I had such hope for this book. I figured it would be a fine read for Halloween...but no. Sorry. Now for me. DNF.

i really enjoyed reading this book, the horror elements kept me on the edge of the seat. The characters were great and I really enjoyed the plot itself.

Thanks to Net Gallery and the publisher for a copy of this book to review !

A WISTFUL TALE OF GODS, MEN & MONSTERS
By David Ruggerio

Fun mystery/horror novel. In trying to describe the book in a few sentences I would say it reminds me of an old ghost story a grandfather would tell the family around Halloween. An old legend set in an old town, that raises the hairs on the back of your neck.

A modern folklore type horror novel with all the main ingredients, ghosts, a haunted cemetery, a haunted mansion on a hill, a wicked stepmother, and even a shape shifter ! A beloved coming of age in a haunted town scenario reminiscent of a Ray Bradbury tale.

This was an enjoyable book, fun for any age. Brave and creative enough for adult enjoyment and not too graphic for the younger readers.

Wow. I must say there were phrases in this book that were so awful that it was cringeworthy. I would not read this author again or recommend him.

I felt this book was lacking and here is why:

• the dialogue seems forced, although descriptions of scenery vary from brilliant to a savage shake of thesaurus;
• elegant style switches rapidly to clumsy, jagged writing when describing an action scene or encounter of characters;
• thought processes are separated (rather annoyingly at that) by parentheses;
• the book features really disgusting and questionable comparisons - giving birth = gang rape - if this is meant to be borderline cringe horror, the horror part of it has been slaughtered and abandoned to rot by the cringeworthy and certainly very questionable comparisons;
• sex scenes are downright nauseous, featuring a savagely dominating she-beast, describing cunnilingus as humiliating a man etc.;
• there appear to be three types of characters: gym-obsessed, not-so-bright men, women with "unique beauty", and children;
• I approve of the long list of various creatures that go bump in the night but the book is jumpy, the writing style leaves a sour impression that at least two people have written it - one with rather good linguistic abilities and another who chucks in flat characters who vomit unstructured words at one another;
• tinges of Supernatural and Stranger things a review said - Supernatural perhaps. If we are to talk about the few good things about this, the mythos of skinwalkers is certainly one, Stranger Things, though... Barely a tinge;
• it is, however, entertaining to read Biblical quotes before chapters that will absolutely throw one face first into yet another pit that will undoubtedly chill the reader - it is merely questionable if it is horror of the content or horror of the linguistic mishaps disguised as character interaction;
• proof-reading is a must-have in order to remove typos such as this "He then softened his town, “ She ’ s all of our child now …" to avoid readers considering what a softened town might be like;
• then you have lines like: "His attention was now taken by a glimmer of brilliant sunshine that heated the last wisps of mist." which could frankly be pure poetry, leaving me absolutely torn as a reader.

Conclusively, I forced myself to suffer through the book in hopes it would improve by the end; that all the short, somewhat interconnected tales would come together and... I am still unable to give it more than 2/5 stars. Mind you, both of the two have been earned by the delicate, descriptive lines in between everything else questionable.
Thank you kindly but I feel betrayed - the description did not match the book's contents. I judged by the cover and I loved it but the contents are in need of dedicated editing.

This is not what I would classify as classical horror nor modern horror. It is somewhere in between, a phantasm of what it could be.

This book turned into a mass confusion as a good bit of the writing was muddled. I loved the description of the boo but had a hard time finding that story line. It became a little raw for my taste when the writer likened child birth to a gang rape.

DNF at 26%

I was intrigued by this book’s blurb and was looking forward to a spooky read. The idea of a town that’s inherently evil, with the scares taking place in a graveyard, school and mortuary, sounded like my kind of fun. Unfortunately it’s not working for me at all, which is really disappointing. Even worse, I’m currently surrounded by reviewers who loved this book so I feel like I’m missing out on something wonderful.

I’m finding the story quite disjointed and haven’t been able to form an emotional connection with any of the characters that have been introduced so far.

I acknowledge that I’m reading an advanced copy of this book so hopefully proofreading and editing will fix a lot of the problems I’ve experienced. The punctuation is all over the place. An abundance of commas exist where they shouldn’t and they’re missing where they’re needed. While they could easily be fixed, here are only a couple of the many sentences that frustrated me:

“Whether that was Lilly or not, William wasn’t waiting around to find out, he bolted.”

“That old Ford was a sight for sore eyes, he could now breathe easy.”

“An extraordinary feeling of happiness and expectations filled the inhabitants, this was their holiday.”

I know my punctuation and grammar are nowhere near perfect either, but I’d definitely want someone to clean up my writing if I ever expected people to pay for it.

There was some phrasing that felt awkward:

“These were ghosts that were disturbed for keeping evil obsessions hidden.”

“they were blood-like red in color.”

“It was an erotic transformation, from a woman of beauty to a fierce beast of uncontrollable hatred for mankind.”

This was a horror unlike any before; no man had ever survived such a terror and lived to tell about it.”

My jaw dropped (and I almost threw in the towel right then and there) when I found this sentence in the second chapter:

“Giving birth was akin to a gang-rape.”

Characters have also called one another “homo”, “nuts” and “retarded”.

If the story had grabbed me I wouldn’t have been as focused on typos, including “lightening” instead of “lightning”, as well as the other nitpicks. I hate to admit defeat where any book is concerned but I can’t travel any further with this one.

I’d encourage you to read some 4 and 5 star reviews before deciding if this is the book for you or not. I’m definitely an outlier here.

Content warnings (so far) include death by suicide, child abuse and sexual assault.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Black Rose Writing for the opportunity to read this book.

And maybe, just maybe I overdid it with my commitment to read genre exclusively for the month of October. In fact, it boggles the mind to think my reading diet was once as unvaried as that consistently. Now, I crave variety much too much. If I am to stay within one genre, though, I’ll settle for an exceptional quality. Something this book didn’t quite deliver, although it was by no means a terrible addition to the realm of literary terrors. Ruggerio is apparently a famous chef, specializing in Italian cuisine and his previous ventures as an author have been culinary books. This is certainly quite a departure. In this cumbersomely titled novel, Ruggerio creates a small upstate town of Brunswick and like most such creations, it is a haunted wicked place. The denizens might be well meaning enough, quietly harboring secrets of their own, but terrible things do occur in Brunswick with an alarming regularity. Such as the suspicious series of violent murders, swept under the rug for decades and decades. It looks like no person would have done those, such animalistic savagery was involved. Of course, of course, there’s some Native American tragic past specific to the region. And so from a creepy cemetery to an even creepier old funeral parlor, the atmosphere is set for a classic tale of a small town being terrorized by a skinwalker, culminating ever so appropriately during the days of Allhallowtide. Of all the genre books I’ve been reading this month, this one is seemingly tailormade for October 31st. And it works, it works perfectly well, it just doesn’t wow in any way. It seems like a well done regurgitation of entirely too many genre formulas and clichés. Which is fine if you’re new to it all and looking for a spooky seasonal read, but for anyone who’s been reading these books for a while, it kind of just leaves you wonting. The storytelling aspect is nice, it’s almost like a series of interconnected character driven short stories and then the gradual interweaving of all the characters together in a cohesive fashion. But again, outside of the two cute kids, the characters weren’t overwhelmingly compelling. Just enough to kind of sort of want to know how it all plays out in the end for them. And the answer to that is…pretty much as you’d expect. Once again, the lack of originality is what’s really holding the story back from really taking off. Oh, and this was weird…every chapter was preceded by a Biblical quote, except for ones from a famous scientist and one from Eva Peron. Random much. Overall, it’s a decent debut effort, but not sure it deserves all the praises the book’s official description features. For me it was like Ruggerio’s beloved pasta, it’ll do in a pinch, but, given a choice, I wouldn’t go for it. Just not a pasta person. But then again how many chefs go write scary stories. So that’s something original right there. Thanks Netgalley.

Every little village has it's tale to tell, it's dark secrets, even it's magic. Brunswick, New York has had more that it's share of tales and more than it's share of blood spilled onto it's soil. Halloween is just around the corner and Brunswick is getting ready. Thrill seekers come looking for haunts and legends. The Sheriff's workload increases dramatically and violently. Best friends William and Lilly start to make some frightening connections between bizarre events and horrific murders and in doing so begin to fear that their own lives are in danger. A Wistful Tale Of Gods, Men and Monsters is told by a omnipotent narrator who apparently knows of events that go back hundreds of years. The narrator introduces us to all of the characters and tells us who they are and why they're in Brunswick and enough detail that we know each one quickly. The book is written in such a way that it would make for a great mini-series with a special two hour finale. It progressed a bit slowly towards the middle, but when things started coming together it was a rapid "what's next" last few chapters. Well written and fun. I'd love it see it on the screen someday.
#netgalley #AWistfulTaleOfGodsAndMonsters

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This will be available on October 31st.

Oh, dear. This book is not for me. At all. In theory, it’s a creepy read that’s perfect for October. At least, that’s what I expected. It is most definitely not what I got.

First of all, the sentences are long and convoluted, and this is coming from someone who writes long sentences. Commas are sprinkled in like candy on top of cupcakes (mmm…cupcakes) and I’d often forget the point of the sentence before it ended.

Because the writing was on the dry side, the book failed to elicit the creep factor it seemed to be going for. The book could have been scary-instead it was uninteresting. There was, however, one part that stuck with me, and not in a good way.

This author decided to liken childbirth to a gang rape. Nope. Uh-uh, way too disturbing for me. Not only did it completely disgust me, it was an unnecessary comparison to a throw-away sentence.

In case it isn’t apparent, I truly disliked this book. I gave up on it about sixty-five percent in. This is not an author I’ll read again. However, to each their own. Mine is just one opinion in many.

An excellent horror novel, well written and gripping.
I loved the creepy atmosphere, the setting and the well written cast of characters.
I'm happy I requested this ARC, because I discovered a new excellent author.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

If you are looking for an updated version and similar version of 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow', then look no further that 'A Wistful Tale of Gods, Men, and Monsters.
Set in a small gloomy town in upstate New York where there seem to be more secrets than there are people, one boy must battle the evils that lurk in the dark and bring them to light.
A fast paced, hauntingly entertaining read that encompasses the readers senses with suspense, thrills, and fright. Classically told in a modern era, David Ruggerio is a masterful classical horror story teller to watch out for in the future.