Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: October 3, 2023

Alfie is a widower trying to raise his twin daughters amid the loss and grief that his wife Pippa has left behind.
They are each struggling to cope with the loss when the girls come to him one night claiming, that there is a man in their room. When Alfie doesn't find anything he they are assumes they are having nightmares. But when the girls begin obsessing about an imaginary friend named Black Mambo he enlists the help of Julia his deceased wife's twin who is also a psychiatrist. Are they acting out for attention?
Or is something more sinister going on in Hart House?

The Hart House's sinister past and has reared its horrors on Julia and Pippa when they also had an imaginary friend.
A lot is evolving in the book with a creepy, atmospheric tale, I lost my thoughts a few times maybe reading too much into it or misunderstanding the premise of it but it delivered.

Looking back at some of the creepiest books I have read they are geared around twins. This one is no exception between their telepathy, giggles and their incredible visions of a dark presence tangled with their grief.
Alfie recently lost his wife, Pippa, and raising twin daughters, Sylvie and Cassia. His daughters are found standing at the foot of his bed in the middle of the night reporting a man is in their room. When the evidence is not there, he discounts it as psychological and missing their mom. He begins to have nightmares also and is afraid his dark secrets are haunting him. When he ask Pippa's twin sister Julia, a psychiatrist to come and observe the girls speaking to an imaginary friend, setting the table for him and speaking of what he is going to do them he needs some clarity of a dangerous presence.

The book unfolds through the dual perspectives of a grieving husband and Julia, the twin sister of his deceased wife. Friend masterfully crafts the unsettling presence of an
"imaginary friend" that haunts the story. This is well written such that readers will wonder alongside Alfie, the father, whether it Is imaginary or perhaps something more. Ihe portrayal of the twins is also particularly well-executed.
While the story effectively builds suspense and immerses the reader in its eerie atmosphere, it does suffer from occasional repetitiveness and generally slower pacing.
Numerous concepts are introduced, hinting at deeper meanings, only to be left unresolved, leaving readers questioning their significance.

A creepy gothic thriller perfect for spooky season!
This debut by William Friend follows recent widower and young dad Alfie as he navigates raising his twin girls after the loss of their mom. Soon the girls become obsessed with their new imaginary friend “Black Mamba”. Alfie and his sister-in-law Julia work to help the girls through their grief as well as their own, but it soon becomes clear that this imaginary friend may be more than just a coping mechanism…with more sinister intent than anyone could’ve imagined.
This left me with still so many questions in the end, which normally frustrates me as a reader, but in this case, I think that was an intentional move by William Friend. Hours later, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the ending and can’t get it out of my mind. Chilling and suspenseful.
Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This is out 10/3!

Thank you Netgalley and Poised Pen Press for a copy of this book.

Pub Date- October 3, 2023

Alfie recently lost his partner to an accident and is left to raise their twin girls. On top of dealing with the loss, the girls are coming into his room at night saying there is a man in their room. I wasn’t sure which way this book was going to go. You have the creepy twins, an imaginary friend who takes difficult forms and maybe a paranormal presence. There was different concepts introduced in the story but it would never be resolved or turned into something more. It definitely had strong points but it left me wanting more and with more questions. I believe this story shows how grief can be shown in different ways.

This book started out with a lot of promise… cults, creepy twin element, black mamba dude… It’s a slow burn, which is fine. It just felt like I never really got the satisfying ending that I was looking for. Something felt like it was missing for me.

2 stars - had potential but ultimately flopped.

A mysterious death in the family, creepy twin girls, an imaginary friend, and a father trying to keep it together while possibly having strange visions himself. Sounds amazing right? well unfortunately, it fell flat for me and here's why.

The first 40% of the book were slow, like really slow. It did pick up a little midway and I was hopeful but then again died off and ending lost me too. Don't get me wrong, I do love a slow burn but the endings got to deliver and wow me, this did not do that. Once I was done, it felt really unsatisfying because you're left with more questions than answers. There were multiple sub plots that were glazed over (original owners, Pippas family, Pippa and Juliaa childhood), I feel like if maybe they were explored more I would have enjoyed the book more.

You may enjoy this book if you like: ambiguous plots and endings, domestic horror, creepy twins, imaginary friends, dealing with grief and loss.

Thanks to netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for sharing a digital copy for me to read and review, as always, opinions are my own 🤘🏻💀🤘🏻

Thank you NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and William Friend for the advanced copy of Let Him In in exchange for my honest review.

I will keep this short and sweet and say this one just wasn't for me. I never really got drawn into the story, and it was written in a way that I often found myself quite confused. I also found the ending left something to be desired for me.

Let Him In - William Friend
🌟🌟🌟🌟

Alfie is a newly widowed father trying his best to raise twin daughters. One night they come to his bedroom saying there’s a man in their bedroom. Alfie finds no man in their bedroom and assumes they just had a nightmare.

Alfie’s wife, Pippa, died unexpectedly. Leaving him to raise the girls on his own. One day the girls tell Alfie they have an imaginary friend named Black Mamba who presents himself as a snake. At first it seems like a harmless way for the girls to deal with their grief, then it becomes more dangerous. The girls whisper to Black Mamba, talk about leaving with him forever, make a place for him at the dinner table, and start calling him Daddy.

Alfie asks Pippa’s sister (and psychologist) Julia to help. Alfie is having a hard time deciding if Black Mamba is doing more harm than good for the girls. He also feels he is being watched at night and has even seen a man in his bedroom. When Julia decides it’s time for the girls to let go of Black Mamba, they ask him to leave, and one of the girls ends up hurt.

Is Black Mamba really a threat? Can Alfie confront his and his wife’s dark past to keep his family safe?

This was a wild ride. I will admit that this book was 3 stars until the last 5ish chapters. The last few lines of the book really sealed the deal for me.

Watching everything unravel was a train wreck you couldn’t look away from. Every time you thought Alfie had it mostly together, he’s hit with another crushing blow. Great for the story, bad for Alfie. 🤣 There were times it really had me flip-flopping between feeling Black Mamba was real and feeling the girls were just making him up. The story was heart-wrenching and tricked you into being hopeful (in the best way).

I was hoping for more of the backstory behind what was going on. It felt like a lot of the backstory was packed into those last few chapters and left me wanting more, but I obviously still enjoyed it!

I would suggest this to anyone looking for a psychological thriller with a paranormal element. 👻🐍🫣

3.5 stars, really.

I really wanted to love this book. I really, really did. But as much creepy potential as this book had (cults!, weirdly suspicious deaths!, creepy twins!) I just don’t feel like the book reached its full potential. Although, I have to say, it kept me reading until the very end, wondering how everything was going to work out and what was truly going on.

The book follows the story Alfie, who recently lost his wife Pippa to a strange accident, and is left alone to raise their twins, Sylvia and Cassia. One night the girls start talking about their new “friend” named Black Mamba, who Alfie and Pippa’s psychologist twin sister Julia originally think is harmless. But soon, the “friend” takes over their life and causes increasingly erratic behavior among the twins. And soon Alfie begins experiencing strange phenomena. What’s going on in their house. - which, BTW, happens to be Pippa’s family home, where both she and her father died, also under strange circumstances.

So yeah, this book has a great storyline that really sucks you in immediately. I really flew through it! I wanted to figure out what was going on! And creepy twins with a weird, creepy imaginary friend? What could be a better fall ghost story than that?! And it really did deliver for awhile, I thought.

But I think it was the ending that made the story a 3.5 star read for me. Things seemed to fade off. All the potential and build up doesn’t pay off. It was disappointing.

So, I would recommend this book with an asterisk. It’s got a good story and some great potential, but you may not like how things end up. Still a fairly solid read.

This book is definitely a slow burn. Perfect to read this time of year! I didn’t really get the ending, maybe because I like my endings neatly tied up. I wish more clues had been dropped along the way, instead of all at the end. Fun book to snuggle up with and read at night.

After Alfie, a father of twin girls. Loses his wife, Pippa and mother to the girls in an accidental death. Things start happening at Hart house. The girls start seeing a shadowy figure of a man at the end of their bed. As time goes on, it becomes apparent this entity tightens its grip around the twins as Alfie loses his to grief.

Let Him In , takes the reader on a spooky, foreboding ride that centralises around a deep seated fear of death, loss, grief and afterlife. It’s both gripping and medium paced for the majority of the book. The main characters, felt 3D and the narrative is told from 2 perspectives as first person. Alfie being one, and Julia who is Pippas twin sister.

I like how Julia fills in the back story of the house itself and her relationship with her twin as we move through the book. Some may find it slows the story down or fluff it up but I found it intriguing. The ending I loved, as it gets you thinking

The only slight negative is the author is quite fond of comma splicing. Especially in the earlier stages of the book. It takes a little to get used to but it’s just a personal thing for me as I mentally run out of breath haha.

A great spooky read and a 3.5 /5 for me.

I really liked the first half of the debut. The way the girls interacted with their dad and black mamba was creepy. I really like how it was going and how he was affecting the family. It had all the makings to make you really creeped out. There is a lot of focus on grief and the benefits of therapy which I thought was fantastically done.Unfortunately, the second half of the book fell flat for me. It seemed like nothing added up, and was not a spooky as the start. I really really liked the concept and I defintly will be reading from this author again!

2.5/3
Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press and Netgally for my Gifted Copy.

A family coming to terms with a new normal after a death, a house with a history, creepy twins being creepy, and an imaginary friends that causes tension among the people that live in the house. If it sounds like you've read that book before, it's probably because you have. William Friend establishes a slow-burn, almost gothic atmosphere. The pages are bleak and gray with shadows and every corner. Those are elements that can lead to success, but ultimately, Let Him In doesn't really have anything new to contribute to the conversation. I nearly gave up at multiple points, but assumed for a book in 2023 to explore these tropes, it must contain a new spin. Except, spoiler, that spin never came. Fans of atmospheric and dreary haunted house novels that explore family dynamics will find a well-written, if safe, story in these pages. Readers looking for something new and different would be better off looking elsewhere.

3.5 out of 5 stars.

“Black Mamba is not a snake he’s a man.”

This book was pretty freaking creepy. I love the atmospheric unsettling vibes this book put into my brain.

I really enjoyed the characters in this one and the familial relationships. I don’t think all authors are all that good at writing books with kids in them without making the kids so annoying and unrealistic. This author did a great job creating the Black Mamba obsessed twins. These kids were perfectly written and def creeped me out whenever they talked about Black Mamba.

I wish we got to learn more and the church aspect and more about what exactly Black Mamba was (ghost? Demon? Imaginary friend? Etc)…I wonder if that was purposefully left up to the interpretation of the reader.

The ending seemed like it was up to interpretation as well, which I like in some cases but for this particular book I would’ve preferred something more concrete.

Overall it was a decent read that is perfect for spooky season.

Let Him In by William Friend is a psychological suspense novel that alternates perspectives between Alfie, a grief stricken husband, and his sister in law Julia.

Alfie lost his wife Pippa suddenly, leaving him to care for his two daughters Sylvie and Cassia. In this novel we get to witness the ways in which the remaining family processes their grief. When the girls start seeing things in the shadows, welcome a new imaginary friend, and behaving erratically, Alfie calls his sister in law Julia who is a psychotherapist to talk to the girls. Julia assures Alfie that this is normal for their age and the girls are processing their grief. But as things keep getting stranger, they begin to believe otherwise.

I often found myself getting confused as we switched from current thoughts or conversations to one’s from the past just sentences apart. I also thought some parts were harder to get through than others, and that some parts were a little religion heavy for my taste.

Generally speaking this novel was good, it was a good way to kick off my fall spooky reads!

Well that was an interesting read. I didn’t really get scared or have the skin crawl on me or anything. I felt like the first half was so repetitive and there could have done without things. Such as the church symbolism. There also I think needed to be more clarity on certain items (the house, Him, etc).

The cover is wonderful and the reason I requested this book. And I loved the ending.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

This didn’t work for me. It took too long to get going and way too many things were left unexplained.

Full review:

I think that Friend should have decided if this was a horror book or a thriller book. I think he tried to merge what he was doing together in the end, but it just didn't work for me. I think the issue was that nothing truly scary happens (until pretty much the end) but things are left unclear enough that I went, so that's it? Is there something else that's supposed to happen? I also think that the grandmother character should have been in the book more than she was, especially when we get to the end and all kinds of things get revealed (haphazardly).

"Let Him In" follows Alfie, a widower of almost a year who is trying to do his best to raise his twin daughters. Alfie though has a shock when his twin daughters start telling him about a man named Black Mamba. Alfie's daughters have never had an imaginary friend, and now he is worried that it means something dangerous. When his wife's twin sister Julia, a child psychologist starts to become involved, she thinks that the twins friend is just a reaction to their mother's death. But what if it's something more.

Friend jumps back and forth between Alfie and Julia throughout the story. It doesn't really work. Probably because they both are coming at the twins from different points of view and Julia is hiding things from herself, and even Alfie is hiding things. It just felt like everyone was playing a game of keep away from the truth.

The flow wasn't great. It took me a really long time to finish this book. About two months off and on since it just wasn't engrossing enough for me to sit and read. And I honestly didn't care about what happened to who or why.

The setting of the house, Hart House doesn't work for me because we don't even get an understanding of why that house may be bad til almost the very end of the book.

The ending left too many things hanging for me.

I enjoyed this book and found it very chilling in parts. Some of the religious references were a bit complicated and I found the plot a little confusing at times. I liked the way the general plot and the ending could be interpreted in many different ways depending on the reader.. overall it was good but I felt it could have been amazing if aspects of the story such as the religious references and back story of the house weren’t so complicated.

“Let Him In” was a fantastic book to kick off spooky season. Hart House created such an uncomfy backdrop for this story. I found myself unsure of what the twist was going to be throughout and nothing ever gave anything away.

Black Mamba was a great character in that you initially did think he was fake, all to learn he was there, cursing the house. I did find the name Black Mamba to be rather unusual and distracted from the creepiness of it all.

The ending was not at all what I expected, but it left it open-ended enough for the reader to draw their own conclusions without it being overdone.

Definitely enjoyed this and would read more from this author.

A book to keep you guessing. Twin girls, who have lost their mother, have made a creepy, imaginary friend. Black Mamba, as they call him, is for their eyes only and he demands that they push their dad away. Reminiscent of a chilling, gothic novel Let Him In is asolid, debut novel with themes of cults, possession, and evil presences. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Let Him In is a dark exploration of grief.

Alfie and his twin daughters are struggling after the loss of their wife and mother. The twins now have a new friend, an imaginary friend. Soon, they start treating Black Mamba like a member of the family, setting a place for him at the table.

Alfie, at first, explains this away as part of the grieving process, but soon starts experiencing odd things around the house.

Are there other forces at play?

This book is a S........L.......O.........W burn. Slower than I prefer, but it still provided excellent creepy reading.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.