Before I get into this review, I have to thank NetGalley and Del Rey for the opportunity to read, and review, DAPHNE.

From the minute I read shortly beyond the words, “Majorie stands in the kitchen, thinking”, I knew I had found a new favorite author. That was BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman, and since that time, I have devoured everything that has come out of that extremely talented brain; amassing multiple copies of his books - 99% signed. How much do I love Josh’s writing? I put down GHOUL and THE CAPE to read an advanced copy of DAPHNE. OK, Call me Annie Wilkes - don’t care.

When I finished DAPHNE, the first words I said where, “Holy $hit!”

On the surface, DAPHNE is a typical “urban-legend turned real” story. We’ve read them before, we’ve seen them before - like Freddy Krueger in the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET franchise. An entity that parents don’t think about is killing the kids who do. That’s DAPHNE at it’s basic level. But that’s not what the story is actually about.

It’s about something we’ve all experienced in some way. Anxiety. For some of us, it’s nothing more than a flutter in the gut that evokes our primal “fight or flight”. For some, it can be rehabilitating. The main character, Kit, falls somewhere in between. One of the most poignant, and heartbreaking, parts (and really no spoiler here) was when Kit realized she could be anything she wanted to be, and the stress of that knowledge caused her to call 911 thinking she was going to die. Her anxiety level was so high during that realization, that she literally felt like she was dying. Even more revealing was Josh’s words in the Acknowledgments section. He writes: “Well, while no book of fiction is entirely autobiographical, that scene is nearly verbatim from my life.” Wow - they say write what you know, and that’s just what he did. I have to congratulate Josh on getting past that instance, and while anxiety doesn’t “go away”, or get “cured”, he’s learned to manage it, and channel it into fantastic, cathartic stories like this.

So, while the story is about a “vengeful ghost”, and dealing with anxiety, he also throws in friendships, school/team hierarchies, and a healthy dose of Stockholm syndrome for a little twist.

Knowing Josh, I can see that he poured his whole heart into this story. His love for basketball, his dealings with stress and anxiety, and his fondness for horror (along with a little nod to his vices of smoking and whiskey).

Reading DAPHNE - and typing this name for the sixth time has me looking over my shoulder (and do I smell smoke and whiskey? Oh yeah I do, those are some of my vices as well; I probably shouldn’t have had them before writing this) - was like peeling an onion, and seeing more and more levels to a seemingly “basic”, but outstanding, story.

Josh must have asked the rim, “Will DAPHNE be a hit”, and hit nothing but net when he tossed the ball (a little nod to the superstitious ritual he starts the story off with). And while the entire city of Samhattan will tell you not to think about (or speak about) DAPHNE, I’m going to tell you to do the exact opposite, so that on September 20th, she’ll show up at your house.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey for providing me an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This review may contain mild spoilers, so if you read my bullet-point list of things I disliked, and still wish to read the book, please do not read further at risk of spoiling the story.

I would like to begin by explicitly stating that I usually always strive to find something positive to say about books I didn't enjoy. Surely I could at least say “well, at least it seems like the author had fun writing this” or “I feel like Josh Malerman was passionate about the characters/idea”, right? Sadly, no.

This book contained:
-Bad writing
-Poorly conceived story plots
-Cardboard cutout characters
-A strange subplot that oddly glorifies/justifies police brutality
-Violence that feels more like it came from Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes than a horror novel
-Last minute plot twists on characters we already knew nothing about
-Patronizing the readers
-Terrible story flow
-Plot holes
-An entire concept that falls apart if you even think just a little too hard about it

I’m sorry. I wanted to love this so badly. I wanted to say, “Even if it’s not original, or well written, even if it’s a little goofy, let me enjoy the campiness like I would a bad movie”. I felt utterly insulted by this novel.
I’m hesitant to post this review anywhere else but on NetGalley, at least for the time being. As it stands now I have hope for certain aspects to improve before publication, something to raise the stars on my review by even a little, and I understand that things can change with this being an ARC copy. While I won’t be requesting a purchase for our library’s collection, I will keep an eye out for it once published to determine the quality changes before publishing this review on Goodreads. However, there are major glaring issues now that certainly need to be addressed, even if I don’t want to write a review for a book I didn’t like because I know how hard it is receive negative feedback on a book you felt you worked hard on. Feelings aside, however, the purpose of ARC copies is to get a feel of the novel before publication, requesting reviews/feedback requires honesty, brutal as it may be.

Allow me to begin with the easiest to fix issue, which in my opinion, made the novel nearly unreadable: the writing. Fragmented, confused, with narration and dialogue that had to be read and reread to determine the meaning of the words. The characters didn’t speak like real human beings, and the conversation patterns were confusing at best. Beyond that, the characters really didn’t have any sort of personality or variety to them. It’s as if their names were the only thing Josh Malerman cared about, and if you had swapped the characters around it wouldn’t have changed the story at all. Kit Lamb is only our protagonist because… uh, she has anxiety? And unfortunately, her anxiety being her only character trait aside from her name, and her hobbies being “basketball” and “asking the basketball rim questions”, and occasionally the absolute mood-breaking, story-flow interrupting “writing in Jolly Journal”, she really didn’t feel like an individual person. Unfortunately, this problem exists often in slashers, as the characters are usually made shallow and uninteresting since they’ll just be killed off anyway. Only the killer and the final girl usually stand out, and, well… our killer was a seven-foot-tall woman who wore all denim. So I guess she stands out in a physical sense, but she won’t be an iconic presence remembered for years on by readers. In an attempt to make her “memorable”, Malerman spends far too much time reminding us how tall she is exactly, how much denim she wears, that she paints her face in KISS makeup, that she smells of tobacco and alcohol and grease… that he forgets to make her terrifying. Instead, it’s that and her constant mentions of “inhuman, impossible strength” that he relies on, hoping you look past moments of Looney Tunes-esque violence. The kills are brutal, or so they would be, if descriptions such as “folded up on the stairs like cardboard” or “crumpled up like a ball of paper” weren’t repeatedly used. I could almost see Daphne, the bully of a Saturday morning cartoon, squishing a character into a basketball and dribbling them across the court, slam dunking them into a basketball hoop, stomping off as little birds circle around the head of the victim dizzily as they stretch back out.

The characters have so little presence that even the author himself doesn’t care to name the parents of the characters, even in a third-person POV. No matter whose parents are talking, the faceless, personality-less entities are referred to only as Mom and Dad. Maddeningly, as if even that one consistency was still too much, two of the mothers DO get names, jarringly and out of nowhere. While there is Jan, there’s also Quincy Manska. Yes, she gets first and last name, stated first in her introduction, and then referred to as “Quincy” throughout the rest of the scene, except for a brief interruption mid-narration where she is referred to again as “Quincy Manska”. In the same scene, the father is once again just referred to as Dad in the narration.

The Quincy Manska segment stands out as the scene in which we finally get the backstory of Daphne from a witness, and it’s told via a long description of a candy store. Despite it being a personal memory from decades ago, Quincy remembers everything in picturesque detail, down to the exact shade of color of the storefront, the angle of the lights, and goes into a bit of an odd tangent about children worshipped the store, how parents were concerned about the store, mentioning “subliminal warfare” and how two girls got lost in the candy story that was open, but apparently devoid of customers and even employees, if they hadn’t noticed what was happening there. The actual implication seems to be that this store was evil incarnate, built to trap people inside of it, to lure in victims with brightly colored candy and a beautiful storefront. It’s really never brought up again, except in the context of this very specific memory. So maybe the store was a normal candy store after all. Does not explain how the employees just didn’t seem to exist in the store during this entire scene. We also get a mid-dialogue aside written in parentheses, which while technically not a writing sin, just really bothered me.

Detective McGowan has a personality too, I suppose. That personality being “I’m a badass cop like you see on TV, and police brutality is justified if it helps me catch a sicko”. This includes her punching anyone she thinks is a suspect when she doesn’t get the answer she wants, but it also gives us a scene in which we are told she threatened, forced, and blackmailed four young adults from a chat room into meeting her at a former (abandoned?) sugar factory. It states clearly that she’s well aware that they didn’t do anything illegal to her knowledge but is taking advantage of their fear of going to jail in order to question them. She proceeds to tie them to chairs with rope (three men and a woman, and then just her with her gun), and several times does the narration state that she knows she’ll get in trouble for it, but she’s more concerned about catching the killer. These young adults clearly don’t know what Daphne did, denying the accusations and reacting in horror and denial when they’re shown pictures of the crime scene and dead children from McGowan’s phone (traumatizing them to punish them for bad judgment, I guess). Obviously these four young adults shouldn’t be fans of Daphne, but it’s beyond them not knowing because nobody speaks of Daphne or what she did, lest she return to murder you (or, well, she won’t if you don’t play basketball, I guess, because these teens are okay, and clearly somebody thinks enough about Daphne for her to be an urban legend, but also she’s like a missing piece of people’s memories who forget about her as soon as they’re done talking about her?). The urban legend even seems to imply she was murdered for just liking heavy metal and being tall. Or not joining a basketball team, or something. Nobody knows except the police what Daphne did, so they don’t seem to be fans of her as a murderer, just identifying with a misfit, a loner, who died because she was different.

So of course, when McGowan realizes that they don’t know what Daphne did or who’s responsible for the murders, she lets them go, and – oh, wait, no she doesn’t. She leaves them tied up in the abandoned sugar factory and mocks them, telling them they can summon Daphne to help them. She walks away, and we never hear from them again, oddly. Seemingly, McGowan is just a tough-as-nails cop who will do anything to stop the killer and save the residents of the town she swore to protect, and her methods are… well, not condemned by any means. By the end, the character faces a rather anticlimactic end to her story arc and… doesn’t even pass along the truth of what she learned of Daphne’s resurgence, making it utterly pointless and quickly swept under the rug.

In addition to the brutality, we also get a jarring scene towards the end where, after several deaths have occurred under the watchful eye of the police, one of the girls slip by the cops meant to protect her, looks one in the eyes, and silently thanks him for his hard work. I’m including this quote for reference, said via her thoughts, “thank you for all you’re doing for our city. You’ll catch the killer. We believe in you. We need you. Thank God for you.” (Followed by “and he nods with a little you’re-welcome in return” AS THE COP LETS THE GIRL HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING PAST.)

The cops are not the targets, there’s been no risk to them, several people have died under the watch of said cops, they’re so utterly incompetent that they can’t even recognize the face of the girl they’re supposed to be guarding, and they certainly can’t catch Daphne. Oh, no. It would be spoilers to say what finally ends this novel, but I can say it is not the cops, nor even one of the main characters, but the stupidest possible thing – which had you told me that was the solution, I would’ve thought you were joking about how bad it was, exaggerating it for humor.

A character is given a twist reveal that amounts to nothing in the end, especially given that we saw them for all of a few scenes in the beginning, and didn’t hear from them again until the end, where they… uh, were responsible for… uh, thinking of Daphne?

Actually, there’s no clear explanation as to who was responsible for Daphne’s return, or why the twist character was thrown in at the last minute only to still have no major playing role (the story still could’ve existed without them), or even who Daphne really was in her living life (aside from apparently a heavy-metal loving, denim-wearing, seven foot tall woman who *checks notes* “was pure evil”, so much so she can just… rise from the grave to commit murders if you think her name?).

Actually, on that note, what did they do after Daphne died? “Don’t speak her name” was a mantra whispered to the children, but was there never anyone else in the town with the name Daphne? Did any Daphnes “just passing through” the town get ignored as if they didn’t exist? Did the townspeople form an angry mob to eradicate anyone with the name Daphne who stopped for gas?

Even the twist character makes for a glaring plot hole, because she would’ve only been involved for a short amount of time (a couple of days?) as a child, and was living in town the whole time under a different name (or moved and came back, it’s not clear), but nobody knew it was them? What even happened to the twist character’s family, anyway?

With as many glaring issues as this novel has, I greatly hope the story goes through a major rework prior to publication, as had this been my first Josh Malerman novel, I would likely never read any further works of his. Actually, even with this not being my first, I’m unlikely to pick up another Malerman novel for fear of it being poorly constructed, as though written hurriedly before a deadline based on nothing more than a one-sentence idea: “7 foot Tall Woman Hunts Down High School Basketball Team”.

When I first heard that Josh Malerman was writing a slasher book, I was happily surprised. He's a name in horror that I trust and I know he has the writing skills to make it unique.

This book exceeded my expectations. It seamlessly wraps the terrifying mythos of the titular character with a story about anxiety, basketball, and friendship. The writing will resonate with a lot of people that might suffer from this type of anxiety and, even if you don't like basketball, you'll be drawn in to the analogies as the love of this sport brings our characters together.

Daphne is also a fresh take on an urban legend . Is she a ghost? A demon? Is she justified in her otherworldly actions or is she just evil? We don't know at first but as secrets start to reveal themselves they send chills up and down the spine as the true enormity of the situation come to light. The kill scenes are truly frightening and leave you breathless. I can imagine this being made into a movie, perhaps a new horror franchise even.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and my full video review will be coming as the release date becomes closer. I highly recommend this book.

Now this is how you do small town horror! Daphne takes place in the same world as Goblin but had what Goblin was missing. Higher creep factor, higher stakes, and far creepier stories. Daphne gives off the same abstract feel as Goblin (down to the confusing journal entries that barely even seem logical) but is genuinely terrifying the whole way through without the confusion of Goblin. While a lot of Goblin was just so bizarre and abstract that I could barely make sense of it, I was glad to see that Daphne was not bogged down this way!

Synopsis: the legend of Daphne is commonly known amongst them heir small town, the story of a previous student who had been murdered. This story morphed into an urban legend where Daphne is now a spirit obsessed with revenge and will come after anyone who thinks of her, specifically targeting a team of high school athletes. As the students disappear one by one, the only solution is to find out the truth behind the legend of Daphne.

In the first portion of the book there is a serious feel of unreliable narrator where you’re unsure, is Daphne even real or is it the product of an over reactive mind? Or is Daphne a story the whole town knows about and and intentionally stays quiet about for mysterious reasons? What even is the truth? You find out the answer to some of these questions before the halfway mark and it is deliciously creepy.

Personally I thought the ending was a bit too inconclusive for me because there were too many unanswered questions and more that I wanted to know, but this was such an entertaining read. I hope Josh Malerman continues to build onto this world that he’s created with Goblin and Daphne because it is solid horror world building!

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

A metaphorical horror about anxiety, this follows after A House at the Bottom of a Lake as my favorite Josh Malerman I've read to date. From certain aspect, Daphne can even be interpreted as 'A House at the Bottom of a Lake 2.0', as both novels focus on presenting an abstract human condition into a physical, enigmatic threat (a sunken house and a murderous entity respectively).

The writing is vivid and intense as expected from Malerman, in particular in the appearance of Daphne (and how she shows up), as well as the brutal violence akin to special effects from 80s horror flicks — slightly comedic in its over-the-top quality, but still packs a punch in its aggression. Told through a rotating roster of internal monologues (no formal chapter stop in this one), Daphne is definitely a downer; characters' erratic rambling and spiraled thoughts can make for a VERY anxiety-inducing reading experience (I can only stomach it in snippets). Even though the writing style is effectively and thematically on-point, I would caution picking this up when you're in a slump.

Daphne is not perfect, there are a few side plots that feel inconsequential, and it definitely stumbles when it tries to 'explain' the event in a rational manner, but as an expressionistic exercise in articulating anxiety and effect of trauma at varying scales, this is extremely accomplished. Not a material for a 'fun' time (the only fun aspect is its connection to Josh Malerman's other fictional work), but for sure worth checking out when you're in the mood — especially if you have enjoyed novel like My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones in the past.

This is the first book I have read by Josh Malerman. It was definitely a fun horror read and reminded me quite a bit of another book I recently finished by Stephen Graham Jones called My Heart is a Chainsaw. I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 4 stars because I was not expecting his books to fall into the YA genre... but maybe that is just this book? I'll have to read more of his books to find out.

Thank you Netgalley for my copy of this book.

This was a really interesting take on the slasher sub genre of horror.

Let me start with what I enjoyed about this book.
👻it had some haunting scenes/kills
👻offers something fresh to your traditional slasher story
👻 I like a slasher story coupled with an urban legend, think Candyman. The storyline itself was intriguing
👻 I liked how the author features a character dealing with anxiety. The mental health representation was sprinkled throughout the story effortlessly

Some of the things that didn’t work for me personally:

👻the pacing was a bit slow at times. I felt like just when I was getting pulled in by a really intense scene. I was just as quickly pulled out of that momentum by a character’s diary entry. or internal dialogue
👻there were no chapters. Luckily the book is not that long, but it was not the most enjoyable reading experience, but this is definitely a personal preference. Some readers may not mind the story structure.
👻 I didn’t connect with any of the characters which made it hard for me to feel
fully invested in the story.

Overall it wasn’t the most enjoyable reading experience. but if you enjoy slashers and are looking for a new kind of slasher story this would be worth checking out. As long as you go into it not expecting your regular run of the mill slasher story structure.

Friendships, urban legend, secrets, overcoming life’s challenges.. this book has it all. It was like I was back in high school and I was being seen. Highly recommended.

3.5 stars I’m a big fan of this author, but I have to admit I was a bit skeptical of this one. But Malerman didn’t disappoint…delivering yet another tale both unique and thoroughly creepy.

4.5 rounded up
Great creepy story. It really set me on edge at times. Sometimes it was more of a psychological thriller, other times more horror. Nice balance overall. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I'm so confused 😅

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Besides being far too dumb for this book, I genuinely enjoyed Daphne!

Don't say her name. Don't even think about her. Those are the rules. Daphne is a haunting slasher story following a girl's high school basketball team and the target of Daphne's slayings.

The writing style is weird. It may be hard for some people to get through. At any given time it's hard to discern what is actually happening and what is just in the minds of our characters. I think that's the point. But it did make me feel like I was going a little crazy.

Aside from our main character Kit, the characters are just the backdrop for the story, much like teens in your favorite horror story. There's virtually no character development but it was incredibly eery to get inside their heads moments before... well you know ☠️ There is some really fantastic anxiety and OCD representation too.

I loved how geniunly scary this was. There were nights I was freaked out and I was scared of thinking about Daphne.

Do I think this could have been a novella or short story? Yes. I don't think a novel was nececary to tell this story but I don't think it was the wrong vehicle either. I just got a little bored about 60% in or so.

Fans of Candyman and Nightmare on Elm Street - you're gonna love it!

Daphne by Josh Malerman comes out August 23rd 2022. Thank you #netgalley and Del Rey Publications for the ARC copy.

Don't talk about Daphne, don't picture Daphne, don't THINK about Daphne. Daphne by Josh Malerman follows a small town in Michigan (shout out!) who's basketball team tells a story about Daphne. And people start... dying. That's all you need to know. Pleasantly surprised!!!

Daphne Review!

Thank you to Netgalley and
Random House Publishing Group for this gifted copy of Daphne, in exchange for an honest review! Daphne comes out September 20, 2022!!

After Bird Box I’ve been a big fan of Malerman and have always kept my eye out for this work. This one really stood out to me, being a highschool slasher, so I had to request it. Daphne was a 3.75/5 ⭐️ for me! This one reminded me a lot of the movie It Follows. The movie was just so eerie and it scared me so much when I watched it. There were definitely a few times in the book where my heart was pumping, it was so creepy. About 2/3 of the book is just about basketball and I’m not the biggest fan and don’t know a lot about the sport. For that reason, it dragged a bit for me.

Synopsis: There has been a “ghost story” floating around about a woman named Daphne. She was a loner who died under mysterious circumstances. You aren’t suppose to say her name or even think about her or she will come for you. As soon as the girls basketball team hear of Daphne’s story, they start dying one by one. The girls on the team begin to think that the story of Daphne is real and she is out for revenge.

I unfortunately missed out on reading Birdbox, so I’m not sure how this novel compares to Malerman’s past writing, but wow.

Seventeen-year-old Kit is at the center of this story. Kit deals with anxiety on a daily basis, but when she heard the local legend of Daphne, thoughts of Daphne coming to kill her incade her every moment. Soon, Kit’s teammates are killed one by one.

The closest thing I’ve ever read to this novel was Hex. They both chilled me to the bone despite me not really being a fan of ghost stories. Perhaps it was made even more affecting since my daughter also goes by Kit. Either way, this was a page-turner I’m happy to have picked up.

Thank you to NetGalley, Josh Malerman, and Penguin/Random House for this arc in exchange for a fair and honest review.

3.5 stars

This one hit the spot for me, in the moment (I’m definitely a mood reader). I feel like if I read it at another time it would’ve been a bit on the slow side and I might have DNF it. Daphne was an enjoyable creepy read, but not a must or a favorite.

I wanted to love this book, but it never went there for me.
Things I did love the anxiety representation. I think Malerman always does that well. I loved all the references to town in his book. The fact that the town all were part of this and forgetting was interesting.
Problem is I am not a fan of basketball so that was not interesting for me to read. I didn't feel the characters were real which was hard to connect to them and care when all picked off. I could tell no difference from the teenage pov and the cops pov. It also felt like we never fully went with the legend, the history, and the towns parts. If that had been developed more I would have give this book top ratings.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for providing me with an Advance Reader Copy of Daphne.

Josh Malerman is a talented writer, but for some reason the three novels of his that I have read so far have not satisfied my expectations.

I enjoyed Daphne more than Bird Box, but the pacing was a bit too slow for me until the final act, and I didn't really relate to any of the characters.

Daphne is a slasher/local legend novel that borders on YA territory, but with a few gruesome scenes that probably shouldn't be read by young adults.

This is ultimately a novel about anxiety, mixed with love letter to the game of basketball.

This is not a bad book, but I doubt it will stick with me.

“Will Daphne kill me?”. The urban legend of Daphne starts by mentioning her then thinking of her summons her. As Kits basketball team begins being murdered is it the ghost or something much more sinister. This has to be my favorite since birdbox of his and was a thrilling ride that keeps you guessing till the end. Big thanks to Goodreads and Random House/DelRay for the ARC
4.5/5⭐️

This started off strong. Malerman has a way of writing that keeps a fast pace. But then somehow it quickly slowed for me. I felt there were too many unnecessary details that slowed the pace. I couldn't decide if this was YA or not because of the youthful parts but mixed with the dark parts. I loved the other books by Malerman that I've read but wasn't a fan of this one.

You know how when someone tells you "don't think about a pink elephant," you instantly think about a pink elephant?

Well, for Kit--buzzer beater star of the girl's basketball team--the pink elephant is Daphne. Once someone tells her not to think about Samhattan's unspoken urban legend, she just cannot stop. Only problem is... thinking about Daphne is deadly. And once Daphne is summoned, bloodshed is soon to follow.

A blend of It Follows, Candyman, and Malerman's unique supernatural horror, Daphne is a coming of age story about ghosts, anxiety, trauma, and basketball. Daphne is as heart wrenching as it is frightening, with honesty descriptions of anxiety attacks, intrusive thoughts, and the vast unknowing void of being a child on the precipice of what's to come.

Malerman is doing for small Michigan towns what Stephen King did for Maine, and I'm incredibly excited for how it all evolves.