I hope this book does not just get pigeon-holed as a horror novel, I hope that this gets a wider audience than just readers of the genre because while it is a very suspenseful and at times scary book, it is also so much more than that. I loved this authors first book Kill Creek and was very excited when I was given the chance to read and review an arc copy of this. This is a book about friendship and family ties and ultimately, loss. It's also about survival. What people do and tell themselves to get by when the crap is hitting the fan with the realization that the world won't stop turning because you need it to and that life goes on whether or not you want it to.
Right from the onset you know that the characters are going through it. From the beginning you know that they are running from something, trying to regroup, and get themselves back to some sense of normalcy. This setup is what made the book for me in terms of connecting with the characters and making me care for them and about what was going on. And I think without the time spent doing this the ending would not have been as impactful nor as emotional. All these different things were happening and backstories were filled in and all the while it seemed like I, as the reader, was circling the drain, sinking slowly but gaining momentum towards the finale. And what a grand finale it was! Everything came together in such a spectacular and satisfying way I just might have had tears in my eyes. (might have, because men don't cry)
I also loved the way the author used music to set the tone and mood throughout. As the main character listened to old mix tapes her mom had made I was able to hear these songs in my head as I knew and loved most of them myself and it totally added to my overall enjoyment and appreciation of the book. It was little things like this that set this one apart for me, the little added details that might not have been necessary to further the plot but made the story all the more vivid for their inclusion.
Violet made me laugh, it made me sad, it also scared the crap out of me. The book made me feel pity and disgust but also relief and happiness. Violet is a fast paced book without a wasted page and no time was spent with meaningless fodder or filler. Total reading enjoyment is to be found in here and I give this my highest recommendation possible.

I want to thank Inkshares and Netgalley for providing me the arc of this but that in no way impacted my opinion or review.

After the death of her husband, Kris Barlow wants to give her young daughter a chance to recover in the house she herself spent her childhood summers in. Traveling to Lost Lake (where a small village lies under the waters), Kris discovers the house she remembers has begun to decay. Trying to put aside the stories about the town children who have gone missing and been found dead, and the voices she hears in her own head, Kris sets out to make a home for herself and her daughter for the summer. But there are many things she deosn’t remember from her own childhood, and when her daughter begins playing with an invisible child, Kris wonder if she, or her daughter might be insane. This is a creepy, intense and incredibly well written coming of age ghost story. Thomas is a gifted writer on par with an early Stephen King

This is one creepy ghost story.. Parts of it are flat out chilling and shivery.. Highly recommended.

I read the author's 2017 debut novel KILL CREEK the day before I read his upcoming horror novel VIOLET. Both are literate horror, set in Kansas, in economically deprived locales. Both center on a house, in both cases long abandoned and uninhabited (by the living). The setting in VIOLET is a lake house on a bluff near "Lost Lake" in Southeastern Kansas. When Colorado veterinarian Kate's husband dies in a horrible auto accident, she and eight-year-old daughter Sadie travel to the lake house of Kate's childhood, inherited from her late father. Her last summer there was tragic, as her mother died from cancer, so already there are parallels to the current situation and little Sadie's silent grief.


But Pacington, the tiny community near Lost Lake, suffers from its own griefs. Several families have suffered unspeakable, inexplicable tragedies. As Kate will eventually discover, the explanations of accident or roving child predator are far too facile and too far from the Truth. The answer is Supernatural.


As with KILL CREEK, VIOLET was a one-day, non-stop read for me.