Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review..

This was such a delightfully creepy, but also heartfelt little novel. I saw "Irish folklore" and "a children's TV series that no one remembers quite the same way" and I was sold. Parts got a little slow in the middle there, when there were less creepy/fantastical things happening, but the ending wrapped it all up so nicely. Definitely a little gross at times, very much like a fever dream at most times, but the characters and the relationships felt so real and lived-in. An excellent book to read during Spooky Season (or anytime you want a little thrill).

I don't know exactly how to describe what Knock Knock, Open Wide is other than a complex, multilayered, and unbelievably eerie horror story centered around Irish folklore. This was a fascinating horror story that left me both intrigued and uncertain at different points. I feel like this book is not going to work for everyone because of everything it has going on and how it's all put together, but if you have the patience and find yourself intrigued by the first couple chapters, then I'd say it's a read that's well worth it.

Knock Knock, Open Wide opens with a punch and caught my attention right away. It's eerie, highly atmospheric, and sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the book. I loved how we slowly learned about Celtic myth and folklore from the very start and continued to be introduced to more and more of it throughout the rest of the book. We start out following Etain as she comes across a corpse in the middle of the road deep in the country, and from this moment on everything for the rest of the book is set into motion. I'll confess that I was a little disappointed at first when I realized we wouldn't be sticking with Etain throughout the rest of the story, as I found myself immediately intrigued by her and her story. However, as the story progressed I came to become invested in plenty of the other characters and loved seeing how the author developed each one and their individual stories and backgrounds–and also realized how Etain would still play a role.

There are a lot of different storylines going on in Knock Knock, Open Wide, and with these storylines come a lot of different jumps in timelines, character focuses, and tone of the story. The first third and last third of this book were easily the strongest, with a some parts in the middle that I personally felt dragged a little. All of these shifts affected the overall tone of the story and often felt a bit abrupt or took me out of previous storylines and left things feeling a bit disjointed, or almost at times like they were part of different stories. Because of this, the pacing also felt very stop and go and I was constantly wavering on how much I actually liked the story. For instance, I loved the first portion of the story following Etain's storyline and Betty's initial storyline, but then there were some shifts mid-story that lost some of my interest and almost made me consider whether I wanted to continue the story. Fortunately, anytime this feeling felt too strong the book would shift again and I'd be interested once more, so the end result was overwhelmingly positive for me.

What I appreciated about all these different storylines and characters, however, was seeing how they were all interconnected and eventually came together in some really genius and intriguing ways. Neil Sharpson is an author I want to keep my eye on and whose previous work I'd like to check out. There is so much detail and careful plottingin Knock Knock, Open Wide, and I loved how well he managed to develop each character in such a way that I felt fully invested in their lives. Ashling, in particular, had so many intriguing layers that I actually started out feeling unsure about her and ended up really rooting for her and wanting to see how her relationships with her mother, Betty, and her aunt would work out.

I've also already mentioned how eerie and well-crafted the atmosphere of this story is, but I really just want to emphasize and drive that point home. This book is not constantly throwing out crazy things left and right, but the overwhelming sense of dread and a sort of "waiting" for something to happen was strongly present throughout the entire book. There are things constantly lurking that just feel unnatural and wrong. You know when you watch a movie and the entire thing is sort of bathed in a dreary fog or misty backdrop that tells you 'hey, this is a dark movie?' That's exactly what this book felt like, and I couldn't have found the kid's TV show featured in this creepier any creepier than I did. This book absolutely nails atmosphere and creating a setting that brings the horror and creepiness to life.

Lastly, I just have to note that the ending of Knock Knock, Open Wide is honestly pretty wild, and I really loved and appreciated everything about it. The author knew what story he wanted to tell and he really went for it. Everything came together and provided me with constant surprises and some shocks–I really do mean it when I say things get weird and somehow eerier than that they were.

Overall, I've given Knock Knock, Open Wide four stars! If you need a fall read to make you feel weird, then this is the book for you.

Sharpson is an expert storyteller, entangling you in an Irish countryside occult conspiracy brimming with folklore. The writing is atmospheric, sharp and beautiful, creating beautiful bleak landscapes and bloody messes. This also features a sapphic romance sub-plot that I’m always a fan of.
The progression of the story jumped around the timelines building a fantastic dread and had me checking back for clues. Anything with Irish folklore makes me giddy and this was a fever dream spin that was delightful. The ending was AMAZING and weird in all the right ways.
I will note that at times I felt like the queer women represented were very…‘stereotypical’ 90s queer which stood out to me quite a bit in a negative way and took away from the characters which in of themselves were fantastic already. While some things were inherently true and funny to look back on, others were just off kilter stereotypes that was just media induced.

Thank-you NetGalley for the ARC! This was the first work I have read by Neil Sharpson. This is a dark tale of stolen children, changelings, and fractured families. I found the first couple chapters slower, but I ended up really enjoying the tale as it wove the multiple points of view over the decades. I am hoping for another story from the author in this world. I need to know more!

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

This book was simply an issue of (pardon the metaphor) a bunch of individual ingredients that should’ve tasted spectacular together but, for whatever reason, just didn’t end up tasting right.. Like a roast that’s been cooked too long or chicken that’s just way too bland. Sure, I’ll eat it, but it won’t be the best meal. It’ll leave me distinctly unsatisfied and wishing for a better meal.

That’s what happened here with Knock Knock, Open Wide. We’ve got Celtic folklore, a sapphic romance, a black goat, fractured family dynamics, a sinister group of priests, and a creepy children’s television show that’s been on for decades. These are all the sort of book ingredients that I could roll around in like catnip! These things are what attracted me to the book in the first place. It’s just that the book wasn’t put together in a way that I enjoyed much. It was just tolerable.

The biggest issue, I think, was the swiftly shifting timelines and POVs. This book not only likes to shift in time, but it likes to shift narrators, too. Sometimes, if you’re not paying close attention, you kind of lose track of where you are and who you’re with. I’m okay with this narrative styling usually, but not when it’s used so extensively. When it’s used as extensively as it is in this novel I feel like it’s a crutch for not knowing what else to do for exposition. We always say, “Show, don’t tell,” but that doesn’t mean you swing the pendulum all the way in the opposite direction and just show everything like a scattered mass of scenes. There has to be a meeting of minds somewhere in the middle because the scattershot approach ends up destroying pacing. Pacing in a novel has to be a natural and organic thing with natural ebbs and flows. This is a thriller and a horror: the ribbon needs to be kept taute, but not so taute that there’s no give for readers to breathe every now and again. You can’t keep a ribbon thrumming with tension if you keep letting it go to switch to somewhere else and someone else. It rips readers out of the story temporarily and then expects them to pick the same ribbon of the main, present-day storyline back up and pull the ribbon taute again. After a while, readers just get tired of it. I know I did. I was tired of it before the book was halfway over.

A secondary issue was that I thought the book was just too long for the story offered, seeing as I knew how the book was going to end and what was going on from probably about 25% into the book. After that it just felt like a whole bunch of hurry-up-and-wait.

A huge positive is that I love Sharpson’s writing style, sentence structure, and dialogue. This book has a terrific sense of self and the characterizations are wonderful. The dialogue is witty, sharp, and sometimes downright funny. The horrific parts of this book are absolutely nightmarish and fabulously written. I only wish the rest of the book had been as good.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. This review will not be appearing on social media.

This was a gorgeously unsettling slow-build of an Irish folkloric horror, and I loved it. The storylines were captivating, the horrors (see: children's show with creepy named thing in a box, "don't misbehave or he will emerge"; zero-affect priests looming and haunting in their inexpression and grins and things in the dark; an aspect of evil faerie changeling tale) very original and spooky, and the pace perfectly quick-walked. The Irish countryside and Dublin urban life aspects added another quality layer, but in my opinion that's where any Tana French comparison ends. This book was much more Mona Awad a la "Bunny" to me with its strangeness then horrors, but also just a story about young women making their ways in the world.

This book was kind of a wild ride, but I also kind of got lost in it. I really wished I jived with the authors writing style because the premise was so good!

First, this is not my normal go-to read, but I did enjoy it a lot! There were times that it got a bit confusing keeping characters in line or feeling like I missed a clue or that it went over my head. It also went in phases where I could not put this book down or stop thinking of it, but there were also times I thought meh about some parts. I felt like it all came together well at the end, but I also felt confused! Overall a great book and a solid 4 stars!

this beautiful written book by @neilsharpson is a book of Irish Celtic myth and horror.

The story takes place in Ireland and the author dives into the Celtic myth and Irish folklore.

Towards the end, I couldn't put it down. It was so good that when I finished it I had to take a few moments to gather my thoughts. My first thought when I finished reading it was,
"what the heck did I just read". Honestly, I found it fascinating.

I have never read anything like this. This would be my first book that involved Irish mythology and I thought it was very interesting.

I have to admit that this book might not be for everyone, but I really liked it.

Knock Knock Open Wide is a generational horror story that takes place in Ireland and adds a modern take on Celtic myth. I was a tad unsure about this one when I started, but once we shift more to the present day- the storyline with Ashling and Betty- I was hooked. I LOVE Ashling as a character, and her and Betty’s college romance was kind of my favorite part of the whole book. The horror/mystery elements were also really cool, and I adore folklore-inspired horror, because I think it’s cool that what I think is so original and creative really has all this background and culture that inspired it. It’s just new to me. The familial dynamic between Ashling and her mother is so heartbreaking. I would go into this one blind, but it weirdly reminded me a lot of Mister Magic by Kiersten White. So if you liked that one, I think you’ll like this one too!

My review will be posted on my Instagram- @boozehoundbookclub in October

The first chapter of this book was a 5 star short story. Absolutely wild and everything that is going to haunt my nightmares forevermore *slow claps*. The horror elements in here were phenomenal and I can't wait to read more about the original folktales that inspired this story!
I do feel like the endings all wrapped up pretty quick for such wild goings on, I could have spent half the book in that cabin [in that puppet lol]. And although I loved Betty and Ashling, it was Etain who stole my heart and I selfishly wish we had stuck with her from the beginning to end of this story.
I found myself filling in blanks as the book wrapped up, some ambiguous fun, but also some blanks that I feel should have been better planned out or delved into deeper.
But yeah, a memorable read, I will never forget this first chapter and I can't wait to read more from Neil Sharpson in the future!

3.5 stars [but the first chapter is like 12 stars]

Much like Mister Magic, there's something about a creepy children's tv show that I can't resist. Knock Knock Open Wide has that....sometime that just....grabs me from that first page.

A woman finds a corpse on the side of the road, and LOGICALLY, the very best thing to do is putting the body inside the car with her. Then there's another woman, falling in love. And slowly....very slowly everything is starting to connect. It's the kind of story that I crave.

Neil Sharpson has taken Irish folklore and modern horror and combined them into a masterpiece with Knock Knock, Open Wide. With a robust storytelling and a satisfying way to complete the entire storyline, this is a writer to watch.

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

Folk horror is really starting to become more mainstream in both books and film and Neil Sharpson's Knock Knock, Open Wide is a brilliant new installment into this growing genre. I would love to give this book 5 stars but unfortunately it loses moment after the first chapter and I was slightly let down with the rest of the book. The first chapter is absolutely terrifying though.

Alright, honesty time: if someone handed me this book and said “here is a really scary sapphic horror story written by a man,” I wouldn’t have touched it with a 10 foot pole.
And yet…I loved this book. I’m confused by this book - greatly. But I did love it. It’s one of the most unsettling things I’ve read in a long time. It’s written like a lot of loose threads. You don’t know what you’re looking at, but things slowly start to come together into a horrifying, eldritch web.
This could be a challenge for some readers - it takes a long time to come together (truly the definition of a slow burn). But I believe it’s worth persisting for.
I don’t know to say too much in regards to the plot - even though it can be maddening at times, it’s better to let Sharpson tell it in the way he intended.
So, if you like -
Folk horror ✔️
Generational trauma ✔️
Changelings ✔️
Sapphic love stories ✔️
Creepy children’s tv shows ✔️
Cults ✔️
Irish war goddesses ✔️

This may be the book for

I really liked this novel. I found the timeline changes and some of the plot points confusing but the characters are dynamic and unique. I enjoyed the incorporation of Irish folklore. I wish certain things had been explained a bit more clearly or completely but that may resolve itself during the second read through. It is definitely unsettling and suspenseful.

I'm not quite sure what to say about this book.
It was an absolute joy to read. The author's voice was compelling, the characters were flawed and fascinating.
I got a bit lost toward the end. The climax seemed muddled, as if I'd unwittingly skipped several pages here and there. * While I enjoyed the ending with regards to our characters, the ending of the uncanny bits felt unsatisfactory (though I could've missed something in the weirdness at the end).

The book follows Ashling Mallen who refuses to let her girlfriend Betty Fitzpatrick near her family. The fact that Betty is a girl is not what worries her. It is that she has become convinced that the horrors inflicted on her family are connected to a seemingly innocent children's TV show, Puckeen, featuring a small black goat puppet who lives in a box and never comes out. Well, almost never. This multi-generational story weaves between time and point of view to create an unsettling mystery. Readers will mostly follow the Larkin/Mallen family at the center of the drama, but the stakes run much deeper. Ireland as a whole will be affected by what unfolds.
First, to address the box in the room: Puckeen is not a real TV show that I as an American reader was simply unfamiliar with. At least, as far as my research tells me, it doesn't exist. But it feels like it did. Sharpson's description is so evocative that I had to check. And the costumes, the plot (or lack thereof), the repetition---these things were all present in the shows I remember from my childhood. Clowns and boxes, what more do you need?

How about rings? Another detail that felt so real, but isn't. I think Sharpson has does this so well because these inclusions are just a step away from our reality. Any fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer knows of the claddagh ring. Why wouldn't Ireland have more rings with specific iconography and a rich history? These details are so present throughout that I even began questioning the real ones. Heinz Haunted House, for example, was real. I just regrettably cannot buy this spooky canned spaghetti in 2023.

I've talked a lot about specific details that create a sense of unreality. That is because this is foundational to experience the book. Because this story has so many threads, the setting is the most consistent character I can tell you about. I don't fault the book for this. That's the nature of folklore, isn't it? There are characters in the tales, but they are predominantly about place.

If you are wanting to pick this up due to the folklore connection, you won't be disappointed. The rules and details have changed, at least for certain things, but you'll recognize them. Betty Fitzpatrick is even a folklore student. The stories she studies--and hears firsthand--will help you out if you don't have the background knowledge. It's a clever framing device that I applaud Sharpson for utilizing.

And speaking of background knowledge, this book has its origins in a monologue. A monologue inspired by a very old story. Theater in Knock Knock, Open Wide is a connector. It bring Ashling and Betty together. It brings other stories to life within this world. The author's note may come at the end of the book, but to me, this knowledge brings so much to the book. It becomes a circle.

Knock Knock, Open Wide is a folktale. A dark and at times gruesome one, but that's a bit of a tradition too. It's a story in dialogue with what has come before and what will come after. And if you look inside it, follow the threads down, you may end up looking at a version of yourself.

I had no idea what to expect going into this, but I'm really glad I requested it. This is a truly terrifying horror novel in the vein of Mister Magic by Kiersten White with a touch of Irish mythology. I loved the alternating points of view and time periods in this book; I enjoyed all the perspectives equally, which doesn't happen often. I was creeped out from the first page, and that sense of dread only compounded as I continued to read. This is definitely one you don't want to read at night.

When I finished reading this book, I remember my resounding thoughts being "damn, that was really good". And I'm devastated to say that now, a week and a half later, I've totally lost the plot. This book slipped out of my memory so fast. So I'm docking a few fractions of a star for staying power, but I did really enjoy this while reading, so I'll do my best to recap.

This book has a hell of a plot. So many seemingly unrelated points come together at the end to form a cohesive timeline and structure, which I was very impressed with. I really did have no idea where Sharpson was taking us half the time, and I always enjoy that in a good horror. Some of the imagery, especially the children's TV show, the night on the farm, and what happens during the climax, were especially unsettling and vivid and well-written. Slow burn folklore horror is perhaps one of my favorite horror subgenres, and I loved the Celtic/Irish influence here.

If I'm remembering correctly, there are a couple of questions that I had that were left unanswered in a rather unsatisfying manner (specifically about what happened to Etain that night), but I don't have many complaints. Definitely a good addition to any horror-lover's TBR.

This novel is about Etain, who is involved in a freak accident that leads her into a series of bizarre horrors, and how that night changes the rest of her life. It’s about Ashling, her daughter, and the woman Ashling falls in love with. It’s about a long-running TV series remembered differently by everyone who watched it. It’s dark and sinister, but full of life and love, too. Loved this novel!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for this e-arc.