I really liked this book. It was a nice mash up of mystery and nostalgia and death. The writing was crisp and clear and I don’t think you can go wrong with everything the author has ever written

I would categorize Daphne as sort of a coming-of-age/horror/supernatural. I had a lot of fun reading this book! I highly recommend this for anyone who likes horror.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review

Wow! Wow! Wow! Josh Malerman delivers the 80’s supernatural slasher of your dreams! A ghost story told to a high school basketball team conjures up a vengeful monster in Daphne. Asking its characters and reader to confront anxiety, trauma, the ways our minds protect us, and is it better to hide and secret our traumas, or bring them to the light and confront them. I couldn’t put it down It’s one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read this year and had my pulse pounding! Incredibly well paced, intelligently crafted, this is Malerman’s best since Birdbox! Not to be missed! Daphne will not be forgotten!

Free ARC from Net Galley

Daphne Vann is a ghost in the town of Samhattan of a bare handed female serial killer.

Started very slow and then had a great work up but I thought the ending failed a bit.

Still it was dfifferent

She's just a ghost story, an urban legend. A campfire tale that kids use to scare other kids. She isn't real, she can't be. But Kit Lamb can't stop thinking about (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) her. She can't stop thinking about the one person you aren't supposed think about. Because if you think about (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) her, she comes for you. If you think about her, she kills you.
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First, you'll smell her: cigarettes & motor oil. Then, you'll see her: seven-feet tall in a denim jacket & dark hair. Finally, you'll feel her: ripping, crushing, breaking -- your last sensations before folding into endless dark.
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So (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) whatever (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) you (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) do (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) don't (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) think (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) about (𝘥𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘯𝘦) her.
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Reading DAPHNE by Josh Malerman is like unwrapping a birthday present you didn't even know you wanted, but it's the one you NEEDED. Slim yet depthful, straightforward yet nuanced.
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The horror is violent & brutal. It's an electric cable you run your hand over, feeling the buzzing current below your palm. Every so often you'll hit an exposed wire & get shocked, but you never know when it'll happen. It's unpredictable. This book embraces the slasher genre while also keeping the reader at arm's length.
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Additionally, the meditations on anxiety give the conflict new dimensions; Daphne is anxiety, anxiety is Daphne. Malerman creates these dynamics effortlessly. It's all so natural, it breathes so well. & sometimes that breathing quickens its pace as the tension winds tighter & tighter, but it's always earned & never feels artificial.
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Josh Malerman is one of those writers that gets better & better with each release, & DAPHNE is no expection. The pacing, the horror, the balance between action & introspection, they all work together to create a rhythm that ebbs & flows, ebbs & flows. It's not an easy task, but it's done flawlessly here.
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No matter how hard you try, you won't stop thinking about DAPHNE.
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Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC!

The town of Samhattan is plagued. Shhhh. Quiet your thoughts. Don’t think about it. Push it down. If you think about her, she will come. Decked in denim from head to toe, the smell of booze and cigs trailing behind her. Hulking 7-foot frame, blue painted-over face. Stop thinking about her. Do you smell that? Is she already here? Stop. Whatever you do, 𝘿𝙊𝙉'𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙆 𝘼𝘽𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝘿𝘼𝙋𝙃𝙉𝙀.

Kit is a high school basketball star in the tiny town of Samhattan. Her friends and teammates are riding the high of their big game win, the Summer rolling in, and the prospect of college. Until they start thinking about her. When Natalie tells her team the legend of the town’s hauntress, Daphne, no one thinks anything of it, until they do. The real story of Daphne is unclear: Was she murdered? Was she socially outcast? Was she truly evil? It didn’t matter. No matter which version they replayed in their minds, they’d done it enough. Daphne is back. She’s here, and girls on the basketball team are paying the price. Kit and her teammates are running out of time, how do you stop something like this? Can something like this be stopped? Kit asked the rim, and the rim never lies—the outcome is looking bleak. All they can do is try, before it’s too late.

Daphne is a breath of fresh air. A supernatural slasher where the villain is a denim-clad metal head with a penchant for murdering athetic teens is enough to get me sucked into a novel but, Malerman didn’t rely on this premise alone. Themes of anxiety and the symptoms surrounding those who struggle are realistically portrayed, highlighting how the feeling creeps up on you and swallows you whole. This sentiment reverberates in the form of Daphne, which is a cool as fuck way to personify the feeling. While this aspect elevated Daphne, elements of a slasher are not shied away from. The kills were unsuspected, gruesome, and so fun to visualize: guts n’ gore galore. Because of Daphne’s elusive yet violent nature, she very much gave off a Freddy Kreuger vibe, coming for you in ways others couldn’t see or wrap their heads around.

If you wanna know if it’s worth the read or not: I’m still thinking about her.

Big thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC copy for review!

*I will not be sharing a review of Daphne online to my followers as to not share negative publicity for this novel. Unfortunately, Daphne was not for me and I did not enjoy it. I am a fan of Josh Malerman's previous work but I felt that Daphne - the repetitive use of the name Daphne, the narration, each page felt like it was made up of 95% names, as if the author found a few names name (Daphne, Kit) he was fond of and a few phrases i.e. "panic attackula" and threw them in as many times as possible. I enjoy a coming of age horror story but I felt that this was not very creatively executed - a female Freddy Kruger in Kiss makeup could have been cool but it fell flat for me and, truthfully, felt a bit contrived and try too hard. I will continue to read Mr. Malerman's work and, who knows, maybe Daphne would make a cool teen horror movie one day.

I enjoyed reading this creepy little book, but I think the better audience would be YA readers. I did not think that the story got good until after finally the last two-thirds of the book. Daphne is an urban legend in the town of Samhattan for a reason-as soon as I tell you NOT to think of her -you just cannot stop.. enough said.

Thank you to Net Galley for the chance to read and review.

I love coming-of-age horror -- Summer of Night, It, Saturday Night Ghost Club. Yet all of the coming-of-age horror I love is about a group of boys (well, Bev is a girl, but a horribly written one) living in a time before I was born. The stories give me a sense of nostalgia, but it was for a life I never lived. But Daphne? Daphne is a coming-of-age horror about girls like me. Girls with anxiety, girls with intrusive thoughts and OCD tendencies.

The briefest summary: Daphne is a seven foot woman who stalks the girls on a basketball team. The town has tried to forget her and she comes for you if you think about her, sort of like Freddy Krueger. This means big trouble for curious and anxious girls who can't stop thinking about her.

I love the characters. I love how the setting, Samhattan, has a deep history. The ending is surprising and satisfying. The story sticks with you when you're not reading; it's wholly immersive. The gore was just the right amount, where it's nice and creepy but you can still recommend it to non-horror readers without worrying that they can't handle it.

I recommend Daphne to everyone, but I especially recommend it for those who suffer from anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or OCD. I've never seen these feelings described so eloquently.

A sincere thank you to Netgalley and Del Ray Books for a copy of Daphne in exchange for an honest review.

I am a big fan of Josh Malerman. I was beyond excited when I was approved for this ARC.

Daphne is reminsient of old school horror from the 70s and 80s with a new twist. I really appreciate the focus on female characters, both good and bad, and I felt like Malerman did a good job writing from a teenage girl's perspective.

I did at times find the basketball focus a little distracting, but overall I understand why it was used. Unfortunately for me, it didn't always add to the progression of the story.

Using a ghost story created a very atmospheric setting with a constant foreboding feeling that added an underlying creepiness that I loved.

Daphne is a heart-pounding thriller that is part slasher, part ghost story, and overall a propulsive read that Malerman fans will love.

Daphne, by Josh Malerman, is a bagel breakfast sandwich and a tall glass of water.

Did you think of it?

Skipped breakfast. 7AM. On the court, with the girls. With the boys, too. Sweat glistens across your skin, coating your body in an armor of salt. Invincible. The game is exhausting, but thrilling, too.

Thirsty, but no time to waste. Hungry, but nothing to eat except feeling the relish of the ball in your hands.

High on life, high on the game.

Hours later, a winning shot. Cheers and whistles and that feeling of being on top of the world, carried away. The image of cold water and a stacked bagel flash in your mind again. But your bottle is long empty, just warm drops of liquid circling the rim.

Home now, craving protein, craving bacon. Something you haven’t thought of in years. Given up so long ago.

Don’t think about it.

Full mind but empty fridge.

Push out the door of your apartment and to the cafe across the street. It welcomes you before you enter, the smells of heavy grease, fried onions, and oh yes, salty bacon through the vents.

ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴜᴘ!

Bagel breakfast sandwich. And one tall glass of water, please.

The water arrives and with three gulps it spills down your chin, covers your neck in its cold bile. The bagel next: toasted, seasoning sprinkled atop. You think of how a bagel is just one circle that never ends, always one step away from the beginning yet one step to reach the end.

Mouth drooling, tastebuds peaked.

Crispy bacon pokes out the edges, fresh red tomatoes, buttered bread. A delicately fried egg, orange yoke still somehow intact.

One bite and the pleasure of it all smothers your senses. And as you pull the sandwich away, chewing, chewing, chewing, you pause a minute because something’s ɴᴏᴛ ʀɪɢʜᴛ, something’s ɴᴏᴛ ʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴀᴛ ᴀʟʟ.

And you pull the bacon from your teeth, and ᴛʜᴀᴛ’s ɴᴏᴛ ʙᴀᴄᴏɴ.

It’s denim. A thick slice of blue denim stuck between your lips. The taste of metal.

Did you think of her now?

Josh Malerman is one of my favorite writers and I think it's mostly because of his ability to craft believable and nuanced characters, and to make you really understand what's going on in their heads. DAPHNE is a great example of this, as the writing style does a great job of portraying Kit's anxiety both in the narration and the diary entries. As with his other works, Malerman mixes things up here by blending genres together to create a mix of folk horror, urban legend, psychological thriller, coming of age, slasher, ghost story... It's a lot to absorb, but it's done incredibly well.

This was….. interesting. The writing style seemed a bit crazy and spastic but it definitely worked for the story and Kit’s character. The plot was decently scary. What’s scarier than something you can’t see until it’s coming for you and you can’t kill?

I did like hearing the story from different perspectives. As each girl got picked off one by one, it was definitely entertaining.

Some of the story, resonated a bit. Especially Kit and her anxiety. So it was nice to kind of relate to the main character.


I would recommend this book for a decent scare! The power of the mind!

Don't think about a blue raven.

Bet you just did.

That's the premise of Josh Malerman's new horror novel, DAPHNE, and she's the blue raven. Plus, there's this added knife twist: If you think about Daphne, you die.

Daphne was a real person who once lived in the small town of Samhattan. Her life was shrouded in mystery, her death was shrouded in mystery, and for some reason it's all news to the townspeople, despite that it happened only decades ago. In fact, nobody seems to care about this particular urban legend until teenage girls start dying, one by one.

Then there's high school basketball star, Kit Lamb. Kit, with her step-by-step anxiety in full self-awareness mode. Kit and her friends have this little habit of treating the basketball rim like a magic 8-ball. When she takes a jump shot, a layup, a free-throw, whatever, she often asks a question just before. Ball goes in, it's a "yes," ball misses, "no." Kit's poor little brain with its likely OCD and certainly anxiety diagnoses, can't stop thinking about...guess who? And she has the audacity to ask the rim about it. The answer is like an inciting incident that sets the whole book off on a quick sprint.

I loved this book. I might be biased as I deal quite intimately with anxiety. And while OCD was never mentioned, I identified so much with Kit's intrusive thoughts and the tendency toward overthinking (a nice word for "obsessing") about stuff that you don't necessarily want to think about. Malerman did a supreme job of opening a window into the anxiety-full brain and showing readers what it's like to be us for a hot minute.

Aside from that component, the story itself hit the mark for me. I appreciated the traditional horror story with a fresh twist...a villain/antagonist that didn't feel too familiar, yet, riffed on the urban legend stuff that to me is all "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark" and Bloody Mary in the bathroom at summer camp with friends. I never tire of that shit. Does anyone?

DAPHNE is, on one level, a basic urban legend horror story. But on another level, it's a coming-of-age novel about what to do with your goddamn mind when it's wheeling out of control. With DAPHNE, Malerman carved out a whole demographic and said, "Here, folks. This story is for you." And it's for neurodivergent brains and outsider brains and any brains that struggle to stay on the straight path. Extra credit for the entire world of strong female protagonists. Come for the awesome urban legend and horror story, stay for the characters I swear you'll feel on a deep level.

Bravo, Josh! Do it again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this free ARC. My opinions are absolutely my own.

An intimate look at how fear feels to survive, as you’re surviving it:

This is a slasher, and it’s a ghost story, but it is not a conventional take on either - it’s something wholly it’s own. Longtime horror fans rejoice: Malerman describes this as a love letter to the genre, and through the deep introspection of the characters, and the exploration of anxiety & fear & the desire to fight back, it comes across as exactly that. Daphne is the most intimate look I’ve ever had into the minds of slasher targets as they’re being hunted.

The story itself takes place in a small town, but as the reader, we spend so much time with the girls and their thoughts that I’m more inclined to call that the true setting. It’s a slasher, but there’s no Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees - it’s somehow scarier, cause you can’t physically fight what’s after you. What these girls are up against isn’t even something they can run from. It’s got a paranormal aspect, but don’t go thinking Freddy Krueger; this is far more personal.

I want to add that this is the first slasher-type story I’ve read where I genuinely cared about each of the victims. They’re all likable, they’re all unique, and they all (in the words of Malerman himself) have their own shit, which they’re making a valiant effort to face.

I’ve seen other reviewers say they expected more, and I wonder if that could be derived from expectations based on the genre or author. This is my first from Josh Malerman (it will not be my last), so I can’t be sure. I’ll acknowledge that it isn’t as blood-soaked as some others on the shelf, but not because the violence is lacking: it’s that the focus is placed on the survivors and specifically on what’s happening in their minds. If you want flesh and blood and action and gore and chase scenes and breathless final girls tapping undiscovered wells of strength to continue endless runs down long, dark hallways from tall, masked killers… this one may really hit you. Just keep an open mind.

Sometimes the scariest things come to life inside our thoughts - brought to life by our thoughts. How terrifying would it be if we brought them to life, just by fearing them? It makes sense that Daphne has this focus on thinking that some find frustrating. Thinking is how the horror gets in.

I really do highly recommend this for anyone who likes horror. It sort of even doubles as a coming-of-age, brought to you in the shape of a slasher with a dash of a ghost story and an endearingly uplifting aftertaste. Give it a shot, and drop your expectations. (By the way, if you do enjoy it, read the acknowledgements. Made the story even better.)

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for access to an ARC! I can’t wait to add the physical copy to my library shelves.

Hmmm.... I'm having a hard time rating this one and rating it any higher than 3 stars. I didn't dislike this book, it just was not what I was expecting. Besides that, I was also expecting to be scared and I wasn't. Overall, the book had a good message and a good creep factor, I just felt it fell a little flat for the horror I was expecting.

An evil entity, who just so happens to be a KISS fan, comes and kills teenagers when they think about her? I don’t think anything could be more my type of book. I really enjoyed the combination of a small town ghost story/slasher hybrid. I’m a huge fan of local legend horror in general. Despite being a great concept, I definitely found myself wanting a bit more. It was a slow start but paid off in the end, the gore was well written but I definitely wanted more, I felt a bit of a disconnect with the writing style but the setting was fantastic. I also felt the end was a bit too quick and felt unsatisfied. Amazing premise but didn’t really stick the landing for me. Overall a fun read though that I will recommend to my horror loving friends.

4.5/5 Stars!

This Review is Spoiler Free.

The small town of Samhattan has an unspoken urban legend. Everyone seems to know it before they hear it, but once they hear it, they cannot stop thinking about it. Daphne, the 7 foot tall, denim-clad, KISS makeup-wearing woman will come for you and crush you with your bare hands.

Daphne is many things: A slasher novel, yes, but also an incredible analysis on anxiety, the curse of fixation, and the power of collective thought. Truly chilling, this book is an absolute must read for fans of horror.

If I were to compare Daphne to anything, it would absolutely by Nightmare on Elm Street. The atmosphere, the slow-building tension, the overwhelming dread of feeling powerless in your own mind - it's all there. But Daphne is not simply a rehash of a story already told. Daphne takes the very thing that made Nightmare on Elm Street scary and turns it up to an 11 in an incredibly literary and speculative way.

Josh Malerman nailed it with this one.

*I received an ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions and views in this review are my own.

Daphne.

Don't think about Daphne or she'll come for you. That is the truth Kit Lamb knows and the grim reality of Samhatton, Michigan. A quaint town, a lovely small town like any other, with a terrifying urban legend based on a seven-foot-tall woman named Daphne. But this is a horror novel and of course, Daphne is real.

And she's angry.

And she's coming.

Let me preface with personal details, for I feel it's only fair after Josh Malerman pours out so much of himself upon the page for the readers: I suffer from chronic anxiety, which Malerman himself discusses in the afterword with the reveal of a particularly harrowing scene in the novel happened to him. It is impossible to look at Kit and her struggles and not read the difficulties in a killer who comes when you think about them as metaphorical to some capacity.

Daphne is a brutally efficient killer and I found myself captivated by the passing sequences. When Daphne shows up, she is no waifish Yurei to slip from a television and leave a twisted corpse in her wake. She is a brutal, towering monster who seizes her prey and makes nothing but anarchy of them. And as a perfect metaphor for anxiety, you cannot just stop thinking of her. You cannot simply banish it from your mind so easily when the thoughts are on you. How do you stop something like this?

Can you? That is the question Malerman is trying to answer while spinning a brilliant horror yarn throughout. Daphne is all at once a slasher novel and so much more. You have a cast, many of who exist to be slaughtered by Daphne. You have what the film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon would term an Ahab in an investigating detective who functions as the secondary protagonist. You have Kit, whose relationship with basketball is that of a parishioner to an oracle, asking questions of the omniscient rim that are answered by her landing baskets.

The steady reveal of Daphne in life, her deeds and the reasons for the urban legend left me feeling genuine horror. Other writers are more visceral, more brutal and perhaps more poetic, but there are none who can rival Malerman for deftness. Each of his novels is a trip through the surreal and the emotional, his style unmistakable. So to is it with Daphne, where the narration's delicate tones both exacerbate and belie the brutality unfolding.

And I stress again, Daphne is terrifying. There is no saving the victim when she closes in. She does not speak, for her actions speak for her. You cannot plead, you cannot run. One memorable sequence is her stalking a girl in her own home, where her mother cannot see Daphne and is of no help, reminiscent of scenes from the film It Follows and its invisible monster.

Malerman refers to this novel not as a love letter to anxiety but as a correspondence. It shows. The wrathful specter is summoned by thoughts about her, however inadvertent. We're left on the edges of our seats all the while.

Terrific novel.

Daphne creeps into the dark corners of your mind like a mysteriously chilling fog. The tendrils steadily increasing as the anxiety and terror builds. Being told to not think about Daphne just makes you think about her more. As she materializes and takes form, becoming an intense horror reality to the Samhatten girls basketball team. No one on the team seems safe from Daphne.

This slasher novel is gripping from the get-go. It's a slam dunk in terms of being an intense read that has you gripping the book, holding on for dear life as we reach the explosive ending. The beauty of reading a Josh Malerman book, is that they are all so fantastically different. The chills come from all different directions. Daphne was a thrilling read that I was unable to put down and would highly recommend it!