Editor’s note: This review and roundup appears in several Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia newspapers and magazines, including at https://cullmantimes.com/2025/03/11/review-a-sip-of-spring-fiction-with-a-bit-of-history-for-flavor/

A sip of spring fiction, with a bit of history for flavor

By Tom Mayer

On the cusp of the 80th anniversary of the atrocities ending with World War II’s VJ Day, comes an important reminder in the form of cinematic storytelling from the pen of best-selling author Robert Dugoni, assisted by fellow academic researchers Chris Crabtree and Jeff Langholz.

Five hundred-page novels that contain more than a hundred pages of afterword and notes aren’t typical fare for the type of thrillers Dugoni writes; and if cinema is used as an adjective for such tomes it generally implies “best documentary” rather than “best picture.” But this fictionalized re-telling of the end of the war is anything but documental, especially with its final 150 pages moving full steam ahead, filled with submarines, warships and Clancyesque code breaking.

“Hold Strong” (Lake Union) tells the story of Sam Carlson and Sarah Haber, young sweethearts from Eagle Grove, Minnesota. It’s the end of the Great Depression and looking for a way out of his and his parents’ misfortunes — the family farm has been repossessed — Sam joins the war effort. Finding that the Army life suits him, he rises through the ranks. In 1942, he’s taken prisoner by the Japanese and survives the worst that that experience can offer, including the Bataan Death March in the Philippines and captivity in the hold of a Japanese “hell ship,” the Arisan Maru.

Through this, Sarah, and Sam’s family, receive no word about him, and the Army records him as missing in action. Though the couple made a promise to each other but never cemented an engagement before he left, Sarah especially is left in limbo, loving a man who she knows could be dead.

But Sarah’s strong, independent character is coupled with a brilliant mathematical mind, and she’s recruited out of college by the Navy to become a code breaker in the service of the WAVES — Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service — helping to turn the tide of the war, and possibly even unknowingly, Sam’s fate. The upshot is that no one, not even their families, can know what the women are doing, even to the point of telling others if asked that they are nothing more than secretaries in the service of Uncle Sam.

The story of Sam and Sarah is just that, a story, but Dugoni and company get it right, opening new and little-known chapters on the hells of that war — and the critical roles of female recruits — with startling and stark reality.

“Hold Strong” works well as a novel, and its secondary characters, such as Father Tom with his unflappable faith and Grace Moretti with her unbounded optimism, are extraordinarily well-developed. But this is one book bound for the big screen, and with its historic foundation underpinning a captivating wartime love story, one that is sure to become the sleeper read of the year.

Another novel of potential sleeper status comes to us as a dream in the charming coming-of-age “The Rainfall Market” (Ace). Written by a young South Korean novelist, You Yeong-Gwang (whose own dream as a young author is this story), and translated by Slin Jung, this magical novel tells the story of the impoverished teenager Serin and an abandoned house on the outskirts of Rainbow Town.

The legend says that if you send an essay explaining your misfortunes to that address, you could receive a ticket in return, and one that not only allows entrance to the Market beyond the house’s front door, but the offer to swap your life for another.

The odds are long but Serin sends off her letter and gets in return a ticket and an invitation to visit the Market for the duration of the rainy season — those who overstay the welcome are destined to never leave — with the total of its enchantments, including a magical cat companion named Issha.

Travels and travails follow Serin and Issha as they are plagued by Dokkaebi — goblin-like creatures taken from the pages of Korean folklore — who run the individual shops in the market, each offering a “happier story in our stock.”

With help from Issha and others that she befriends, Serin traverses the market’s allegorical landmines, comparing one life’s outcome with another until she comes to the end of her visit in this predictable but rewarding fairytale.

Other notable titles out this spring and worth the price of admission — no essay required — range from the fantastical to the feral with a number of big-hitting authors submitting some of their best work, including sequels:

“Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” (Berkley) by Grady Hendrix: 15-year-old Fern arrives alone and scared and pregnant at the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida — as are all the young woman and girls living at the home. Life is strictly regulated under the tyrannical control of the adults until Fern is gifted a book about witchcraft — and the power it contains to both create and destroy.

“The Ends of Things” (Blackstone) by Sandra Chwialkowska: A romantic lovers’ paradise is anything but idyllic for Laura Phillips and her boyfriend as shea becomes involved in the disappearance of the lone traveler befriended on the beach. An exotic getaway soon itself gets away from Laura as garnished cocktails and sumptuous suites turn into a murder investigation — and a fight for her innocence.

“Somewhere Toward Freedom” (Simon & Schuster) by Bennett Parten: Parten, a Georgia-native university professor with an expertise in the Civil War period, shines with storytelling as his reporting illuminates new, and unconventional, light on one of the most well-documented and well-known war episodes in our nation’s history — Sherman’s march to the sea. Subtitled “Sherman’s March and Story of America’s Largest Emancipation,” Parten re-tills well-trodden ground, telling the story of the thousands of enslaved people who followed Sherman and his army, turning a march of destruction into the launch of liberation in this meticulously researched book.

“Cupid on the Loose” (Blackstone) by John J. Jacobson: This timely novel that slipped into best-selling list early in February is nonetheless a timely tale for the ages, and especially for those who love a love story in the vein of Nicholas Sparks, and the romantic mayhem of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” — an author who incidentally plays a prominent role of his own in this fun read. Centered on a “kindred kind of romance” that needs a bit of tender to set it ablaze, enter a meddling grandmother whose intentions are as well-conceived as they are misguided.

“Destiny’s Way” (Berkley) by Jack Campbell: In this sequel to Campbell’s “In Our Stars,” the time traveling part-human, part-alien-DNA Selene Genji is thrust 30 years into the past, before the Universal Way destroyed the world, in an attempt to save Earth — excedpt those alive who want her dead after being declared a traitor by the Earth Guard. Assisted by at least one friend from the first part of the “Doomed Earth Duology,” Selene must find a way to save a prejudicial mankind that wants this independent and strong woman dead.

“The Secrets of Flowers” (Blackstone) by Sally Page: A story floating from the depths of the Titanic — and we never get tired of those — Page crafts a unique, heart-healing tale of Emma, who is bereft following her husband’s death. Told through the language of flowers, Emma discovers the lost story of a girl from the ship, one told in the arrangements of the flowers on board during the maiden, and final, voyage, that might just blossom into the healing of her own grief.

“The Memory Ward” (Blackstone) by Jon Bassoff: A seemingly Elysian small town is the scene of bizarre oddities, and postal worker Hank Davies isn’t the first to notice — he comes to realize he’s delivering mail filled with blank pages — but he’s the one whose willing to cry foul. A secreted story discovered beneath the walls of Hank’s bedroom touches off pages of alternate reality as Bassoff delivers a tale of trauma and altered identity, and one questioning the concept of humanity itself.

“American Fever” (Arcade) by Dur e Aziz Amna: This engaging and humorous novel centers on a Pakistani exchange student in rural Oregon who finds herself between worlds — and entrenched in the navigation of first love, racism, Islamophobia and homesickness. When she finds herself quarantined after a diagnosis of tuberculosis, her world shrinks further as themes of religion, family and national identity take on increasingly larger proportions.

“Protecting Jess” (Arcade Crimewise) by Karna Small Bodman: A White House economist and rising star, Jessica Tanner, has both brains and beauty. Sent to Brazil to speak at an international conference on behalf of her boss, a planned exotic dream assignment descends into a dangerous and foreboding nightmare.

“Don’t Tell Me How to Die” (Blackstone) by Marshall Karp: Marshall Karp, of NYPD Red series (aka, co-conspirator of James Patterson) fame, offers a taut, sharp and on-target psychological thriller in “Don’t Tell Me How To Die” (Blackstone). Told in parts, past and present, Karp crafts a evolving storyline centered on 43-year-old Maggie, a woman who is not only diagnosed with the same deadly disease that claimed her mother but vows to not recreate the adolescent hell she endured because of the passing. Seeing firsthand her dying mother’s warning that, once she died, women would flock to 17-year-old Maggie and her sister’s father “like stray cats to an overturned milk truck” and that it would be up to girls to protect him. Which they do, admirably — until one slips through their gatekeeping. … Determined that the same thing won’t happen to her own family, Maggie devises a plan to find a perfect match as wife and mother … before she dies. If this were all to the plot, the storyline would be worth an afternoon, but in succeeding parts of the novel, Karp continuously turns everything upside down, projecting surprise after surprise in a trope-laden, over-blown style that works perfectly for a main course instead of the appetizer it would have been coming from a lesser pen. Karp is a veteran in keeping the cinematic action going and the shocks coming — both of which are abundantly on display in his latest.

“Cold Iron Task” (Berkley) by James J. Butcher: In this Book 3 of 3 in Butcher’s “The Unorthodox Chronicles,” Grimshaw Griswald Grimsby — one of the most notable names in literary history — has solved at least one case, but he’s still a beginner in Boston’s Department of Unorthodox Affairs. As he joins an unlikely partner in the heist of of an otherworldly vault, Grimsby touches off past and closely guarded secrets, freeing demons and monsters, Usual and Unorthodox, that could be his demise in this series finisher.

“The Gate of the Feral Gods” (Ace Hardcovers) by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl series): Welcome, Crawler, to the fifth floor of the dungeon in Book 4 of Dinniman’s quest series, and one filled with warrior gnomes, malfunctioning machines and a deadly, haunted crypt. On the eve of utter failure, Carl and his team find they must rely on the untrustworthy crawlers trapped in the bubble with them.

“The Summer Guests” (Thomas & Mercer) by Tess Gerritsen: In Book 2 of The Martini Club, retired covert agent Maggie Bird has “retired” to the seaside. In Purity, life is quiet, but it’s not without murder as a friendly neighbor of Maggies becomes embroiled in double homicide charges. It’s up to the Martini Club, a circle of ex-CIA friends book club, to find the truth behind the secrets that portend more murder on the horizon.

“Gothictown” (Kensington) by Emily Carpenter: What if you could purchase a Victorian home for $100 in a small Georgia town eager to spur its pandemic-riddled economy? So begins this story of Billie Hope’s dream of fleeing cramped and crimped New York City with her husband and daughter. Dreams, as they often do in the offerings from Carpenter — a Birmingham, Alabama, native now living in Georgia — descend from opportunities to devilish bargains, and “Gothictown” is part and parcel of the oeuvre. More than genteel charms lurks beneath the facade of Southern hospitality in this town. View a free 66-page teaser of the novel (“Gothictown: A Sneak Peek”) at online booksellers.

“Home Is Where the Bodies Are” (Blackstone) by Jeneva Rose: Questions and secrets arise when three estranged siblings begin to sort their mother’s estate — and discover a VHS recording of their blood-soaked father involved in a death of which none of them have any recollection. Revive the past or leave it buried with their mother? That becomes the question … with no easy, or safe, answers.

Reach Tom Mayer at tmayer@cullmantimes.com.

I first fell in love with author, Emily Carpenter, back in 2016 with her debut book, "Burying The Honeysuckle Girls", which I cannot recommend enough. I also enjoyed reading "Until The Day I Die" and have other novels of hers on my TBR list.

This latest one caught my eye because I love a good southern gothic story. When I saw it was by the author, I couldn't say no. The premise for this book was truly unique and one of a kind: a family offered a chance to restart their life in an idealistic town for practically nothing. A chance for them to own a house and get a loan to start a business seemed like a dream come true.

Right away, something seems off about the people of this town. On the outside they are all so friendly and eager to help their new neighbors and friends. What secrets are they hiding about this town? Why is it so perfect? How are they able to offer houses so cheap and give out money to fund new businesses on town?

This was labeled southern gothic mystery/horror, and I think that is wholly incorrect. This is a mild thriller and cozy mystery at best. It has a slight paranormal aspect to it, maybe?

While I was disappointed in the genre, I did enjoy the story as a whole. The characters, although plentiful & at times confusing, where all unique and unforgettable. There were also times where the plot seemed to drag on and move too slowly, and I think the ending came a bit too swift and wrapped up a bit too neatly.

Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for allowing me an advanced digital copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 4 star read for me, as I am still thinking about it days later.

"Gothictown" by Emily Carpenter is set to be released on March 25, 2025 here in the U.S. so pre-order your copy now!

Gothictown follows the people in a small Georgia town of Juliana. The lore of the town’s history shaped the progress in ways unknown to people who moved there. The head families started a program to lure people to the town and set up businesses through promises of cheap living and safe small town life. Billie, Mere, and Peter left New York after the pandemic in hopes of starting a new restaurant and a new life. Peter was the first to be affected by the problematic nature of Juliana. Secrets were uncovered and suspense builds as Billie attempts to save her family. Carpenter started with a promise of a haunted feeling and ended with a town filled with murderers and tax evaders. She kissed several marks and many of the twists felt forced.

WOO! I freaking loved this book! I absolutely flew right through out! If you love a "new to a small town" vibe with some cult shit happening AND some major family drama, this one is for you!

I loved the main character, Billie - she felt very realistic to me. Flawed, yes, but still trying to do the right thing for herself and her family. The vibes in this book are immaculate, there are spooky moments and tense moments and it's pretty dang fast paced right from the outset.

Also, the cover is so pretty! I definitely recommend this one!

If someone emailed you and offered you a house in a random town in Georgia for only $100 would you take the offer? No? Me either…

I was hoping for a gothic horror novel and I didn’t quite get that. There was no horror or scary elements to this story. We are following a family who takes a $100 offer to buy a house in a random small town in Juliana, Georgia. When they arrive Billie, the wife, starts up a restaurant and her husband Peter, a psychologist, begins his practice. Things are going well for the family until Peter starts going insane and then leaves the family to go back to New York. The story just kind of goes off the rails after that.

The problems I had with this story were a couple things. I’m not sure if the author should have made Billie a mother, she leaves her daughter multiple times with strangers to figure out the insanity that is the town. I think at one point she left her daughter for four days. Billie also basically leaves her restaurant as well, I’m not sure if the restaurant owner and mother were the best things for this character. I just kind of lost interest in Billie, she didn’t seem like that great of a person and I didn’t really care what happened to her. I was hoping for more scary elements within this book, I was hoping for a haunted house story, but didn’t get that.

I liked the short chapters and the story kept my interest, but this wasn’t a favorite and sadly one that I will probably forget.

Thank you to Kensington Publishing for an advanced copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Gothictown (which doesn’t feel like the right name for this book) takes a city, Juliana, that feels frozen in time and exposes everything rotten beneath the surface.

I think my favorite character was Mere because she seemed to have an intuitive understanding that something wasn’t quite right. At the same time, she was too young to put everything together.

The MC was morally gray, but I do wonder how much of that was due to the town’s influence. Peter, her husband, takes on the typical ‘he never used to be like that’ role that’s reserved for all the husbands in all of these type of stories. There were a few interesting twists, though.

All in all, I thought this book was entertaining, but I also felt that it lacked something that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

“𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘶𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘫𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘧𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴, 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴.“

When restauranteur, Billie Hope, receives an post-pandemic invitation to move her family to a small town in Georgia, with the incentive offer to purchase a house for just $100 and receive a thirty thousand dollar business grant to start up a new restaurant, the draw is too good to resist. But they soon realize that not all is as it seems in Juliana. And if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is…

This book is a great modern, Southern gothic- featuring a somewhat unsettling small town,
residents with a near cult-like reverence for their founding families, and a maybe-haunted manor. 𝘎𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 brings a modern take to the gothic mystery thriller!

This book was amazing and I loved it. I have to admit that at first I was actually going to DNF because of the prologue, but that’s because I don’t like historical fiction or anything written that far in the past because it’s boring to me. (Not all, but this type)

But I’m SO glad I continued!

My heart broke reading this book (P & B forever) and honestly I love the eerie town and strange inhabitants. The elite families were written so well.

I’m off to read the rest of this authors books!

Thank you to netgalley, the publisher, and the author for letting me arc read this book.

New Yorkers Billie, Peter, and their daughter Meredith decide they want a change of pace and accept an unexpected and generous offer to move to Juliana, Georgia and start a new business. The housing and storefronts are beyond cheap, the small town seems like a dream community, and their future is brighter than it's been since the pandemic ended Billie's time as a restaurant owner. This is where every reader will begin yelling for them to turn that U-haul around and hightall it back to the city. They, of course, do no such thing and start a new life in too good to be true Juliana.

Gothictown has so many story elements I love, combining small-town drama with Southern Gothic and folk horror. I expected to love this book. Unfortunately, the execution didn't work for me. I struggled with the characters, all the different directions the story went in, and especially the ending. Things went in a very unexpected direction and didn't come together in a way that made sense for me.

This book had all the pieces that usually form a story I'll really enjoy, but I couldn't connect with the characters or feel invested in the events unfolding. This one just wasn't for me. I've enjoyed other books from this author and will most definitely check out her next book.

Thank you Kensington Publishing and Netgalley for providing a copy of this book for me to read and review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to review!
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 5
Pace: 3
Plot development: 5
Characters: 4
Enjoyability: 4
Ease of Reading: 5

Overall rating: 4 out of 5

I absolutely loved the premise of this book. I thought the storyline was original and kept me intrigued. This is a solid gothic thriller and I would absolutely recommend! I will definitely be checking out more of this authors writing.

Really enjoyed this hugely atmospheric novel, the first I've read by Emily Carpenter but it won't be the last. The main character is great, dynamic and empathetic and Carpenter doesn't fall into the trap of having her lead do completely stupid things in the. name of plot. I didn't find the story hugely surprising but that didn't bother me and maybe wasn't the point. Gothictown is a great contemporary piece of page turning Southern Gothic.

Gothictown is a southern gothic mystery/thriller. The story follows a woman and her family who decide to move to a quaint small town in Georgia from New York. The woman, Billie, receives an offer to buy a gigantic Victorian house in Georgia for $100. There has to be a catch right? Billie soon learns that nothing is as it seems in this small, seemingly idyllic town.

I thought this was an interesting book and I enjoyed following along with the main character as all these disturbing events started happening. I liked the small town Georgia setting and the creepy atmosphere. There are some supernatural elements in the story, but it is mainly a mystery/thriller. I did enjoy the ending, even though it did seem very far-fetched.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read that I would recommend to mystery/thriller lovers.

3.5⭐️

I was not sure if this was for me after I requested the arc so it say on my virtual shelf for quite a while. I really expect the scary elements to be more graphic but was very pleased to find that the horror was more creepy and psycholgical than gore.
A decent holiday read and something a bit different. I will be wary of small towns in future 😀

This was a slow burn but decently enjoyable book . Light on the horror aspect and somewhat predictable

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book

A dark and twisted tale of greed and the importance of family even if it means murder. The setting in Julianna, Georgia was a nice and slow pace and really set the tone for the story. The characters were interesting and kept me captivated. I really enjoyed the flashbacks of the town and local family history that explained the current events happening in the present. I look forward to more from Emily Carpenter!

The old saying ‘if something seems too good to be true, it probably is’ applies to the plot and the story itself (for me).

I was expecting a horror filled Gothic mystery thriller, but this read more like a cozy, which I found disappointing. I loved the setting but I despised the main character; add in “too long” and “predictable” and this one didn’t work well for me.

Other readers may find more to appreciate here.



Thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for the DRC

I have always enjoyed Southern Gothic literature. The spooky, small-town atmosphere, the cruelty lurking behind southern gentility, it all combines into a truly gripping read. So of course I jumped at the chance to read Gothictown by Emily Carpenter!

This book follows Billie, a restauranter who moves her family to a small idyllic town in Georgia after her successful but busy New York life is interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of this, Billie is working through feeling abandoned by her mother who recently joined a cult which forbids any contact with the outside world. The move goes unbelievably smoothly, but when she and her husband begin experiencing night terrors, they start to think not everything in the town is as wonderful as it seems. Secrets from the town’s founding days begin coming to light, putting Billie and her family in grave danger.

The best part of this book is the atmosphere. Carpenter has expertly crafted a small town in which one feels constantly surveilled but still isolated. It’s a really interesting parallel to Billie’s mom’s self-imposed isolation. While the rules of this Georgia town are not explicitly isolationist, there is still only a handful of times that Billie actually makes contact with anyone outside the town. This lonely setting really allows the psychological suspense of this story to flourish, and before we know it we, too, have been sucked into this world of secrets, surveillance, and solitude.

The plot of this novel is also masterfully crafted. While many suspense or mystery novels have twist reveals that make sense in hindsight but are otherwise suspected, we can tell what’s probably coming at the end of the story. We get revelatory flashbacks that Billie is not privy to, and that creates a psychological tension as Billie gets deeper and deeper into this web of secrets. I found myself being successfully gaslit alongside Billie; I would be pretty sure I knew the twist was coming but kept second-guessing myself because of Carpenter’s expert use of tone and characterization.

Overall, this book was enthralling. Moderate pacing made it perfect for both bedtime and lunch reading. The atmosphere, tone, and plotting made this book nearly impossible to put down. I enjoyed every second of it.

Gothictown by Emily Carpenter will be available in March, 2025 from Kensington Books.

References

Carpenter, E. (2025). Gothictown. Kensington Books.

I started reading this book thinking it'd be a sort of combination of cult horror and small town thriller. Indeed, on that front it delivered aplenty, and the hints of a supernatural element's involvement were hugely appreciated as well. All these good things, however, exhaust themselves by the first half of the book. What followed was extremely frustrating, tiresome, even boring. I felt the author was continuously coming up with unnatural turns and twists just to fill space and extend the length of the story to make up a novel. First of all, the marriage and relationship troubles, the unfolding romance, and the problems of the female protagonist with her mom were absolutely forced into the story; admittedly, they ended up to be necessary for the realization of an interesting ending, but they did not grow naturally out of the plot. On the contrary, they often made me wonder why people were acting and talking so weird, and why their decisions were always plot- and never character-driven. The result was an utter failure in characterization: the female central character, especially, forced to think and act all over the place so that the plot goes forward, never sounded like a mom (though she was), never acted like a wife (though she was), and with the risks she was taking I had to remind myself she even had a family! It was ironic that when the author introduced a conjecture explaining the ridiculous and unmotivated behavior, it turned out to be wrong. This allowed space for the supernatural element to work, but it was just left there hanging, and, unfortunately, went absolutely nowhere. Second, the cult vibes never really gelled with the thriller aspect of the book. The ending shows this abundantly: you'd never expect James Bond to call on the IRS to take out the bad guy, yet this is exactly what provides closure to this 'adventure'. Such a disappointment. Finally, and perhaps more troubling, what the heck is going on with the little girl, the daughter of the central character? Sometimes she's acting like a baby, other times like a teenager, most often like a doll for the mom to throw around for the plot to get some tension. In sum, the book had potential, but a novella would have been a better format for this story. As a novel, it soon loses steam and tires the reader out.

eally wanted to love this, but I think it just wasn’t for me. I made it about 70% through before realizing I had no real desire to keep going—I just wasn’t enjoying it.

The atmosphere was unsettling in the best way, and the writing was strong, I found myself frustrated rather than intrigued half the time. Every choice the characters made had me screaming WHY.

I won’t be posting this review elsewhere because I don’t think my experience truly reflects the book’s potential—it just wasn’t the right fit for me.