I felt mostly confused reading this. I think I wasn't the right audience for this book. The art talk was over my head. I felt like I was zoning out and would have to reread a chapter over because I didn't know what was going on.

This is a tough one to review.

What starts out as an abduction story slowly descends into a cosmic Cronenberg-esque horror. Parts of the story were really engaging while others were just bizarre and confusing. Overall a good read, but won't be for everyone.

3.5/5

This was unfortunately a DNF for me at 16%. I just simply could not get into the story. I found it boring. It didn't grip me and pull me in like I wanted it to. I may return later. If so, I will most certainly update.

Small town horror is one of my favorite settings/genres, but I simply couldn't get into the slow drawl of this introduction. It was odd pacing that felt slow, but also like I should already know the town before I actually do as a reader. I would love to give it another chance someday, though.

I had a very difficult time gaining interest in this one, and unfortunately decided to shelve it around the 30% mark. I found it difficult to maintain the suspension of disbelief with the kidnapping sequence, if the author had chosen to bribe Lark with some otherworldly promise, I definitely could have pushed through.

I found myself reading and re-reading the same passages as the author would have Lark go on these tangent monologues about art that had little or nothing to do with the plot. For an art fanatic it may be great, but for me, I found it difficult to keep the plot paced at an interesting interval.

If you like bizarre and unpredictable, then this book is for you. This is the second book I have read by this author, so far, I have found their books to be unique, weird and leaves me having such mixed feelings at the end. This book had a little bit of everything from supernatural, horror, ghost, and magical aspects. I did find parts of the writing, mostly the very detailed descriptions, at times to be a bit jumbled and confusing. This book is not something I would not normally read and while I did like a number of particular details from this book, others I did not. Overall, I am rating these 3 stars and I would recommend this book to individuals who enjoy books that are a wild ride, horror filled and completely unusual.
Trigger warnings: graphic content, blood, harm to a child, harm to animals.
I received this advanced ebook, via Netgalley. This review is my own honest opinion.

<b>DNF @ 15%</b>

I gave this the traditional 15% trial and I just couldn't get into it. Marino clearly has a skill for writing horror. The atmosphere of this book was *chef's kiss*. I was immediately sucked into the world. He captures small-town life with stunning clarity: the monotony, the characters, the way things don't change, the gossip. It's beautiful. The characters all felt realistic and natural.

The problem for me is the pace and the writing style. There is <i>a lot</i> of time spent on art and technique, neither of which I'm particularly interested in. Since these parts were so lengthy and they lost me, I found myself skimming large passages. It seems like this will be a heavy theme of this book, and for me personally, my eyes just glaze over, no matter how hard I try.

The second sticking point for me was the stream-of-consciousness writing style that made it really hard for me to follow. I had to go back and re-read sections because I wasn't sure what was happening or if I'd missed something. If this is a style you like, I highly recommend this book. As I said, Marino is quite talented in what he does. However, this one just isn't for me.

It Rides A Pale Horse might have been one of the most shocking horror book I’ve read in a long time. It had it’s moment of spooky but on the whole this book packed for more of a shocking punch than scary. It follows Lark as he attempts to save his sister from a mysterious group. To do this he must build a sculpture based on the writings of a madman, but that sculpture seems to be calling things and changing the way the world works around him.

My biggest compliment and biggest warning on this book is that it’s very heavy on the art jargon. The whole book hinges on the idea of magic in art, obsession, and creative drive. Lark is a sculptor and his sister Betsy is a painter (which mysterious, supernatural, and dangerous talents). I come from a background in art, it’s what I went to school for, so I naturally jived with this. But a lot of readers may not. If you can enjoy that or even just read past it for about a quarter of the book though this becomes a much more accessible read.

The only two real complaints I have about this book were one more personal trigger and the writing. The writing was perfectly serviceable on the whole till about half way through, and began to have moments of strangeness. I see how the author was attempting to convey a change in the physics of the world (down to how the characters minds were working) but it didn’t quite click or work for me, instead throwing me out to stare at the page in confusion. Those moments were rare though.

As for the personal trigger was one particular ‘event’ with a woman and her daughters and a cow - I nearly stopped the book there. The outcome and how the event happened were fine. However, the author went out of his way to enforce the ‘tragedy’ of it. Lark *******dwelled******* on his memories of this woman’s history and leading up to her children. To the point at which I began to feel like he was manipulating us into having an emotional reaction. We were told these things but ultimately it mattered absolutely not at all to the arc of the story. Lark and team got what they needed, but we were *****told***** over and over why we should be sad about it - as if it wasn’t already sad enough. That genuinely bothered me.

Overall I did actually enjoy this a lot though. It was shocking, intricate, and unsettling. Go into this looking for some wildly shocking moments, some absolutely amazing ideas of art and the supernatural and you will probably have a blast.

4 out of 5 creepy jars.

(it did need more of the horse though, I’m always down for more horses)
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy!

Andy Marino is no stranger to weird horror. After the huge splash of The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess, Marino roars back on the scene with It Rides a Pale Horse, centering on the Larkin siblings. Peter “Lark” Larkin is a hero to Wofford Falls, the brilliant artist who left town to become famous and returned to settle down. Lark is outgoing, friendly, and likable, unlike his eccentric sister Betsy, who prefers to keep her own counsel and company.

Lark is contracted to deliver a piece of artwork to a wealthy buyer, only to learn Betsy has been abducted and Lark must secure her safety. Given a book, Lark is instructed to follow what is written in its pages. Unfortunately, the book is not the most normal of manuscripts and it is about to plunge Lark into a grim nightmare.

Marino’s work is dark and fascinating. His writing style is thick and rewarding, with Marino detailing emotion and leading the reader down a winding path of twists and turns. Understanding cosmic horror like few others, Marino warps the world his characters live in, with ways neither Lark nor the reader initially understands.

Until they read onward.

Lark is a likable character but is forced to examine the effect of his actions on his sister. Discovering plots centuries old, he must decide if overcoming the mystery is worth his sanity or even the world itself. Marino forces the reader to examine precisely what is reality within the pages and filters it through the mind of a narrator who has his own difficulties in the comprehension of events.

Each character is as well-formed as any of Lark’s own sculptures, with terrifying and brutal villains, mysterious allies and Lark himself. Though Marino’s attempts at levity can sometimes detract from the terror, It Rides a Pale Horse is colorful and vibrant, painting unique pictures as the reader rides the pale horse of death through a journey of madness.

I loved the cover of this book. The imagery in this book is well-written and gave me creepy vibes. A slow-burn, gory horror book.

Welp, I probably should’ve known better, BUT in my defense I saw ‘sculpture’s sister kidnapped so he’s forced to make something sinister’ paired with ‘art magic’ and couldn’t help myself. The premise was very neat—well, most of it. I loved the idea of art magic. And the sibling relationship, fascinating. And the kidnapping, intriguing.

But.

From a technical standpoint, the writing was bizarre—some fascinating details and super cool turns of phrases, but on the whole it was very convoluted? Lots of run-on sentences that meandered around until you forgot what it was talking about. Lots of very long, confusing paragraphs. I think about a third of the prose could’ve been cut for a much slicker, more effective story. Concurrently, the pace was extremely slow, and only sped up about a fourth from the end.

Story-wise, eeeef. Super intrigued until about 3/4s of the way through when it um took a very dark turn. I don’t get squeamish, but the body horror is extreme—it’s just kind of wallowed in unnecessarily. The villain’s goal was truly horrific and without a good point/explanation. It’s a highly disturbing book, which I should’ve expected given the genre, but I still held out hope that it’d be more in the vein of Stephen King/The Haunting of Hill House/Edgar Allan Poe.

Alas.

Still, super grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

-A

This book. Wow.

The basic plot goes something like this: Peter Larkin - "Lark" to his friends - lives a quietly productive life in the small town of Wofford Falls. He's an artist, a sculptor who creates things out of found materials, and he's good at it. Like, really good at it. He makes a nice little living for himself, thanks to his skill and his agent, Asha, who manages to get his works sold to wealthy art collectors all over the world. Lark lived it up in city once, before he had to come back home to Wofford Falls to care for his sister, Betsy, who is... not exactly mentally stable.

Betsy Larkin is an artist herself, a painter. The thing is, her paintings mess with people's minds. They can give people lovely happy thoughts of nostalgia. They can give people nightmares. They can put people in a trance. They can make people do her bidding. Betsy can't be left on her own. She can't be allowed to paint original pieces. It's Lark's job to keep her healthy, both physically and mentally, and to keep her focused on an artistic task that's a little less dangerous: forgeries.

Lark and Betsy rub along just fine in this life for more than a decade, until the day when one of Lark's customers turns out to be more than he bargained for. While Lark is delivering a sculpture, a team of trained men is breaking into his house and kidnapping Betsy. Lark is presented with an ancient book and told to create what the book describes, or else Betsy will never come home.

And this is where the story really begins. Lark, with a couple of friends to help, must construct sculptures which are strange and horrific. Meanwhile, Betsy has been installed in an underground bunker and given all the space and paints she wants... and set free to create whatever her mind comes up with. Between the two siblings and their art projects, the world begins to change. Horrible things start to happen, things which Lark's newest employers - the Belmonts - are counting on.

This is occult horror taken in a wholly unique direction. This is a story which worms its way under your skin. Every chapter brings some new sense of unease or trepidation into the reader's mind. Think Danielewski's House of Leaves, except this story actually makes some kind of bizarre sense.

I loved this book. Intelligent writing, relatable characters, and a true sense of creeping terror mixed with a moral quandary, not to mention a whole series of weird, bloody, fever-dream images that implant themselves right behind your eyeballs and linger, all combine into a tale which manages to be both quiet and horrific at once. With a completely unsatisfying ending, but one which works perfectly for this particular story, you'll find yourself closing the book and staring out the nearest window, wondering what exactly has just been unleashed on the world, and how long you have until it makes its way to your town.

It's difficult to describe a book like It Rides a Pale Horse. It's Lovecraft for the modern era, but it's also a specific brand of cosmic/existential horror that feels entirely unique. It's viscerally and intellectually terrifying, but also, somehow, humorous and full of heart.

Peter ("Lark") and Betsy Larkin are siblings living in a small town in upstate New York. They're both artists -- Lark of the famous variety, Betsy of the "eccentric recluse" variety. While delivering one of his sculptures to a wealthy client, Lark learns that Betsy has been kidnapped. The only way to get her back, her captors tell him, is by completing a sculpture detailed in a book made of human skin. It's no ordinary sculpture, though; it's one that will put Lark's very humanity to the test as he works to complete it -- and its completion could have disastrous consequences for the Larkin siblings, for their town, and for the world.

It Rides a Pale Horse is an esoteric, violent, gory novel that won't be for everyone. Several gruesome things happen in its pages, which Andy Marino writes about unflinchingly, vividly, and also, weirdly, kind of wistfully. The imagery in this book is seriously some of the most disturbing and unsettling I've ever read. So be warned: If you're squeamish or sensitive in any way, you might want to give this one a pass.

If you can stomach it, though, this book has some important things to say about the power of art, greed and obsession, wealth and privilege, and the lengths we will go for those we love -- and it says them in an entirely creative way. Despite the otherworldly situations they are thrust into, Marino's characters feel incredibly human and sympathetic. This book is, more than anything, heartbreaking.

Marino's imagination must be a darkly fascinating, frightening place -- and I, for one, am eager to see what comes out of it next.

Is Literary Horror a recognized sub-genre? Because that’s how I would categorize It Rides a Pale Horse by Andy Marino. My only experience with horror writing was reading The Shining as a teen (and I now have teen daughters), but the description of this book intrigued me. And I’m so glad I decided to try something different. I won’t go into too much detail so I don’t spoil anything.

The story centers around artist siblings Lark and Betsy, and what happens when they are swept up into the world of extremely rich art collectors. The anticipation builds slowly to allow time for character development, while dropping hints about their past. As the plot unfolds in the present, the reader is treated to flashbacks that provide further depth and understanding of the artists and their relationship.

The mood throughout is dark, but thankfully has moments of levity. The action is broken up by large chapters devoted to Rayanne, a spirit who resides in the collectors’ compound. Rayanne, a country music one-hit-wonder, is plucky with a wry sense of humor. It is through her memories and observations that the reader begins to understand the full horror of what Lark and Betsy could face.

The book definitely has some gruesome moments, but the way it was described provided enough distance that it didn’t feel overwhelming. Quite a bit is shared as backstory by Rayanne, and her narrating style is light despite the nasty tales she tells. And I much prefer the supernatural horror that infuses this story over the more “real world” settings of many scary books and movies.

I found It Rides a Pale Horse to be incredibly engaging, although with its literary style (i.e. big words) and frequent references to the art world, it won’t appeal to every casual horror fan. But for readers like me, who enjoy literary fiction and fantasy, and want to test out their tolerance for horror, this book just might be the perfect fit.

Thank you to Redhook Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This was totally outside my usual reading genre, but I was really into it. It's a gruesome, horrifying mind-binder of a novel that will stick with me for quite some time.

Peter Larkin and his sister are both artists from a small town. However, when his sister gets kidnapped, her captors ask him to follow a mysterious book’s instructions in exchange for her life.

As the requests become increasingly bizarre, Peter begins to question he identity of the book’s author as well as the captor’s true motives.

It Rides a Pale Horse by Andy Marino by is a wonderfully surreal and grotesque fever dream. I mean it when I say that this book goes off-the-walls bonkers toward the end.

However, along the way, the plot itself lacks focus. It gets bogged down with irrelevant stuff that detracts away from any sense of urgency. For instance, there’s lot of idle chatter between characters or internal monologue that does nothing to progress the plot itself--like the story starts off with a several page long discussion about vaping.

Honestly, I feel like this book would benefited from being edited down and maybe it would have worked better for me as a novella instead.

This is a surreal and bizarre book...and I mean that in a good way.

I'd looked at reviews before reading this and saw that some folks were confused by the book - I get that. It took a few chapters for this one to settle into my psyche. But once it did, it stayed.

There's a certain grotesque beauty to this one and, as I write this, I think that the emphasis really needs to be on the grotesque. Go in eyes wide open - this one gets gruesome.

However, it's also compelling. I liked our main character and eventually liked his sister as well. I definitely wanted to know how it would all end.

Not an easy read, but a worthwhile one.

*ARC via Publisher

If you’re a big art fan, then this book is for you. If you’re not, or if you aren’t at least fairly familiar with it, then it may not be as enjoyable, which was the case for me, I really enjoyed the non-art parts, but when the author starts going into art detail, he loses me. Basically, I liked half of the book

You definitely need to be a reader who can think outside the box and let your imagination follow to enjoy this book. The epitome of a harsh and gruesome horror story, it's one crazy, wild ride. The plot is creative and unusual yet it stems from basic human emotions and desires. It always comes back to human beings and their desire to have more things, difficult to attain things or something that belongs to someone else. Vanity, pride and a feeling of being invincible lead the villains in this story to pursue things better left alone.

Peter and Betsy Larkin are siblings - - they are also both artists. Even though they are both quite talented, Betsy's artistic ability also seems to contain mystical properties. When Betsy is kidnapped and Peter is asked to do the unthinkable in order to save her, everything begins to change. With each step in Peter's creative process, the people and town he's known for years change in ways he can't understand. But that's only the beginning. Things will get much worse. Buckle up for a story that you may not always completely understand and that is chock full of gory moments. It's definitely not for the faint of heart but I was unable to stop reading it. It's one of those books where you just have to know how it ends.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!~

It Rides a Pale Horse by Andy Marino, primarily follows our main character, Peter "Lark" Larkin. Lark is a rising sculptor that moved back home from the big city to make sure his sister was okay after an incident that happens in the small town. His sister, Betsy, is an incredibly talented painter that makes works that air on the side of supernatural. Because of her talents, Lark has decided that it's safer for her to paint forgeries, but that doesn't stop a small part of her true talents from leaking through. When Lark goes to deliver one of his newest works to the purchaser, he's thrown into a task he never would have imagined being forced to do. Little does he know what's to come for him and the town of Wofford Falls.

This was a solid 3.5 for me. The concept feels very original and the writing was beautiful, but i feel like there's a sort of barrier to entry because of the writing. Marino uses very flowery language, a decent portion of these words I hadn't read, nor used, since my years in school. It fits the world he creates well, but having to grab a dictionary can cause a bit of a slowdown for someone with a more limited vocabulary. I am very thankful that sexual assault was not in this book at all. One of my biggest fears when reading a horror novel written by a man is they're going to use it as a plot device or for "shock value". Nonetheless, this book builds from a seemingly weird and gross task to absolutely horrifying things happening in the blink of the eye. The scene he paints at the farm honestly made me set my book down and think for a few hours.

My biggest concern with this was the museum interludes. I must preface, the first two museum interludes. The first 75% of the book is split between Larks perspective and the ghost that lives in the "museum". The first two were super long and boy could that ghost ramble on. I felt like it pulled me out of it every time i was starting to get invested in what was happening with Lark and Krupp. I will say, our little ghosty becomes a very solid character by the third interlude, and I ended up enjoying her presence a lot.

We learn about our two antagonists and on the horrible things they've done through the ghost's eyes. Marino is fantastic at painting a mental image, which for some of these scenes, is unfortunate. Some gnarly things happen to these artists they've collected and we get to be front and center for the rated R show.

I think this is a solid horror novel, with a great concept, and a slow start. I do think it's worth the wait though. I don't think this is as confusing as some of the people in other reviews have said, mostly because a lot of them didn't get far enough in to understand all the working of the town (which is totally fair). And honestly, it's very possible you won't understand what happened by the end either. At the end of the day, I would pick up another book by Andy Marino for sure.