It's been a while since I've picked up a horror read and anything with witches will certainly pull me in.

Sheriff Sterling Marsh is about to retire from the local police force in Drybell, Connecticut. She needs a fresh start and to try and turn her life around.

On the eve of her retirement there is a huge truck crash on the bridge into town effectively cutting them off, plus a frightening storm is rolling in.

As if she didn't have enough to worry about a strange figure mysteriously appears. Silent and eerie it's clear she is some kind of witch and coinciding with her appearance is the sudden unexplained deaths and frightening occurrences that the Sheriff can't make sense of.

I was hooked in from the very beginning. The opening few chapters were so strong, full of atmosphere and creepy vibes I couldn't wait to curl up and ignore the world around me.

Unfortunately it then kind of lost me for a while. The middle of the book was a little too drawn out and I really lost interest for a while. The creepiness of the storyline lost its shine and I found myself getting frustrated more than anything.

Thankfully things picked up towards the last third of the book although I can't say I was a massive fan of the ending.

Maybe I haven't read enough horror/spooky books to compare, I just didn't find myself feeling all that spooked through this one. Overall this was a solid 3 star read for me and I'm still thankful for the chance to have read it.

I went into this book completely blind. I liked the cover art and the title piqued my interest, so I requested a copy here on NetGalley. While I didn't get access to this title as an ARC, I got it after the publication date. I'm so glad I finally had a chance to read it. What a wild ride that was!
The gist is that a small-town sheriff, Sterling Marsh, having recently resigned from her position, is working her last night on the job. Her co-workers have a little party for her with cookies and eggnog as it's near Christmas time. She thinks she's just going to finish her paperwork, pack up her things, and go. However, that isn't in the cards. There's a crazy storm outside and some odd happenings around town. Not to mention some personal drama with Sterling and her co-worker Chase. Then things get dark as Sterling finds herself face to face with an eerie stranger that has come to town.
This was an atmospheric, dark fairy tale/horror story. It had a feverish, dreamlike quality at times. It's a slow build but maintains a feeling of dread just oozing off the pages (or Kindle in my case). These gorgeous illustrations that add so much life to the story are inter-dispersed throughout. It makes me want a hard copy of the book for just that reason.
This was a fun read and one that I highly recommend checking out.

The idea for the book was good and I liked the witch but the book had too many cliche descriptions, a lot of repetition and spent way way too much time on descriptions and clumsy jargon that did nothing to add to the story. I am not a fan.

Received this for honest review.

I read this in 2 days and omg it was amazing. It was just perfect for the spooky season.
Love the Witches!

This novel will keep you up at night!
I highly recommend everybody get this book and read it.

#witch13 #NetGalley

Sheriff Sterling Marsh is about to leave her job in Drybell, Connecticut, but of course, her last night can’t be easy. In fact, it’s going to be downright terrifying. When a silent, menacing (and motionless) witch shows up, an eerie feeling overtakes the station. All over town, strange things start happening, and Sterling tries her best to hold her station and her town together before the witch destroys it all.

Overall, this one was okay. To me, the most interesting character was a random dude who showed up mysteriously, chilled in a prison cell for most of the novel, then pulled these wild theories about alternate worlds and monsters
crossing over into our world out of his ass. I think the book would have been better if it’d had
been his story, but the illustrations throughout were cool and the witch was very creepy, so points for those. If it sounds like something you’d be into, check it out now at your local indie bookseller or library

If you like extreme horror, then this is a book for you. The story was well done, the characters quite believable and the action scenes were incredible. I do not understand why I had not heard of this book. I picked the book because of the title and was very surprised at the following tale. I have only recently begun to foray into the extreme horror genre and this book is right up there with some other authors that write in this genre also. Not only was it incredibly descriptive, the end was not what you had been believing all throughout the story.

A great story for the spooky season. Has the right amount of horror to keep you spooked, and a great diversity of characters.

( also who doesn’t love a good witchy tale? )

An engaging read from the start, atmospheric and chilling, the prose hooks you in from the start. Engaging world building and the illustrations add a nice touch to spark the reader’s imagination. Well paced with an intriguing use of timing, overall a wonderful autumnal-feeling read!

The story has a really promising premise and so much potential, but unfortunately it felt messy and that some threads were left loose and storylines ended a bit heavy-handed and abrupt. Don't get me wrong, this was nerve-wracking and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I really liked the prolong and the sidestory when the children were taken by the witch, so I wanted to know more about the witch. How more of the witch's backstory, who the other twelve witches are and why she ended up in Drybell could have been incorporated in the book I don't know, but it was something that was missing for me. I found the creepy bits really interesting and uncanny and the action packed parts abit to much and a bit one dimensional.

Huh.. I'm kind of at a loss for words with this one. I stuck between the "WTF did I just read" and "OMG!!" phases you get when you finish books. It's not a bad thing but it leaves you wondering just the same.

We get set up with an amazing prologue, and at the end of it, you know you're in for a good long creepy adventure. The book is fast-paced like a horror movie and I know my heart flew out of my mouth a couple of times. The witch in question reminds me of the witch from the Left for Dead video game series and she got me every time something would go down.

Overall not a bad book. The ending left some things to be desired but all in all, a pretty decent read.

Creepy. So creeped out. But I found the witch not being that likable. Like do something already. Eerie vibes the whole book through but the witch. Ehhh she’s okay.

OMG! This story is creepy! I have been jumping at nothing for days now, all because I read this book. My husband loves horror movies, and used to drag me to them regularly. It's been several years though, and apparently, I was missing it.

Characters

The Witch is definitely the scare factor in this story. She does a fine job all by herself. She doesn't even have a lot of dialogue. Maybe a few lines, and they come at the end of the story.

Sheriff Sterling Marsh is the protagonist in the story. She is Sheriff in a small town called Drybell. The Chief is away on vacation, and has left Sterling in charge. Sterling has decided to resign from the police department and move on. She's had some personal issues, and things have happened in life, and she's ready to move on.

Max, I would say is another key character. He is a child, and the son of two of the other characters. His role comes in to play more at the end though, maybe the last 25% of the story. Until then, he's just this kid stuck on the station with everyone and his Dad, who is another officer there, because of the storm outside.

Setting

The story takes place in Drybell, and mostly at the police station. This setting alone would not be scary, especially considering the only prisoner we learn about besides the witch is actually a seemingly nice gentleman.

Plot

The plot is assisted by the illustrations within the pages of the book. One in particular I found very creepy and the illustration itself gave me the creeps and freaked me out.

I was totally thrown all over the place. One minute I had one hypothesis as to what the witch was after, then something happened and I developed a different hypothesis in line with what the characters were thinking, only to be thrown backwards when the real reason she was in the town was revealed.

I would recommend this for any lover of horror, and for those wanting to dip their toes in. This is all the horror, without too much gore. (There were moments.)

Thank you Net Galley and Oblivion Publishing for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This spine-chilling book follows a mysterious black shadow of a witch haunting the residents of Drybell. As a reader, you get so invested in the plot as the tension builds and the characters try to figure out what is going on. The Sheriff of the town is determined to find out who the shadow is and what their motives are.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be, it was more creepy than scary. I really just wanted to know what the hell the witch was actually doing, which was motivation enough to finish it in just a few hours. And in the end I was slightly disappointed as there was one scene that made it pretty clear as to why the Witch was there earlier in the book. That being said it was one hell of a ride getting to the end so that's forgiven.
There are a couple of things that were sadly standard horror fair. The whole "Omfg don't go back in there!" was yelled a lot and the "Why are we disregarding the guy who clearly knows what's going?" was pondered every time the action slows down. But other than that I don't have any complaints.
Overall this was a solid horror story with a creepy (the Witch was incredibly creepy) villain with just enough violence that you knew you were dealing with something no human could hope to defeat.
For a horror novel, I thought it was a little too static, and most of the time the witch does nothing, and is almost like a statue.. The atmosphere is indeed eerie and glum, but the characters often chose to do stupid things, the witch’s backstory didn't impress me, and the ending felt rushed.

3.5 rounded up.

I think I just had higher expectations and hopes for this book that weren't fulfilled. It's not that it's a bad book, I just had a hard time getting into it and it holding my interest. I really wanted something that gave me the creeps, and it just didn't fit the bill. I'm definitely going to be checking out Delaney's other work as I found the story to be captivating, just not what I wanted at time of reading.

The premise sounded intriguing but I'm sorry, this is some of the worst writing I've ever come across. Did not finish. Forced myself to get halfway through. Granted I'm not the target market, but still. Have some standards. Was it even proof read?

I was hopeful to read a queer horror book that I can recommend for Halloween.

I won’t be recommending this book by Patrick Delaney anytime soon – or at all, really. Where to start, where to start?

You know those books where a seemingly male author writes about a woman and you just feel… ugh by it? Yeah, that happens here. Sterling’s body gets so much unnecessary focus that leaves me feeling uncomfortable with it, and it really doesn’t bring anything to the story.

I mean, is that really necessary: “with eyelids etched as dark as an Egyptian pharaoh, her almond-shaped eyes were stark upon first glance. Cracked, plum-colored lips and skin that glistened with an olive sheen[…]” (Kindle pos. 174)? The damn woman was just on the treadmill. One, from which she “gracefully swung off” “with a thump”. Also, what has the softness of her stomach and jawline to do with the story? Huh?

That brings me to another thing I was really bothered by. Fucking adjectives everywhere! That way of forcing stuff into my mind’s eye left me rolling my eyes and made me so annoyed I couldn’t focus on the story.

Something which was hard enough on its own, because it doesn’t flow at all. We’re getting drowned in unnecessary information that stops the plot from developing and becoming alive.

As a little side note, the witch wearing a black pointy head so that everyone knows at first glance she is a witch is a little bit too stereotype, don’t ya think?

But yeah, With 13 is supposed to be a horror book with a queer MC. The only horror I encountered was unintended and I finally gave up 45 % into the story when their tortured hearts beat in unison. (Kindle pos. 1965). I even marked it with a “sorry, I’m done”. Good gracious. There was nothing I enjoyed and I actively disliked the MC. Actually, every single character.

For a horror novel, I thought it was a little too static, and most of the time the witch does nothing, and is almost like a statue.. The atmosphere is indeed eerie and glum, but the characters often chose to do stupid things, the witch’s backstory didn't impress me, and the ending felt rushed.

* Plot: 2.5★
* World building: 3.5★
* Characters: 2.5★
* Enjoyability: 3★

It was the cover that drew me to this. Especially for this time of year, it just adds extra spooky to it.
However, the book didn’t give what I was expecting or wanting.
I was expecting an atmospheric, gothic horror novel, that would keep me up into the wee small of hours of the morning with a hint of being afraid.
Unfortunately, I struggled to actually stay awake reading it and couldn’t really get engrossed in the story as I would have liked,
I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid this one just wasn’t for me,
I would never tell people not to read this, as everyone has different tastes. It just wouldn’t be high on my recommendation list.
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book.