Member Review
Review by
Account D, Reviewer
I want to live in “The Shadow House”. I have this thing about living in a house that’s haunted and I want it to be this one. Dead serious, if it wasn’t fictional.
This book, this book, this book….. this community, these characters, the storyline, the beginning, the end, the in between!! The immensity of my love for this book has my insides restless and my mind spinning in circles, around and around, repeating thoughts of all that happens and I finished reading this four days ago
This story is told in alternating perspectives from Alex and Renee. It’s completely safe to say that the chapters of Renee take place six years prior from the time Alex’s chapters are.
The farmhouse on the hill, the carvings in the trees, the bones, the dolls, the blood…….deeply eerie and vividly atmospheric. Hold on because you’re about to go on a journey with one of the best thrill rides a writer can take her readers on.
Alex fled an abusive relationship to start new with her kids and she finds the community of Pine Ridge, which at first seems like the perfect place to raise a family and live more simply. That is a fantastic idea in theory, unfortunately in reality, Pine Ridge is a non-stop mind fgameck 👈🏼I’ll clean that up before I post to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
It’s absolutely amazing, to me, how this author does everything that goes opposite of what readers would most likely expect. She steers clear of cliche and obvious. She makes sure that there are not just enough characters, but enough suspects, to keep your head spinning around and back again. It’s refreshing to have read this story which kept the suspense strong and letting your guard down truly leads to out loud gasps and wide eyed jaw drops.
As far as Alex, her character and the struggles she faced, they were highly relatable and the author does not sugar coat this characters words and thoughts. That was something that meant so much to someone who understands. Because of that, I connected those parts of this story on a much deeper level. I’m learning to read books with different levels of triggers and allow them to make me stronger, instead of avoiding those books. With that said, I ‘can’ say that any triggers, of Alex’s abusive past, are so rarely spoken and barely in detail it’s a perfectly safe read for anyone worried about triggers. I hope that helps readers decide based on your personal tolerance levels.
I have zero hesitation in recommending this book to anyone. In fact, as the thriller it is, I recommend it to everyone who loves this genre. When you think it’s going in one direction, you’re going to get whiplash when the other direction hits you pretty mercilessly and that makes it so deliciously satisfying.
I want to pour out the entire story and all my highlights, but I can’t so I’m flustered and, as with all books which get me this worked up with excitement, I’m spilling my thoughts out rapid pace.
This book, this author, this story, these characters, the craziness of it all and the drop dead twisty punches are ‘shocking’. Unbelievably shocking. First class, exceptional, phenomenal, mind boggling. Remarkable imagination and writing is inside these pages.
~Bones~dolls~blood~ I have blood curdling chills running up and down my back rereading that passage in its entirety just now and the intensity of how deeply this book got inside my head and heart, it’ll sound silly to read that I literally welled with tears. It was that intense of a read I genuinely got emotional at the talent put into this. Highly recommended to everyone I can recommend it to.
Thank you so much to @NetGalley @StMartinsPress @MinotaurBooks and author Anna Downes @whatannawrote for giving me the opportunity to read this treat of a book, at my request for an honest review. I can honestly say that I wish I could erase the memory of reading it so I could read it again like it was the first time. I’ll definitely be buying and gifting this one forward.
Available for purchase on April 5, 2022
#NetGalley#MostAnticipatedBooks2022 #2022BestBooks #ThrillerBooks #MysteryBooks #SuspenseBooks #March2022BookReleases
This book, this book, this book….. this community, these characters, the storyline, the beginning, the end, the in between!! The immensity of my love for this book has my insides restless and my mind spinning in circles, around and around, repeating thoughts of all that happens and I finished reading this four days ago
This story is told in alternating perspectives from Alex and Renee. It’s completely safe to say that the chapters of Renee take place six years prior from the time Alex’s chapters are.
The farmhouse on the hill, the carvings in the trees, the bones, the dolls, the blood…….deeply eerie and vividly atmospheric. Hold on because you’re about to go on a journey with one of the best thrill rides a writer can take her readers on.
Alex fled an abusive relationship to start new with her kids and she finds the community of Pine Ridge, which at first seems like the perfect place to raise a family and live more simply. That is a fantastic idea in theory, unfortunately in reality, Pine Ridge is a non-stop mind fgameck 👈🏼I’ll clean that up before I post to Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
It’s absolutely amazing, to me, how this author does everything that goes opposite of what readers would most likely expect. She steers clear of cliche and obvious. She makes sure that there are not just enough characters, but enough suspects, to keep your head spinning around and back again. It’s refreshing to have read this story which kept the suspense strong and letting your guard down truly leads to out loud gasps and wide eyed jaw drops.
As far as Alex, her character and the struggles she faced, they were highly relatable and the author does not sugar coat this characters words and thoughts. That was something that meant so much to someone who understands. Because of that, I connected those parts of this story on a much deeper level. I’m learning to read books with different levels of triggers and allow them to make me stronger, instead of avoiding those books. With that said, I ‘can’ say that any triggers, of Alex’s abusive past, are so rarely spoken and barely in detail it’s a perfectly safe read for anyone worried about triggers. I hope that helps readers decide based on your personal tolerance levels.
I have zero hesitation in recommending this book to anyone. In fact, as the thriller it is, I recommend it to everyone who loves this genre. When you think it’s going in one direction, you’re going to get whiplash when the other direction hits you pretty mercilessly and that makes it so deliciously satisfying.
I want to pour out the entire story and all my highlights, but I can’t so I’m flustered and, as with all books which get me this worked up with excitement, I’m spilling my thoughts out rapid pace.
This book, this author, this story, these characters, the craziness of it all and the drop dead twisty punches are ‘shocking’. Unbelievably shocking. First class, exceptional, phenomenal, mind boggling. Remarkable imagination and writing is inside these pages.
~Bones~dolls~blood~ I have blood curdling chills running up and down my back rereading that passage in its entirety just now and the intensity of how deeply this book got inside my head and heart, it’ll sound silly to read that I literally welled with tears. It was that intense of a read I genuinely got emotional at the talent put into this. Highly recommended to everyone I can recommend it to.
Thank you so much to @NetGalley @StMartinsPress @MinotaurBooks and author Anna Downes @whatannawrote for giving me the opportunity to read this treat of a book, at my request for an honest review. I can honestly say that I wish I could erase the memory of reading it so I could read it again like it was the first time. I’ll definitely be buying and gifting this one forward.
Available for purchase on April 5, 2022
#NetGalley#MostAnticipatedBooks2022 #2022BestBooks #ThrillerBooks #MysteryBooks #SuspenseBooks #March2022BookReleases
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