Thank you so much to NetGalley and Carole Johnstone for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for The Blackhouse coming out January 3, 2023. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland’s Outer Hebrides in the 1990s. He craves safety and community, but he’s hiding a dark secret. Robert tries to fit in, but is always seen as an outsider. As the legendary and violent Hebridean storms rage around him, he begins to come apart, believing his destiny on the secluded island of Kilmeray cannot be escaped.

All her life, Maggie MacKay has known she was different. When she was five years old, she told the police that a man on Kilmeray—a place she’d never visited—had been murdered. Her claim drew media attention and turned the locals against each other, creating contention that had never been mended.

Nearly twenty years later, Maggie is ready to find out what really went on in her past, and what the islanders are hiding. But when she receives death threats, Maggie is forced to accept how much she is willing to risk to uncover the dark truths of her past.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! This was my first by this author. I love books set on remote islands with small communities. The setting and characters were interesting. I think I enjoyed the first half of the book more. There was a mystery to unravel. I think the second half of the book wasn’t as clear and concise to me. There were definitely some confusing moments with who people were and I’m not quite sure about some of the revelations.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys island mysteries!

This tense and atmospheric novel is Carole Johnstone at her best! The nuance of characters, relationships and dynamics are well crafted and multilayered. The plot and several subplots within it work very well together and enhance the story. A twisty tale you can’t put down!

I read Mirrorland by Carole Johnstone last year and thought I remembered it as genuinely spooky and overall a good thriller so I was looking forward to another book by the same author. However, I should have double checked my review because I had many complaints about it and unfortunately this new book did not deliver either.

This book is set in the Hebridean islands of Scotland and as someone who has become mildly obsessed with all things Great Britain, I was very into it in the beginning. I kept reading in my head with a Scottish accent, channeling Jamie from Outlander as the main male character. I think I enjoyed the setting more than the plot, although I was a bit on the edge of my seat at first. There is a murder mystery with a bit of supernatural activity going on and I thought it was heading in a good place.

But the way things end is very anticlimactic. Johnstone’s writing definitely had the vibes but the plot just didn’t deliver. I was very disappointed in the conclusion of the mystery and then on top of it there is some good ole incest thrown in for who knows what reason. I despise incest, it is a big pet peeve that is hard for me to get over and the way it is used in this book was just so unnecessary. It was truly just gross and disturbing. I don’t want to read about that and in my opinion one of the best parts of the book, the romance, was ruined by this ending.

The ending really ruined it all for me. Although I enjoyed some parts of this book, the overall plot really soured it as a whole. Sadly, I probably won’t reach for this author again.

The Blackhouse takes place in a small village of Hebrides in Scotland . At 5 years old Maggie McKay was brought to this place by her mentally ill mother to make a movie about a possible murder of a man named Robert Reid. Her mother convinced Maggie she was Robert reincarnated. Twenty years later Maggie goes back to Scotland to find out the truth.
This book dealt with mental illness, mental breakdown, reincarnation, loss, guilt, revenge, romance, forgiveness, Norse mythology, Gaelic words
The Blackhouse is a slow burn and some chapters go back to 1990s when Robert was alive to the present.
The characters were alittle hard to follow with who was married to who or related to. The author did a beautiful job of describing the place. The imagery made me feel like I was there.

When Maggie was 5, she said that she was a man named Andrew who had been murdered by drowning. She was adamant that she was Andrew and she recognized the area of Kilmeray where a man did drown. A place she had never seen before.
Maggie is an adult and her life is a wreck. Her mother recently died and she is unsure what to believe about herself. She knows that she believed she was the reincarnated Andrew, but now? Maggie is determined to get to the bottom of that chapter of her life at least. She travels back to Kilmeray to ask questions of the locals. They had said there was no one named Andrew on the island, but everyone is nervous, and Maggie knows they are lying to her.
There was a man who drowned in a storm, like Maggie said when she was five years old. As Maggie starts to dig strange things begin to happen. Some one is following her. Someone is leaving dead blackbirds outside her door. Some one does not want the past brought to light.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner / Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to enjoy this gripping atmospheric thriller.

When Maggie's mother dies, she returns to Scotland and their divine community & scenery. (its really on display here- I cannot read this without a Scottish accent in my head) Quickly you find out, at the pub of all places, that Maggie believed herself possessed by a man named Andrew. Now, the way that it is approached in the book made my whole body tense, because it reads like someone being outed. It feels awkward and uncomfortable. I nearly put it down. The whole plot centers around Maggie trying to find Andrew's killer, the ghostly man that "possessed" her as a child. It walks a rail thin line honestly to me, of being like really Intriguing or enjoyable and being a bit insulting to queer folk in the first chapter and that left me with a bad taste in my mouth for a long time for reading. Like, oh she's just got a ghost pal, that's all fine and well. Lets find his killer. Cool. I'm super into it. He drowned. Name changes. Scottish intrigues. Awesome. There's literally a scene where Maggie has to be rushed from a bar for her own safety after being outed as Andrew. Its so weird and unsettling. It's in the first chapter. "You were once an Andrew" its like, this ain't the vibe fam. The more I talk about it the angrier I'm getting. Yes, its written beautifully. But, so are a lot of things that have aged like milk.

Set in a small village on a remote Scottish island, The Blackhouse is a vivid, dark, atmospheric mystery. As in Mirrorland, Carole Johnstone’s debut thriller, fantasy, myth and reality blend together so well that you don’t know what to believe.

Maggie has returned to the island to understand her past. When she was five, she announced that the villagers had killed a man named Andrew and that she was his reincarnation. She became a child celebrity, managed by her mother, a pseudo psychic who benefitted from her daughter’s success. There are many questions without easy answers. Why are the villagers so suspicious? What are they hiding? Maggie has been mentally ill and hospitalized. How real are her memories? Did her mother influence her for publicity. Did Andrew even exist?

The Blackhouse is beautifully written with a deliberately slow moving plot and flawed characters. The wild weather on Kilmeray is a character itself! 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Scribner and Carole Johnstone for this ARC.

I loved this book so much more than I thought I was going to at the start. The writing was fantastic, and truly brings you to the site of an isolated, Scottish island village, that is consistently battered with storms off the sea.

Maggie McKay repeated one thing over and over again as a child, "I am Andrew McNeil, and I was murdered." This leads her to travel to the Scottish Island of Kilmeray as an adult, where she suspects Andrew McNeil died, in an attempt to uncover the answers she seeks, and the secrets that the islanders are hiding.

I am a sucker for small, creepy child reincarnation stories. I find it both horrifying and fascinating when you hear about children declaring they were someone else in a past life. So that concept hooked me right from the beginning.

The writing was seriously phenomenal. There were no "eye roll" moments in this book. You truly felt you were right there on the island, with the descriptions of the atmosphere. You felt all the feelings that Maggie was feeling. At the end, when everything was revealed and explained, I felt like I was so engrossed in the life and culture on the island, that I understood why everyone did what they did.

- Why Not Five Stars
This is really nitpicky on my part. I just had a tough time getting into it, in the very beginning. The writing is at a much more advanced level than most of the thrillers I end up reading. Overall, it was a really great book.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. I just could not get into the book no matter how hard I tried. Thank you for the opportunity.

I’ll be honest: I wavered on the rating for this book, because it verges on bringing too many things to the table and then trying to make it all work together, like a stew with too many ingredients and you don’t quite know what to make of it at first, or a piece of art that’s rather chaotic and you can’t get a good look at it unless you step away from it an study it for a bit.

That’s what I had to do, in the end. I had to marinate on it a bit because I liked the book, but when I finished it I needed to let it sit for a bit and figure out whether or not it was going to be a 3 or 4 star book.

In spite of the fact this book’s plot is focused on and unreliably narrated by a woman named Maggie, the book itself doesn’t feel character-driven. I think that’s perhaps because a million things about Maggie are alluded to, suggested about, and hinted at, but we never get to know Maggie as a person in the present. All we get are flashes, and it makes her feel like a collage of a character instead of a whole character, which is what I would’ve preferred to see. It would’ve lent dimension to our unreliable narrator and more weight to her motives and intent during the story.

Instead, this book’s main characters are the island of Kilmeray in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides and a dead man named Robert Reid, and Maggie is only one of many supporting characters of various types (none of which are without their secrets) taking second place behind the storm beset, weathered, hardened, unforgiving, grim, isolated, and ancient island of Kilmeray and the mysterious story of what happened to that superstitious man with almost more secrets than he could bear.

This is what kept me wavering in my rating: I felt the book should’ve been driven by and about Maggie. I felt she, as a character, was far more interesting than Johnstone was writing her and deserved better than the collage she was made into. It’s almost as if Maggie were simply an avatar to tell the rest of the story through, and that lack of dimension in a FMC doesn’t feel right to me.

On the other hand, Johnstone sure knows how to write about the unforgiving and harsh Outer Hebrides in all their craggy, green, pastoral majesty. The fierce, howling winds, the ice cold downpours, the soggy and sucking peat bogs, the large waves crashing like thunder against the cliffs, the way the clouds can be so dark and heavy every day it can seem like it’s constantly night, and the beautiful and wild flora that can only grow in such harsh conditions.

And then there’s the haunting, tragic, and awful tale of Robert Reid, which is something I can’t write about without the huge spoilers.

So, in the end, after some marinating and rumination, I decided this one was going to be a four star. Not because of the thriller aspects of the book, but because of the more ghostly, gothic, speculative, and folk horror aspects. I think those aspects of the book are what raise to the surface the best.

Thanks go out to NetGalley and Scribner for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

File Under: Gothic/Psychological Thriller/Crime Thriller/Ghost Story/Speculative Fiction/Folk Horror

This book has a lot that I really liked, but also a fair amount that I disliked. Overall I'm giving this 4 stars, but I think it lands somewhere between 3.5-4 stars.

What I liked: This is a dark, broody, atmospheric read that was so immersive. I could see the island, feel the rain, and get the same goosebumps our main character did when things got creepy. And I really liked the creepiness! Everything was described in such a vivid manner, that I felt like this would be a great movie or tv series. The mystery was also great and I was very pleased with the twists.

What didn't work for me: Okay my main complaint is there are SO many characters. They remark how remote the island is and how few people live there, but OMG I could never keep anyone straight. I strongly regret not taking notes to remember who was who. I think we needed less people, or they needed to be more memorable and/or introduced more slowly. The book basically begins with our main character walking into a bar and getting introduced to the whole village when I am just getting myself oriented in the plot and meeting our main character plus a few side characters. Then throw a pub full of new people at me with a few sentences to tell me who they are, and I'm just not going to remember. I kept returning to these pages to see who all these dang people were!

My other minor complaint is that this book is just slow, and I had a hard time making myself pick it back up. I don't mind a slow burn mystery if it's building up to an exciting finale, which it did somewhat at the end. But some of the middle just felt so bogged down that I struggled getting through it.

But even with those complaints, the plot and the mystery are really great! This was a memorable read that I could not predict, which is always a win for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I tried to like it but at the end I was not enjoying it I think it is not my cup of tea.
Thanks to the editor and Netgalley for the ARC

She did it again!! This book is a slow descent into madness truth and lies that lives up to my love of Mirrorland. I will be reviewing a physical copy of this book on my social media platforms but thank you agin to Scribner for the digital arc

I was so excited about this novel since it takes place in Scotland and had a thriller/mystery element in the past and present.

Maggie MacKay is the main character, who when she was 5 years old believed that she was a reincarnated man, who was murdered. Her mother brought her to the island to track down who the person was and if she was actually this man. The island treated them horrendously and eventually they left.

Now, Maggie is returning to the island to answer the question if she was actually this man or if her mom made her believe in something that was never true. The islanders are again not happy that she is there but eventually their minds change and she becomes part of the island.

The mystery was interesting for Maggie to find out if the man was real, if he was murdered, and who committed the murder.

This story had some interesting aspects to it and every time something new happened it felt suspenseful but the danger died off quickly. It never felt like there were true stakes at hand with the dead crows being left outside and inside her house or the murderer on the loose around the island. It fell short for me on a lot of aspects and I needed it to be pushed a bit more. It was a good read and I enjoyed the characters and setting a whole lot.

The blackhouse was a slow-burning suspenseful mystery. Maggie goes to do a deep dive into her past and discovers that some secrets shouldn't be discovered.

A dark and gritty thriller this one is a slow burn but worth it for the mysterious ending.

I enjoyed Carole Jonstone's 'Mirrorland" so much that I was sure this would be another 5 star for me. Unfortunately, I found this story much to slow and bogged down with descriptions to be another favorite.. I find her writing so beautiful and am again impressed with her ability to plot our a mystery and keep you guessing. My biggest complaint for this story aside from the slow pacing, was the amount of characters. I made it all the way to the end of the story still confused about some characters and their names/purpose. I will keep reading from the author even though this wasn't a huge hit for me, she is an undeniable talent.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Scribner Publishing for gifting me a digital ARC of the sophomore novel by Carole Johnstone - 4.5 creepy stars rounded up!

Maggie MacKay has been told that she is special all her life by her mother, who claimed psychic abilities and saw them in her daughter as well. When they visited a remote coastal village in Scotland when Maggie was very small, Maggie claimed that she was Andrew MacNeil and he had been murdered there. This of course caused an uproar of media attention and caused Maggie to feel differently about herself as well. As an adult, Maggie feels the pull to go back to the village to see what she can find out, but she doesn't get a warm response from the locals. Soon she's scared and questioning everything.

This is a slow book, especially in the beginning, as it alternates chapters between Maggie in the present day and a man named Robert in the past. The atmosphere is creepy and definitely a huge element in this story, along with myths and superstitions. But once I got into it, I found that I couldn't put it down. There's lots to sort out here, with many different locals to keep track of, but it's worth the effort! Also plenty of topics - community, family, mental health, and trying to figure out who you are. Great read!

Thanks to #netgalley and #scribner for the advance copy for review. The opinions expressed are my own.
3..5 rounded up
Set on a small remote island off the coast of Scotland, the story is very evocative of a harsh land, harsh weather, the loneliness and challenges of living in such miserable circumstances. An atmospheric, almost Gothic, vibe is evident throughout the story.

The story is told in 2 timelines - present day which is over half the story, and 25 years in the past - and primarily from the perspective of Maggie, a very unreliable narrator, who is trying to deal with her mental health issues and come to terms with her relationship with her dead mom so she returns to this remote island hoping to resolve some vague, uncomfortable memories. As a child she had a vision of a man murdered in this village - she's back to figure out if that is true. As she meets the residents of the village, she picks up a secret here, a hint of something hidden there, a slip of the tongue - all making the story hard to follow.

There are characters with secrets who tell lies (so WHO is the unreliable narrator???); there's a little unexpected romance; there's an old cottage on a cliff; Maggie is working to overcome her fears as villagers encourage her to leave the past in the past. A lot of suspense is built up as Maggie endures hidden threats and villagers who won't talk to her because she's trying to bring up bad memories.

For me, there were too many characters, villagers, that had tangential connection to the main mystery, but kept popping up. I could not keep track of them or what their relationships were; I found that incredibly annoying. Combine all those characters with Maggie's unreliable narration and I was lost more than once. Also, there are LOTS of Scottish words and names for a bay, a beach, a house, a tool, etc. There is some Norse folklore and more unusual words. That slowed my reading and my visualization of the area - are they on a beach or a valley or a mountain? Couldn't tell by the name. Just like in many fantasy stories, I have a hard time wrapping my head around a collection of letters that is supposedly a word, but I can't pronounce it in my head. Every time I encounter it, I try again to sound it out. Sigh.

Ultimately, it's a suspenseful, interesting book with a really unexpected unreliable narrator. A story of loss, of vast secrets, of discovering that truth may not be all it's cracked up to be, and how parental behavior can have lasting results.

3.5 rounded
Atmosphere atmosphere atmosphere!!!
Chilling, dark and broody and full of suspense. Throughout this book I imagined myself on the rocky shores of the Atlantic in the Outer Hebrides, deep inside a howling downpour, where this story takes place.

In the late 90s, unprompted five year old Maggie Anderson announces she was a man named Andrew MacNeil in a previous life, and that she was murdered on the island of Kilmeray. Her mother takes her to the island with a film crew to try to prove Maggie’s claims and find out the truth. However, the escapade fails.

20 years later, after her mother’s death, breaking up with her fiancé, and her own struggles with mental illness, Maggie returns to Kilmeray to try to find the truth again so she can start her life anew.

On the island she faces a wall of close knit, tight lipped villagers, harsh weather, her own demons, and a stalker. Was Maggie Andrew MacNeil and was he murdered? What are the villagers hiding? Will Maggie ever find her true self and happiness?

I found the start slow and some of the ending long winded, but the interesting tale, small twists here and there, and the ATMOSPHERE made up for it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC. All views are my own.

5 year old Maggie believes she is the reincarnation of Andrew O’Neil. She believes he was murdered and she was born. She returns 20 years later for proof. She gets more than she bargained for. Spooky things keep happening, and Maggie is afraid that her medical condition is partially to blame. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy in exchange for my review.