism – albeit with sociopathic, psychopathic or vengeful tendencies. However… I’ve not got a lot of reading fodder at the moment so I hung in there, which was easy enough to do as Barclay boxes this book into separate segments and timelines following a scene-setting prologue.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates

August 31, 20252 min read

How Bad Things Can Get by Darcy Coates reminded me a little of Ruth Ware’s One Perfect Couple – a reality TV show gone-wrong. Here however, the events border on the macabre… almost taking us into cult-like horror territory. I was unsure if Coates was inspired by any particular TikTok or YouTube star, though got some Elon vibes from festival host and mega-influencer Eton. We spend most of our time however with his right-hand-woman Petra, true crime host Logan, and Ruth whose boyfriend won tickets to the festival.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

August 28, 20224 min read

I must begin my review of Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney by saying how much her writing blew me away. I was only 9 pages in and realised I’d flagged quotes I’d like to use – either beautifully written prose or casually delivered poignant insights – and almost filled a page of the notebook I keep beside the bath (where I read).

I sometimes assume the writing in plot-driven books should hover in the background. Unnoticed so as not to distract readers from the unfolding action, but the seemingly effortless eloquence (I very much noticed here) did not detract at all from the plot.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: The Inheritance by Gabriel Bergmoser

July 28, 20213 min read

I started reading The Inheritance by Gabriel Bergmoser before realising it featured a character who’d appeared in The Hunted, released in 2020. It’s certainly not a sequel however, and previous knowledge isn’t required.

I didn’t like The Hunted as much as most because it dipped a little too much into the horror genre for my taste. I can cope with books about serial killers and psychopaths but Bergmoser has the impressive (if not entirely welcome to me!) talent of putting readers amidst action; which is often very violent and visceral.

VIEW the POST

Share

Book review: The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward

May 21, 20213 min read

Thankfully I’d read a number of reviews of The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward before I started reading it. It’s clever and well-written and some of the prose is quite magical. But I would have put it down just a few chapters in had I not known that it was worth ‘hanging in’ for.

In all honesty this book is a bit of a mind-f*ck. We know from the beginning that all is not as it seems. Our lead character Ted has (ahem) issues. Another narrator is a cat. Perhaps. It features much f*cked-upedness. But – once you get past the first few chapters it’s oddly compelling.

VIEW the POST

Share