
Member Reviews

Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes
Have you ever loved a book so much, it left you speechless?
I’m going to be honest with you all, I’m struggling to put into words how much I love this book.
After Nicholas Belardes’ debut The Deading I had high expectations for Ten Sleep, which Belardes met magnificently. Just like in The Deading, Belardes crafts an evocative narrative that had me on the edge of my seat.
This is a story about a cattle drive that Greta agrees to assist with. When I put it that way, it doesn’t sound appealing, but wait… there's so much more than that. It’s supernatural, horrific, sad, cruel, revengeful, and most importantly, life-changing; not just for the characters, but for the reader as well.
Throughout the cattle drive, Greta begins to see things, which leads to fears of what is in the dark and the shadows. This fear inside her, leads her to evaluate it and the pain from her past emerges. With her daydreaming about the past and present, she begins to grow into a stronger young lady. The escalation of the fear grows to a crescendo that proves how strong a young woman with an awful past can overcome her worst enemy, herself.
After long days of herding the cattle, her friends collect around the fire each night and stories are told. Mainly about Mother Canyon and Ten Sleep, the eerie land they must herd the cattle through. This land has a bloody, brutal past. It is covered in the blood of its victims. The anguish and death is felt in the air, you can smell the deception and murder.
Belardes weaves Native American history, ornithology, the mystical mother nature, and parapsychology.
Warning to readers, there is animal death. But not what you are thinking. Death can be a beautiful thing, it should not be feared. Belardes turns this into a beautiful passing of some of the animals in this story. There is no death of animals for the shock value, it is done tastefully and passionately.
#NetGalley #TenSleep

This storyline sounded intriguing but unfortunately it never really grabbed my attention. At times I felt that I was reading a synopsis of the book, as opposed to the book itself. Others will probably really enjoy this but it just wasn’t for me. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

So I know not all readers put stock in blurbs. Personally, if an author I greatly respect and enjoy blurbs a book I’ll likely give it a go. I might skim thru the description but when I saw SGJ had blurbed it, I knew I’d want to read it. And it definitely has that SGJ vein coursing through so please keep that in mind if the stream
-of-consciousness-while-being-weird-as-fuck thing isn’t your vibe cause this embodies that. This isn’t a beachy summer read, Ten Sleep takes a bit of work. Generally with books there’s some background and buildup before things get going. Belardes drops you in the middle of it all and walks away. Keep up or don’t 🤷🏻♀️.
In Ten Sleep we follow Greta still struggling with being ghosted by her girlfriend. In an effort to stack some cash and get out of town she takes a job assisting two men (Tiller and Scott) driving a herd of cattle into a canyon. I’m from the southeastern US so it was kind of hard for me to even conceptualize why they would undertake such an arduous task. The job is set to take ten days (hence Ten Sleep) but Greta quickly starts seeing sort of alive taxidermic animals and this Western folksy cosmic horror consumes everything.
I assume most readers will shelve this in the slow burn category, but honestly weird stuff happens from the jump. The last third of the book was an accumulation of the journey coming to fruition and I blew through it. It’s a strange, ambiguous at times Western horror with this primordial canyon inhabited by oddities and I enjoyed it. If you appreciate those books that involve a bit more mental gymnastics but pay off in spades, give Belardes a try.

The opening of Ten Sleep got me excited, Nicholas Belardes, seemed to set the stage for a gruesome epic Western-ish horror story. Then I hit the story in earnest…and I was left scratching my head. After that intro I was expecting the action to come fast and hard. I wasn’t disappointed, just confused a bit. Ten sleep isn’t an in your face horror novel. Once I accepted that I was fine. What Ten Sleep is is a slow building story that builds on odd/uncomfortable situations. The various chapters told from the perspective of the local wildlife might seem odd at first, but they really enhanced the unsettling nature of the story. While this one might not be the casual horror (hack and slasher) fan, it’s smart and this is one cattle drive you won’t soon forget. Thanks so much to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ten-sleep-nicholas-belardes/1146332977?ean=9781645661320&bvnotificationId=59310e94-513c-11f0-9882-0afffadb392d&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/350350250

Nicholas Belardes' writing is not for everyone; it's messier than usual, rather choppy, and it certainly doesn't follow the standard ideas about pacing (for example, tension is many times interrupted by beautiful, yet extensive, descriptions of what's happening, or dialogue comes across as often unnecessarily or redundantly informative). What drives the story forward is neither the plot (occasionally the most impotant scenes aren't even shown on the page), nor the characters (again, some crucial scenes are conveyed through the eyes of someone we'll never see again in the book - occasionally even an animal!). I'd say that what propels the narrative is, weirdly enough, the atmosphere itself; unless you appreciate the effect of the bizarre writing style on the advancement of the plot, you won't enjoy this book. It'll feel like a slow-burn, with lots of rambling. The voice-changes will also feel jarring: sometimes the book sounds as if Stephen Graham Jones had penned it, other times Neil Gaiman or Cormac McCarthy.
I personally enjoyed "Ten Sleep" a lot. It's a very clever and original example of Western Horror, blending folk horror, cosmic horror, eco-horror, paleontological horror and creature feature, with a strong, though flawed, female lead, and an uncanny supernatural setting. The story is cruel, gory, bloody and gritty, with many historical tidbits throughout. Admittedly, it's a bit short on action for a Western Horror novel, and it often borders on fantasy (the wildlife has its say in the book). It reminded me of the Odyssey, for some reason: a ten-day cattle drive turns into an unsettling journey into the unknown. The background lore is amazing: it's about an entity possessing a canyon, that needs bloodletting every hundred years or so, its predatory actions deeply tied to the land's history (its prehistorical past even!). The cattle drive goes through the canyon, every day brings a new horror, the challenges mounting till the (rather abrupt) ending.
The plot has the shape of a question mark, so be prepared for some irritating ambiguities among several nerve-wracking moments of graphic violence and gory deaths. If you've ever wondered what VanDerMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy might read like as a dense Western Horror tale or Weird Western story, this is the book for you!

This one is a struggle. It has been a struggle to get lost in, and is a struggle to review. I picked up Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes, really looking forward to a good horror to sink my teeth into, especially one I could relate to now that I live in rural Colorado. Unfortunately, the pacing made this really hard to get into.
The tension was constantly interrupted so that any kind of fear and unease that had built up in one chapter was gone the next. We get one chapter following Greta and then another chapter following wildlife. Then, we get lessons and lectures about the American west in Greta’s POV, as well as her fixation on her missing girlfriend Hannah. When we started with the prologue, I was expecting something massive, blood, the feeling of being stalked and hunted. Instead, this is like a slowburn that simply drags on and on.
One of the major issues is the endless questions that get thrown at us without getting any answers. It really didn’t give me anything to latch onto to want to continue. It wasn’t here’s a small answer that led to five more questions. Instead, it’s simply question, after question, after question. It isn’t until close to 50% that we start to really see connections build, but by that point, I was already uninterested.
All of that said, this reads more like an ode to the American west than a horror novel. There are these big descriptive paragraphs that paint such a pretty picture, and a lot of background and historical information. The animal chapters are also amazing. The Coyote chapter and the Bear chapter, both broke my heart. It was written with so much emotion. The animal chapters were honestly my favorites.
I think if you’re a BIG fan of westerns or the American west, then you’ll appreciate Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes. If you’re looking for something that is more horror that is western flavored, this might be a bit much. I still don’t know how I feel about it completely.

Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes, the book 1st starts with Tom Horn who thinks he’s going to out witt an ancient entity in the 1890s this is how we learn what Greta Malina and her fellow cattle drivers are going to be up against. i’m not going to waste much time on the review what I will say is if you like extreme nauseating horror with some very gross depictions, than you will definitely enjoy this book. I myself was entertained and enjoyed the overall story but didn’t like Greta, something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. She was supposed to be the smart country girl but throughout the book she made some very idiotic decisions. By the end I was rooting for her but you’ll have to read the book to find out how that ended. I loved the monsters the perspectives from the animals and think had the book’s Main character been more likable it would’ve been better I also didn’t like the long meandering sentences but the book isn’t all about Greta. The overall ancient mystery monster story I thought was a really good one. I think what it is is I didn’t like the main character nor the long winded sentences I still finished it and still definitely recommended to other horror fans. for those who love history will especially like this book because throughout although it’s a modern day cattle drive on ATVs they do have an abundance of historical tidbits throughout the book.#NetGalley, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview, #NicholasBelardes, #TenSleep,’

A modern western horror novel set in the wilds of Wyoming. It does have an echo twist in there which is a good one and tie up the plot with prehistoric monsters. It's weird, part folklore and have interesting characters.
Intriguing: 2
Scariness: 2
Unsettling: 2
The novel is a little bit slow at the beginning but I've easily become engrossed in the story. It's a solid 4 ⭐ read for me. I think it would be best go in without knowing much about the story
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC.

This book wasn’t for me.
It initially caught my attention with the horror aspect. However, I quickly realized this wasn’t in my wheelhouse in the very beginning when it was discussing the canyon and the guy that was resurrected to protect it.
If the book was about half the length, that would have sufficed. It felt like it droned on. I also did not enjoy the perspective of the animals. It just seemed odd to me.
All in all, not for me but I can see how some can enjoy this book.

A western horror that highlights the cruelty of white settlers in the US. It was dark, very dark and will make you question the history you've learnt. The pov alternates between our MC and various animals, making it detailed and layered. It was chilling and I was legitimately scared many times. A very well written novel.

As a Wyoming native (though no longer resident), I was intrigued by the premise of this modern weird Western. A 20-something woman, adrift after dropping out of the U. of Wyoming (yes, I'm an alumna) and getting left by her girlfriend, takes up a friend's offer to work on a 10-day cattle drive outside the small town of Ten Sleep. Unfortunately, the drive leads into a canyon haunted by centuries of bloodletting, and hungry for more.
The Wyoming setting and characters of this novel rang true for me. Greta Molina, the main protagonist, is both flawed and deeply sympathetic. Her complex family history, though not always relevant to the plot, gives her something to hang onto when things start getting strange -- as they do very quickly. Unfortunately, it also blinds her to the considerably darker family circumstances of the friend who hired her. Generational curse, anyone?
The narrative proceeds through each night/sleep of the drive at a deliberate, often nerve-wracking pace. Sections of straight narrative are interspersed with scenes focused on animals, birds, or other entities -- scenes which don't always seem to follow from the section before. Most do eventually tie into the main plot, but a few never did for me. Greta is also riding with a headful of memories and anxieties, which may explain why she went on this drive in the first place, but do not necessarily move the story forward. When the dénouement comes, however, it's fast-paced and relentlessly bloody. In the wilderness, Belardes seems to be saying, we die like any other animal.
Ten Sleep is ambitious, imaginative horror with perhaps too many things going on at once. In addition to the family curse aspect, it incorporates historical horror, cosmic horror, eco-horror, supernatural horror, and more than I ever wanted to know about taxidermy. This makes for a creepy but scattered reading experience, as there are simply too many pieces to fit into this nasty little puzzle. It held my attention throughout, though -- and I can truly say I've never read anything quite like it.
Recommended for slow burn horror fans with a fascination for the weird West, and a certain amount of stamina.

I absolutely LOVED this book! It had everything I look for in a story... It made me feel as if I were there in the canyons actually experiencing Greta's crippling fear.
The increasing tension mounts throughout the story becoming quite unsettling. And I loved every second of the breathless pace and dual narration the author has taken.
Having a dual POV for each day in every chapter where we experience Greta's POV and on the alternating side the POV of the animals of mother canyon. I don't want to give too much away so please read this book.

Belardes delivers a fusion of Western tradition and supernatural dread—a combination that transforms familiar cattle country into a landscape of escalating horror before my eyes. The novel's setting operates as both character and threat, vast and breathtaking under the punishing sun before revealing its sinister nature when darkness falls. What begins as scenic prairie imagery slowly twists into something malevolent, leaving me scanning the shadows on the page and in my own room.
The physical experience of reading "Ten Sleep" deserves special mention. My skin prickles with goosebumps as entities—visible to me but appearing as hallucinations to the exhausted characters—lurk at the narrative edges. This creates a delicious tension where I become the helpless witness to approaching terror.
Belardes' structural choices enhance the mounting dread. Interchapter perspectives from unexpected sources function as both relief and amplification for me, offering crucial insights that make the final revelations both inevitable and shocking. This symbolism works brilliantly as the narrative progresses.
At the heart of this cattle drive from hell stands Greta Molina, whose determination to complete the ten-day run despite accumulating horrors creates the book's central conflict. I find myself simultaneously admiring her grit while mentally screaming for her to abandon the journey. Her psychological evolution through sustained terror adds remarkable depth to what could have been a straightforward survival narrative.
While the novel matches the cattle drive's grueling pace, I find this deliberate slowness ultimately serves the narrative's suffocating atmosphere. The gore, present from the opening scenes, functions less as shock value and more as visceral metaphor for human vulnerability.
This book has me questioning whether the true monsters emerge from supernatural shadows, unforgiving nature, or the darkest corners of human intention.
Thank you Kensington Publishing and Netgalley for my E-ARC for review. Opinions are my own.

𝙏𝙚𝙣 𝙎𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥 - 𝗡𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗮𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗲𝘀
3.5/5⭐, rounded up
🆁🅴🆅🅸🅴🆆
This is a uniquely different kind of horror novel set in the modern day wilds of Wyoming. Our MC, Greta, agrees to a job offered by a friend for a 10 day (10 sleeps) cattle drive that turns into a haunted and harrowing journey where she and her companions (and the herd) are stalked by ghosts and monstrous creatures that may or may not be cursed man-made creations, or the eons-old return of long extinct species...
I enjoyed the breaks in the (sometimes overly long) present-day storyline with the POV chapters from local wildlife, and later on, the flashback history of the ancient landscape. Belardes has grounded his story in recent-ish history -- from the colonization of America's west, and even further back to the First Peoples' arrival to this continent. He ties into these fascinating and little known bits quite nicely and they up the mystery and building dread.
The tension builds at a good pace, and while there is some truly gruesome horror, it's not extreme or distracting. And though the human crew are in a nervous hurry to be at the end of the journey, that sense of urgency isn't mirrored in the book itself. I'd say my only criticism is that it's a bit overly long in some parts and that detracts a bit from the pacing. But I still found myself glued to the story right to the end. I look forward to reading more from this author.
𝘔𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺. 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸 𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘺.

I love the concept of Ten Sleep: Greta is hired for a ten-day long cattle drive across Wyoming. But once out on the prairie, she realizes that her and her two colleagues—two guys she’s known for years—might have bigger problems than just corralling calves and keeping predators at bay. Each night, the trio encounter supernatural horrors—from an unnaturally large bird in the sky to an eerie ghost train.
Something about the writing style and execution of this story didn’t quite work for me though. While I liked Greta as a character, I found the narration to be fairly monotonous. I was also initially really excited about the inclusion of chapters from the POV of various animals, but I just felt like the writing style was a bit one-note when it was a brilliant chance for creativity.
I’m sure the writing will hit the right spot for some readers though. I wonder if I’d have gotten on better with the story if I’d been listening to the audiobook instead.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Publishing for the ARC.
DNF at 30%
This was my first DNF on an ARC. The description of this novel led me to believe it would be something I would enjoy but I was wrong.
The writing, while not bad grammatically or functionally, simply fell flat and felt boring. In chapters from the point of view of animals, the anthropomorphism seemed uncreative and overbearing. I feel like these sections could have been left out without adding creativity and nuance to the different points of view.
The characters felt very flat and I could not bring myself to care about any of them. The attempted mystery surrounding any character seemed completely obvious and again made for a very boring feel. Some readers may enjoy this but I was unable to complete it.

this was quite hard to get into and it was even harder to finish. i had to give up at 20%. The story would have been more engaging if the narrator didnt sound like he had a stick up his ass. i did not enjoy this at all.

Writing an eco-horror novel is a balancing act. Nicholas Belardes is clearly very talented with presenting multiple viewpoints and with immersing a reader in a given setting, but the balance of plot to preachy prose is not well maintained in Ten Sleep.
Readers who are familiar with Weird West fiction will be slightly exasperated from the beginning as the narration lacks any subtlety, hammering the reader with curses, dinosaurs and hints of terror birds not long after the introduction. Adopting the perspective of wildlife in any novel is ambitious, but in this one, the writing veers from archaic, stylized language in the intro to colloquial vernacular in the main story without any time to absorb characters or their voices. If for no other reason than that, the animal narration here is completely unconvincing, which makes it seem like the ecology part of the story is all academic, without any passion or feeling for the subject.
Thank you to Netgalley, Kensington Publishing and Erewhon Books for the ARC.

Review of Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes
Ten Sleep by Nicholas Belardes is an atmospheric and haunting tale set against the stark and vast landscapes of Wyoming. Blending elements of Western fiction, supernatural horror, and eco-thriller, the novel explores the dark secrets buried in the American West and the psychological toll of confronting a world that teeters between the natural and the otherworldly.
Plot Overview: The story follows Greta Molina, a Mexican-American woman, as she embarks on a cattle drive across the Wyoming plains. What initially appears to be a straightforward journey turns into a nightmare as Greta and her companions—Tiller and Scott—encounter strange and unsettling phenomena in the remote canyons. Ghostly apparitions, unnatural wildlife, and eerie, larger-than-life creatures lurk just beyond the surface of the land, challenging the trio’s grip on reality. As tensions rise and the landscape becomes increasingly unforgiving, Greta is forced to confront the land’s bloody past and the unseen forces that still haunt it.
Atmosphere and Setting: One of the novel’s strongest features is its atmosphere. The harsh, unforgiving terrain of Wyoming becomes a character in itself, its sweeping plains and jagged canyons imbued with a sense of foreboding and danger. Belardes does an excellent job of making the environment both beautiful and menacing, turning the vast openness of the West into an ominous backdrop that enhances the tension throughout the narrative. The setting isn't just a place—it's a reflection of the eerie forces at work and the characters’ inner turmoil as they try to navigate through it.
Character Development: Greta Molina is a compelling protagonist whose journey is as much about self-discovery as it is about survival. Throughout the novel, Greta grapples with her own fears, uncertainties, and the weight of her heritage, which ties her to the land in a way she doesn't fully understand at first. Her companions, Tiller and Scott, are well-drawn, with their own secrets and hidden motivations, adding layers of complexity to the story’s unfolding mystery. The dynamics between these characters provide much of the emotional depth of the novel, as they struggle to stay united in the face of overwhelming, unseen threats.
Themes of Memory and Survival: At its core, Ten Sleep is about the past’s ability to haunt the present, and the novel deftly weaves themes of memory, guilt, and survival. The supernatural elements of the story are not just scary in the traditional sense but are deeply tied to the land’s history—its violent past, the blood that stains it, and the people who have been lost to it. This creates an unsettling atmosphere where the characters are not only at the mercy of external threats but are also forced to reckon with their own pasts, both personal and cultural.
Supernatural Horror: While Ten Sleep delves deeply into the supernatural, it does so in a way that feels grounded and authentic. The ghostly figures and strange occurrences are never overly flashy or gratuitous; instead, they slowly creep into the narrative, amplifying the novel's sense of dread and existential unease. The supernatural serves not just as a plot device, but as a metaphor for the unshakable weight of history, trauma, and the unknown forces that shape our lives.
Final Thoughts: Ten Sleep is a slow-burn, atmospheric horror novel that will appeal to fans of both Westerns and supernatural thrillers. Nicholas Belardes has crafted a compelling and eerie story that is as much about the environment and its deep, unsettling power as it is about the characters who must confront it. With its vivid descriptions of the Wyoming landscape, its richly developed characters, and its thoughtful exploration of themes like memory and survival, Ten Sleep offers a unique and haunting reading experience that will stay with readers long after the final page.
If you enjoy literature that blends the horrors of the unknown with rich, evocative landscapes, Ten Sleep is a must-read. It’s a novel that does not shy away from its dark themes and leaves readers reflecting on the cost of survival and the power of the land long after the story has ended.

I just could not get into this book. It seemed really interesting, but it just could not hold onto my attention.