I’m very selective with ARC’s rule number 1 it was to peak my interest and this book was no exception. Reading the description I knew this book was gonna knock it out of the park for me. Sadly that was not the case. This book had all of the key element’s demonic possession, psychological mind twists, murder and horror.
The book is about a woman named Jewel who has to rush home and take care of her famous author sister, who unfortunately is in a coma. From here the book does get interesting. I am a fan of a good slow burn book but this book was just slow. There was information provided in the book and it was thrown out but much later explained.
I couldn’t connect with the characters there was no emotional connection for me I was just reading words about people. Also, the length of the book was long considering the content that was written. I think due to the fact the book is about a manuscript with a demonic possession and there was no back story of how it came to be didn’t help the book any.
Describe this book in three words: Confusing, Drawn out and erratic.
This was not the book for me, I wouldn’t discourage any from reading this book but I won’t recommend this book.
Thank you NetGalley, T. Marie Vandelly and Blackstone Publishing for the ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

Completely unhinged and darkly humorous, An Evil Premise is another solid effort from T. Marie Vandelly, who already impressed me with the underappreciated horror novel Theme Music (2019). If you enjoy stories about sibling rivalry, meta-commentary on writing and storytelling, and a high, gory kill count—this novel delivers on all fronts.

An Evil Premise reads like a fever dream in the best possible way, due in part to its writing style. T. Marie Vandelly intentionally avoids clichés, and I find the way she constructs sentences and describes scenes to be refreshingly unconventional, with a distinct signature touch. (You can definitely tell this is the same author who wrote Theme Music.) At its best, the prose is inspiring and gleefully grotesque—especially when visualizing the kills. That said, there are moments when it veers into being a bit too showy, trying so hard to be 'different' that clarity occasionally suffers. Still, those moments are minor and don't detract from the overall experience.

In recent years, I’ve noticed a trend in novels becoming more interactive, with embedded puzzles for readers to solve (Beautiful Ugly and We Used to Live Here come to mind). An Evil Premise includes one as well—not as intricate as the others, but it adds a nice punch to the ending.

Because of the meta nature of the plot, I highly recommend reading An Evil Premise in physical format. The formatting and typographical changes help distinguish between the different 'stories' being told. I’m curious how the audiobook will handle this without turning into a confusing mess.

My one nitpick with An Evil Premise is similar to what I mentioned in my review of Theme Music: the plot drags slightly around the 60–80% mark, cycling through similar beats with only slight variations in characters and circumstances. Since the story is rooted in an unreliable reality, the chaos and deaths can start to feel desensitized—less shocking and more disposable—when there’s little consistency or grounding to latch onto. Fortunately, the final 20% is a whirlwind of satisfying reveals, graphic violence, and thematic payoff that more than makes up for those earlier lulls.

If you enjoy horror and haven’t yet read T. Marie Vandelly, this is another great entry to start with.

Yes, it's early in the year, but An Evil Premise already has a strong claim to the Best Horror of 2025 Throne. The concept of the "book within a book" is expertly crafted here, with excerpts from the manuscript woven throughout, adding another incredible layer. Seeing fiction and reality blur for our protagonist makes this story so unsettling, and watching the pieces come together had me up all night so that I could binge this one from start to finish. If reading the preface alone doesn't hook you as a reader, then I dont know what will.

If you're not a fan of a slow burn, this may not be the book for you, but the payoff is so worth it. ((I love a good slow burn, and I think it adds to this particular story brilliantly, but I know it's not for everyone.)) But I would recommend this one for horror fans who like their unhinged characters with a side of possession and a sprinkle of light body horror. ((I'm also dishing out bonus points for creative kills.)) Come August 2025, I will absolutely be clutching a physical copy of this book in my greedy little gremlin hands, and I already can't wait to see what T. Marie Vandelly graces us with next!

This wasn’t particularly good. The frame stories didn’t really work and it’s one of those gimmicky books that’s so infatuated with the gimmick it never becomes independently interesting.

4.75 stars

Publishes August 12th and follows Jewel who rushes to her sister Diedre’s bedside when she is thrown into a coma after an accident. When Diedre is contacted by her publisher about her upcoming horror novel completion, Jewel answers the call and because she too is a writer agrees to finish Diedre’s book to meet the strict deadline. When the story begins hitting close to home, Jewel continues and the story becomes far more haunting than anyone could’ve ever imagined.

This was incredibly multilayered, riveting, and mind blowing. The way this book messed with my mind!!! Wow. If you’ve read Theme Music you know that Vandelly sure knows how to write a descent into madness and this was no different.

I didn’t at all know where this story would take me and it absolutely bended my mind into a pretzel and wouldn’t let up.

Dark, disturbing, grisly, twisty, messed up, and such a good time.

My only qualm with this book was the ending. It had a great stopping point that I loved and then just kept going and I don’t think the continuation did it any favors.

I absolutely loved Theme Mysic by this author so when I had the opportunity to read this, I jumped on it. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a good read for me. I like a good slow burn, but nothing happened in this book until the end. I’ll definitely give this author another shot, but this just wasn’t for me.

**4.5-stars**

Upon hearing that her sister, Deidre, has been egregiously-injured in a bizarre accident, Jewel drops everything and rushes to be by her side in the hospital. All she knows is that Deidre was involved in a hit-and-run and remains in a coma. That's horrible, and of course upsetting, but even more shocking to Jewel is the terrible skin malady that seems to be plaguing Deidre as well.

Her sister looks nothing like herself. How long has she been dealing with this strange condition, and what exactly is it? Jewel has so many questions. She decides to stay at Deidre's apartment, so she'll be closer to the hospital while Deidre hopefully recovers. It's at the apartment, as she tries to settle in, that Jewel comes across her sister's current unfinished writing project. While both are published authors, Deidre is very successful, while Jewel's work has never garnered much attention.

After a conversation with Deidre's literary agent, who called to inquire about the unfinished story, Jewel agrees to help meet a very serious deadline. It's the least she can do to help her sister during her hour of need. Also, more selfishly, maybe Deidre's agent will be impressed with her work and it could help boost Jewel's career as well. Silver linings.

As she starts reading Deidre's manuscript though, she discovers something very unsettling. It seems to be mimicking her current circumstances, but how? Not only that, she thinks it is possibly getting longer every night; that she can hear someone else typing while she's in the other room. Jewel tells herself she's just being paranoid. That would be impossible. Wouldn't it?

Determined to see it through, to finish the manuscript, help her sister and possibly jump-start her floundering career, Jewel pushes on. No matter what happens, she will honor her commitment. Then her skin begins to itch.

Y'all, this was brutal and very, very good. I was all over the place with it, trying to figure out WTH was going on. I was so entertained by being in Jewel's mind and watching her interact with everyone around her. Staying at Deidre's, she has many interactions with the other tenants in Deidre's building, as well as quite a few interesting encounters at the hospital as well.

It's clear Jewel might not be the most reliable narrator, which I love, but what was going on with everyone else? Was there anything going on, or was Jewel just pitching them to me in a way that would make me think that?

I love reading stories that revolve around authors, and this one certainly had that nailed with not one, but two authors. It incorporates sections of the book Jewel is working on, and those book-within-a-book elements were incredibly well-executed. NGL, it was impressive. I thought it was losing me at the end, a little bit, I felt like I was going to be disappointed with the conclusion, but Vandelly brought it around with a jaw-dropping, evil grin inducing conclusion.

I would absolutely recommend this to Horror Readers, particularly if you enjoy a book-within-a-book story. I felt like Vandelly created some chilling horror imagery, with many scenes genuinely getting under my skin. Also, speaking of skin, excellent body horror.

Thank you to the publisher, Blackstone Publishing, for providing me with a copy to read and review. Everyone should be adding this to their Summer Scares TBR!!!

This was so good. This is definitely a slow burn but I feel like it pays off so good in the end. I’ve had trouble recently reading books trying for too many twists or being able to figure out what’s really going on early on but this one knocked me away and left me in an actual jaw drop.

The premise and book within a book was such a unique idea. It took me a couple of days to really get invested but once I was hooked I was HOOKED and could not put it down.

I’m so glad I got to read this one and can’t wait to tell everyone to pick it up in August.

A blend of true crime obsession, small-town secrets, and a creeping supernatural undertone into a story that’s as unsettling as it is absorbing.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for gifting me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Honestly - this book is fantastic. It’s twisty, creepy, well-written and surprisingly, full of dark humor that just works. The uniqueness of the plot was what drew me in, and I stayed present in the story the entire time. Kudos to Vandelly for finding a way to bring an unorthodox story to the genre and doing it incredibly well. Four stars.

This book had a premise unlike anything I've ever seen before. I've enjoyed some borrowed/stolen manuscript books in the past but this was something completely unique. The book was twisty and turny, and I never knew where we were going to go next. I loved this book!

Wild ride of a book! I loved Theme Music, by this author, so I had high hopes - I was not disappointed! I was genuinely scared at times, but also found myself amused and laughing. The story and structure were very unexpected so if you’re expecting a normal reading experience you may be thrown off. I was down for whatever, so the reading experience was great.

This read would be excellent for anyone who's interested in slow burn psychological thrillers. For me, it felt a little too slow, while also having too many things happening at once. I would recommend reading this quickly and in as few sittings as possible—maybe this would allow for a better grasp on the narrative.

In An Evil Premise, a woman desperate for success rushes to complete the unfinished manuscript of her comatose sister, a bestselling author, only to discover that the story oddly resembles reality and could be driving her mad to the point where everything begins to feel meta.

The book felt like a horror comedy, and I found myself laughing during creepy scenes and between terrible scenes of horror—definitely a wild read. Psychological horror with insanity and possession is not my cup of tea, but the humor made it entertaining. I thought the characters’ dialogue exchanges were funny and Jewel’s point-of-view was hilarious. The horror was graphic and over-the-top, and the numerous twists of the twists were also way too much (probably intentional), which made it all the more confusing, wild, terrible, disgusting, creepy, mind-bending, and funny. I think that was the idea so the horror succeeded there. Thanks to Blackstone Publishing for the opportunity to read an ARC of this novel.

4.25 stars

This book was a confusing but amazing time. This is a book you have to read quickly, cause there is so much going on that if it takes a while to read you're going to start forgetting characters, events, etc. I loved the premise of this book and how it was written, especially the writing of the narrator. The ending was a little confusing, partly because of the narrator but I imagine that was on purpose. Regardless, I wish I had understood what was happening at the end a little more, but the ending was perfect.

Thanks to Netgalley and Blackstone Publishing for the advanced e-copy !

What a wild and insane ride. I absolutely loved this! It was creepy and unsettling but full of dark humor. This slow-burn psychological horror will constantly leave you guessing. It has an amazing, unique plot, fantastic characters, and plenty of intriguing twists. So far, this is easily my favorite horror novel of 2025.

While this book has its creepy moments, it wasn't enough to win me over. The unreliable narrator was too much and the confusion/fake outs at the end were too much. I think if you usually read more horror rather than thrillers you may enjoy the slow burn, but I wasn't the right audience for this story.

This is THE best ARC I have ever read. It also is my absolute favorite read so far this year. I saw absolutely NONEEE of the plot twists coming at the end, and even after there were twists they just kept on coming. Truly a 5 star read!

Alright, so An Evil Premise is exactly what you’d expect from T. Marie Vandelly—dark, twisted, and absolutely not something you should read right before bed (which, of course, I did). The writing is razor-sharp, the atmosphere is dripping with dread, and the tension builds like a slow-creeping nightmare. Vandelly knows how to craft a story that burrows under your skin, and this one definitely delivers.

That said, some of the plot turns are so wild that you just have to roll with it. Like, logic takes a backseat, grabs some popcorn, and watches the chaos unfold. But honestly? That’s part of the fun. It’s a brutal, eerie, and completely absorbing read—just don’t expect to feel good afterward

I am so happy that I got a copy of "An Evil Premise" by T. Marie Vandelly from Netgalley, because I swear I think this is going to be one of the top horror books of 2025.

Like, I think my main advice for other readers is -- just have fun with this. This isn't deep literature, but a damn good story with truly creepy and original moments. I HOPE it will get made into a movie eventually, because I think it would have some of the best jump scares. It's weird to think of a book having jump scare moments, but it definitely did for me!

A must read for horror fans in 2025. "An Evil Premise" comes out in August!