A bit repetitive but in the end a very nice book. The writing style is really nice and a bit original. Would love to read more from Nolan.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this ARC. All opinions are my own.

For horror fans this book isn't going to be something that will jump out and scare you. This is a book where there horror is created by grief which isn't going to scare you in the same way like a regular horror book will. I would say this book is closer to psycological horror where the further details you gain from the story the more horrific it becomes. I found this story to be absolutely fantastic. I have seen some reviews where other readers have had difficulty getting used to how this book is written. But as someone who is very much so in their own head and is constantly having thoughts, ideas, and dialogue, running through my mind. It didn't feel that much different from being in my own head with this main character. I found the writing in this book to be jaw-droppingly beautiful. There were many periods where I had to stop and re-read or just stop to soak in the phrasing and turn a phrase in the descriptors within this book. If you are somebody who loves yearning, or you love a character who is all consumed in their infatuation, to the point that they may be thinking about consuming their love interest. This is the book for you. I rated Veal 5 out of 5 stars, and I cannot wait for this book to come out in October. So I can have my closest friend who is a big Scooby Doo fan read this, because I think she would absolutely adore this book. I also think if you are a fan of stranger things, x files, Twin Peaks, or scooby doo. I think you would really enjoy this story.

A meandering monster hunt set in a small town, with the backdrop of Serial Killers and Sexism. The writing is pretty at face value; the scenes felt very cinematic, like I could definitely imagine this as a Limited Series type of show, but it also felt a bit bland? Part of the reason may be the pacing, as the central mystery, the monster roaming the town and possibly endangering the lives of women everywhere, felt quite dragging, and the build-up to it was whelming, to say the least. However, when the monster finally DOES show up in the flesh, I finally felt like I was enjoying the story. Unfortuantely, that doesn't happen until we're well into the book, but when it finally appeared I was like yes!! Terror and fright and dread!! Emotions at last! The friendships were very good but the central romance wasn't a strong point for me. I just could not understand why Lawrence was so down bad for Franky like... girl... get up? We do get to see her make some (snail-paced) progress, and the progression would probably have been fine if told through 3rd Person, but instead we are graced by First Person Simpering for an Ice Queen, which is good if you're into that. If you lack the forebearance though... good luck. I will say though, each character stood out in their own way, and I love an entirely female main cast like this one. Stasia and Lawrence (she's funnier when she's not simping) were my faves, gifts fhat kept giving, etc.

It's honestly a bit hard to pin this book in terms of genre, the horror and supernatural elements are more metaphorical than not. There isnt much in the way of gore, but the story itself is waterlogged with societal gravitas. For those who enjoy slow-burn mysteries with a tinge of the supernatural, this may be less of a miss and more of a hit. The fun, well-written female cast is just the cherry on top (or the consolation prize, in my case).

Thank you to ECW Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I think I enjoyed this one! The writing style was my vibe, I ended up finishing the book in one sitting! The one thing I didn’t like was the repetitiveness throughout. It kind of hammers you over the head with “we have trauma”

"You're not veal. You're not trapped in this box, stuck from growth. I'm letting you out, I'm freeing you from this."

Unfortunately, I did feel a little stuck reading this book. I love the writing and the actual ethos of the book, but the plot line and the pace of the book were lacking. I wanted to love it more than I did. I wanted to love it like I love any angry girl lit. But this just missed the mark unfortunately. The entire story happened in less than 20 pages and the rest was just filler.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review. I don’t think I’d necessarily recommend this to anyone, but if someone I knew was reading it, I would be excited to see their opinion on it.

I love a good surreal small town and this book definitely delivers.
The novel follows two friends who move to a college town and become involved in a monster hunt. It has a compelling cast of characters, each with their own secrets. The main four are the backbone of this story and by far the most intriguing aspect.
A large part of the novel is a simmer that slowly builds tension through vague signs of a monster lurking in the corners. The plot boils over near the end however, I'm not entirely satisfied with the ending. It feels almost like a copout, but it could come down to personal preference.
The book does make up for this in the atmosphere. The depiction of a small town is uncomfortably accurate, especially with the community's response to a tragedy.
I think this novel will definitely find an audience in those who enjoy complex characters and a chilling surreal atmosphere.

I feel conflicted about Veal, which is more or less a queer re-telling of the boogeyman. I loved the characters and their backstories. I felt endeared to them immediately. Although, I found the inclusion of Pippa being native halfway through the story to be a little…poorly executed. Where I think the story could have become more clear is if the characters were being targeted because they were queer or because they were women. Based on their backstories, I expected queerness to play a much larger role than it did. We saw more from a misogyny standpoint. We also never really landed on why the victims were “legal” and around that age range, which was mentioned several times. What really took me out of the reading experience was the dialogue and some of the internal monologue. It was painfully awkward. Overall, interesting concept, execution not fantastic.

I really wanted to like this one it hits all my favorite boxes; horror, sapphic, and a mystery but it fell flat. The start had me but then I hit the middle section and it felt like a drag to read. I couldn't understand anyone's actions If I was attacked I wouldn't stay at the same place and wouldn't act normal the next day. It felt like everything that happened had no affect on the characters.
Also, I was excited for the horror but there's not much horror most of the plot focus' on the weird relationship between Lawrence and Franky. I will say I'm not much of a fan I don't understand why either of them like each other and and whenever they interact its usually awkward and there's no chemistry.
I feel like the horror aspect was lost in order to focus on the groups dynamic and metaphors of misogyny which felt like a misstep to me.

This was a neat little romp of a book. You have a blend of falling in love with the girl you've just met after burning out hard, chasing an obsession, and figuring out what queer community actually looks like. Sometimes that obsession that your crush has is trying to figure out who/what is responsible for the serial murders your father was framed for. Great ride, and definitely worth your time this fall.

3.5

Veal gives us an adult version of a "kids on bikes" story. Lawrence and Stasia have decided to "start over" in Mistaken Point where they quickly become embroiled in a small town mystery. There had recently been an epidemic of missing women later found dismembered. Franky, Lawrence's boss at the local arcade, saw her father go to prison for the murders. Franky remains convinced that they are being committed by a Frankenstein-esque monster, a living patchwork of the victims. They join forces to hunt this monster and face their demons. Raw, emotional and full of lesbian yearning

As a lesbian horror fan, there was so much to love in this book. I loved the dynamic and palpable energy between Lawrence and Franky. I also really enjoyed how easy and natural the dialouge felt as a reader, something I don't say often. I am not one for "monster" stories however, so at times I struggled with our antagonist, but I felt the ending did it all justice (as did the tears forming in my eyes). The relationships with Stasia and Lawerence and their mothers was highly relatable and strangely affirming. But my most favorite thing about this book was how often the author addresses "grief." Studying grief in horror is my area of focus, and I have yet to read another book that outright mentions grief in realtion to the characters and story as often as Nolan does in "Veal." I counted 15 times, and I probably missed a few, and it was even a title of one of the chapters. I am the biggest propent of dealing with trauma and grief through horror, and this book does an amazing job of that.

Thank you to Netgalley & the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was really excited about the premise of this book—gay, horror, and monsters? Sign me up. But unfortunately, the pacing was too slow for my taste, and the main character’s attitude started to wear on me pretty early. By the halfway point, I found myself avoiding picking it back up. On top of that, the e-galley had quite a few formatting and editing issues, which made the reading experience even harder to stay engaged with. I might give the audiobook a try when it’s released, but the print version just didn’t work for me.

So, the description of this book immediately interested me as someone who really loves horror and wanted to find more queer horror. And Veal definitely gave me some of that while also leaving me hanging in a few aspects.
I really enjoyed the main characters we got in this, their complexity, the realism in the relationships (especially in the fact they don't always get along, they have flaws, they rub each other the wrong way but they still love each other), the descriptions of their hardships (whether that's poor parental relationships, depression, grief, etc.) and the way we get to feel Lawrence's yearning for Franky (it felt very real at times how she was trying to get close and fluster her but then it would veer into the 'too intense') However, I was a little disappointed in the way the characters only seem to exist in each other's orbit and the somewhat cheesy dialogue we get (especially near the end). We rarely ever hear about their lives outside of the 'monster hunt' or Lawrence's fixation on Franky. I really wish we could have gotten more about Stasia and Lawrence's classes or anything about Pippa other than her grieving Penelope. I understand it may have distracted from the focus or been difficult with the POV but I wanted to understand them better.
We also don't get much about the town/other characters (which I can kind of understand because aligning yourself with Franky makes you an outcast) but I just felt a little lost whenever they went somewhere or talked about the school because it felt barely there.
The story was quick and had really good moments of dread and fear, when you'd feel the characters right on the edge of their demise and be right there with them but I did find myself getting distracted by some minor inconsistencies in plot (mostly around seasons/weather) and found it hard to gauge how much time had passed at any given moment.
(I will say the epilogue made me want to remove a full star from this review, it really felt unnecessary and frustrating. It didn't add what I think the author wanted it to add and kind of pulled the whole thing down for me when I had pretty much enjoyed the ride to that point.)

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The strong takeaways: this book was written by a woman who loves women. And this book was also written by a woman who Goes To Therapy.
I loved 70 percent of this. I wish Nolan was comfortable enough to linger in the liminal horror space. Fight the urge to wrap everything up in a neat little bow! Fight it!
The good: real gift for dialogue here. Keen understanding and conveyance of what makes women hot. Good at ratcheting up the spooks.
The less good: the prose purples. The Therapizing from every character gets a little cloying. Especially when it happens in moments of extreme pain - would you really tell a monster that <spoiler>all you ever wanted was validation, even if it came at the cost of other women? Would you really? Right after it cut up one of your friends, would you be articulating your innermost emotions like that? </spoiler> And the pacing felt a little off. I got 70 percent of the way through the book before it felt like we were hitting our stride. There are reasons for that, I guess… but I’d have preferred to spread out the action. Overall, this is good for people who love gay horror, but wish every metaphor was painstakingly explained to them.

Thank you so much to the publisher for sending me this title as an e-arc! This is one of the best horror books I've ever read. Although the plot was brilliant and full of well-timed and tense twists, it is second to me to the fantastic set of characters. All four of the girls are fully fleshed-out and loveable, with the writer giving such a clear picture of all of their backstory and motivations- it really feels like these are real girls jumping off the page, and their relationships are so realistic and enjoyable. This is a gorgeous exploration of trauma, grief, misogyny, and queerness all narrowed down into the lives of these girls who you can't help but be fully invested in. The romance and yearning was so well-written and felt completely real, the writer has a huge talent in description and metaphor as well as character building. The way the writer managed to do all of this against a slightly silly backdrop with comic elements mixed in is brilliant, the story itself felt very reminiscent of Scooby Doo silliness mixed with major gut-punches and commentary on powerful and emotional issues. Franky Delores is one of my all-time favourite characters and I will be talking about this novel for a very long time

I really enjoyed this one! Atmospheric with great characters, I devoured this as quick as I could. Highly recommended!

The premise of this book is so wonderful and unique. This author has an incredible imagination but needs to work on technical skill and execution.

Seeing a group of lesbian characters in the story was wonderful, it was healing. I enjoyed the plot, I loved the elements of the story and that's why I requested an ARC, because I read the synopsis and was absolutely hooked.

Unfortunately, the potential tied to the concept of the story wasn't realised due to an unfortunate amount of telling instead of showing, which stole the magic from multiple scenes. While most of the horror elements managed to still be enjoyable despite this writing style, the romantic elements of the story were the parts that suffered the most. I did not feel the chemistry, I was told that the characters had chemistry. (Just trust me bro)

With all of that in mind, I could have still given the book a higher rating, however my ARC copy was also absolutely littered with mistakes. Spelling errors, gramatical errors, formatting errors. Each "chapter" had a strange formatting issue wherein the first letter would be on a different line and the chapter title would be in all caps, tacked onto the end of a previous paragraph without a line break let alone a page break. This story needs serious, thorough editing before it goes to final print!

With extensive editing this could be 3 stars, but as is I couldn't give it higher than 2.

Veal is what happens when you throw Frankenstein, a queer friend group, unresolved trauma, and small-town murder vibes into a blender—and honestly, it works.
We follow Lawrence, who’s looking for a fresh start (and probably a therapist) in a place called Mistaken Point. She drags her best friend Stasia along, and as they try to adjust to their new school and the unsettling energy of the town, they hear whispers of young women turning up dead under suspiciously gruesome circumstances. Super casual.

Lawrence gets a job at the local arcade (because nothing says “coping” like skee-ball and murder rumors), where she meets Franky—the brooding, emotionally armored boss—and Pippa, the resident jokester with more going on under the surface than she lets on. Lawrence develops a bit of a thing for Franky, who is convinced there’s a literal monster preying on women in Mistaken Point—and maybe, just maybe, that monster is her dad. Naturally, the girls band together to go full monster-hunting squad.

The book is well-paced, with a solid murder mystery anchoring the plot, but what really shines is the character work. Each girl has her own baggage, and the story takes the time to unpack it—especially Pippa, who totally stole the show for me. She hides behind humor, but there’s a lot of guilt and loyalty driving her, particularly in how she’s been quietly watching over Franky since everything went to hell.

Yes, the ending was a little predictable (you’ll probably see the twist coming), but the journey getting there was so full of heart, tension, and queer love that I didn’t mind. There’s urban legend energy, emotional unraveling, and a big messy monster chase—and it all comes together into something that feels honest, weird, and deeply human.

I could have highlighted every single word in this book. Astounding - normalized a lot of the ways I feel. Like women are meant for men. Their entire lives based upon how to serve them, please them, boost their moods and confidence. Revolving around men. But what about the women who don't care? Not just queer women - women who know their self worth, their importance in this world, their pride and confidence.
Veal takes it on - they die. Consumed by angry men, men who hate women -- all accepted by society.
Lawrence refuses to break - or even bend. With her bestie, Stasia, these two 24 yo grad students move to a murder capital - Mistaken Point.
While juggling classes, Lawrence lands a job at the local arcade - quickly becoming enraptured with the owner, Frankie. Her father recently convicted of the string of cruel and horrific murders, several women between ages 19 and 28. Like veal, kept chained and allowed no growth.
Just an amazing queer horror commentary.

Veal: trapped in a box, restricted from growth. The title of this book perfectly describes the story (namely, our protagonists and the murdered girls found all over town).

Veal is a sapphic horror story centered around enduring and surviving childhood/family trauma and creating your own found family. I loved the premise of this book- I loved that it took place in Canada, I love lesbian horror, loved that there were no male protagonists, and loved that it followed four lesbians friends: two who escaped their own trauma to move to Mistaken Point for a fresh start, and two that cannot seem to escape their home and trauma in Mistaken Point. Mistaken point is described as "the kind of place a monster thrives - feasting on a diet of girls, forever twenty-three, stunted from growth like veal."

However, I was pretty bummed that the bulk of the story (truthfully about 70% of the book) was focused on Lawrence's instant overwhelming, simp-like obsession with Franky. At first, it's because Franky is hot. Eventually, Lawrence decides she likes Franky's off-putting demeanor and her extremely evident psychological trauma because she doubles down on pursuing Franky. Meanwhile, Franky is chronically annoyed and all over the place with her emotions, obsessed with finding a monster she believes is stalking women of the town but most people have never seen this monster, much to Franky's agitation. In addition to the near constant inner monologue of Lawrence pining over Franky, the book also had a recurring men-are-bad theme that popped up periodically. Which honestly.... fair. This female reviewer knows the cruelty of men all too well how some men can suck and fuck with your life, job, and body.

I was a bit disappointed that the book contained very little actual horror. However, the book also sort of tells you early on, or at least drops a lot of hints, that this monster may not be what it seems. (MARKED AS SPOILER ON GOODREADS): Specifically, "maybe it's (the monster) is a metaphor for misogyny."

That being said!! The book contained some very entertaining one liners and actually made me laugh a few times. I also really enjoyed the happy ending and I found myself genuinely wishing them well in the future.

Thank you, NetGalley and ECW Press, for the eARC!!!