Tag: Paranormal

Book Review: The Night House by Jo Nesbø

The Night House
Author: Jo Nesbø

Published: October 3, 2023
245 Pages

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Read: September 18- October 18, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars

Book Description:

In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, fourteen-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects the new, angry boy is responsible for his disappearance. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver like something out of a horror movie. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider who encourages Richard to pursue clues the police refuse to investigate. He traces the number that Tom prank called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Black Mirror Wood. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear . . .

You know who I am. She’s going to burn. The one you love is going to burn. There’s not a thing you can do about it.

When another classmate disappears, Richard must find a way to prove his innocence–and preserve his sanity–as he grapples with the dark magic that is possessing Ballantyne and pursuing his destruction.

Then again, Richard may not be the most reliable narrator of his own story . . .

Jessica’s Review:

I love the cover of this one, it’s just reminiscent of back in the old days and seems like it was going to be a good, old fashioned horror story.  There are three parts to this novel and the first part was the horror I was looking for! Parts two and three didn’t really work for me.  And Richard definitely was an unreliable narrator and we know that sometimes those work for me, sometimes they don’t. In the case of this novel, it just didn’t work for me for most of the book. Richard was just not relatable and unlikable, as he is a bully and it is seen from the beginning.

You do wonder what direction the story is going to go as you are reading.  It did take me way too long to read this one: a whole month.  My job is trying out us working 4 10-hour days, which means an extra day off during the week!  Which I’m hoping will lead to more free reading time! I am hoping for that at least!

Overall, this book was not what I was expecting. I wanted a good scary horror story for the month of October, and most of the book was not that for me. This is also a foreign author and the book was translated, maybe the difference in the countries and story is what didn’t really work for me. 

Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a copy to read and review. I just wish I could have enjoyed the novel more. 

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Audiobook Review: Who Haunts You by Mark Wheaton

Who Haunts You
Author:
Mark Wheaton

Narrator: Annalee Scott
Published: September 2, 2023
Audiobook: 4 hours 30 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: September 24-26, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars

Book Description:

High school senior Rebecca “Bex” Koeltl is just trying to make it to graduation. But when her fellow seniors begin dying in seemingly unrelated incidents, Bex uncovers disturbing connections between their deaths, including that the teens believed they were haunted by long-dead relatives their own family members swear never existed. After Bex is visited by a malevolent specter of her own, she realizes she has to get the bottom of this horror before she’s its next victim…

Jessica’s Review:

Who Haunts You is a short YA novella, at just 174 pages or just 4.5 hours long. It gets a lot in with such a quick story.  We have high school students who start mysteriously dying and our female main character Bex just knows she is next. These deaths are not seemingly related, but Bex believes they are as each student claimed they saw relatives that didn’t actually exist.

Bex is also Autistic and I actually learned some about it. I did not know about Stimming and this book brings it up. I also learned after reading the book that the author himself is autistic and he brings autistic characters into his novels.  Stimming is a self-stimulatory behavior and consists of repetitive or unusual body movement or noises. Stimming might include hand and finger mannerisms. It can consist of finger-flicking and hand-flapping which is what Bex does.

This novel lets the reader think: Can you believe what you are seeing?

Who Haunts You could be considered YA horror lite. It really is aimed for the YA listener, not the adult who enjoys YA.  It could be a great start for the Halloween season for the actual YA reader. I listened to this one while driving and I think that was actually a detriment for me. In my case it was harder for me to follow what was going on with this book.  This may be a book a reader needs to actually sit down and read.

Now the narrator Annalee Scott was fabulous! She brought certain characters to life in a very spooky way!  She had wonderful voice work with this novel! I think she had fun with this narration. 

Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a copy to listen to and review. 

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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Audiobook Review: The Sight by Melanie Golding

The Sight
Author: Melanie Golding
Narrator: Ella Lynch
Published:
September 5, 2023
Audiobook
: 9 Hours 53 minutes

Reviewed By: Jessica
Dates Listened To: September 11-15, 2023
Jessica’s Rating: 3 stars

Audiobook Description:

Look into her eyes—she can tell you how you’ll die . . .

As a child, Faith acquired the ability to see when and how people would die—a “gift” she neither wanted nor could get rid of.

After foreseeing a family tragedy and being ostracized, Faith learns to control her visions, and returns to perform in her family’s traveling carnival. But when an unruly customer attacks her, she has a vision in full view of a crowd.

She is banned from the carnival she loves—and loses her only source of income to support her dying mother. Desperate to support her mother and with only one friend standing by her, she sees no reason to continue hiding her ability and goes to dangerous lengths to earn money. But when she sees herself in a man’s future death, Faith must face her own fears of her powers and tune into her gift to fight against a future that would ruin her life—and end someone else’s.

With The Sight , celebrated author Melanie Golding delivers another suspense-driven masterpiece with unforgettable characters and an ending that will leave you stunned.

Jessica’s Review:

This was another novel that caught my attention with the book description, but wasn’t totally for me. It took way to long (at least halfway) for me to be really interested, and for the book to get moving. The Sight is extremely slow moving, it was almost painfully slow for me.  But again, I was just curious enough to see what was going to happen and continued it.

We have Faith who can see people’s deaths. Forced out of her job at a carnival, she is made to do readings for people wanting to know how they die. Faith doesn’t know when these people will die, she just sees the death. She can guesstimate if it is soon or far off by the way the person appears in the vision.  One day she sees one person’s death and that she is the one who killed that person.  What are you to do with that kind of information when you see that?!?!From the setting and tone of the book you would have not thought it took place in present day! Until cell phones and You Tube are mentioned, I thought I was listening to a story that took place in the past. I listened to the audiobook and did like the narration.

The big twist that occurs happens right at the end, which was just too late to really save the story. When it happened, I was a little shocked and had to listen to that chapter again! I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything since I was listening to it for my commute to/from work. If I was interested in having a different perspective knowing the full story now, I might be tempted to read/listen again.  And some readers might just do that! And knowing the ending twist does change the beginning half of the book, so it might not be as slow moving with a second read/listen!

Many thanks to the publisher for granting me a copy to listen to and review in my own time.                                                   

Purchase Links:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

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