So you've read the synopsis, and I know what you're thinking: a pivotal moment in the life of five teenagers disintegrates their friendship group, and they go their separate ways... Until the effects of that day begin to rear their heads again as the twentieth anniversary approaches, and our main character gets the phone call to return to his old home town—to end it once and for all. Sounds familiar, right? If you're a horror fan, then chances are you feel like you've read this story before. Malfi, however, is an author who likes to mix things up when it comes to using familiar tropes, and Small Town Horror is no exception.

The promotional material for the book posits that 'Maybe this is a ghost story', and that feeling looms heavily over it, along with vibes of Peter Straub's own Ghost Story. But what exactly is haunting the fractured friendship group—is it supernatural or the ripple effect of their actions through families, through friends, and through the titular small town over the last two decades? There's a constant theme of deterioration throughout this novel. Whether it's the relationship between our five protagonists, their physical and mental states, or the childhood home Andrew has returned to, Malfi uses this feeling of things falling apart to its full effect. I found it made the danger feel palpable and ensured the stakes were always ever-present and real.

This is not a book for those expecting instant scares and action from the first chapter. The story burns slowly at first, with time taken to methodically introduce each character and their place within the group. Alternating timelines, flashing back to two decades before, are deftly handled, with the revelations of the past informing the present and vice versa. Once we're well acquainted with Andrew and his friends, Malfi really begins turning the screws. Reveals start coming, in dribs and drabs at first, before the floodgates open and the twists begin reframing what we thought we knew before, which at times can be outright shocking. I began to invest deeply in most of the major characters, which only made it hurt more when Small Town Horror stopped pulling its punches and let the horror truly start.

Ronald Malfi is fast becoming one of my favourite modern horror authors, frequently weaving wonderfully written prose with both real scares and heart. I found this book to be another success for him and an easy recommendation to any fan of his previous work, as well as anyone looking for a well-written tale of being haunted.

Thank you so much to netgalley and titan books for the ARC of this book. This is my first “horror” read and I loved it! This author did a great job of getting me hooked from the start- I’ll definitely be reading more of his books.

For the first quarter of the book, you know the group of friends had something tragic happen in high school. You follow the MMC, Andrew get a call from an old high school buddy that he needs to come back to his hometown to help him with something. We learn that his buddy’s wife has gone missing and that they’re looking at him as a suspect. We get flashbacks throughout the book to when they were all in high school and finally learn the tragic event that broke them all apart. Throughout the book I was on the edge of my seat dying to know if they were really haunted from the tragedy they were a part of, or just paranoid. Overall, I recommend if you enjoy thrillers!

SMALL TOWN HORROR, by Ronald Malfi, is a fantastic example of horror that doesn't let go! From the very start, my interest was captured by the atmospheric writing. As the main characters began to emerge, and stories--both present and past--shown, I honestly couldn't put it down.

We begin with Andrew Larimer, a lawyer in the city who gets a frantic call one night from an old childhood friend, Dale. In the wake of this, Andrew finds himself back in his small hometown of Kingsport, Maryland--a place he swore he'd never return to after his Father's funeral six years prior.


Inevitably, the rest of his one-time friends get together--the five of them bound by a tragedy in their past, and brought back together by a current problem.

Did I mention there's a woman they believe to be a witch, and a supernatural apparition they feel has cursed them?

While the action--both past and present--is amazing, it's the characters themselves that I felt gave this story life. We are shown through the actions of each how they were twenty years ago, and how that one day shaped them into the people they are today.

Overall, I feel this novel had everything I needed to make it one that I'll remember for years to come.

Highly recommended.

Books about small town secrets are a dime a dozen but Malfi adds his unique blend of horror and heart in this story about small town secrets and how you can never escape the past. Andrew is a successful New York lawyer living with his wife Rebecca and expecting his first child. He has been having strange dreams and anxious fears about the baby when he receives a call he has been dreading for many years. Andrew and his old friends have a secret, one that they always thought would be back to haunt them and now he realizes he may have to face everything he loves going up in smoke. The old friend who calls is Dale, a property developer. The other friends who still live in this town are Eric who is a police officer, Tig a single mother and bar owner and Meach, a drug addict. Andrew doesn't tell his wife where he is going and when he arrives at his old childhood home, he finds a terrible smell, sees shadows and hears a strange mechanical noise.

Told in two time periods, one story is about the present time and the disappearance of Dale's wife, and the other is about the teenage years of the group when they made a very bad choice after an accident. The author does a great job with describing the strange goings on in the town including birds turning up dead everywhere, the old lady who may be a witch and her strange human-like sculptures and the lighthouse which watches over the town like an eye. There is a big twist toward the end which was well done and explained some of the events in the book. Is there some kind of curse following the group or is a human responsible for what is going on? Good story with just the right amount of terror. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for a review.

I will read anything by Ronald Malfi. I’m a huge fan. So when I was given the opportunity of reading his forthcoming novel, Small Town Horror, I leapt at the chance. Once again, Mr. Malfi does not disappoint.

Using the trope of teenaged friends who reunite in their hometown years later (It, anyone?), the author constructs an absolute marvel of a book. Andrew Larimer, a successful Manhattan attorney, is urgent.y summoned back to his hometown by one of his childhood friends, whose wife has disappeared. Once back there, he reunites with his circle of friends. As it turns out, the subsequent events of the book occur near the twentieth anniversary of a tragic event that was covered up by all of them.

Once again, Ronald Malfi demonstrates his superior talent in slowly ratcheting up the dread and the tension, keeping this reader glued to the pages. The plotting is outstanding, and the characters are fully developed. And the writing….oh, the writing is in places just drop dead incredible. Another home run by the author.

Highly recommended.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the book.

*Huge thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a digital ARC of this one!*

Unfortunately, this one just isn't working for me. I've given it until the 50% mark to see if I could garner some sort of connection, but it just isn't.

Ultimately, the 'secret' the group was keeping a secret just wasn't that shocking and was more of a huge accident that would've played out like that if they'd reported it when it happened, but it's been conflated over the years. I can see where this one's going, but I think Malfi's 'Come With Me' was so strong and so gripping, that this time, this cat and mouse, small town with a returning resident who now lives in the big-city, just can't grab me like the storytelling in 'Come With Me' or even 'Black Mouth' did.

Judging by the number of glowing reviews I'm seeing about this one already, I think this is more a case of wrong book for me at the wrong time and I might have to return to this one after letting it sit for a while. Saying that, I'll be diving into his novel 'The Ascent' soon, because I've been wanting to read that for years!

This worked so well as a story in the horror genre. I was enjoying the friends element to this book and that they had to deal with the curse and if it was actually happening. I enjoyed the way the characters were written and that they were realistic and enjoyable in the story. Ronald Malfi has a great writing style and I enjoyed the use of the cover to add to the mystery of the story. It left me wanting to read more in this type of book and I enjoyed the way Ronald Malfi writes.

Small Town Horror is another unputdownable novel by Ronald Malfi. Gave me chills and nightmares, a must read for scary novel fans!

I feel like Malfi keeps getting better and better. This coming of age novel reminded me of Stephen King at his best - good, old-fashioned creepy storytelling. Five childhood friends, now adults, are called back to their hometown to a past they thought was left behind. I can’t wait to recommend on publication day. Thanks so much for the opportunity to read in advance!

Malfi does not miss. I’ve been a Malfi fan for quite a bit and was super excited to see this new release. It’s definitely a slower burn, so readers expecting action packed words will likely be disappointed. The majority of the characters are fairly unlikable which may make it hard for some readers to connect and fear for them. But this book was fantastic.

It was both parts paranormal as well as your typical terrible human beings. I went into this book completely blind and loved it. The last few pages where Malfi connects those final dots were phenomenal. The motel scene was written so vividly and such a creepy part of the book.

Highly recommend to those who dig great world building and fantastically written books.

Once again, Ronald Malfi demonstrates his talent for writing small town horror. So much so, he literally made it the title of this novel.

This just felt familiar and nostalgic. The story is perhaps not the most original but the author handles these familiar plots so seamlessly that I did not mind.

I enjoyed the characters and plotting. This just felt easy and comforting to read. I did not find it the most innovative or scary book, but it didn't need to be those things to enjoy it.

I would recommend this one to fans of this author's work. This is also a good place to start because it is very representative of his work.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The atmosphere in this book was perfectly matched to the title and there were several parts that creeped me out - to the point that I got goosebumps.

This book is a good portrayal of guilt and how it can eat at you and permeate almost every part of your life after.

There was a good twist to this book that I was not expecting.

Highly recommend this for fans of Malfi, it hits all his usual marks.

Wow. Another creepy horror tale of a seemingly normal family….so well done, slow burn style! Love this author, and his ability to make realistic characters & situations of horror that can casually befall someone so normal! Very ominous & filled with strange while anxiously reading the last third of the book! Loved it!

The story involves five friends who share a secretive past that they try to forget, but the past is not that far away and will creep back up and find you…

I found the atmosphere of this book to be so haunting. The way Ronald Malfi describes the scenes you feel like you are really there. I could smell the smells he described and the slimy texture of things. Some parts of the book had my heart racing because I was nervous to see what was going to happen next.

All the characters of this book were all flawed and you didn’t really root for anyone, but you didn’t want to see anything bad happen to anyone. Each character was distinguishable and you felt something for them whether that was good or bad feelings, that’s up to you.

If you are looking for a creepy horror this is the book for you. I personally really liked this book and would recommend it if you are in the mood for a small town, fast paced horror that involves secrets, lies, and guilt then this is the book for you.

Thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

You know what the best compliment a horror book can receive? "That creeped me the fuck out." And boy, this book sure did.

From the very start there's a shudder down my spine.

"He dug his fingernails into his arms again, scritch-scritch- scritch, then focused his bleary eyes across a moon-wan night toward a stand of trees. Something shimmered in the dark. The boughs of the trees were wet and droopy from a recent summer rain, and if he listened carefully enough, he could hear the raindrops plinking from leaf to leaf, plunking in puddles cupped by black soil. Was that the sound he'd heard upon waking? Plink-plunk, plink-plunk."

The premise of the book is one known to you - a group of kids did something unspeakable and covered it up. They got away with it, but now as adults, it haunts them all. There was a lot of suspense because it was coming from two different angles. Firstly, you have the rapidly deteriorating mental state of a couple of the group of friends - who's going to break first? Who's going to turn on who? But you also don't know what the hell is going on with what it is that's haunting them. Specters in the night, suicidal birds, the feeling of drowning when you're surrounded by air, nauseating smells coming from unsuspecting places... The atmosphere Malfi sets is addicting to be in for any horror lover. I know this is a long quote but it just goes to show Malfi knows how to use structure as a writing tool to create suspense.

"The more I heard these footsteps, the more laborious it became to breathe, because my lungs were filling up with seawater, drowning me, and I was suddenly certain that I could smell the sharp, sulfuric reek of exploded fireworks, and I held my drowning breath, and my eyes twitched in the direction of the partially open bedroom door, that stark black sliver of space leading out into the hall, my lungs going hssst-hssst, a gargle, really, and I waited, waited, petrified as a small child, for whatever might ease that door open a bit more and come shambling into the room, a single, shining white orb of an eye, and smoke trailing from a ragged, empty socket, hssst-hssst, while at that very moment-"

Like 🤌🤌🤌 this is what I read horror for. Overall, really loved it, 4/5.

The book was maybe a bit long, but it didn't necessarily feel like that when I was reading. The anticipation never stopped. I did roll my eyes at a couple of passages though about women, for example he says a written note has "feminine handwriting." I wasn't aware handwriting had a gender. If you mean full of loops and swirls, just say that? But generally I really enjoyed this read and looking forward to more from Ronald Malfi.

First of all, a big thankyou to Titan Books for my Arc!

Not least because of the obvious parallels between the synopsis of this book and Stephen King’s IT, the title of Ronald Malfi’s latest novel, Small Town Horror, leaves you with certain expectations for the story. Horror novels set in small towns are characterised by desperately dark secrets hidden away from the rest of the world, by rebellious and ambitious teenagers who aspire to ‘escape’ the town, and by an Us vs Them mentality from the town’s inhabitants, with the Them being othered and ostracised. The small town of Kingsport holds these characteristics within, and more, but where Malfi’s novel differs and excels is through the unique gaze he adopts over the town of Kingsport.

The novel follows Andrew Larimer, a soon to be husband who is dragged back to Kingsport after an ominous message from an old friend. In returning to Kingsport and reuniting with his group of childhood friends, Andrew and his cohort are forced to reckon with their dark past. Whereas novels set in small towns tend to follow the outsider or someone of morality, integrity, and ambition to escape the town, Malfi subverts this trope. Although unclear at first exactly what, it is obvious pretty quickly that Andrew and his friends Eric, Dale, Tig and Meath harbour ghosts in their past rooted not in personal trauma inflicted upon them, but in guilt and injustice. The group has done wrong, and just as small towns do, it has been covered up and swept away. Andrew and co are the benefactors of the negligence and indifference that can exist in tight-knit communities, and it was fascinating to both view the story from this perspective and to see the consequences of it.

Reading the story through the lens of the perpetrators rather than the victim allows guilt to thrive in the story. The story reeks of the ire of injustice; the sense that a reckoning is coming looms over the story like the specter that is Andrew’s past, and this creates increasing panic and disorder as the story progresses and unravels. Small Town Horror craves accountability and it will not relent until it gets what it wants.

‘Secrets, much like the things that lurk far below the surface of the bay, can stay buried for a very, very long time. But in the end, everyone pays.’

Rot permeates throughout the town of Kingsport and leaks into every page of this story (if you are a fan of birds then maybe give this one a miss!). Small Town Horror puts childhood friendship under the microscope and examines just how firm and resilient these long lasting bonds can truly be. As the foundations of their friendships begin to crumble, so to do the characters. The town, stained by its past, its prejudices and its indifference, is potent ground for this decay and deterioration.

Small Town Horror is a book rooted in traditional small town and gothic tropes that still manages to conjure something original and terrifying. Malfi is an author whose writing exudes confidence and comfort in his own abilities, and Small Town Horror is the horrid manifestation of his mastery of the craft and genre.

Find Small Town Horror in your local bookstore from June 4th

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.

“Small Town Horrors” by Ronald Malfi: A Chilling Reckoning with the past

In the hauntingly evocative “Small Town Horrors,” Ronald Malfi masterfully crafts a narrative that delves deep into the heart of guilt and the specter of unresolved pasts. Set against the backdrop of Kingsport, a town as enigmatic as its inhabitants, Malfi’s novel is a riveting exploration of the long-lasting bonds of childhood friendship and the weight of collective secrets.

The story centers around Andrew Larimer, whose seemingly settled life is upended by a distressing call from an old friend, beckoning him back to the town he thought he had left behind. As Andrew reunites with his childhood companions, it becomes clear that the group harbors a dark history, one shrouded not in victimhood but in culpability. Malfi’s choice to narrate from the perspective of the perpetrators rather than the victims lends a unique and unsettling dimension to the tale, as the characters grapple with the consequences of their actions.

Malfi’s prose is both lyrical and tense, weaving a tale that is as much about the horror of the unknown as it is about the terror of the known. The novel’s atmosphere is thick with dread, a testament to Malfi’s skill in creating a setting that is both familiar and foreboding. The small town of Kingsport, with its prejudices and hidden transgressions, serves as the perfect stage for the unraveling of the characters’ facades.

“Small Town Horrors” is a compelling examination of the fragility of friendship and the inexorable pull of the past. Malfi’s narrative is a slow burn, building to a crescendo of panic and disorder as the characters’ secrets begin to surface. The novel demands accountability, and it does not relent until it has extracted its due.

With nuanced characterizations and a genuinely surprising reveal, Malfi refreshes a familiar horror trope—the surfacing of a long-hidden secret—with a new level of sophistication. Fans of Christopher Golden will find much to admire here, and those who appreciate the psychological depth of Edgar Allan Poe’s works will be drawn to the story’s introspective darkness.

“Small Town Horrors” is a standout addition to the horror genre, showcasing Ronald Malfi’s talent for creating a deeply atmospheric and thought-provoking tale. It is a book that craves and achieves a haunting resonance, ensuring that the reader, much like the characters within its pages, cannot easily escape the shadows of Kingsport.

𝚁𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐: 4⭐️
𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚛𝚎: thriller/ mystery📚

𝙼𝚢 𝚃𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑𝚝𝚜:
I enjoyed this one but it did feel a little too long at times

𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚒𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎:
It vibes
Dark secrets
Childhood friends
Small town setting
Spooky atmosphere
Character development
Suspenseful thrillers
Supernatural aspects
Lots of twists

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚍:
I loved the creepiness of the book

𝚃𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝙸 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛:
Pacing was too slow for me at times

Small town horror is the first book I’ve read by Ronald Malfi - and it won’t be the last. Eerie. Atmospheric. Creepy. All that you want in a horror thriller. I read this novel in one sitting and would highly recommend

This was an enjoyable mysterious story about five friends reuniting as adults to confront the dark tragedy in their past. Told in multiple POVs and two timelines, Malfi weaves the pieces together fluidly to a satisfying ending. The characters were unique and captivating. The eerie environmental hauntings were gripping. The ending was very unique. The emotional depth that is instilled throughout fuses with its environment, further pulling you under its spell.

The only reason this isn’t a 5 star, like many of my favourite Malfi stories - is that the hints may have been too obvious to me, and the nature of the haunting seemed to run fairly repetitively. As such, I missed the absolute Malfi mystery that I crave. But I imagine to others maybe these hints aren’t as loud.

Thank you to Netgalley, Titan Books and Ronald Malfi for this advanced readers copy.