We Have Books

Blog tour - The Changeling by Matt Wesolowski. I'm delighted to have been invited along on the blog tour for the latest in the Six Stories series by Matt Wesolowski and in my opinion even better than it's predecessors, Six Stories and Hydra.  My Review: Being near the tail end of the blog tour, I've had to exercise a higher than usual amount of self-discipline and resist reading too many other reviews in case they influenced my review. I have, however, seen lots of social media posts saying how fabulous this book is and I concur. It is scary and chilling and has a real twist in the tail I didn't see coming, in fact, it swiped me sideways and left me reeling and my ears are still ringing. It is an emotive read, any book about a child who goes, and remains missing is sure to tug at anyone's heartstrings. It is menacing, coercive and really, REALLY, eerie and dark.  Little Alfie Marsden goes missing in the spooky and legend-ridden Wentshire Forest whils...

The Taking of Annie Thorne - by C.J. Tudor. My thoughts: Here's one SCARY tale for you, horror at its creepy shivery best. Wow, this is a fabulous, scary, menacing story, that had me gripped all the way through. It's every bit as good as C J Tudor's wonderful previous book the Chalk man and similar in style and type of setting, though both are very different, stand-alone novels. This is a superb horror story well worthy of comparisons to Stephen King. Our protagonist is Joe Thorne, he's a teacher who returns to his childhood hometown, an old pit village called Arnhill, near Nottingham, to take up a position teaching at the local school he was once a pupil at. Joe is quite a complex character, though one I really liked. He obviously has a bit of a past, both back when he was a boy and in the intervening 25 years since he left school as he seems to know a few really dodgy characters and it isn't long until he starts bumping into folk from his childhood, this is a smal...

Hydra by Matt Wesolowski - blog tour and my Review: I'm delighted to take part in the Random Things blog Tour today for the second book in the Six Stories Series by Matt Wesolowski. Published by the magnificent Orenda books  it is a crepy and menacing thriller. My Review: This second book in Matt Wesolowski’s six stories series is equally as sinister and creepy as the original Six Stories his first novel. Written in the form of a podcast, featuring a series of six interviews each looking at the same story from a different perspective. The narrator is Scott King whose Investigative style of journalism leads him to revisit past crimes and take a fresh look at what really happened. Each crime he rehashes has distinctly sinister connotations and Hydra is creepy and menacing from the outset. He is granted the privilege of interviewing a notorious criminal Arla McLeod, now incarcerated in a Mental Health institution where she has languished since the night a few years ago when at the age...

Oooh this book ticked all my boxes and I'm excited to read that movie rights are already in place, it will make a wonderful film if its done right. But me, I prefer to read the book first and this one didn't disappoint one bit, and isn't the cover beautiful? I must confess I am not overly familiar with the notorious true story of the hapless pioneering family known as the Donner party who set out along the California trail to Wyoming in a wagon trail and became beset by ill fortune and disaster although when I picked up the Hunger I realized that in the past I have read a very different account of this famous event which is very well documented. The Hunger is very much a work of fiction, though closely woven around a hard core of fact and many characters in the book and things which happened are very real. It is historical fiction with a creepy and insidious taint of horror. A large mismatched group of families set off together with their belongings and wagons, to travel ac...

Review - the Upstairs Room - Kate Murray-Browne A macabre, chilling and unsettling debut novel, The Upstairs Room is a contemporary take on the classic "young couple move into a new home that turns out to have something sinister lurking upstairs". Eleanor and husband Richard have found their new family home for themselves and their 2 young daughters. They know it will be a struggle financially to buy in a desirable area of London so they settle for an older property that "needs a bit doing" well frankly it needs quite a lot of renovation and redecoration but they're young and enthusiastic and it can be a project for them to enjoy together. Bit it becomes more of a money pit than they imagined, and in order to keep their heads above water they rather reluctantly sub-let the basement to a young woman lodger and into the periphery of their lives comes Zoe. However living in this gloomy and outdated home soon makes Eleanor in particular begin to feel distinctly une...

Review - Broken Branches M. Jonathan Lee This is a sinister psychological chiller with an eerie creeping sense of stomach turning unease. I thought it was going to be your traditional "couple buys spooky old house" story but it goes somewhat deeper than that. We certainly have a young family, living in a creepy old cottage known as Cobweb cottage, overlooked for centuries by a huge old tree. Ian and his wife Rachel with their little boy Harry moved into the home owned by Ians family for generations, following a family tragedy. It soon becomes clear that the tragedy which brought them here is not the only bad thing that's happened, but quite where the rot began is yet to be uncovered. Ian and Rachel are barely speaking any more. His work from home is beginning to suffer and his days are structured around waiting for his beloved son's return from nursery and the energy and love he injects into this rather glum and morose household and his rather frantic and disorganised...