What do you do when your life is falling apart and you need a short getaway? We go to the small town or even better isolated cabin. This is the story of 3 bestfriends who each shared trauma of their own is desperately need to escape from their life just for the few nights at Ryne's family cabin that he inherited where he has sweet memories of his childhood. What they didn't know is, something is waiting for them.

OHMYGOD? This book is so good, like terrifyingly GOOD. I can't believe that this is the author's debut novel, and to be my 3rd 5 stars read of the month is insane. This book is real scary, horrified me. Its start off slow with the friends conversation, slight memory of the past, but it slowly building up the tension and quickly escalates to unsettling & non-stop creepy. Such a page turner book, I feel like I can't stop to devour this book. Isolated cabin in a weird small town, with weird people staring at them, surrounded by a creepy dark forest that seems like something always lurking around, with animals acting weirdly. A deer staring blankly at you with their black eyes, didn't even move, didn't flinch even if you were about to shoot it, with a wolf lurking around and sometimes vanish when you thought it about to attack you. What is up with the cabin? Is there any secrets behind the occurrence? Who is the child that keep singing at odd hours?

"𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙄 𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙠𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙄 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥"

I think there's quite a lot of strong points of this book . Firstly on how it didn't follow the cliché of horror movie, You see or heard somethings weird? Instead of going out to check out on them, they just stay together and frozen (Not that its a bad thing to do, cause I would too). Not only that the characters is very likeable (I rooting for them seriously), their emotions are raw, it feels like they were a real people. Each characters struggles and their past are describe in clear manner, making them appealing.

The writing are descriptive but not too wordy, certain parts is so beautifully lyrical. And it helps for the book's atmosphere, which is very imagery. It makes me anxious to imagine about the lake, the weird behavior of the animals, the cabin, the forest, also the cold and snow were well described. The author's writing style also help to created an immensely weird, creepy vibe that stays with you throughout the book which also increase the tension. You can almost feel the agony, terrify, despair and how helpless the characters felt. It flows smoothly despite it have multiples POVs and sometimes goes back and forth between the past and the present (I love how it didn't make me feel disengaged with the story at all). The suspense is also great, as the mystery, the horror and the creepy folk story make you to keep wanting more, but never giving you the full answer right away.

There were a lot of nasty, disturbing, twisted stuff happening and a little bit gore. Its actually perfect for a horror lover like me. Overall, such a gripping story. I'm glad I pick this up and huge thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. I highly recommend this to horror lover especially for those who want a family secrets, spooky folk story, engaging plot, amazing characters, supernatural creature in deep forest, heartbreaking read, this is for you!!

Cw: Animal cruelty

Where do you go when your life is falling apart?

For Ryne, he’s decided to take his two best friends (each with their own share of trauma) to his family’s old hunting cabin. The Yukon territory is vast & the drive is a long one; the friends stop in the last town possible to pick up supplies & get a weird vibe from the locals - they definitely don’t feel welcome. The last leg of the journey between the unfriendly town & their destination turns out to be stranger still, as nature isn’t acting as it normally would when confronted with people in a loud vehicle with bright lights.

Upon arriving at the cabin, the three men realize that the spookiness has just begun - trapped in the small space as a winter storm rages, they’ll have to figure out what exactly Ryne’s ancestors were up to in these terrifying woods…

This is a debut novel from a very talented horror writer - I was happy to be reading it on a warm summer’s day, because I definitely had chills & would’ve been even more freaked out in the dead of winter. I don’t know that I liked how the story ended, but it was a wild ride with detailed supernatural elements & a haunting setting - definitely going to keep an eye out for more work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley & Wicked House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In many horror novels our protagonists trapse off to the woods to discover themselves, mourn a loss, or the classic house inheritance trope. Ryne, here does just these things, with his best friends, to the frozen Yukon, in a cabin here he used to travel as a kid, oh and there may be a strange entity in the woods his uncle used to pray to. Ok, creepy cabin in the snow covered woods with an eerie entity lurking around? Yes, delivered. However, while this book was eerie, it wasn't only an eerie read. The story was so much sadder than I had anticipated. The characters' traumas bleed into every aspect of this story. If Adam Neville wrote The Ritual with Blaine Daigle here, we'd have one of the best deep woods thrillers known to man. Daigle delivers sympathetic characters in way I never felt toward Neville's so I found myself instead not focused on the same parts of the plot as I did in The Ritual. The main character, Ryne, in this novel was indeed endearing, I found myself rooting for him and his friends for sure but the horror side of the plot was unsurprising and at times even bordering on dull and because of that, I was half into the "horror" part of the novel. The idea is great but it felt secondary to the emotions of the main characters. However, as far as creating a sympathetic character in a bad situation that the reader can connect with and root for, Daigle knows exactly how to deliver one to us on a silver platter. I think the ambience could have been played into more as well as a deeper detailing overall regarding the present horrors the characters face rather than so much of their pasts. But all in all, I gave it a 3 because I did enjoy it, it's worth the read and as far as character creation goes, Daigle's provide a fresh take on those that find themselves in a horror novel. But it wasn't the type to keep me on the edge of my seat in anticipation of what comes next as far as the overall plot is concerned.
I'd like to thank NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for allowing me the chance to read this and provide my own opinions on it.

I enjoyed this book. Instead of being an otherworldly and fantastical beast, there were indigenous beliefs incorporated in a way that made the story more believable. It’s very unique and I appreciated that. It’s creepy, unsettling, sad, and lights a little fire of anger in some instances. Easy read. Well done.

You and 2 friends are heading to the Canadian Yukon for a few days of hunting to a solitary cabin that’s been in your family for generations. You’ve been there many times throughout your life, generally around the same time each year: the start of the winter solstice. However, this year is different. The people in the village and the animals are acting strange, and there’s a blizzard that seems to be stalled right over the cabin. You’ve never seen anything like it, and your friends are freaking out because nothing seems right. The CB radio doesn’t work, and the nearest town is 15 miles away on unpassable roads. Something is definitely not right, but there’s nothing you can do until the storm moves on, right? Nothing except delve into your family’s past and the past of the cabin itself in order to figure out it’s mysteries so that your friends can leave the cabin safely behind. But that is easier said than done.

That’s the gist of the debut novel “The Broken Places” by Blaine Daigle (who’s website, by the way, says “Dark Fiction for Dark Nights”, which gives you a good idea where this novel is headed). It is as delightfully creepy as it is claustrophobic. The novel explores what friendship means, to what extent a family should keep their dark secrets secret, and when to stop blindly following a family’s beliefs.

The protagonist of the novel is Ryne Burdette, and he is making the sojourn to his family’s cabin in the middle of the wilderness to ostensibly remain there, unbeknownst to his friends. His family has fallen apart, and his father died several months ago, leaving the cabin to Ryne. His family is not the only one good at keeping secrets. Ryne is bringing along 2 other lifelong friends of his who has no idea he plans on not returning with them when their trip ends.

What begins as a hunting trip unravels when the villagers in the town outside of the cabin act strange toward Ryne and his friends, and then the animals also take on behaviors not like their species. For instance, on the way to the cabin, Ryne and his friends are stopped on the road by a deer, but the deer does not respond to flashing lights or their vehicle’s horn to remove it from the road. Nor does it flee when one of the friends takes a shotgun and puts it to its head; it just stares at the friend until the trigger is pulled. Another disturbing scene has animals gathering outside the cabin looking in at the three friends, including animals that should be in hibernation like bears. In addition, what leads to feelings of claustrophobia for both the characters and the reader is the persistent snowstorm that appears just as the friends make their way towards the cabin. Both scenes will send tingles up your spine. Not only are the characters trying to figure out what’s going on, but so is the reader.

There are so many twists and turns in this novel, that once you think you’ve figured it out, the author pulls the rug out from under you and takes you in another direction that you won’t see coming. Things are definitely not as they seem, and the author delicately weaves you along the path through to the final page.

I highly recommend picking up this debut novel by Diagle and reading it during a cold winter’s night, perhaps while there’s a snowstorm going on outside your door, if you dare.

I loved the beginning of this book. I love the legends of the Appalachian mountains and the beginning was giving the best eerie mountain vibes. Due to time constraints I was unable to complete the story. I will be looking for this title in the shelves!

OMG! and WOW! I am not a true horror reader, but boy did this one grab my attention from the get-go! While I personally wouldn't call it a page-turner in the sense of action going on, it was because of all the creep factors! I just had to know what in the world was going on!

Ryne and his two best buddies to to a cabin that his uncle left him, but it was clear from the start that something very wrong was happening...but what? All 3 boys had something awful happen to them. They came across an animal that seemed defiant and acted nothing like an animal would under those circumstances. A snow storm was threatening them to be stuck and their firewood/warmth was running out so they had to figure a way to get out of their. But one boy was severely injured so the other went for "help" but there was so much creep factor going on that I was truly on the edge of my seat and dying to get to the bottom of it.

Brilliantly written and I highly recommend it even if you (like me) are not in the horror genre. But please stick with it because it comes together in the end.

I absolutely adored this book. And it filled in for Yellowjackets quite nicely! After all, the book features people who become trapped in a remote cabin in the dead of winter. There’s also lots of deer antlers, a wolf, and the belief that something strange has been following them for years.

It was really cool to see a depiction of male friendship that included some care. These guys didn’t hide their feelings — for the most part — and this was refreshing.

I also loved the way the author used language. Many passages evoked imagery — much more than usual. I highly recommend this book to horror fans and fans of shows like Yellowjackets!

I received an ARC of The Broken Places from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one, as it had some seriously breathtaking atmosphere similar to The Ritual. It follows three men, Ryne, Noah, and Shawn, as they venture into the remote Yukon to a family cabin left to Ryne by his dead uncle. Immediately, discomfort sets in as we meet Wolf’s Bone and the area around the cabin, though the men are too stubborn to acknowledge something is off—at least audibly. This falls into the “traumatized men making bad decisions to appear strong, even as they’re falling apart inside” trope, and they do some frustrating things before even beginning to cope with their pasts.

The Broken Places is a folk horror that will keep you flipping pages to find out the story behind Ryne’s family cabin.

The Broken Places was the perfect debut novel. It starts out a little bit slower, but builds to absolute terror and fear. I loved every single word of this book and hope to read more in the future from Blaine Daigle.

This book is incredible. The ambiance is straight from my dreams: dark, freezing, massive snowstorm, isolated with creepy town and animals…. Check, check, and double check. The creepiness of the animals cannot be overstated. That to me was almost more terrifying than the source of the creepiness. The haunting of the family line - so good. The creepy-ass townsfolk bolstered the general sense of unease throughout the book. You’re wondering what the heck is going on. The characters were all so loyal and flawed. The ending - so stinkin’ good. I feel like there could be more to this story. I will definitely be reading more from this author.

The Broken Places by Blaine Daigle

Yikes! I just finished reading this brilliant horror story and as a huge fan of thrillers/ horrors, I can say in all honesty that this one was done so well it blew all of the others out of the water. Sitting here right now I feel as though I cannot try to write words that would do this book and author justice but I will certainly try. I would compare this largely to Aaron Nevill’s The Ritual.

Three friends all will traumatic pasts decide to go hunting at a cabin that one of them inherited. Ryne Burdette and his friends Noah and Shawn are heading to the Burdette family cabin in Wolf’s Bone Yukon. Ryne is the last in his family as he just lost his father and uncle. It was the uncle who left him the cabin. Noah, after dying and brought back to life, is suffering from terrible panic attacks and Shawns dream of playing baseball in the pro’s division was halted. The three were hoping this trip would somehow take their minds off of their troubles.
Once there the three men sense things are aberrant. A deer stares with blank eyes and never moves, a wolf follows them home, and they begin to hear strange voices. There is a storm fast approaching and the three men become isolated and unable to leave (ah the claustrophobic feeling is very strong here) but it is about this time that Ryne has flashbacks to when he was younger visiting his uncle at the cabin. He had terrible nightmares about a creature visiting him. Leaving is not an option now because of the storm. How will the three of them understand what the voices are trying to tell them? Will they figure out the history of the Burdette cabin in time?
The Native American addition to this brings up lots of folklore that is very scary in and of itself. I found the authors writing abilities to be much better than any of my favorite authors. Daigle is an amazingly gifted writer who knew how to pace the story to keep the readers engrossed inside of a terrific horror story. I could truly feel the emotions as if I was there. The characters, oh the characters…..well developed, flawed, and eager to do what was needed to get as far away as possible.
Daigle ROCKS and this is one scary as hell book that if you love horror, you need to read this one. It will not disappoint nor is it predictable.


5++++++ stars out of 5

Thank you to NetGalley as well as the author and publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my unbiased and honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley, Blaine Daigle, and the publisher for a free e-arc of this book so that I can review it.

"The Broken Places" follows three friends, Ryne, Noah, and Shawn, as they go on a hunting trip to the Yukon. Each has his own trauma that he is suffering from. They're staying at Ryne's family cabin, which he recently inherited from his uncle after his uncle's death in a car accident that also killed Ryne's father. Ryne has been coming to the cabin since he was eight years old, and remembers seeing some pretty freaky stuff happen, but he's not sure if he actually saw these things or just dreamt them while sleepwalking.

They arrive at the cabin on the solstice, just when a major storm is setting in that makes leaving the remote area next to impossible.

I enjoyed this book. It was well-written, and several parts of it were very disturbing in ways that were both subtle and heartbreaking. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys folk horror or cabin in the woods-type stories. If you enjoyed "The Ritual" or "Stolen Tongues" there is a good chance you will like this one.

Definitely check your triggers on this one, especially concerning children and animals.

"The Broken Places" is a good thriller, especially for someone who is just beginning to dabble in reading the genre. It wasn't overly gory and didn't have themes that would confuse a beginner thriller reader. Blaine Daigle does a good job of using detailed imagery in their writing. There were times that I truly felt as if I was in a frigid, snowy forest right alongside the characters. This book was a pretty quick read as it kept me entertained with its different twists.

I would have loved for this book to dive further into the twisted, dark history of the main character's family and how it all related to the native people in the book, being that was the premise of all of the "spookiness" going on. A richer history would have made me as the reader feel more connected to the main character's backstory.

Overall, "The Broken Places" is a good read and definitely worth the time. It is fast-paced and brings some new concepts to the thriller genre that have been missing for a while.

Thank you NetGalley, Wicked House Publishing and Blaine Daigle for a copy of this book.

This is an outstanding supernatural folklore horror novel and I loved every page of it.

Ryne Burdette has just inherited his family's cabin in Wolf's Bone, Yukon, and decides to take two of his friends, Shawn and Noah, on a hunting trip to get away and try to heal from their recent tragedies. Ryne has become the last member of his family after losing his father and uncle, Shawn has just lost his dream of being a professional baseball player and Noah is coping with anxiety and panic attacks from having died and brought back to life in a grain silo accident. As they approach the cabin, a large buck stands in the middle of the road. The buck is not afraid of the men and will not move for the. Its eyes are black and seem to have no life in them. This is just the first of many unsettling encounters with the animals in the woods. Pacts of animals stare into the cabin, a wolf begins to follow the men and the three start to hear voices. Ryne then has flashbacks of visiting the cabin as a young child and the horrible nightmares he used to have of a creature visiting him at night. Ryne remembers there was great tension between his father and his uncle surrounding the cabin but why? As the three realize it might be time to get the hell out, it is too late as a storm has moved in and there is no way out. What if the old legends people tell each other about the woods are true? What if your family legacy is a horror story?

This author really knows how to tell a story. I was addicted from the first page. The descriptions of the weather, the woods and the cabin made me feel so cold and claustrophobic. Some sections were downright creepy and gruesome and oh so good! I really hope this author has started on his next novel because I cannot wait to read it! High recommendations from me!

A bone chilling and transformative novel, The Broken Places by Blaine Daigle is an emotionally charged and riveting supernatural story of accepting loss and healing from generational trauma.

Ryne Burdette has some fond memories of the hunting cabin he used to visit with his father but most of them are also tainted by the palpable disdain and tension between Ryne’s father Rory and his Uncle Rod. Hoping to find a way to wipe his slate clean to begin again after a traumatic year, Ryne and his best friends decide to take a weekend trip to the family cabin Ryne has now inherited. From the moment they step foot into the quiet village on their way up to the remote cabin in the wilderness of the Yukon, the atmosphere feels off. It isn’t long before the quiet beauty of the forest is filled with whispers and strange occurrences. As an encroaching storm intensifies and they each begin to share the unnerving visions from the forest, the three friends must work quickly to solve the mystery of the dark past of the Burdette family before they all succumb to the deep dark cold wilderness.

I just want to start off by saying this has one of the best opening paragraphs I have read in a while. Vivid descriptions that evoke a sense of wonder and unease that really sets the tone for the rest of the book. I would call this a slow burn. Blaine Daigle takes his time building up the tension and creating emotional ties to each of these characters to the reader. They are wonderfully developed despite their individual traumas. Noah is a poetic soul. The more emotional one of the group of friends. His descriptions of the open land of the nature surrounding the cabin are evocative. He is described as being a hard worker, someone who does not give up prior to his trauma, but he also feels like the most empathetic of the three. Shawn is analytical, logical. He relies mainly on patterns and natural inclination. I also felt he was quick to the trigger emotionally. Ryne is reserved, but there is always something bubbling beneath the surface. His nature is kept in the shadows for a long time, much like the family history he is in the dark about.

I love the nod to Native American lore and how Europeans infringed upon Native lands and culture to twist and perverse it into something it was not meant to be.

Overall would recommend if you like dark, gripping, and terror inducing horror.

Thank you to NetGalley, Blaine Daigle, and Wicked House Publishing for providing the opportunity to read this story. This is my honest opinion and a voluntary submission.

This was an excellent and creepy read. There is a lot of twists and turns within this novel that I didn't expect. Especially the setting and importance of the setting. I can't wait to read more from this author and publisher.

This isolation horror follows Ryne Burdette after the deaths of his uncle and father. His uncle left him the family cabin located in the Yukon wilderness and although he hasn't been back since he was a child, recent events in his life have drawn him back. He brings along his two friends for a weekend trip to each recuperate from their own traumas. But as a winter storm rolls in, the animals and people start acting strange. Then when voices seem to be coming from the trees, the three men feel like they are being watched from the forest. In order to figure out the truth behind what is happening, they must uncover the dark history of the Burdette family.

On NetGalley, this was compared to The Ritual, which is actually a movie I've seen and 100% agree. I'd say this is the same sort of folklore horror, medium gore, trauma/grief themes. I absolutely loved both the movie and this book so if you like one, I really think you'd like the other. Both are folk horrors with isolated forest settings and both follow a group of friends that have an undercurrent of tension. The Broken Places does get to the gore more quickly than The Ritual, but overall I think the two are still very similar.

The characters were fantastic and I loved how much we got to see of their friend dynamic as well as them as individuals. Their backstories are gradually given to the reader as we go through the story and I enjoyed how each new detail we got felt like it became immediately relevant to the current plot. I never felt like we were getting a lot of 'fluff' details. Each of the men had gone through their own sort of trials recently and had their own fears to work through. The way these fears manifested during the story was really impactful and did a good job of developing the characters.

The pacing for the first 75% was perfect. We get into the spooky parts pretty early on and the eerie dread just increases over time. We also see the physical threats increase as the characters spend more time in this wilderness and try to escape. There's a nice balance of backstory with all 3 characters and we get to see how these details impact the current plot. The last 25%, however, seemed to stagnate for me. The plot was technically moving forward, but it didn't feel like the stakes were being raised any longer. I loved the way the horror was ramping up throughout the story and I wanted that ramp up to keep happening.

TW/CW: animal death, miscarriage, domestic violence, animal mutilation, suicide, death of a parent

Thanks to NetGalley and Wicked House Publishing for the ARC. Publication date was March 24, 2023

TW: Graphic animal killing/descriptions, gore, unsettling creature descriptions

If I could I would give this 4 1/2 stars.

I was largely unimpressed by the first several chapters of this work. It felt bogged down, overdone and frankly, uninteresting. So, I stopped reading after a few chapters.

Last night I decided to look at the reviews for it on amazon. The first thing I noticed was that it was rated over 4 stars by a few hundred people. The second thing I noticed was that the first review said “For fans of The Shining”. That’s what made me go back to this book and give it another chance. I wasn’t disappointed.

I personally wouldn’t compare it to The Shining. For me it was a more like Adam Nevill’s work The Ritual.

A grieving man (Ryne) along with his two best friends - who each have their own set of traumas- head to Ryne’s ancestral cabin in the Yukon for a weekend hunting trip in the dead of winter. They don’t seem to be welcomed by the townspeople and they have a disturbing encounter with a deer as they drive up the long path to the cabin. That’s just the beginning of a sinister tale filled with regret, pain, uncovered secrets and horror.

I relished this book and the story it told. How the “sins” of the fathers can have very real consequences to the sons and how hard it can be to step out of a narrative it feels like you were born to continue.

I think this is the author’s debut so I’ll be following him to see what else he comes out with!

“Pain doesn’t go away—it just takes on fresh forms. Lingers like a ghost, tethered to a place irreparably familiar as it changes. And when it has starved its new form, it changes again. And it will keep changing until it has eaten through everything and left the sufferer a husk.”

Thanks to Wicked House, NetGalley, and Blaine Daigle for providing an ARC in exchange for a fair review.

A few places need to be reworded. But this was a damn fine folk horror tale with some very good prose.

We follow Ryne, a man mourning the death of a child, a divorce, and the loss of his father in a car accident. In flashbacks, his past is fleshed out, so we see why he's pulling away from the world, in the company of his two closest friends. But, as we learn his story, we discover, along with Ryne and his friends, the dark legacy of his family in the Yukon.

There's some really good, unnerving scenes in this book. The male friendship is touching, and it's even gruesome and creepy. I look forward to more from Daigle in the future.