If you love the kind of creepy stories that set you on edge, that have you looking over your shoulder, unsure if the shadow you just saw from the corner of your eye was always there or suddenly appeared, this is for you.

If you thrive on the story that sends chills up your spine and leaves you feeling unsettled and desperate for the mundane and monotonous reality of everyday life, read this now.

Creepy dolls, voices in the shadows, haunted places, and questioning the truth are all connected on this whirlwind of a story.

What I Loved:

A chilling atmosphere in a quintessential small town. Full of history, mystery, and a whole lot of legend, Ravenglass in the perfect setting.

The cover. It’s beautiful. Giving Gothic vibes and with hidden details the more you look at it. I love the colors, the use of shadow, and that it 100% tells you this is a horror novel.

The secondary characters were just developed enough. Birdie’s diner is magical. The Kims are vibrant and fun characters. The diner itself feels like a homey place full of warmth and love. Aunt Martha is a little like Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter. Quirky, with a bit of a third-eye, and that something that draws you in.

There is serious build up. Not just for the climax of the story but in tension between the characters and internal struggle. Evie is dealing with deep, emotional scarring that she has not processed. She has buried so much, so far down in the well of her heart that when faced with these memories, she fractures. At the heart of this story is healing. Healing from your past, from words left unsaid, and micro everyday wounds that pile up until the weight is too much to bear. Evie wades through these dark and despairing feelings of uncertainty, of guilt, and fear of herself. In a lot of ways, Evie is like Alice in Wonderland but the darker side hidden beneath the bright colors and dizzying sense of joy, where madness and dreams manipulate reality and what’s down is up and up is down. I was truly impressed with how everything came together in the crucial moment for Evie and how her choice was not easy, but something she really had to battle her own demons to make.

Relationships are complex and realistic. Evie’s struggle with having an honest conversation with her mother because she feels betrayed and like she can’t trust herself. How easy it is to notice something wrong and ignore it because you’re so focused on your own issues and how that can lead to devastating consequences. How you can live in the same house and grow so far apart.

Desmond-Evie’s love interest and heir to basically all of Ravenglass. On one hand, he’s a stereotypical popular, high school jock. On the other hand, he’s got all sorts of hidden depth. He’s sweet and thoughtful. He has dreams that don’t align with his family’s expectations. He’s passionate and funny. The few moments he and Evie share are special. There’s a refreshing innocence with how their relationship develops. It’s built more on mental than physical attraction. They’re cute. Desmond truly sees Evie and Evie invites Desmond to be himself.

I was so interested in the Korean references to spirits and those souls that are between living and death. I hope there is more exploration of this in the next book.

Evie can’t trust her perception and neither can the reader. The suspension of reality drives this story home. There are many times that we can’t be sure if Evie is dreaming or what she sees is real. It’s twisted, it’s scary, and adds real fear the longer you dwell on Evie’s experiences.

Thoughts:

As an avid horror fan, I wanted a little more creepy, gory, unsettling moments that leave your hair standing on end. There was quite a bit but it felt almost subdued.

So many things were left unanswered at the end of the story. It’s a cliffhanger, but not for the central plot. Without leaving any spoilers, I hoped for some resolution and while there was serious resolution and growth for the main character, the whole point of Evie’s quest was left wide open. Until the next book.

The mean girl. Even her name is cliché. Kimber. The kind of predictable and catty high school drama was my least favorite part of this book.

Holly Horror is a must read book that should be read at night, in the comfort of your own bed, with a warm drink, and the lights on.

Thank you to PRH and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book.

So...when is book two coming out? Because that ending!

If you love spooky and horror reads you are going to love this one. It is a perfect fall read and it holds the line between reality and fantasy. The paranormal aspects of this book were excellent, it was a well fleshed out idea that worked for me.

I especially liked the bits of Alice in Wonderland mixed in, it gave it an extra spooky feeling. There were parts of this book that had me gasping and then trembling, because Corpora hit on some of the biggest hitters of haunted house books. I love a good haunted house book and this one delivered.

I adore Evie, she was such a great character to follow in this novel. She is learning secrets about past disappearances while dealing with her own issues. Again, this book relies on unreliability. So you're never quite sure what is true and what isn't.

I liked the side characters in this novel as well, although I did think one plot point was a little unnecessary, but overall, the plot worked so well for me.

I kept reading because I was unable to stop -- I was addicted to it. I was addicted to the moments where I was like "OH MY GOD" and "WHAT NEXt" I was also going NO NO NO because ugh some parts of the book really got me. So spooky and eerie.

It definitely had Haunting of Hill House vibes, and I just really liked this book and am looking forward to the sequel.

Holly Horror was very different for me. I am not used to horror stories, especially those that take pace with young people. There was quite a bit of intrigue and suspense, I felt the author skimmed over the fine points and did not give the detail and attention needed to grow the story much more. I did like what I read and finished the novel but, again, I wished there were more details to make the story really leave a mark.

I as an ARC reader for this book. Thank you NetGalley.

This was a very unique story that had all the amounts of thriller in it to keep me interested. There were a bit of inconsistencies that had me a bit confused at times and having to reread certain parts of the story. there was a wild cliffhanger in the book and now im waiting for a part 2

Let's first state the obvious: this is a dope cover. Seriously.

Evie Archer's parents are getting divorced. Unable to live on a single parent salary in Los Angeles, they head to Massachusetts to stay rent free in Hobbie House, a family relic that locals refer to as "Horror House".

Though the plot set-up to Holly Horror felt a little cliche, it was my hope that it didn't stay that way. I'm not sure that it delivered so much as lean heavily into tropes that felt like they were a lot more popular a few years ago. At times it felt so egregiously tropey that the reading experience felt like I was watching an episode of a CW show.

Naturally, the second that the family moves in, things start to go off the rails - a diary that mysteriously appears on Evie's bed, whispering voices, bad dreams.

At school, she's connected with the son of a prominent community member and I guess they like each other, though I'm not particularly sure why or how - their interactions went from an introduction to a full-fledged crush. And it facilitated the inclusion of my least favorite part of this book - the mean girl trope.

The thing is, I'm okay with stuff that's been done before, but the secondary characters here were so devoid of personality that the plot sometimes felt like scapegoats for when the author had written herself into a corner.

But, okay, let's bottom line it: it was definitely spooky and perfectly fine to read, though I don't think it's going to be a story that any of us haven't heard before. Good cliffhanger, though!

I was very excited about this book, because I love horror and ghost stories a lot and this one sounded great. I especially love a story about a haunting of the house the protagonist is in and they need to dig into the history to figure out what happened which really set me up to be excited about this one. I was pretty disappointed to find that this book read more like a middle grade than a young adult and didn’t seem to bring anything new to the storyline which has been told before. It wasn’t bad, but I think my disappointment was sharper since it had sounded so good when I had read the description. The characters lacked development and relationships between all of the characters were equally shallow which led to me to not be very invested in the story. I did not think this book was even spooky let alone scary and had really hoped for a little more. Overall I gave this one 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Holly Horror is a really young book. To be clear, I knowingly and lovingly read YA books. YA, to this day, is still one of my favorite genres. Sometimes, though, some YA books skew a bit younger. In this case, Holly Horror actually read a little bit more middle grade than YA to me. I do think this author has written another middle grade novel, so that may be part of it.

That doesn’t make it a bad story. I enjoyed a lot about Holly Horror, including the small town vibes and the creepy house. I think it could’ve been an even better story if some aspects had been a bit more mature (the bullying, the family dynamics) but in the end I did enjoy Holly Horror. I would recommend this for any younger readers looking for a bit of a spooky mystery.

Ah I loved the twisty, mysterious aura this book carried throughout its plot! And I NEED the second book I couldn’t believe we were left on such a jaw dropping cliffhanger. This story was the perfect blend of The Hazel Wood meets House of Hollow and it’s the perfect book to read around Halloween or anytime you want a book that leaves you a bit on edge. So much praise for this book and all that’s to come with this series!

Short and Sweet Review
Evie, her mom, and younger brother, are moving to Ravenglass MA, after her parents divorce. Evie is hoping this will be a fresh start but they’re moving into Hobbie house also known to locals as Horror house. Holly Hobbie is the cousin of Evie’s mom and a couple of decades ago Holly went missing and no one was able to find her. Evie notices that there are still remains of Holly around the house and the more that Evie investigates the more she loses sight of what’s real and what’s not.
When coming to Ravenglass, Evie knew what to expect, she knew about Holly but she didn’t realize how much everyone would want to talk about it. Evie meets Tina a local who’s really into the story of Hobbie house and ends up sucking Evie in to learning about the stories, which in turn makes Evie want to investigate more and she becomes determined to learn what happened to Holly. Evie also connects with another classmate named Desmond and they have a bit of a romance but nothing too serious. When Evie starts messing with Hollys things she begins to act strangely, everyone around her notices the changes but Evie is in denial. We end up learning that Evie is able to see things that others can’t and maybe that’s why she was so susceptible to what’s happening in the house. I did like the mystery of trying to find out what happened to Holly the night she disappeared and we also get some insight from people who grew up with Holly. The writing was great and added to the creepy vibes and was really able to show how the house and the investigation was messing with Evie’s mental state. I didn’t like how absent Evie’s mom and brother were it was like they avoided each other on purpose. I would have liked to see more of Evie’s aunt Martha because she’s a psychic but she’s also able to see things that most can’t and she would have been able to help Evie.
The ending was great and did answer questions about what happened. I really want to see what will happen in the next book especially now that Evie is more willing to accept what she can do. This book was a page turner and I can’t wait until book two is released and see where things go from there!

great spooky twist on a classic, this was a good read

thank you netgalley and to the publisher for the review copy

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Michelle Jabes Corpora for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Holly Horror coming out August 15, 2023. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

After her parents' heartbreaking divorce, Evie Archer hopes that moving to Ravenglass, Massachusetts, is the new start that her family desperately needs. But Evie quickly finds out that their family home—known by locals as the Horror House—carries its own dark past. Holly Hobbie mysteriously disappeared from her bedroom one night.

But traces of Holly are still found in the Horror House and slowly begin to take over Evie's life. A strange shadow follows her everywhere, and Evie starts to lose sight of what's real and what isn't as she immerses herself in the stories about The Lost Girl.

Can Evie figure out what happened the dark night of Holly's disappearance? Or is history doomed to repeat itself in the Horror House?

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I loved this book so much! It had the perfect amount of mystery and horror. I love old, dark house settings. I love characters moving into their creepy family homes. Evie was a fun character and I enjoyed the journey she went on navigating a new home and making new friends. This book reminded me of old 90s horror books from RL Stine and Christopher Pike. It felt nostalgic. I’m definitely excited to read the other books in the series.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys spooky books!

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I genuinely enjoyed Holly Horror. I’m a sucker for haunted houses, a New England setting and YA. It felt like White Smoke meets Locke &Key meets Nancy Drew. I will admit, like other reviewers, that it did read young but it did not stop my interest while reading. The cover is so beautiful and initially piqued my interest. The characters were good and I loved the haunting and the history created for the Hobbie House. This is a great book for horror beginners. I definitely want to know what happens and plan on reading the next book.

I really liked this book ! Highly creepy,gothic atmospheric,passionate characters ! Even tough the end felt a little rushed. Anyways I will look forward for the sequel. Thank you netgalley and penguin books for having my opinion on this one.

Evie Archer moves to Ravenglass with her mother and brother after her parents get divorced. Evie hopes for a fresh start, but the house her family moves into is quite infamous throughout the entire town. Dubbed ‘Horror House’ the new home was the location of the mysterious disappearance of Evie’s relative many years ago. The mystery was never solved. Now Evie starts to experience some odd activity and witnesses strange experiences that have her believing she is the target of a dark entity.
There are some really great characters in this book that really help to bring a creepy story to life. Dr. Rockwell is an awesome and unexpected character I would love to see more of. I had a difficult time
Seeing or believing any chemistry between Evie and Desmond. It was difficult to know if this was a true connection or a result of a character being possessed. As much as I loved their storyline, it was very fast moving. I think that’s also a reason the cliffhanger ending was hard to come to terms with. Hopefully the next book wraps everything up nicely. Overall I liked the storyline and parallels to Alice in Wonderland. It’s definitely scary with some grotesque descriptions, but very thrilling and interesting. I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving a free copy.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. I really enjoyed this, I do agree with other reviewers that it felt a little young, but I don't think that detracts any stars, I think it's an especially great entry into the horror genre for new readers. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

After her parent's divorce and having to leave everything she knew behind to move to Ravenglass, Massachusetts, Evie Archer is ready for a fresh start. But when Evie pulls up to their new home--dubbed by the locals as the Horror House-- Evie quickly realizes that won't be the case. The house carries a dark past, including the mysterious disappearance of one of Evie's family members. Soon Evie begins to see strange shadows and can feel her life getting taken over by something sinister. The more Evie learns about the house and the ghosts attached to it, the harder it gets to distinguish what's real and what isn't. Can Evie uncover the truth about her new home, or is the past doomed to repeat itself?

I love a good haunted house story, so I was excited to pick this up. It felt like hearing something skittering in the dark behind you, but seeing nothing when you turn to look. There was this sense of creeping terror throughout, and some moments did freak me out (I'll always find old Victorian dolls creepy as hell.) I liked learning about the history of Hobbie House and how it tied into Evie's family. I found it interesting how Evie can glean the otherworldly, and I hope we dive into that more going forward. I will say that the plot felt rushed toward the end, and I didn't love how abrupt the ending felt, but I may still be interested enough to pick up the next book.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me access to this arc.

4/5 stars

I was drawn to this book because of the cover. I absolutely love when a book has a beautiful cover and an equally amazing story.

The cliffhanger has me dying, already need book 2

Let me start off by saying that I don’t really know anything about the original Holly Hobbie. I googled it after finishing and found out a little. You don’t need to know any background to read the book.

I will NEVER turn down a haunted house book. I love books with characters moving into old houses with hopes of a fresh start.

I loved Evie immediately. She was a strong, independent young lady. Her sense of style and passion for sewing was a unique aspect. Most stories like this don’t have that element. And it worked perfectly for the story.

I think this would be a good book for young boys and girls going through stressful situations. Evie has a lot of guilt and worry from her parent’s divorce. She has had past experiences where she was made to feel wrong. I think some of the other moments with doctors could be helpful for children/teens to know to seek help. And not give up.

If you enjoy Coraline I think this book would be perfect! There’s even a little mouse hole! Goodreads shows a sequel is in the works and I’d definitely read that one too!

Thank you NetGalley, Michelle Jabes Corpora, and Penguin Teen for the opportunity to read Holly Horror. I have written this review voluntarily.

Even though i’m an adult reader and not the target audience, I generally enjoy YA horror. Something about a coming-of-age story, an already terrifying time, combined with supernatural elements just makes for a super fun read for me. I would say Holly Horror leaned more towards the middle grade side of writing than adult. Which is fine, but affected my enjoyment a bit.

Evie is a new girl in a small town with a secret past, moving into a haunted house, and catches some eyes and ruffles some feathers when she starts at the local high school. After finding the diary of Holly Hobbie, a teenager who went missing in the 80s and a relative of Evie, she begins seeing mysterious shadows and can’t sleep without being plagued by nightmares.

The mystery and horror was satisfying, but I was definitely expecting a creepier read. The book ends on a huge cliffhanger, not my favorite type of ending since it always feels a bit unsatisfying, so it looks like i’ll be picking up the sequel, The Longest Night, when it releases! I think if I this when I was younger, I would’ve been crazy for it. Overall, I recommend to fans of middle grade/YA supernatural mystery horror.

3.5 ⭐️

I received this ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest and voluntary review. I was in no way compensated for this review.


Michelle Jabes Corpora's Holly Horror had a strong premise that had me excited and thrilled to be terrified! This is a book rich with family history and mysteries and the ghosts that are left behind! There were some chilling moments in this one that had me turning the pages as quickly as I could.

The story starts off with Evie moving into an old family house after her parents divorce. Funds are tight, so Evie's aunt allows them to move into the house she inherited from family years ago. It's sat pretty much untouched for years, ever since Evie's young relative went missing decades ago. It's rumored that the house is haunted, they even call it Horror House. But Evie learns that there is more than just one mystery to this house.

Soon the weird things start happening. Strange sounds that can't be explained, the odd dreams that haunt Evie's sleep and then there's the terrifying fact that Evie continues to see a shadowy figure with a skeleton like face behind a bonnet. Hello cover! It was definitely spooky at times! All those creaky sounds that you could practically hear off the page and then the terrifying childlike voice that sings what sounds like a lullaby but really has frightening lyrics! Evie soon begins to think that she is being haunted by Holly!

With a title like Holly Horror, I fully expected this to be a nonstop terror inducing story and yet, I sadly felt like it took a bit too long to get into the spookiness. Perhaps I am expecting too much from my "horror" reads these days. Which I totally think I am. I was expecting the buildup, the history, needing to set the scene so we can be ready to be terrified, yet there were perhaps a few too many normal downtime moments for me.

I found some of the mystery parts puzzling as well, which I guess is to be expected since it is a mystery. But I guess the inclusion of the mystery that came before Holly's "mysterious disappearance"left me befuddled as we only ever get brief mentionings of it. I guess I thought there would be more digging into this first mystery that in turn led to the mystery of Holly's disappearance. I know now that this is meant to be a series, and I kind of saw that before I started but wasn't entirely sure if it would be a continuous series or a standalone series, if that makes sense! This is definitely a continuous series based on that ending!

The characters were pretty likeable all things considered. Evie was your sort of average quiet girl who had a "scary" past. We got hints of a history with Evie and that led her to have "problems" that her mother still worried about in the current day. I went back and forth between a few ideas, but as the ending began to unwind its tangled web, the answer was clear to what Evie's past issues were. It was fitting I'd say once we reached the end and all the dots were connected. Evie was a likeable girl.

There was some budding romance going on as well between the horrifying and contemporary moments. Naturally, Evie has caught the eye of Mr. Popular Football Star, Dominic. What started as a simple desk neighbors in class soon transformed into something more little by little. But not everyone was happy about this new budding relationship between Mr. Football and the Ne Girl. Dominic's ex-girlfriend pretty much makes an enemy out of Evie on day 1 believing that she and Dominic were just on some sort of break. Yeah, she's one of those types. But I have to say, there was a moment where I kind of loved how Evie handled her bullying.

All in all, I can say that I was mostly entertained with the story though I did find the pace a bit staggering. I'm not a contemporary reader by any means, so when we had these mundane moments of ordinary happening in between spooky or mysterious moments I was a bit bored. Sometimes it wouldn't be long before something creepy happened, other times it was a handful of pages. That's not to say there was anything wrong with this book. There wasn't really, it's just me and my aversion to normality. Lol. I guess I was just hoping for something more like 70/30 on the spooky/normal moments happening throughout and what I got was more like 55/45. So not terrible, but not what I was anticipating when I started the book.

Things did end a bit oddly. I say oddly, because it felt like we were getting a nice conclusive ending with a bit of a question or two hanging but then we got a big bombshell of a cliffhanger! It was one that had me taking notice, like holy cow, we really went there! So not only do we still have a bit of a mystery going on in the background concerning the ghost side of things but we now have this whopper of a cliffhanger dangling in our faces! It makes for interesting reading that's for sure!

Holly Horror was a nice foray into the spooky side of YA! While it wasn't the horrorfest I was secretly hoping for--on the upper YA scope of things, I know this isn't adult horror, but I've read some pretty scary YA stories to date--it still made for some spooky reading! If you're looking for some chills and thrills, this is definitely the read for you! I haven't yet decided if I'll be continuing the series, I guess it will depend on what kind of story the next book promises. But I'm definitely keeping my eyes on the horizon for it nonetheless!



Overall Rating 3/5 stars



Holly Horror releases August 15, 2023