Cover Image: Violet

Violet

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Member Reviews

This book was amazing. I loved the story line. The writing was really well done and the author sucks you in right away. Definitely recommend.

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I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

Overall rating : 3*
Writing skill : 3*
Plot: 2*
Pace: 2*
Characters: 4*
Suspense: 4*

This was a bit of a slog to get into. I think the author is a King fan, he describes everything and anything in so much detail it had me wavering for the first 25%. It was difficult to read and I didn't have much interest in continuing....but praise baby Jesus for Audible! I found the audio version much better and I'm glad in the end I fought on.
The suspense was brilliant and the characters interesting. I am so glad I've ticked this backlist off, but I wont be rushing to pick anything else up from this author for a while.

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This one was so slow, with a lot of filler. The premise had so much potential, but this doesn’t even feel it was written by the same author who wrote Kill Creek. There just wasn’t anything much I liked I’m afraid.

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Violet by Scott Thomas is a slow burn horror novel that deals with death and trauma and how the living haunt themselves.

This is my second novel by Thomas and although I wasn't grabbed as immediately as I was while reading his last novel Kill Creek, the payoff of this novel was more deep and truly dealt with the power of the human psyche and how fragile yet powerful our minds are. As a reader also mourning a death, I felt connected to Kris and her daughter as they dealt with their losses. It was an interesting mystery and had spooky elements but I kept waiting for the "horror" to happen. It never really became truly scary and for that I was disappointed.

I will continue to recommend Scott Thomas to our library patrons but I will let them know this is a more a psychological horror and not to expect too much gore.

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This book was DNF for me. I really loved Scott Thomas's Kill Creek, but this book for me felt slow and unncessarily over-detailed. I got through about 30% of it and it was a slog and felt like a chore to pick up. It ultimately kickstarted a year and a half long reading slump. I ended up taking a long break from reviewing and did not even read much last year. I am back to making regular book content under a new YouTube Channel name and want to get my NetGalley profile back in shape. So I am providing feedback on the titles in my shelf that still show a button to do so.

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I enjoyed Killcreek Manor a lot when I read it but as far as this book went for me it felt just okay. The author has a way of writing females tough. Not tough in an inspirational way but almost to a fault of being annoying. As a female I rolled my eyes at parts that made her seem like she was trying to be a man. I’m confused as to why we can’t have a woman character be strong and also be nice and understanding. For some reason men feel like women have to be one or the other.
The story didn’t flow very much for me. I felt like I got hiccups and had to keep holding my breath. We would be going along and then something would happen that just slowed the story down for me. I will continue to keep reading the stories put out by the author but I hope he can write a better female.

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Things with children and imaginary friends are always more spooky. There have been very few books, ghost stories or horror stories that actually freaked me out and given me the creeps. Violet is one of them! I love when ghost stories aren't so far fetched where you can imagine it happening in real life. Mixed with some whodunit crime, Violet is a treat for those that love a good spooky book!

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This is the second book I've read from this author. I just don't think his style is for me.
The writing was good, but it took me forever to get through this book. I think if it had been cut down to about 2/3rds in length, it would have been a tighter read.

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This was almost a DNF for me, but since I hate not finishing books I pushed myself through just to see if anything happened. I felt like this book was going to be really promising and perfect as a good horror book to binge during fall, sadly this one didn't click for me. I would consider this more of a slow-burn, so if you're into that you might enjoy this book more than I did!

The moment I read the plot I was super interested, it seemed creepy and felt like it would give off such horror vibes. Instead, I felt like the author presented us with an overly detailed (seriously everything the characters do gets detailed as they do it) book that just dragged on a little too long. By the last 100 pages or so, I started flipping through just to see if anything would have happened. There's also a revelation at the end of the book that just breaks my heart,

That being said, I really liked the ending as I felt like it was more fast-paced and creepy with the presence [finally] of Violet. In the book, we follow the story of recent widow Kris [Krissy] who packs up her bags for the summer with her daughter Sadie. The two of them drive to Kris's summer home that looks over the Lost Lake - the only problem is? The place is a dump and hasn't been looked after ever since her father died years ago. Being back home brings so much pain for Kris as this is the house where she watched her mother die, it's interesting to see the relationship between mother and daughter and see how the two of them are dealing with their grief (both past and present).
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I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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I really enjoyed Kill Creek, Scott Thomas' debut novel, and so was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, Violet has little to recommend it. This is one of the slowest-moving, dullest horror novels I think I've ever read. For the first 200+ pages, we're treated to a very in-depth, detailed overview of the novel's protagonist fixing up her family's lake home, which has been neglected for many years. Buying tools, new furniture, sanding floors, etc., etc. Kris and daughter Sadie are trying to make a new start after having lost their husband/father in a car accident, and Kris' half-remembered time at the lakeshore has her thinking this is the place to recover. But the nearby town is on its last legs and a number of missing children suggests some sinister force at work. Unfortunately, we don't really get much insight into that until the last hundred pages or so, too little and far too late. This is a book that could really use some cutting--there's so much extra fat that just doesn't need to be there.

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I wanted to like this book but it ended up just being ok. Chris is just ok as the main character and so was her daughter. They didn't really click with me but I didn't hate them. The beginning started off strong. The bulk of the book dragged for me. The ending was very fast paced.

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I ended up DNFing this after giving it 100 pages. I felt that it was very overwritten with a lot of unnecessary detail. I just couldn’t get in to it unfortunately.

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This was a gripping, creepy book which had me hooked from the start. It's well written and moves at a good pace. I will definitely be recommending this to my friends if they haven't read it already.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this title in exchange for an unbiased review.

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"This is a waiting room, she thought. This is purgatory."

Talk about a slow burn! Man oh man did this one just drag on. This novel landed in it's own kind of purgatory, in my "currently reading" shelf for nearly a year. Yep, that's right, that's how long it finally took me to complete it. Why didn't I just give up? Mark it as a DNF like many others? Well, quite honestly, I truly loved Scott Thomas' first novel, Kill Creek, and I had such high hopes for this one, so I felt like I really owed it to Scott to see it through. Having said that, I feel like I went through way to much to get a bit of satisfaction.

Kris Barlow is suffering from the untimely death of her husband. She finds herself struggling to raise their 8-year old daughter, Sadie. Sadie isn't doing so well with the loss of her father either; she's stopped speaking. Kris, decides that a change of scenery may do them both some good. They retreat to Kris' childhood summer home overlooking Lost Lake in the town of Pacington. While Kris has many fond memories of Lost Lake with her family, the bad memories far outweigh the good. As Kris and Sadie start to settle in and revive the house that has become dormant over the years, Sadie starts to improve, she begins speaking a bit more and more each day. But as Sadie starts to improve, the unease begins to settle in Kris. The house, the town, strange things are happening, strange things that can't be explained.

I truly think this novel was intended to be a "slow burn"... building that anticipation for the climatic finish. Only, I think it was overkill. There was just too much in the storyline that I felt added little to no value to the overall climatic ending. One could argue that the intent is to create solid character development, and perhaps that's true, we learned a lot about Kris, but who we didn't learn enough about in my opinion was Violet. Which let's be honest, that's the name of the novel, so I feel we should have had far better development around this character.

In the end, I was satisfied with how things ended for Kris and Sadie, but as a reader, I just didn't appreciate how long it took to get there.

I want to thank NetGalley, InkShares, and Scott Thomas for allowing me the opportunity to read this novel in exchange for my review.

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Scott Thomas does it again! Another instant favorite. Chills from page one!! I can’t wait to see what Scott Thomas has in store for his fans next.

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This book was definitely creepy. The detailed descriptions slapped me right into the center of the story. Amazing author, even better book!

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Creepy story, where a mother must deal with her depression and the death of her husband, while trying to draw her daughter out of her shell and solve the mystery of ths ghosts of her old family cabin. Great story, so creeoy and eerie.

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I received an advance digital copy of this book from the author, publisher and Netgalley.com. Thanks to all for the opportunity to read and review. The opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Violet is, hands down, the creepiest book I have ever read. It starts with a quote from Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and goes quickly downhill from there. Read it with the lights on.

5 out of 5 stars. Scary story to read in the dark!!

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If you’re on bookstagram, you’re well aware of (the super-hyped) ‘Kill Creek’. While I had a good time reading it, it ended up being an average reading experience. Let me just say that my expectations were high.

When I saw Violet on NetGalley I felt a bit hesitant but decided to request it anyway. The request was approved and then I just let it sit.

Months later I finally picked it up, and boy oh boy...

I found myself immediately engaged in the story. Scott Thomas did a magnificent job in the character development department. I cared about Kris and Sadie.

Some folks might find the pace too slow. I found it to be perfectly timed.

The book is beautifully written.
The attention to detail shows.
The darkness slowly finds its way in.

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I did enjoy reading this book and found the writing to be very inticing at times. The plot had me wanting to carry on reading throughout, and although the initial layer of the story has been done before in other books I feel like the author done a great job of adding extra parts to the story to make it his own. The flashbacks in the story could be jarring at times but I got used to it after a while and it was an interesting plot divorce to decide to use. I loved the paranoia the book made me feel about how much people actually knew about the girls and feeling that kind of emotion reading a book is a sign of a good writer of any genre. I would be interesting in reading more from the author.

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