People’s self-interest will usually prevail. Out of nowhere, Olivia is contacted by a long-lost cousin, Eleanor, inviting her to her 18th birthday. While all the red flags should be screaming at Olivia not to go to the middle of nowhere in the mountains, Eleanor has offered her 25 grand and money speaks louder. What ensues is something out of a nightmare.
Overall, it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
TW: rape

#ThxNetGalley #C.K.Morris #TheShadowFamily

The Shadow Family by C.K. Morris was obtained directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I had never read this author before and I would read more by them if given the opportunity. This book starts kind of slow but once it get going it is a quick read and a wild ride. Some of the scenes were surprising in that they went above and beyond in terms of horror and gore than I am accustomed to in todays writing style. I say that in a very good manner. If you or someone you buy gifts for likes gore and horror and all things 1980's horror, give this book a read. The horror season is fast approaching us as well.

Thank you NetGalley and to the author for the e-reader arc!

I don't typically reach for horror, but I've been on a real horror kick lately - this novel really upped that desire to read more! The Shadow Family follows Olivia Fitzbelt as she navigates generational trauma in the Colorado mountains. Accompanied by her sister, Amy, and boyfriend, Keenan, Olivia travels to see an estranged cousin, Eleanor. The trio unravels the family history as mystery after mystery is revealed.

I loved how much Morris builds suspense and background - really bringing the characters to fruition before delving into the horror and more gruesome elements of the story. I felt as though those moments really hit home because the characters were more fleshed out, and it helped develop that sense of ~the other~ and what the shadow family entails.

The novel is rife with twists that made me audibly gasp and reconsider previous plot elements, keeping me engaged and wanting to tear through. I appreciate how Morris looped back to previous plot elements and kept the story feeling concise and tied together well, especially incorporating the mixed-media cuts to get a new perspective on the characters.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed C.K. Morris' The Shadow Family, and I would love to read another novel by him!

C.K. Morris & NetGalley, thank you for the opportunity of reading this lovely novella and providing my honest rating/review.

Multiple POV, News Articles, and Emails.
Always love when an author includes different types of writing that keep the reader engaged. It's like you're more involved while reading the book.

Above all, please check your trigger warnings as ,everyone's mental state is of the most importance.

This book was a quick read but a wild ride. Reason you should check trigger warnings is because this author really has a way with some disgusting scenes and the details he proves are above average! I did love reading this book and would 100% want a reread of it during spooky season.

This was not what I was expecting and unfortunately I could not get past the first few chapters. I usually give a book a chance but this was not my choice of reading material and did not appeal to me. I would suggest anyone else giving it a go as you may enjoy it more than I did.

An exciting and gross story with a punch.
There's all kind of nastiness going on and I mean the kind that makes you go ....euwww.
The characters are great and genuine. The story is told brilliantly with a lot of humour and cultural references.

This book was beyond creepy, I went into it thinking it was going to be a scary story but it was freakishly frightening. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. Also fantastic ending. I loved how ghoulish the entire story became. Thank you so much NetGalley for this ARC

For the most part, the writing is excellent. There were a few dodgy moments like pronouns where the subject wasn't clear and being too vague to cloud things in mystery, but overall the writing and the story in general is great.

The book's tone goes off the rails for me. The first half of the book reads like it is a young adult novel, with unrealistic teenagers and some cringy dialogue, and mostly a creepy vibe instead of any big scares. The second half of the book edges toward an extreme horror novel to me. While there are plenty of people who enjoy that, I feel like it should be made a little clearer that the book will go to some dark places.

This book is a shot of pure adrenaline. Reading it felt like watching an action-packed, plot-driven movie—it's fast, wild, and gory in all the ways a great slasher horror should be.

While the prose can be clunky at times and the journal entries feel overused, none of that mattered in the end. The sheer narrative momentum of this story is unstoppable. With its believable characters caught in an interesting plot, the book builds to a fever pitch that makes it impossible to put down.

By the end, I was completely hooked—holding my breath, eyes glued to the page, desperate to know what would happen next. A memorable and thrilling read.

I'll start by saying horror isn’t a genre I typically reach for. The last horror book I remember reading was Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and that was back in middle school. I was obsessed with that series. The stories were so creepy, but I couldn’t stop reading them, and don't get me started on the illustrations. But when I read the description of this story, I was intrigued enough to give it a shot and was glad I did!

The story begins when Olivia gets an email from a long-lost cousin she’s never met, inviting her to a remote residence to help celebrate her birthday. Right away, you can tell something suspicious is going on.

We follow the mystery of the murders happening in Pitkin County through media snippets, while also following Olivia and her companions as they respond to this strange invitation. The different POVs helped move the story along. They added depth to the characters and helped explain their individual motivations. I especially liked Keenan’s character. He was realistic and questioned when something felt wrong, but still supported Olivia. He was the voice of reason and a true ride-or-die boyfriend. My only complaint is that some of the POV switches felt a bit abrupt. There were a few moments where I had to flip back to figure out whose perspective I was reading from.

If you’re looking to dip your toes into horror, this is a great place to start. It’s short and easy to get through, with just the right blend of mystery, creepiness, and gore. The characters are interesting, and the story has a haunting family history that pulls you in.

Just a heads-up—definitely check the trigger warnings before diving in.

Hang on to your hats and definitely don't be eating anything when you read this extremely disturbing and gory tale of the darkest of family secrets including inbreeding, worship of an eldritch god, and psychosis.

Olivia is seventeen years old. She has a prosthetic leg after she escaped a kidnapping attempt years before. When she gets an email from a distant cousin inviting her to a birthday party along with $25,000 , she's suspicious but she desperately needs the money. Her sister Amy and boyfriend Keenan go with her up to a remote cabin/mansion deep in the Colorado wilderness almost.

And let's just say that things are going to get absolutely brutal, deliciously disgusting, and very terrifying. This book surprised me with it's graphic depictions but a good surprise. I wasn't expecting that at all based on the description but is it ever effective. I was glued to the pages and read it in one sitting. This novel will make for a sleepless night or at least one filled with nightmares. I highly recommend it.

A well written story that kept me hooked from the very beginning.
The characters draw you in and keeps you flipping the pages.
The characters were all realistic and very well developed.
I really enjoyed the writing style. I found myself hooked, turning the pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. This review contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

As soon as I started reading this I was sucked into the story. Literally read the whole book in the space of an afternoon. It was one of those books I didn’t want to end but at the same time I desperately needed to know what was going to happen.

Extremely gory and does include SA, so anyone who finds that triggering, you may be best off skipping this one.

”You know what I realised?" Olivia said. "I bet it wasn't even that bitch's birthday”
After everything I read in this book, this line still cracked me up.

TW: sexual assault, gore, abuse

Thank you so much to NetGalley and to C.K. Morris for my arc in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

I am OBSESSED. Oh my god. I loved this.

"The Shadow Family" follows teen Olivia who has lived in the shadow of her botched kidnapping that resulted in the loss of one of her legs. Suddenly she gets an email from a distant relative offering money in exchange for attending a party.

This was such a wild ride and I was SEATED. Once I started it, I couldn't put it down. Olivia is a very engaging main character. She's super sarcastic and witty. I will say that I didn't appreciate how very "not like other girls" Olivia would act at times. I mean, I guess it makes sense, but there were a couple instances in the book when Olivia would bring up Taylor Swift just to shit on her which I found annoying since I thought we were past shitting on Swift for merely existing and being successful, but whatever. Other than that, Olivia was great.

I thought "The Shadow Family" was so creepy and I LOVED the gore. A lot of the sexually explicit stuff in this didn't feel gratuitous or "just because" which I really liked too. Especially once things get explained, it's like an "aha" moment.

I would absolutely recommend this to anyone lookin for a creepy and gory read for summer, or even wait until winter to get the vibes right!

Olivia and her sister, Amy, encountered a kidnapper as small children. As the older sister, Olivia made sure she was taken instead of her sister. Then, once the truck was in motion, she decided to do something very smart — she jumped for freedom. It may have cost her half of a leg, but any reader knows she would have faced much worse if she’d stayed put.

Now, fast forward to her senior year in high school. People have talked about her story ever since, and she feels isolated from her classmates, with the notable exception of her boyfriend.

She receives an email from a long lost relative. After meeting her in pubic, Olivia decides that yes, she will go to her cousin’s birthday party. Especially because her cousin is rich and offers her $25,000 to show up. She also decides to take Keenan (her bf) and Amy with her. They have a perilous journey during a blizzard, but this is nothing compared to what’s still ahead.

This book actually managed to gross me out a bit because it has very vivid, gory descriptions of awful things. Well done, author! I also liked the ending past the first ending. Horror fans who like body horror and gore should love this one.

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

thank you to Netgalley and the author for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3

’”You know what I realised?" Olivia said. "I bet it wasn't even that bitch's birthday”’

The Shadow Family by C. K. Morris is a fantastic splatterpunk debut, with some horrifyingly gory scenes, and genuinely laugh-out-loud humour. Admittedly, I did pick this up purely based on the fact that the central character has the same name as me (go Olivia!), but I am so glad I did, as I had such a great time with it!

We follow Olivia Fitzbelt, a kidnapping survivor, as well as her boyfriend Keenan and sister Amy, as they travel into the mountains of Colorado to meet up with the girls elusive long-lost cousin Eleanor, who tempts them with the promise of 25K to attend her 18th birthday party.

While the premise is simple, the execution was brilliant, with some twists that both disgusted and surprised me in the best way possible. All of the characters were incredibly fun, and very realistic portrayals of teenagers, and I was attached to each of them, which I think is particularly impressive in such a short book (just over 200 pages).

The writing was engaging, and I loved that Morris included mixed-media elements between chapters (such as podcast interviews and newspaper reports), which only added to the overall experience, and never detracted from the tension or flow of the story. I thought the pacing was excellent, and appreciate that the book didn’t overstay its welcome.

I think fans of Nick Cutter (which I am!) would absolutely love this - it felt very reminiscent of his books, The Troop and The Queen.

Overall, The Shadow Family gets 4/5 stars. I can’t wait to see what C. K. writes next!

First things first, there needs to be a great warning about this book. There is sexual assault in this book. I would never have requested this book if I knew this beforehand, and I only found out because it was included in the author’s email when I received the book. Because I had requested it, I decided to read the book anyway, with the knowledge that the assault would occur, and I needed greater warning. I immediately stopped reading. There needs to be some sort of alert in the description of the book even that expresses that there is sexual assault present, as well as the other content warnings that the author shared in their email.

The story had me intrigued for the first 13 or so chapters. But then, my interest started to wane. We know something bad happens, but I almost wish it wasn’t teased so much by jumping to the future with “little did they know” lines. Something else I didn’t exactly love was the writing. There were so many words that I didn’t know the meaning of. I kept having to stop and try to figure out the meaning of words with context clues, and it drove me crazy. It started to feel like the words were just thrown in there to make the book sound smarter, and it instead made me not want to read.

Thank you to the publisher/author and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.