Fueled by grief and desperation, Alex reaches beyond the grave for solace. If you are a fan of Gage Greenwood and grief horror, this is another book you will devour. Dan Franklin does an excellent job of reeling the reader in and keeping them uncomfortable. The tension is palpable with every page as you race toward the conclusion. I loved the writing. Dan is equally gifted with brutal scenes as he is with suspense. There were several times I audibly gasped. My only complaint is the ending didn't quite land for me. Still, Dan is a phenomenal writer and I look forward to digging into more from him in the future.

A strong and solid story of grief and horror.

Definitely a story that will stick with you for the rest of your life.

Thank you #NetGalley for #TheseThingsLinger

A supernatural thriller that delves into the dark corners of the occult.. The story contains a couple of uncomfortable and unsettling encounters which make it a true horror novel.
Many thanks to Cemetery Dance Publications and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a very atmospheric read that I would consider to have themes of the occult and grief.
Alex is raised by his Uncle after the death of his parents. After he leaves for college he does not look back until the death of his Uncle.
Sometimes going home again brings back memories from the past.
It also makes question, what would you do if you knew you could speak to your loved ones again?
I highly recommend this book. I was completely invested in this read.

A superb horror story of a ghost summoning gone wrong, a small town with secrets, and a soon-to-be father caught up in the whole thing. I enjoyed the quick pace of this supernatural tale, the unexpected body count, and the explosive ending. Kudos to the author!

A wonderfully emotive book with some horrifically spinechilling scenes that lingered in my mind long after I turned the last page. Franklin is destined for big things.

Occult Ritual going wrong. Sign me up. Interesting spin. Also has several layers of grief and love and a foundation of family.
It gets dark at times with some nice evil things mixed in.
I liked it overall.

This cosmic horror novel was terrifying but also left me gutted with its poignant insights into the cycle of poverty and shame. I felt for protagonist Alex. He moved away from his tough childhood to marry his college sweetheart and work as an engineer only to be drawn back home to his past of demons, both figurative and literal. I thought all the characters were well-developed and the descriptions cinematic.

After the death of the uncle who raised him, Alex Wilson wanted answers from the man and made amends. But his effort brought something else he was not ready to face.

I had conflicting feelings towards Alex. I sympathized with his plight, but at the same time, he brought it upon himself with his selfish acts. While towards the end I felt some of the scenes felt caricature, I enjoyed the overall story with how he dealt with the situations, especially in the psychological aspect.

These Things Linger is a story of desperation and consequences. It would appeal to readers who enjoy occult-based horror.

A really gripping read, I thought the characters were intriguing and I'm going to look out for more by this author.

These things certainly do linger! That bathroom scene from early in the book creeped me out and stuck with me. I was intrigued by the ritual they performed. Who hasn't lost a loved one they wish they could see again or spend more time with? By the end of the book, I'd been sufficiently turned off of the idea. The descriptions of the entities were vivid and creepy. There was a lot of suspense and action while the reader waited to see if Alex could undo what he'd done. The ending wasn't quite what I'd expected but after some thought, I think it's the perfect ending for this wild ride.

Alex Wilson couldn’t wait to separate himself from his hometown and the man that raised him, but when his uncle dies, Alex is left with memories and regrets. In an attempt to get closure, Alex opens a portal meant to be kept closed.

“Don’t hurt anyone you don’t need to hurt, don’t steal, and don’t be a damn idiot.”

Narrated in Alex’s POV, he seems like an ordinary man moving on from the poverty and desperate cloud of his childhood, but it is also apparent he hasn’t sympathized with his uncle’s circumstances. By reenacting a black magic ritual, Alex is confronted with the horror of ghostly figures and monstrous spirits. When it escalates, Alex seeks help but and he gets more than he could have bargained for.

While I liked how Alex was far from perfect, having a little more background about him and Uncle Matty would have strengthened their connection. The horrific consequences proved to be greater than expected for Alex and the ending was fitting considering what was summoned.

Thank you to the author for providing a review copy.
Well. I'm pretty gutted after finishing These Things Linger. Bleak, but beautiful. Perfectly paced and well-written, but frantic. It's a beautiful meditation on grief on grief as well. I have a feeling that I'll be thinking about it for a long time. 5 stars

Well, that was dark.

I first heard of Dan Franklin in the BoH indie brawl. I still haven’t gotten a chance to read The Eater of Gods but I’ve been looking forward to trying Franklin.

This book is pretty bleak and deals heavily with themes of loss, regret and grief.

I do wish certain aspects of the book had been expanded upon more. I didn’t fully understand the relationship between Lacey’s brother and the gut snatcher. Also Lacey’s husband was kind of a weird one as well. I assumed he’d pop in at some point but nope. Lacey wasn’t my favorite character but I did enjoy Buzz and Raychel.


I definitely look forward to reading more from Dan Franklin in the future.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

4 Stars!

I had read Dan Franklin’s first novel, The Eater of the Gods, and enjoyed it, so I was curious to see what he had in store for the reader in These Things Linger. Franklin showed he had ability to write a good adventure/horror novel, so I was curious to see how he would do with a story that looked to be more on the psychological horror level.



Alex Wilson had never had a happy life. After his parents died, he went to live with his uncle. The two never had a close bond or understood each other, so it was only natural that they grew further apart as Alex got older. His uncle raised Alex as his own son but the bond of fatherhood, or even guardian, never fully developed. Alex left for college as soon as he could and the two grew even further apart. Alex started his own life and his uncle faded further into the background. When Alex got the news that his uncle had passed, he did not think it would have a big impact on his life. He went home out of a sense of duty and quickly learned that there was something much greater at work. Something bigger than expected. And something much, much darker than he could have ever believed.



Alex returns to find a mystery about his uncle’s life and the ghosts of his uncle’s death. Not just memories, but actual ghost inhabit his uncle’s home and quickly surround him. He is not sure if they are trying to tell him something or to threaten him, but he knows he has to learn their secret before it destroys him. Calling on an old friend who had been with him in in only brush with the supernatural in the past, Alex turns to the occult in order to try to contact his uncle. Just as in life, things do not go as planned and Alex finds himself spiralling down into a deeper darkness that threatens to destroy everthing around him.



These Things Linger is a story full of ghosts, both supernatural and psychological. Once Alex returns home and things begin to spiral downward, the line between the real world and the supernatural world becomes blurred and reality is fluid. How much of what is happening is from ghosts and how much is due to memory or regret? Alex is not certain but is desperate to find answers and the reader is drug down the dark path with him. The story relies heavily on atmosphere and Franklin suffocates the reader with a dark fog that hangs over everything. The story is heavy and at times oppressive, but it is also easy to read and moves along at a good pace. Franklin keeps the story from getting bogged down so that it never lags and keeps the reader pressing forward at all times.



Franklin shows his mastery of dark fiction in These Things Linger. There are ghosts and the supernatural in this story, but the true horror is that of the human mind and it is a horror that is all too easy for the reader to relate to. Everyone is haunted by their past to one extent or another and Franklin uses this to build the horror in this novel. The lines between the psychological and supernatural are never clear and no one except for Franklin really knows what is happening. There is a heavy weight of regret and even guilt hanging over Alex which seems to be the catalyst for all that is happening to him. He is a flawed person, and thus he is very relatable. It almost feels that, even at its most outlandish moments, the event so this novel could be happening to anyone who is brave enough to read it. That is the true horror of These Things Linger. No matter what else is happening, whatever is written on the page, Franklin is also turning a mirror on the reader so that the reader is forced to look not just into the pages of the story but also in the recesses of his own mind. This is very good stuff, and highly recommended.



I would like to thank Cemetery Dance Publications and NetGalley for this review copy. These Things Linger is available now.

What can you do when everything in your life spirals out of control? I read this book with tremendous fear and wonder. I felt really creeped out by Buzz’s story about the girl in the lake. I, too have a fear. Mine is someone standing over me while I sleep. I know that reading this book will drag those nightmare out of the closet. Every page I turned my hope for a good outcome for Alex slipped slowly down the drain. I felt really sorry for Alex. He decided to open a door that should have remained closed but that pull to talk to his uncle one last time was too strong. This book could be a guidebook as to what not to do when you miss someone terribly.

I hadn't read any of Franklin's work before These Things Linger, although I had seen a lot of hype for it, and I didn't really know what to expect. I ended up going in nearly completely blind, apart from seeing some people saying this book would break some hearts - fortunately for me it lived up to the hype, both as far as hype, and providing an emotional gut-punch.

The story revolves around Alex, who was raised by his uncle. Once close, they had stopped talking or seeing eachother, and remained estranged until the uncle's passing. Remembering a childhood friend who had tried to contact the dead, Alex decides to attempt it himself in a bid to speak to the man one last time - only to discover that when you call out into the beyond, something else may just answer you.

I thought this was a fantastically written book, with more than one passage that I re-read to enjoy the prose. Franklin does a great job of making the characters relatable and making the reader root for them - even if they may not necessarily like or agree with all of their choices - while also showing no hesitation in making them suffer and hurt. I went into the last pages unsure if our protagonists would win, escape, or even survive, and as we entered the final showdown I had to remind myself to breathe and to loosen my grip on the Kindle just a little. Even though it often hurt, I appreciated having no idea of what was to come, and couldn't stop myself from reading one more chapter every time.

The book tackles a lot of deep and emotional issues, with as much focus on grief and closure as there is on scares and rituals. This balance worked perfectly for me, making for an entertaining, but often heavy, experience.

Although early in the year, I expect this to be right up there when remembering my favourite books of 2024. I found the praise around These Things Linger to be more than justified, and would encourage any horror fan to give it a try.

What would you do if someone close to you died and you couldn't say goodbye? Would you mourn them, or bring them back from the dead?

All the ghost stories (Bloody Mary, Candyman, etc) scared me as a child, this was no different. This took that to a whole new level and then some.

You want to see your family member again? Just be careful what you wish for.

3.5 stars. Grief horror is one of my favorite sub-genres, so I jumped at the chance to read this book. I flew through the first 100 or so pages, loving the opening bathroom scene and the subsequent boat one. Solid ending as well. However, I was hoping for more emotional pull from this story. Part of problem is the surface level characters, particularly the main character, Alex. I never quite grasped who he actually is, so it became difficult to be invested in his story.

Alex wants to reach his dead uncle to make things right. Alex better be careful something else is in this town It is hungry. Do things really die or do they wait. Chilling read full of suspense filled creepiness. Pulls you in.