I really enjoyed the horror element to this book, it had a great overall concept and was what I was hoping for. Edward Rand has a great understanding of the genre. I was invested in what was going with the characters and had a horror element that worked perfectly with the story.

"Lizzie" by Edward Rand is a horror and thriller novel that introduces Dan, Beth, and their four-year-old daughter, Lizzie. They have been happily living in the countryside for seven months, having secured a seemingly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity through Dan's real estate connections. However, their peaceful life takes a dark turn when Dan discovers Barron Cemetery, and a series of horrifying events ensue, seemingly connected to his visit to the strange burial ground.

As they seek help from the police, they find themselves facing uncooperative authorities and suspect their new friends and neighbors of being complicit in the attacks against them. The situation becomes more dire when Lizzie is abducted by a mysterious cabal connected to Barron Cemetery. With the police seemingly involved, Dan and Beth realize they are on their own and must rescue their daughter themselves.

The novel unfolds as a race against time to save Lizzie, and in the process, Dan and Beth confront hidden truths about themselves and their world. The story promises to be a gripping exploration of horror, suspense, and the lengths parents will go to protect their child. The central mystery of what these people want from Lizzie adds an intriguing layer to the narrative. As the couple fights against unseen forces, they delve into a world that challenges their understanding of reality. "Lizzie" appears to be a chilling and suspenseful tale that explores the depths of parental love and the darkness that can lurk in seemingly idyllic settings.

Lizzie by Edward Rand was an great read. A gothic horror story that quickly pulled me in. The atmosphere was tense and the writing was good.
His writing and storytelling held my attention, the characters were so well written.
Keeps you on your toes and wanting to continue reading.

⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I would like to thank NetGalley and BloodChuckles Press for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

I have a love-hate relationship with this book.

Firstly, we didn't need over 500 pages to tell us this story, and we didn't need the ADHD that was the first 10 chapters. In the beginning I had no idea what was going on and it took a long time reading to actually understand what was happening. The author would jump around with subjects, treating each like they were his most passionate subjects. However, they would then change the subject only to jump back to it a page later. It was hard to stay focused. On top of it, it's quite clear that this has not been properly edited as there were many mistakes (typos) and I found the authors constant shortening (or nicknaming) of words to be frustrating as I would often have to try and figure out what the lingo was, they were using.

Somehow, I managed to keep reading until the end and it even got interesting a few times.

The one thing I don't understand is why you would name a book about a character that isn't the main character or even the main subject until the last 8th of the book? This is not a book about Lizzie, this is a story about Lizzie's parents and then finally about the little girl. It's also about a lot of other characters and I questioned this often throughout the book. I was disappointed by the end in general.

This has been done before and often a whole lot better.

However, I will give the author credit in his determination. Also, their story-telling skills aren't bad and with a bit of work this unfinished feeling story could be quite brilliant.

It wasn't very scary which also disappointed me, I probably wouldn't recommend this, because it often comes off feeling like it's written by someone under twenty with no life experience.

The sex scenes were very male focused and felt off in the way that it seemed like the writer didn't really know what they were talking about, which is a shame.

All in all, I sometimes enjoyed the read and sometimes it was a struggle to keep going.

As the evenings draw in and the countryside settles into silent slumber, a spooky read is just the thing to get everything set for the night the veils of our world thins. This is a spooky read and some. Darkness and menace lurk around the main characters and their new home. Strange goings on and worrying happenings with the new neighbours cannot be good. Dan and Beth and little Lizzie have hopes and dreams for their new house, but the discovery of a nearby cemetery and a boneyard quickly extinguish all of that. Strange things happen leading to Lizzie being abducted in what is definitely a creepy dark horror with tension and jumps. Can they save Lizzie and themselves in what turns into a thrilling compulsive and enjoyable story.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for providing this ebook in exchange for an honest review!

The size of the book itself is intimidating, HOWEVER .... it was one crazy ride!!!!
There are gothic/dark vibes/themes, definitely something I love!!

I will say it was a bit slower paced, BUT once everything unfolded it was very well made.

I will say though, it kind of felt that there were some negative feelings toward women in general (there wasn't a lot of character development there and just seemed to be known as B*tch, Sl*t etc. and there were even racial slurs which I am not a huge fan of - which had me dock 2 stars off).

I really didn't like this book. I try not to leave really negative reviews but I can't really think of any reasons why you should read this book and I CAN think of many reasons why I wish I hadn't. If you read The Haunted by Benny Little and thought "wow! this is sexist and creepy in a way even horror doesn't need to be!", then this book will take you down memory lane. However, if you read The Haunted by Benny Little and thought "I wish this was about 3 times longer!" then this is the story for you. I don't mean to sound sarcastic or rude, I'm just joking because I really do hate writing negative reviews. I think this needed to have another draft edited by a woman before it was published.

This was a tough one. For one thing, this book is a really long slog. 924 pages, my man? Get you a better editor! For another, while the story was interesting enough, I couldn’t get past the feeling that this dude just really hates women. Essentially all women were reduced to their physical characteristics, and many, if not all, were referred to as b*tch, sl*t, wh*re, and c*nt, a lot of times, including by the protagonist, and including when referring to his wife, whom he supposedly loves. Racial slurs are also not off limits here! Additionally, another character, who is a special agent, whom we are meant to see as being a good guy, alludes to beating his tenant’s children with a belt to instill discipline in them, saying he’d like to do it to their mother, too. Lastly, a lot of the thoughts and dialogue didn’t really ring true to me. The titular Lizzie, who is 4, being raised by two adults in their mid-30s (in 2010, apparently?) routinely responds to her parents with “yes ma’am” or “yes sir.” I’m not saying it’s impossible but it just seemed off to me! To sum up, even though the story itself was relatively good, I really did not like how long the book was and how unlikeable so many of the characters were, especially in their treatment of women.

I received this arc copy from Netgalley so thank you for the opportunity to read this. I just kept going through this book in my head and I now understand why it’s such a large book.

It has a gothic story with some death and a whole lot of crazy stirred in. It was good but at times I had to go back and make sure I was reading it right.

I would have read this much faster if it had been two separate books (and better for the author). It’s very intimidating for me to read a 900+ page book.

Overall, it is an excellent story. It’s just a little long.

Had that feeling lately that the world is going straight to hell? You might be onto something.

Pretty straight-forward small-town cult horror novel. I liked it but it was not ground-breaking.

DNF at 26%

I gave this book a fair chance, but I found the main characters and the writing style both obnoxious, and the plot is far too slow-paced. I feel like I spent most of it waiting for things to happen, and I just can't read several hundred pages like that.

content warnings: in the part I read, there was a very graphic rape scene and a graphic murder

It’s Dan’s birthday and although he and Lizzie his four-year-old daughter both had nightmares they tried to salvage the rest of the day and make it a good one. Dan’s wife Beth makes pancakes and her and Lizzie go on their normal garage sale hunt is Dan goes for a bike ride since it is his birthday he decides to take a different route than he normally does and comes up on a cemetery with a weird monolith right in the middle that seems to have holographic things all over it which is strange because the monolith looks like it grew straight out of the ground. They also have a plethora of white roses on the inside of the cemetery ground and red ones on the outside and Dan’s awkward feeling only grows when he meets the strange caretaker. When he finally tears his self away from the cemetery he starts being stalked by some country bumpkin in a F150 that rams into him and knocked him into a ditch. He will learn later the death was also start by the same truck. It’s being driven by a man who she will meet face-to-face at the café where she works and he and his friend make it clear they are not pleasant customers they Lear at her and make things absolutely uncomfortable but that is only a prelude to what happens when she and then go home because the driver of the truck is waiting for them and has a night full of torture in store. Dan’s fear only grows when he begs the man in offers him 40,000 dollars and the man calls him a lawyer and proceeds to tell him exactly the amount of money he has in the bank. Eventually that will kill the intruder but it will only be after he has done some damage but before they can even leave the hospital he realizes this is an over this is just the beginning but has no idea the nightmare the future and towns people have in store for the couple before it is over they will be asking their self was all this planned or does it have something to do with his stumbling upon the cemetery and what did they want with sweet little four-year-old Lizzie? This book is so involved and has so much plot and planning to if there is no way I could give a brief summary to all of it just know with the exception of how he describes beautiful women which I found to be a bit sleazy the rest of it is a smart intricate plot of mystery and horror that I could not stop reading. I was so shocked to see this book didn’t have that many reviews because OMG it is so good! If you love books about ancient curses conspiracy theories that come true in the game of cat and mouse that the mouse wins you definitely love Lizzie by Edward Rant. As I said the only part I didn’t like was his sleazy description of the Farmer’s daughters and hall every man was just a sleazy even the professor who commented on the Apple shaped ass of a student walking down the hall I mean really I meant that simple that they get distracted that easily? I don’t know why but that really irritated me that seem juvenile and so irrelevant to the plot. Having said that the rest of the book was really good and as I said I couldn’t stop reading it! I want to thank the publisher, the author end NetGalley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I debated whether to review this book or not. Inside these pages is a horror story, perhaps a really good one. But getting to it is like walking through molasses.

I don't mind a long book if it stays focused and continually adds to the overall plot. But this one has a few issues that just took me out of the story wishing all the characters could just be killed off quickly.

There's a good amount of words dedicated to breasts. Every female character is introduced with an obsessive interest in her breasts. Except for an old lady next door to our protagonist family, all of the women are either bra-less, showing a lot of cleavage, or have their breasts as the main focus of our male character's attention.

But that's not even the main issue I took from this book. About halfway through, the author just casually throws out the N-word to describe a random man because he has diamond studs in his ears "just like a n***er". Keep in mind that this has NOTHING to do with the character thinking that or the plot or the narrative. It's just thrown out there out of nowhere and it's not a good look.

That's when I noped out. The slog of a plot, the teenage boy obsession with boobs, and the cringey use of a racial slur for apparently no reason just made this a DNF for me.

The story here was great. Dans four year old daughter, Lizzie suffers from nightmares. Her father Dan has nightmares too. The first involving a much older version of his daughter.
The writing style is one Stephen king fans will enjoy.

However, I did notice many errors, even within the first chapters that could easily be fixed. Which was why I deducted a star on what would have otherwise been a 4 star on my own personal criteria for the rating system.
Sometimes there are extra spaces in between words. The title headers for this also weren’t centered. There’s also a typo in the table of contents that needs to be fixed before official publication. Since this is an ARC, I didn’t expect perfection, but when I did notice these things, it would take me out of the story and if I’m honest, had I not requested to review this, would have been a book I didn’t finish because of how often I found myself getting distracted.
Formatting issues aside, I feel like Lizzie was a good read. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel or anything, but it doesn’t have to. If you like Gothic Horror and the shining, You’ll like this! it’s long, has formatting issues, but was worth reading.