Wow this was really intense. I loved the way the author gave us characters that were so difficult, so unredeemable and made us root for them. The horror elements were great. The second half really dragged though. It became very repetitive and frustrating. But I did enjoy this overall!

Nowhere started off a tad uneventful but it steadily crept into a high speed train of action and horror. I genuinely might have a nightmare or two tonight. There have been an influx of creepy kid books as of late but Gunn did it with finesse. Not only were the horror aspects of this book done well, the suspense in this book was also top tier. I genuinely never knew how this story was going to end. Honestly, in hindsight, I can’t imagine a better ending. The hopelessness and depression our main couple feels in palpable from start to finish.

This was creepy! Much more on the horror side than I was expecting. But it kept me entertained. Didn’t love the ending, but still enjoyed the book.

Really glad I read this in one sitting on a plane ride, because I live in the woods and would be way too scared reading this at home it did get a bit repetitive around the 75% mark, but overall really solid, unique story! Would definitely recommend to anyone looking for something spooky.

Rachel is a highly unlikable main character that never really gets a redemption arc, and I actually really appreciated that.
Sometimes people just aren't great people and that's that.

Thank you to Atria books for is Advanced Readers Copy - coming fall 2025!

Nowhere
Allison Gunn

I can take you to heaven, but I'll have to kill you first.

This book will hit different for different people. It reminds me of when I got really into Labrinth songs. All I hear is the music and all I see are the videos I've seen filmed to it. It's not a matter of the material being different, its the experience that goes along with it that changes everything.

If you have religious trauma, if you have sexual orientation trauma, if you have an addiction that brought out the very bad parts of yourself that you wish never existed, if you've ever knelt on a kneeler literally or figuratively, this will hit different.

Rachel is the chief of a small Appalachian town, somewhere in the middle of NOWHERE. She is queer which she has always known but that she and her husband are just recently figuring out. He is a writer and is known around town for an article he wrote about the devastating ineptitudes of the town inhabitants. The article didn't go over well with them and it is part of what makes Rachel's difficult job, tenuous.

Rachel is called to the scene of a murder and I'll spare you the horrifying details. It left an imprint in my mind I still have not ironed out. On the scene she hears a song, lightly but distinctly and the more we hear about it the less we want to.

The Karma they have, their children pay for. The only way to really hurt them is through them. The only way to learn the lesson is to watch it play out in the ones you love. Because the perspective is different, it hits harder and sticks longer.

This book is described as a a mix between THE OUTSIDER and TRUE DETECTIVE. It does remind me of season one. It is the interesection where heaven and hell meet, where the Devil preys and God prays.

I cannot wait to see and adaptation of this which I'm sure is coming.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the advanced copies!

NOWHERE...⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @atriabooks and Netgalley for my #gifted copy.

This is a book that will make you terrified of the woods! Grief is tearing Rachel’s family apart. In this small application town isn’t helping anything with knowing everything and everything. When girls start going missing, Racheal the police chief has to find them. But she also has a family she has to keep safe! The feelings of dread and tension kept me propelling through! I just needed to know what’s happening to these girls and was terrified! It pulls on your heartstrings as a parent. Such complicated feelings keep you reeling as they race to find answers that only get more complicated! You get this kind of sense of old folklore with the woods that’s make you always worried and just scared of it! There so much more going on too! This is a debut novel and I’ll be sure to keep up with Allison Gunns future books!

Holy moly this was so very creepy! I really enjoy/am terrified by the folklore of the Appalachian area so this one scratched that itch well! There were parts that seemed like they didn’t need to drag as long as they did, but overall I really liked this book!

This book was dark and full of gore. Not scary to me but definitely dark. I enjoyed the writing and the story telling in the book, I also like the slight nod to Roanoke and the missing village. I wished for a happy ending but towards the end knew that was not coming. Highly recommend for fans of American Horror Story, horror movies, and dark history.

I wanted to like this one so bad! Creepy forest kids?? Yes! But Rachel’s character was so unlikeable, it was actually unbearable to read her POV. I kinda wish I would have DNF’d this one.

I ended up really liking this one! I was expecting more of a thriller and the vibe is more horror to me, but I enjoyed it anyway. Rachel is Police Chief of a small, conservative, Appalachian Virginia town. She is still struggling with losing her son in an accident and has an unemployed alcoholic husband. They are pretty much still together for their surviving children. A body is found in the woods and then children begin disappearing. The woods are a character on their own, Very creepy and great spooky atmosphere. I did not particularly like Rachel or any of the other characters, but that sort of fit with the story. The characterization was good. This is a slow build, but worth it. I would read more from this author!

Thank you to #NetGalley, Allison Gunn and Atria Books for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I will post my review to Amazon, Facebook and other retail and social media sites upon publication day of March 25, 2025.

_Nowhere_ by Allison Gunn is a dark and atmospheric horror read told from multiple points of view. Police chief Rachel Kennan is focused on her job to help with her grief of losing her son, and lives in a small town in Virginia with her husband and two daughters. When a disturbing crime takes place in the forest, Rachel and her family must meet their grief head-on and endure the mysteries of the town and surrounding woods.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had an interesting premise and complicated main characters. The beginning of this book was well-paced and intriguing, but as the story continued, the pacing was inconsistent and I found myself distracted. Rachel was a hard character to root for, and I found the region and side characters to be a bit stereotypical.

Overall this was not for me.

“Those woods… they wanted her attention, wanted to absorb her into the darkness until the world forgot her name. Wanted to steal her breath and return the forest to complete stillness.”

Rachel Kennan, a police chief of a small conservative town ridden with issues of substance abuse, is tasked with solving a mystery after a body is found in the woods. Plagued by her past and current imperfections, the situation gets more and more personal as she eventually is fighting for her family and her sanity.

‘Nowhere’ definitely had that creepy, unsettling vibe that I love in horror novels. It was slow to set that up in the beginning and then ramped up in the end to a suspenseful and chaotic mess. I liked that this story gave us a lot to dissect - complicated and flawed characters that are sent to judgement by a monster that represents likely some very real hatred in this world.

I struggled a bit with the dialogue in the book and the pacing. But I was surprised with how much overall I ended up enjoying this, especially with the switching POV. The ending definitely kept me intrigued! I’m excited to read Allison Gunn’s future work!

Title: Nowhere
Author: Allison Gunn (Debut Author)
Publisher: Atria
Genre: Mystery Thriller, Horror
Pub Date: March 25, 2025
My Rating: 3.3 Stars
Pages 304

Rachel Kennan is the chief of Police in Dahlmouth, Virginia which is a small Appalachian religious town.
She and her husband Finn- an unemployed journalist as well as their two daughters are suffering the loss of their son 8 year old Aiden who died in a car accident.
~It seems Finn’s alcoholism had something to do with the car accident.

Rachel and Finn have given up on working on their marriage. The only reason they stay together is for their two daughters. When a series of crimes happen one after another, Rachel's investigation reveals a terrifying force from the forest that wants the town's children.

I was draw to this story as I was born and raised in wild n wonderful West Virginia-
As I continued to read I knew this wasn’t my usual read but I was hoping it would work- as the ‘Author’s Note’ got my attention.

Debut Author Allison Gunn is a researcher, writer, and tarot reader with a penchant for all things whimsical and strange. Allison has extensively studied marginalized communities as well as folklore.
She tells us in her “Author’s Note” that her own life is the foundation for this story.
She hopes that is anyone is encountering a similar situation that they will find comfort in knowing they are not alone – you are strong and will escape your own Nowhere”.

Ms. Gunn is currently resides in the wonderfully weird land of West Virginia with her twin daughters, precocious pup, and one seriously troubled tabby.

Want to thank NetGalley and Atria for this early eGalley.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for March 25, 2025.

This book was spooky. I started reading this at night and it had me creeped out. The atmosphere is fantastic. I was completely immersed and intrigued to find out what was going on throughout this story.

Rachel and her husband Finn are still grieving from the loss of their son when Rachel gets called out to a crime scene in the woods. There is a very mysterious death and children start to go missing.
There is a lot of mystery behind all of the disappearances and tensions rise as everyone starts to become uneasy.

The characters are extremely unlikable but it doesn’t make the story any less good. In fact, I think it might make the story better. I appreciated the glimpses of real life drama within this story. The characters were incredibly cruel to each other and it made me see how marriage really might be for some.

I was engaged in this story till the very end, and this certainly is not a story where you will have any sort of happy ending. If you love dark, mysterious, scary reads then you will probably love this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

This story had me hooked from the beginning as it created such a strong creepy feeling and then as we neared the second half of the story it sort of became a bit repetitive and lost my interest. I was hoping for so much more but was left a bit just unfulfilled at the end of this book.

I felt a bit conflicted about this one. At first, I really enjoyed it because it created a genuinely eerie vibe that was somewhat frightening. I found myself constantly curious about what might be lurking in those woods! I nearly gave up on this because I just couldn’t stand the main female character at all. When I reached the second half, it felt like it lost its excitement. The book seemed to repeat a lot of what had already happened in the first half, and there wasn't anything new introduced. I really loved the mythology and wished there was more of it, along with a greater sense of creepiness. It started to bore me, and I found it quite odd. I just wanted it to wrap up. Despite not enjoying the second half, I still liked the book overall.

Wow, this was incredible.

Nowhere by Allison Gunn is pitched as Mare Of Easttown meets The Outsider. It follows our main character, Chief Rachel Kennan. Her and her husband went through a devastating tragedy that rocked their family. Things begin to go wrong in this small town and Rachel and her husband must come together and save their family.

I cannot believe this was a debut. Gunn outdid herself her. Nowhere is equal parts thrilling, horrifying, and emotionally charged. I really could not put it down. This book oozes with atmosphere and I think this would be a great book for summer/fall.

I think the comparison to Mare of Easttown/The Outside are apt. Although, I think fans of True Detective, Night Country will love this.

Thank you Atria Books for the copy of Nowhere by Allison Gunn. I should have read the description more carefully because the genre said this was a thriller/mystery, not horror, and this was definitely horror. The writing was excellent and really kept me reading, even though horror isn’t really my thing. The book started out strong, but after the action started, it got a little repetitive because we didn’t learn anything new about the ‘victims’ or the reason things were happening. Enough was going on that held my interest and even though it wasn’t my usual read, it really kept me reading to the end. Maybe I am so accustomed to reading books with a definitive ending this one didn’t feel it really ended - it just stopped. Most of it was a riveting read, though. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4