Welcome to the YA horror pantheon Charley Sullivan, final girl candidate and slasher / horror movie fiend extraordinaire.

After being offered a 'fresh start', Charley has enrolled at a girls’ boarding school on a remote island and everything is ticking along just fine until someone starts killing off girls in her year group. The school head, determined to avoid headlines and controversy labels them as accidents but Charley knows the rules of horror and knows that there is no way that these are anything but the actions of vicious serial killer. Adding a complication to the situation, she finds herself haunted by the ghosts of her dead classmates and quickly realises that it's up to her, her best (only) friend, Olive, and hopefully the ghosts, to solve the murders, survive the killings and not get kicked out of school.

This was such a fun, fast-paced and humorous YA horror debut from Scarlett Dunmore and thankfully is the opening book in a series.

The book is broken up by Charley's rules to survive a horror movie, rather than traditional chapters and it's absolutely filled to the brim with slasher and horror movie references, and plenty of Stephen King. I think Charley would get on very well with Mindy Meeks-Martin and Kirby Reed (from the Scream franchise), with her encyclopaedic knowledge of horror, especially teen horror and slashers and it's worked into the story effectively to help her work out the solutions to the murders.

I did wonder as I was reading if the target audience would appreciate the references used as at points this does read like a younger YA with the narrative voice, but as an adult reader who grew up with it all I lapped it up!

Considering that it does read as a younger YA there were some surprisingly brutal scenes, but again, as an adult reader I appreciated that it didn't shy away from clearly being a horror though it may be a little much for some younger readers. There are some tongue-in-cheek elements that help give a break from the tension and I appreciated the fast pace and what felt like non stop action which kept the story moving forward.

I'm excited that this is the opening book in a series, especially after the cliffhanger at the end and I'll definitely be picking up book 2 when it's released!

4.25*

Thank you to Netgalley and Little Tiger Group | Little Tiger for this digital review copy of "How To Survive a Horror Movie" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

There was some proper Midsommar style folk horror in this one (the Pan night scene) and the finale was like something from Marathon Man, plus a proper cliffhanger. Looking forward to getting  stuck into the next installment.

I'm always excited to see modern re-publications of older fiction and the next up is "The Red House Mystery", a Golden Age locked room mystery by A.A.Milne, who to most of us is better known as the author of the Winnie the Pooh stories.

Set in an English Country House with a locked room murder and plenty of red herrings we're treated to a fun story with an amateur detective duo who act like a more comedic Holmes and Watson. I felt that this was a truly solid murder mystery that will absolutely appeal to fans of Agatha Christie or Anthony Berkeley and is overall an entertaining and fast paced read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press | Pushkin Vertigo for this digital review copy of "The Red House Mystery" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

pretty dry at the start but builds up effectively. Dark and pretty disturbing overall. Glad to have finally read it.

Read HHGTTG but prefer the ABs so unhauling

What can I say other than that The Lantern of Lost Memories is a beautiful, poignant, sadly poetic, dark but also hopeful piece of writing. I loved it from page one and loved the three stories all with a connected element which together will make you smile, tear up, get angry and break your heart.

This is probably my favourite release in the publishing trend of Japanese translated, cosy, interconnected short story fiction works that we’ve seen over the last few years. 

So human, so touching and so moving and one I'll return to repeatedly.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan | Picador for this digital review copy of "The Lantern of Lost Memories" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review. 

a fantastic insight in the life and writing of Stephen King. Loved when we moved into the writing sections and got his view on writing, how to write and the process for some of his books including Carrie, Misery and The Stand.

Such great fun! I love a game show gone wrong trope and this one certainly lived up to it. Read a little YA at times but overall it was a great story, plenty of secrets and lies and loved the use of mixed media. Highly recommended.

Solid YA scifi- nothing too original but enjoyable nonetheless 

Such a wonderful premise from Caro De Robertis for "The Palace of Eros" giving us a beautiful, powerful and gender fluid re-telling of the story Psyche and Eros. Unfortunately the writing style didn't work for me. I'm not a fan of flowery, purple prose and there was a lot of it with this book. The plot itself felt a little lacking and was much more character driven focusing on the seduction, romance and blooming love affair between Psyche and Eros which for me wore a little thin quite quickly.

This book will be a must read for fans of books like The Last Tale of the Flower Bride and it genuinely has an amazing heart and powerful message about autonomy, it was just a miss for me based on the writing style which didn't suit my preferences.

2.5*

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction | The Borough Press for a digital review copy of "The Palace of Eros" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.