Audiobook Review: Something I Keep Upstairs by J.D. Barker
Something I Keep Upstairs
Author: J.D. Barker
Narrator: Michael Crouch
Published: May 13, 2025
Audiobook: 15 hours 48 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: May 12-22, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
For a haunted house to be born, somebody has to die.
In the sleepy coastal town of New Castle, New Hampshire, seventeen-year-old Billy Hasler’s life is about to take a terrifying turn. When his best friend David Spivey inherits a mysterious house on a nearby island, it seems like the perfect place to spend their final summer before heading off to college. No parents. No police. No responsibilities.
As they dig into the island’s dark past, they awaken an ancient evil that has influenced generations. What begins as an innocent summer adventure quickly descends into a nightmare.
“Something I Keep Upstairs” is a haunting exploration of friendship, sacrifice, and the darkness lurking just beyond our understanding. It will keep you on edge until the final, chilling page.
Jessica’s Review:
If J.D. Barker’s name is attached to a book, I’m going to see what it’s about! This time we have a haunted house on its own island in a real location called New Castle, New Hampshire. And we have YA characters too! Be sure to read the author’s note at the end of the novel. When I saw that Michael Crouch performed the narration, I just knew I had to listen to this novel. I have adored Michael Crouch in past books I have listened to: He is a perfect narrator for YA characters. And he helped to bring Billy to life telling the listener this story.
New Castle, New Hampshire is a small town and Barker really brings the reader/ listener into this world. Billy Hasler tells us this story: He and David Spivey have been friends since they were four years old. ‘Spivey’ as everyone calls him inherits his grandmother’s house that is on its own island. All the teens are ecstatic over this. But there are rules that are meant to be followed. Some of the rules are:
-Never lock the doors
-Don’t answer the phone
-Anyone on the island at sunset must stay until sunrise
-No one under 16 can set foot on the island (Wait a minute, a teenage boy inherits an island with this rule!?!?)
-Don’t forget to feed Emerson.
These are some strange rules, especially for the teens. And who or what is Emerson???
What starts as adventure turns into a nightmare. Will these teens survive?
Barker did a great job with these characters. I felt like I go to know these characters over the course of the novel. We have witchcraft going on, ghosts, and plenty of supernatural. It is a character driven novel, so if you are looking for a novel to give you ‘jump scares’ this is not it. It does get creepy towards the end, but a lot of this is the journey that Billy, David, and friends go on.
I enjoyed it and thank the publisher for granting me a copy I could listen to and review.
Audiobook Review: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
Incidents Around the House
Author: Josh Malerman
Narrator: Delanie Nicole Gill
Published: June 25, 2024
Audiobook: 8 hours 23 minutes
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: February 24- March 1, 2025
Jessica’s Rating: 4 stars
Book Description:
A chilling horror novel about a haunting told from the perspective of a young girl whose troubled family is targeted by an entity she calls “Other Mommy,” from the New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box.
To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?”
When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and over, Bela understands that unless she says yes, her family will soon pay.
Other Mommy is getting restless, stronger, bolder. Only the bonds of family can keep Bela safe, but other incidents show cracks in her parents’ marriage. The safety Bela relies on is about to unravel.
But Other Mommy needs an answer.
Incidents Around the House is a chilling, wholly unique tale of true horror about a family as haunted as their home.
Jessica’s Review:
This was one extremely creepy novel! Similar to the book Room by Emma Donoghue, Incidents is from the perspective of a child. In Incidents 8-year-old Bela is our narrator and also gives us our point of view.
Mommy was not very likable for me and I found Dado a strange name, though I did like him just a little more than Mommy. And “Other Mommy” was down right frightening. “Other Mommy” wants something and will do whatever it takes to get what she wants. Malerman did a great job giving us the perspective of a young girl with the variety of emotions Bela experiences over the course of the novel, especially in the last quarter of the book.
I had no idea what direction this novel was going to go in. There are several twists and turns that hit the reader in varying degrees. I would say save this book for October if you are looking for horror novels to read! Just be prepared you will be reading from a child’s perspective.
Now the narrator: Delanie Nicole Gill, this young lady was beyond superb! Incidents was her first audiobook and she definitely delivered! She made Bela real for me. If there is an award for narration, then she deserves it. She brought this book to life for me and it was hard to stop listening to it, but you know: I had to work! Normally I do speed up my audiobooks some, but was not able to in this case. It was due to the narration, but definitely not in a bad way!
Incidents Around the House is definitely recommended! And if you can, I say listen to the audiobook!
Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Book Review: 25 Days by Per Jacobsen
25 Days
Author: Per Jacobsen
Published: November 1, 2024
Paperback: 360 Pages
Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: December 1-25, 2024
Jessica’s Rating: 5 stars
Book Description:
Hoping to bring his family closer together, Adam Gray arranges a vacation in a remote cabin on a snowy mountain. Things take a dark turn, however, when someone starts leaving gifts in the Christmas stocking mounted on the barn door.
Each morning brings something new, and with every passing day, the contents become more terrifying. Soon, the family makes a spine-chilling they’ve been dragged into a deranged game of Secret Santa, and if they want to survive, they will have to fight.
Curry’s a little nervous with what’s going to happen next!
Jessica’s Review:
I wanted to get my review for 25 Days in before we got too far into 2025, and thus father away from Christmas. This book is unique! Jacobsen wrote it ‘advent style’: Where the reader reads one chapter a day from December 1st and ends the book on Christmas Day. But ultimately in his author’s note he says that you can read it in the way that you choose. This advent style is what drew many of his first-time readers to 25 Days, myself included! I read it advent style and completed the book on Christmas. I admit I did fall behind three times, but still caught up and ended it when I was supposed to. I am very proud of that fact!
Jacobsen also had a Facebook group where readers could talk with him and his publisher wife Sarah daily in regards to the book, and many just had to keep reading, they just couldn’t stay with ‘a chapter a day’. I will say this: the further along you get in the book, the harder it is to stay with the ‘chapter a day’, but I can proudly say I did it!
We have the Gray family on vacation and their little stay in an isolated cabin becomes a living nightmare! I became attached to each of the family members, but had no idea who was going to make it to the end of the novel, if anyone did.
25 Days is a horror novel and will not be for everyone. It’s a violently graphic novel that will not be for everyone! Reader discretion is advised, especially with chapter 19. I can handle violence, but this chapter did a bit of a number on me! In addition to the torture of the family, there are animal deaths in the book.
Some readers were not happy with an ending that doesn’t give all the answers, but I loved it! Life and villains don’t always have complete answers. If anything, maybe we can get a continuing story in the future!
Jacobsen worked very hard on this novel, especially with the ‘advent style’. Imagine having to come up with a story that had to end with a certain number of chapters and to also have each chapter develop with enough of the story in it and keep readers wanting to come back the next day!
I enjoyed and appreciated 25 Days so much that it made my Top 10 of 2024, being number five! I will definitely be reading more of Jacobsen’s novels in the future.
There are some things that I just won’t see the same again anymore: Among those things are stockings, Secret Santa, isolated cabins in winter with snow, and snowmobiles! If you want to know why, then you must pick up 25 Days!
Purchase Links:
The Author’s Website where you can purchase signed copies or bookplates and more!
Amazon US
Amazon UK
