*Spoilers*

The Ghost Tree was in its entirety a middle-of-the-line book for me.

Part of the issues had to do with my lack of being able to relate to a 15-year-old girl. I struggled here. I feel 15 is a little late for someone to start having their period but as someone lacking in that department, I can't say for certain. Obviously, the writer being a female she would know better than I would. Then there's this disruptive teenage girl quarreling going on between Lauren and her Mother. Karen, her mother, also has issues with the Grandma, so it's a chain of people acting out and getting jealous and no one understands each other. Except for David. David is a 4-year-old and the only one who has any sense. Oh, and by the way, the family is descended from Witches.

The plot of the book revolves around a curse the witches placed on the town which causes a creature that lives inside the Ghost Tree to come out once a year and kill a girl whose name is chosen via lottery by the mayor. The curse makes people forget shortly after the murders so families continue to live in this perfect town without complaint. Families simply forget the girls ever existed. The cycle is broken when Lauren's name is chosen and her father sacrifices himself. Now the creature is unbound by the rules and is hunting people at random to get to Lauren because it needs to consume her even though by joining with her it won't go back to the original once a year rules.

So it's basically a book about a creature wanting to kill one particular girl...but not really because of who she is which makes the fact that she's a witch descended from the family who placed the original curse absolutely pointless. What would have happened if it ate her, to begin with instead of her father? Would the cycle have been broken? Would her bloodline have mattered then?

Another part that I hated was the relationship with her best friend. At 15, they have grown apart. Miranda cares about cars and boys. A lot of the book is Lauren constantly thinking about this friendship falling apart. It was repetitive and frustrating as a reader. Who cares? You grew apart, you acknowledge it, you spend most of the time thinking your friendship doesn't matter anymore, oh well, and you still bring it up.

Maybe teenagers just piss me off.

Frustrating book.

A sweet and satisfyingly, creepy little book!



What is lurking in the woods.... What is tearing the young one’s into itty bitty pieces... shredded...



Lauren is determined to find out what’s doing the killing. She’s been having a few visions but her little brother, David, is having a lot of visions that are leading Lauren down a scary path.



What do the visions mean.... And what did grand ma ma mean about the story she told Lauren ...

Something isn’t right in the little town of Smith’s Hollow. Will they find the answers... Read it and see!

I enjoyed the characters, but I did want to smack a few people 6,000 ways to Sunday. But I digress!

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

If you’re looking for a bine chilling read this fall then look no further than Christina Henry’s The Ghost Tree! This is a creeptastic mystery with murder, monster, magic, and mayhem! This is a read you will not want to put down until its very surprising ending!

I’ve pretty much been a fan of Christina since her early days and I was excited for her foray into the horror genre! Her Urban Fantasies tend to have creepy moments, but this was novel that was full on creep fest! I also want to note here, that though our cover descript depicts a teenage heroine, this is still very much an adult novel due to content and the like. So don’t go into this thinking it’s a YA horror story, for it’s not! Just want that advisement to you all early.

The year is 1985, and yes, that’s the year we stick to, we follow Lauren a fifteen-year-old girl out to just have fun for the summer before she starts high school. Though things are already pretty intense for her. Her family life hasn’t been the same since her dad died last November and her best friend, Miranda, is drifting further and further away from her as she matures at lightning speed, trading fun and games for boys, boys, and more boys. This summer though will be different for a whole lot of reasons and its starts with the finding of two murdered girls.

What made this story even more intense and intriguing was how the point of view changed just about every chapter. Now don’t let this confuse you or throw you off. Christina does it in a way that makes it flow so easily. One chapter we’re reading from Lauren’s point of view then she sees her mother about town with her brother and looks away, then we’re in her mom’s point of view who goes about her day then her son starts saying a neighbor is crying, then we jump to that neighbor’s point of view. It may sound confusing, but trust me, it works, it so works! And I actually enjoyed reading from all these different perspectives because this quiet little town of Smiths Hollow is hiding some seriously dark secrets.

For you see, there’s a curse on the town and has been for centuries, cast upon by witches. Every year a girl goes missing in the town, and every year a girl is soon forgotten in this town. This is some seriously heavy juju, bad juju.

One thing that positively delighted me in a weird way was how I started to think that this mayor of the town, who knows exactly what’s going on with these missing girls, act very much like the mayor in the movie Jaws (and probably the book too, but it’s been many years since I read that) and then this mayor starts thinking about the movie and THAT mayor and understanding the mayor’s actions! It was a laugh riot to me since I love that movie and I know Christina does too! It was a great way to throw in a cameo appearance and hello, super scary creature that kills people, more coincidences!

It’s hard to get into the mystery element of this one without diving too deeply into a backstory that comes into play. Needless to say we get to know the hows and whys of this town being cursed. And why a girl gets killed every year. Why no one ever remembers this happening, year after year after year.

It’s a pretty intense story and creepy to boot. So naturally, I was eating up the pages. I was shocked that I was halfway through it only my second day into reading! The words just fly off the pages and the pacing in sooo intense that I just had to see what would happen next. The multiple points of view was a game changer that really kept you on your toes. And every now and we got inside the head of the monster who seemed to have more brain for thought than you’d expect. I was quite pleased with myself when I was able to make some accurate guesses as to the turnout of this one.

If you’re looking for a dark and chilling read this fall, I would highly recommend reading The Ghost Tree! It’s one that will have you looking at forests and old trees with a more careful eye for sure. You’ll be kept up long into the night wanting to reach the chilling and epic ending, just be sure to lock your doors before falling asleep!


Overall Rating 5/5 stars


The Ghost Tree releases September 8, 2020

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this book! It read just like watching a horror movie. It had the great setup. It had the slow reveal. It had multiple story-lines converging into one big ending. It had people to root for. It had mystery and darkness!

It was not at all what I expected going in. I won't spoil the fun. I've only ever read The Mermaid by this author before, and it was decent, but this one was a step up. It makes me want to check out her other stories like Alice and Lost Boy and The Girl in Red. I'll definitely be reading more of her work in the future!

I did take off a star because of one thing I predicted way too easily.

Highly recommended for people who like retellings (this is very Sleepy Hollow/headless horseman type story) and horror.

What or who is killing the town’s daughters?

Shortest Summary Ever: 2 bodies have been discovered. (Wait. Make that PIECES of bodies.) And 14 yr old Lauren’s dad was found murdered the year before in an equally gruesome fashion. But the town has moved on - crazies that can’t be found must be the perpetrators, so let’s move on - cases are closed. Except now Lauren’s little brother is having premonitions, and everyone in the town is acting like murder is NBD. Lauren seems to be the only one concerned. What IS happening in Smith Hollows?

Thoughts: Creepy Town with a Stepford Wives vibe, Smith Hollows is the star of this book as the town itself becomes a pulsating, breathing character. It holds alllll the secrets and the older residents know was’sup. 😏 This plot and the kids are the best part of the book because as I’ve said before - creepy kids? ✅ Off to a great start in “things that freak me out in books.”

But... the horror factor was tepid at best. Gore to me doesn’t translate as scary. I’m a firm believer in it’s more scary what you DON’T see (in your head while reading... like a movie). The freakiest books aren’t always the bloodiest. It was also a pretty obvious conclusion. But definitely a book I would buy!

All my reviews available at scrappymags.com

Genre: Mystery/Horror/Gore

Recommend to: if you want a spooky escape to a town where somethin’ just ain’t right.

Not recommended to: if you’re not into gory stuff. It’s heavier in the grit and blood, and brains... some entrails...

Thank you to the author, Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my always-honest review and for making me shun any city with “Hollow” in the name.

I tried but I lost interest in this - I just didn't particularly like or relate to any of the characters. So not for me!

I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I had been waiting for this book to come out and was not disappointed at all. Christina Henry has once again bought forth a magical spooky reality which pulls you in from the very first chapter. I would say this is a huge step above the last (Alice Novellas) and breaths life into a sometimes forgotten legend.... Sleepy Hollow.

<b>4.0 Stars - Female Coming of Age Horror</b>
Finally! This is the story I have been searching for… a female centric coming of age horror story. I’ve read other horror advertised as such, but this is the first one to actually deliver the goods. Told over multiple perspectives, the story primarily centers around two teenagers who are transitioning from girls into young women. The story touches on common female experiences from choosing boys over best friends to the uncomfortable experience of starting one’s period. Both girls were likeable and well developed with understandable motivations.

Overall, this was an incredibly immersive story that pulled me right from the start. It’s a fairly long novel, but it never felt slow. The story was perfectly paced with a compulsive narrative that kept me turning the pages. The plot was honestly quite predictable, but I did not mind at all. Instead, I found the familiar horror tropes to be comforting. The actual writing was quite simplistic, but the story itself made up for those weaknesses.

With the younger protagonists, this horror novel has a lot of YA crossover appeal. I also think it would be a great starting place for someone newer to horror, because it felt quite accessible without a lot of the weirdness that turns people off the genre. This book will also appeal to those who loved Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chobsky because it had a similar narrative style.

I would highly recommend this novel to any horror reader who enjoys classic horror narratives with some fantastical supernatural elements.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Creepy and entertaining!
Sleepy Hollow meets Sabrina the Teenage Witch

It’s 1985 in Smiths Hollow, a small town just outside of Chicago. A nice, quiet place where crime doesn’t exist, and jobs are plentiful. Until one summer day, the bodies of two teenage girls are found torn apart in a neighbor’s backyard. 15 year old Lauren starts seeing visions of the monster who did this, and discovers her family were descendants of witches. Told from multiple POV’s, the townspeople unravel a mystery that has been lingering in Smiths Hollow for decades.

I loved the 80’s references, and the nostalgic/coming-of-age feel. Lots of interesting characters, David and Alex were my favorites. This would be a fun TV series for Netflix or Hulu to pick up.

OMG! The witchy powers, haunted woods concept always my favorite themes and when I dive into a book which reminds me of Shea Ernshaw’s Wicked Deep meets Emily Lloyd Jones’ Bone Houses and Stephen Kong’s epic book Outsider with Sleepy Hollow vibes, I may only scream “yess” and fill my brain with the marvelous taste of literature and feel the tingling shiver of thrilling sense on my shoulders.

This book is captivating, exciting page turner, attracting your attention and hooks your soul from the first page. You cannot put it down. You have to cancel everything in your life to focus on your reading which you already get used to do in your new normal state( Sometimes I wish I don’t read any news and deal with new realities of our changing Pandemic universe by burying my head into a book and keep on reading till everything goes back to normal. At least this kind of great books give you the great escape opportunity you terribly need right now!)

So let’s take a look at the synopsis:

Welcome to Smith Hollows. A secluded town with the people suffer from short term memory loss about the murders occur there. They look like daytime sleepwalkers when somebody opens his mouth to ask questions what is going on there.

Is there something sinister in the woods to tear the bones apart of the young girls? They lately find two girls’s brutally murdered pieces at the front yard of a racist old bigot lady but new police officer Alex Lopez who moved with his family from Chicago realizes the murders occurred in the woods and somebody carried the pieces of the corpses to the backyard of his racist neighbor who thinks Mexican people already cursed the place with their existence and they may be connected with the killings.

In the meantime Lauren, 15 years old, recently lost her father who was brutally killed in the woods just like two girls feels a painful headache and sees visions about how the girls get killed. And she realizes there is something supernatural about the killings of those girls.

And her four year old brother David reminds us of the combination of eerie, weird kids in the standard horror movies, tells to their mother his premonition about murders( he will keep telling weird prophecies during the book which will come true) And as soon as Lauren talks with her Nana, she learns the ugly secret about their family ancestors, her mind gets more confused and her new normal reality gets more distorted. Could the things her Nana tell be true?

Even though the identity of the killer was so foreseeable from the beginning and reading so many POVs included into the story may be confusing : instead of Lauren, her best friend Miranda, we read Karen, Alex, racist neighbor ( I don’t want to mention her name because from the beginning I hate the guts of the character), Riley (Journalist from Chicago), Touhy ( interestingly Ben Mendelsohn’s face appeared on my mind when I read the chapters about him), I liked the incredibly capturing pacing, 80’s vibes with Goonies, Jackson songs, punk rock, Stallone, Stephen King book references including Firestarter and of course the rabbit references in the book reminds us of the author’s Alice series.

Overall: I’m so open to read a sequel. Lauren, David and Alejandro( Alex)are my favorite characters. I liked the moving, mind numbing, exhilarating chapters.

I highly recommend it to the genre lovers and Christina Henry fans!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this addictive ARC with me in exchange my honest opinions. I had really enjoyable time!