Sir Simon: Super Scarer by Cale Atkinson is a beautifully illustrated and adorable tale about a friendship between a ghost and a boy, who bond over the chores that they have to complete.

Our main character, Sir Simon Spookington has haunted many things ranging from a forest to a potato. But Sir Simon is on to a brand new haunt that he is very excited about. This time, he is haunting a house!

To make things even more exciting, he has heard that two grandparents are moving in, and grandparents are the best to haunt!

However, when Sir Simon goes down from the attic to get a closer look, he’s thrown for a bit of a loop; a kid has moved in!

This book was adorable! The artwork was wonderful and so much fun. The story-line was engaging, humorous, and centered around friendship. There were also a few lessons thrown in there, such as treating others how you’d like to be treated, being kind and understanding, and accepting that people aren’t good at everything and that’s okay.

The whole book was so lovely; from the end pages to the smaller details.

I would very highly recommend this one!

It is definitely one I will be adding to my “Children’s Library” wish-list on Amazon, and one I will likely be buying as a gift very soon!

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah is a wonderfully heartwarming tale about the challenges that life throws our way, but how the power of love can heal all.

However, this book wasn't all star-shine and baby kittens. This book was also thrilling, terrifying, and frustrating, and it tackled a number of really difficult elements.

I loved every second of it! This book immediately found it's place on my top ten favorite books. Hence, the long review below!

I’m so very thankful to TLC Book Tours for giving me the chance to read this novel! It was one of my most anticipated reads for March, and I was just ecstatic to see it pop up as an option for a book tour!

In this novel, we center around Jo, a young cancer survivor who has rented a cottage in the country in order to complete a research project about birds to complete her PhD. When she arrives home after a long day in the field, she spots a young girl. Jo is very weary of the girls presence, but takes pity on her and gives her something to eat. Jo soon learns that the girls name is Ursa.

Over the next few days, the Ursa keeps returning. No matter how hard Jo presses the girl to tell her why she won't return home, all the girl says is that she is here from the stars and that she needs to witness five miracles before she returns.

Soon, Jo and her neighbor, a man named Gabe that struggles with agoraphobia and depression, become tangled up in the situation. They both know that is it wrong to let Ursa stay with them, but they both feel very protective of her as well. They try to bring the authorities in, but Ursa runs away and the cop makes Jo question if forcing her to return would be safe.

Over time, Jo and Gabe learn how exceptionally smart Ursa is and they take her under their wings. While they constantly check to see if she has been reported missing, they are a bit relieved that they don't see her face on the list of the missing. However, they both still fear that something is wrong.

My Thoughts:

As I had mentioned above, I was so excited to jump into this book! I'm so thrilled to say that it actually surpassed the hype I had for it.

Right from page one, I was hooked!

First of all, this book was wonderfully written. The descriptions of people, places, and things were perfect. The plot and pacing were great. And I loved how the story was so easy going, but it didn't shy away from difficulties and moments of intensity. The characters were incredible and the relationships between the three main characters and the handful of support characters was so realistic and wonderful!

The three main characters were Jo, Gabe, and Ursa. I adored each of them as individuals, but I also adored their relationships with one another. But more on that in a bit!

I wanted to make sure I highlighted a few of the darker elements of the book. These elements included accidents, infidelity, prostitution, child abuse, drugs, cancer, depression, and murder. Many of these things happened only briefly in the narrative.

However, the two that were focused on the most out of that list were cancer and depression.

Regarding the cancer, it was written in a way that was clearly well researched. When the topic is brought up, it is when our main character,Jo, has been in remission for a bit. When they caught the cancer, it was very early, and she was able to have surgery. The scars have healed, her hair is growing back, and while she still struggles from time to time, she is also very strong and accepting of how her body looks now. She was such a powerful character, and I admired her so much!

The way the author handled Gabe’s mental illness was also very well written. It was realistic, the author didn’t hold back any of the punches (especially where others that didn’t understand came in), and they really focused in on the help and support rather than dwelling on the negatives of the situation. I will admit that I was a bit nervous for how quickly Jo was pushing Gabe, but it was also obvious that Jo was only pushing him because she could sense that he needed a little shove. I related to Gabe and his struggles quite a bit. The following passage really hit home for me:

“But sometimes I’m afraid to trust how good it is. What if it all starts again.”
“The people who love you will help you.” 

Now, onto more lighter elements!

The characters were absolutely amazing! I adored Gabe and Jo and their relationship that built up over time. I really enjoyed how they were both cautious at first but dove in with their whole selves and didn’t hold back once they were both ready to fall. How quickly they apologized to one another when things got heated was incredibly refreshing! They were both so sweet to one another. The scene with the two of them in the bedroom made me tear up with how considerate Gabe was about her scars, asking if they’re sensitive and if he shouldn’t touch them because he didn’t want to hurt her. Ugh, my heart!

The relationship between Jo and Tabby is one of my favorite female friendship relationships I've ever seen in a book. While Tabby had a rather small role compared to the three main characters, I loved each scene she was in! I really enjoyed how upbeat and wonderfully supportive Tabby was as Jo's best friend. Far too often, I read books where the boyfriend is introduced and it’s a tension filled situation. Here, there was a very brief couple of seconds where it was just slightly tense, but then the friend was her usual funny and supportive self.

And of course, the relationships that Ursa had with Jo, Gabe, and Tabby were wonderful as well. Each of the adults was so kind to Ursa and I loved that when they learned how smart she was, they immediately treated her in a way that was appropriate for her mentality; it was both paternal and a bit cautions, but also more like teachers where they allowed her to explore anything she wanted to explore, whether that was reading Shakespeare and learning more out Ornithology, or simply hanging out and having her nails painted purple and eating marshmallows.

There is so much more that I would love to write about, but I want to leave the magic up to you if you pick up this book!

Where the Forest Meets the Stars is Glendy Vanderah's debut novel. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for another book! I cannot wait to see what she writes next!

My Favorite Passages:
“You don’t have to say anything.”
He sat back in his chair. “I won’t. As always, words fail when you want to say the right thing.”
“People think they have to say something, and it never makes me feel better.”
“I know. I’ve decided language is not as advanced as we think it is. We’re still apes trying to express our thoughts with grunts while most of what we want to communicate stays locked in our brains.”

“I’m sick. I can’t just ‘recover and move on.’”
“If you believe that, you won’t.”
“Like most people who’ve never experienced it, your view of depression is optimistically misguided.”

He brought leftover cauliflower in cheese sauce for dinner.
“Not yuckyflower!” Ursa said. “Jo made me eat it last night!”
“This has gooey cheese on it,” he said, “and gooey cheese makes anything, even dirt, taste delicious.”
“Can I eat dirt instead?”

“Are you going to finish you lunch?” the nurse asked Ulsa.
“I don’t like it.”
“You asked for macaroni and cheese.”
“You have to make it from the blue box,” Ursa said, “and the shapes make it taste better.”
“Try Star Wars shapes next time,” Jo told the nurse.

My Final Thoughts:
I cannot recommend this book highly enough!

It had absolutely everything I love in a novel; amazing characters, wonderful relationships, great description, perfect settings, an interesting plot, moments of suspense and action, and it was all so wonderfully written. This book made me laugh, it made me tear up, and it made me clutch the edges of the book in during the nerve-wracking scenes.

This is a book that you won’t want to miss!

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneggeris a very slow paced and unconventional love story that unfolds over the course of the book.

There were a few things that I enjoyed about this book, but unfortunately, overall, this one was not for me.

Elements I Enjoyed
Overall, I did really enjoy the relationship between Henry and Clare. Even though some bits were odd and a bit unsettling because of the time travel and fate element, and they were horrible to each other on occasion, I understood. I really loved how real the relationship between the two of them seemed. It was so refreshing to see them so in love, and apologize so quickly when things got heated. I think I really enjoyed their relationship because a lot of the more normal and positive elements reminded me of my relationship with my husband.

The scene where Clare is walking to the orchard with her grandmother was wonderful! I loved how Clare described the things around them in a level of detail that she knew her grandmother would appreciate. That was by far my favorite scene in the book.

I also loved one scene where Henry came back to the present after going back in time to learn how Clare got a specific scar. What happened when he returned was really heartwarming.

When Henry explains the car accident he and his mother were in… that was brutal. This scene actually made my stomach quite upset. I was a bit surprised by this darkness and how it seemed so out of place for the rest of the story. However, it was written in in a very powerful way, hence why it wound up in the positive section.

Beware, the negatives:
I really didn’t like the first hundred pages of the book. At that point, I considered DNFing. After that, the story got a bit better for awhile, but then I began to lose interest again.

The story was told from two perspectives, which were horribly similar to the point where I forgot which perspective I was in many times. To make this worse, some of the sections switched perspectives right in the middle of it!

I enjoyed the characters at the very start (except for Gomez, he is a total creep and I couldn’t stand him for a second), but I soon began to feel that they were a bit flat. I kept hoping to learn more about each of them, but it stayed pretty high level. This frustrated me because even though there were many very difficult situations that occurred, it felt like we only scratched the surface with these characters. I stopped caring about them toward the third quarter of the book, and it only went downhill from there for me.

On that note, there was a long section about infertility that felt horribly flat from an emotional stand point. Perhaps I know too many people that have been through this, but this section really bothered me. It seemed almost sugarcoated.

This book was also strangely long. There were many times that I found myself reading and questioning why certain bits were included as they didn’t help develop the characters, and they didn’t really add much to the plot.

Additionally, there were elements that were added in that we didn’t get any follow up on that left us hanging. Like when Henry visits his dad and sees that he’s in rough shape. And then… nothing goes back to that?! That could have been something the author went back to in order to make Henry a bit of a deeper character.

The description was way too heavy for my preference and it really bogged the story down. I found myself skimming quite a bit. I even skimmed the long lists of punk bands, and I LOVE punk! The author went into very great detail to cover the things that happened when people were in bed, what they were eating, and so on. Elements like this were just so unnecessary to me. And to be honest, they were quite boring.

This book just had too many elements that I don’t care for; a very slow-pace, a plot that seems to drag because of scenes that weren’t all that useful to the story, random lists of things that seem to be added in just to name drop, detailed sex scenes that seemed thrown in for the heck of it, various loose ends, stereotypical characters, time travel, cheating…

By the time we reached that last element, I was pretty checked out.

My Favorite Passages:
My apartment is basically a couch, an armchair, and about four thousand books.

“Would you like some cookies? I always like to eat cookies while I look around museums. It makes it more multisensory.” I offer him the package of Oreos. He hesitates, unsure if it’s all right, hungry but unsure how many he can take without being rude. “Take as many as you want. I’ve already eaten ten, so you have some catching up to do.” He takes three.

Clare complains that I don’t relax until I’m dead tired, but actually I am often relaxed when I’m with her.

My Final Thoughts
I really wish I could say that I enjoyed this one, but it just didn’t work for me. I spent a weekend trying to plow through this one, and it was a hard slog.

When I closed the book, I looked at Alex and he said “Not good? How many stars.” I held up two fingers. However, the more I thought about this one, the more I disliked it… This book is officially right up there with my thoughts on Emma.

I am still curious about the film though. I think this is a tale that would work better in a 90 minute adaptation, where all the fluff would be cut out. So I’m definitely looking forward to watching!

Screechers by Kevin J. Kennedy and Christina Bergling is an action-packed post-apocalyptic novella filled with terrifying creatures and bloodshed, but also a heartwarming friendship.

I could not put this one down. So be prepared if you pick this up; you may want to set aside a couple of hours because you may get totally sucked in like I did!

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

There is so much that I want to talk about, but I don’t want to give too much away!

First things first, I really enjoyed that the story was told from different perspectives; from each of the creatures, and the humans. This varying perspective made the plot so interesting and powerful. The pacing was perfect and definitely on the faster side of things, which is just one of the many reasons why I couldn’t put this book down.

I loved each of the main characters; creature and human alike!

The three young adult men immediately interested me as we were dropped right in on them as they were leaving their settlement. While we learned a bit more about them over the course of the novella, I really like that much of their past remained a mystery.

I adored the creatures! I thought they were so unique and intriguing. I loved that they seemed like bloodthirsty and terrifying monsters at first, but then as you see them struggling with emotions that are rather new to them, and a bit similar to human emotion, you start falling for them. I really enjoyed seeing their interactions between one another, between themselves and the humans, and between themselves and other creatures of the word.

Speaking of, the creatures of the world that we got to learn about were absolutely terrifying!! But I’ll leave that discovery to you.

The scenes with action and bloodshed were wonderfully written. While brutal, they were also a bit whimsical, if you will. The scenes had the perfect level of description to help the reader really imagine what was going on without straying into too much detail and bogging down the pace.

Like all amazing novellas, when the story concluded I was both totally satisfied with how the tale ended, but also felt that I could easily read many more pages about this cast and the world they are in because it was so interesting!

My Favorite Passages
He craved the type of quiet that only came from being alone, just him between the ground and the vast sky.

They breeched the treeline as the sun reached its zenith in the sky, roasting above them. The trees twisted toward the sky, barren and lifeless, yet their wide, charred trunks managed to offer glimpses of shade.

Austin’s eyes wandered over to Burly. The white beast lumbered gracefully beside them, clearly shortening its larger steps to stay beside the tiny humans. When Austin watched its white flesh shine in the sunlight as it rippled over the beast’s muscles, he felt a strange combination of sheer terror and fascination. The large talons clicked and scraped in the sand, echoing the reminder of how lethal Burly really was.

The large creature carved through the pack like a sharp knife, leaving a trail of severed limbs and fallen corpses behind it. The two monsters turned the desert into Hell itself as carnage swelled over the dunes like the tide. The dead heaped until they covered the ground and the flight elevated on top of them.

My Final Thoughts:
I loved this read! This is definitely a tale that will stick with me for a long time, and I will certainly be rereading it time and time again.

My thanks again to Kevin J. Kennedy for sending this my way!

If you enjoy post-apocalyptic settings, terrifying creatures, fast-paced action, lots of bloodshed, interesting characters, and a heartwarming friendship, then this is a book for you!

I highly recommend this one!

The Lost Man by Jane Harper is an atmospheric tale about regrets, family secrets, isolation, and a man that is found dead by the gravestone of a local legend.

She has done it again, folks! Jane Harper has created another captivating tale that will totally suck you in and not let you go until the very last sentence.

This was one of my top most anticipated reads of 2019, and I am so thrilled that it did not disappoint.

But of course it didn’t… It’s Jane Harper!

Let’s dive into my review.

This is another book that you really just need to read for yourself, so I’ll keep this light.

The story begins in a very dark place; two brothers, Nathan and Bub, are standing near the body of their deceased brother, Cameron, who was found by a famous landmark on their property. It seems as though this may have been a suicide, that the stress of working the massive plot of land in the incredibly hot Australian outback was just too much for Cam. But Nathan isn’t convinced. There are just far too many things that don’t add up.

Over the course of the novel, we are led along a wonderfully character-driven story line where little bits and pieces of the whole picture start being revealed.

It’s a bit of a slow build leading up to the last few pages. But it certainly was not boring in any way! With each passing chapter, just enough information was given out. It was like the author was leaving us breadcrumbs, getting us to follow her through the story. Then when the very last bit of dust is wiped away from the big picture, and everything suddenly becomes clear… Amazing.

When I got to the ending, I jumped up and immediately told Alex what had happened. I did NOT see it coming. Of course, now I need to go back and reread it to see if I can catch any dropped hints that I totally missed!

My Favorite Passages:
It was funny how high and bright the red flags flew in hindsight, Nathan thought.

He hadn’t heard the name in more than twenty years, and he had to dig deep to fully unearth the memory. Dusty and buried, it rose up through the years and clicked into place, and by then it wasn’t a bell ringing in Nathan’s head, it was an alarm.

He had been holding on so long, and it was too hard, and he was just tired. He had felt himself, for the first time, simply giving up. Not all at once, and not entirely willingly, but a little at a time, slipping away, day after day.

My Final Thoughts
The Lost Man was so wonderfully written. The way that the story was organized was absolutely perfect. The plot was super addictive. And the characters were so interesting, especially with all of their faults!

This tale was so much more than just your normal murder mystery. While it had many darker elements such as death, isolation, and loneliness, it also featured forgiveness and second chances.

If you enjoy tales about families that are a bit dysfunctional but are trying their best to come together in a trying time, then I highly recommend this one to you! I also recommend this one to readers that enjoy slow-building tales that end with an explosive reveal.

I cannot wait to read this again.

The book dove right in to the story and not in a good way. There was no world building and very little explanation. None of the characters were staying clear in my mind. I ended up restarting to see if I had missed something. Nope.

So I tried continuing on without overthinking it...

There were loads of footnotes, but they didn’t add much and honestly seemed more like a distraction. A few times the footnotes explained things, but I still wasn’t getting the info I needed to stay engaged with the story.

On page 47 we finally get a note about the dream that the plot was supposedly going to center around.

I made it to page 97 and bailed.

Wraith is a dark and brutal look into the life of Charlie Manx, what he went through, and how Christmasland was made.

It was bloody. It was creepy. It was action packed. This graphic novel was everything that I was hoping it would be!

If you read and enjoyed Joe Hill’s NOS4A2, then you need to pick this one up!

The tale in this graphic novel is centered around three convicts and two guards. After one convict pushes one of the guards too far during transport, things get physical and they wind up going off the road and crashing. They all survive, but now the convicts are in power. One of the convicts calls in a favor. A favor from a driver named Charlie Manx…

They all get into Mr Manx’s car, but they are very surprised when they get to their destination…

Oh my goodness, the prologue was so dark and gory! I loved that this section showed us Charlie’s past and taught readers about how the inscapes work. I had always wondered about his wife and daughters while reading NOS4A2… this section answers that!

However, the gory prologue was just a quick glimpse into how bloody and dark things were about to get. Phew…

I thought that the artwork was so wonderful. It was equally dark and brutal, but light and fun at the same time. For example, the maze scene. And I am just such a sucker for details like the kids breaking the fourth wall to look at the reader, or fun little elements such as a hidden Waldo:

The story flowed really well and the plot was interesting! I totally devoured this one!

When the story ended, I was satisfied but I would happily read another collection like this!

And then there was the epilogue, which gives us another wonderful tale that adds a layer to the story. The artwork in this section was different but fun!

My Favorite Passage:
Magic is not a matter of incantations and boiled frogs! You require only a talisman – an object – that you love so much it is like a dream made real.

My Final Thoughts:
A must-read for any horror fans, especially fans of Joe Hill’s NOS4A2! This was such a brutal, but awesome horror-filled read that I cannot recommend highly enough!

The Luckiest Leprechaun, written by Justine Korman Fontes and illustrated by Denise Brunkus, is an adorable little story about trust and friendship.

This tale features MacKenzie O’Shamrock, or Mac for short. Mac is a leprechaun who is only concerned with two things; protecting his gold and making shoes for faeries. Business is good, as the faeries do nothing by dance, and either wear out or lose their shoes.

Mac has a comfortable home under a tree in a park. But one day, a dog named Lucky accidentally digs right into Mac’s home when trying to bury a bone! Lucky feels awful. To try to make it up to Mac, she promises to be his guard dog. Mac protests, but Lucky starts to grow on him. One day, Lucky makes good on her promise and chases off a human man that was about to catch Mac!

But when Mac wakes up and see’s that both his gold and Lucky are missing… he blames Lucky. However, Mac is also a bit worried about the dog. What if something happened to her?

This would be a great book to read with kids, especially around the Saint Patrick’s Day holiday!

It was a cute story with a great lesson about friendship. It flowed really well and it had wonderful illustrations. I’d highly recommend this one!

My favorite line from the book was: “Then people found a new way to boil my potatoes…“

Say Cheese and Die! by R.L. Stine is a tale about a group of kids that go into an abandoned house and find a camera. But it’s not just any old camera… this is an evil camera.

This is a book with a pretty simple premise, but to this day, it’s still one that has stuck with me ever since the first time I read it!

When I saw a copy at my local Goodwill, I just had to snag it so I could re-read it. While some of the story is a bit outdated, I still really enjoyed the re-read!

Like I had said above, the premise was rather simple; a group of kids are bored one day and decide to go into an abandoned house. Once inside, they wind up in the basement where one of the kids discovers a camera hidden in a cabinet. He feels that the camera is hidden for a reason, but can’t resist.

To test it out, the boy that found the camera tells another boy to pose. After the flash goes off, the camera spits out an instant print. Excited to get back downstairs to see it, the boy who had posed leaned on the railing on the stairs, but the railing gives way and he falls to the ground.

When they hear someone walking upstairs, the kids escape the house, taking the camera with them.

Later, when they are safe again, they remember the photo. When they look at it, they immediately see that something is wrong. The photo, while it was taken when the boy was posing, shows the boy mid-air as he was falling from the stairs.

They try to brush this off as just a odd occurrence, but each new photo that is taken ends up coming true! But is the camera predicting the future, or causing the bad luck?

At the very beginning of the book, I thought, “Oh boy… this is not going to be as amazing as my first read…” This was simply because some of this is rather outdated now. However, the story quickly picked up and I was totally sucked in.

I love how realistic the banter between the kids was. They really seemed like a group of kids in the 90’s just hanging out, looking for something interesting to do in a small, boring town. Complete with the sarcasm, pushing each others buttons, and light picking on one another.

The plot, while predictable, was still so much fun! I mean, how eerie is an evil camera that either predicts or causes accidents and other bad things to happen?!

I had so much fun re-reading this one! If you were a fan of the Goosebumps series as a kid, I definitely recommend giving this one another go! It’s a very quick read, which could be awesome for a readathon! It’s not a very deep, or super developed tale. But it is a tale that will suck you right in as you breeze through the story.

I’d also recommend this one to the targeted age range. While the creep-factor was much lower on this read through for me, I still remember how scary I found it the first time around. This is such a great tale to introduce younger readers to creepier reads!

Did you know that a drabble is a short form of fiction that is exactly 100 words long?

I learned this when Mr. Kennedy asked me to read 100 Word Horrors: An Anthology of Horror Drabbles in 2018. After reading the first few tales in that collection, I was in love!

When the author sent over the second edition, I was ecstatic! This second collection of drabbles had a bit of everything and I had so much fun reading it.

Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of this book by the author in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my rating in any way.

My favorite stories from this collection were definitely the ones that either spooked me or took a turn at the very end that I wasn’t expecting at all! It was so fun to see stories start out as cute and romantic, but then suddenly get extremely dark.

Of course, with any type of collection, it’s normal for me to love some and dislike some. So there were a few drabbles that I didn’t care for. These were usually the ones that just didn’t give me enough information to understand what was happening. There were also a few in this collection that I didn’t like because of the content matter.

Feel free to read on to see my quick thoughts after I read each story.

Aye Eye by Terry M. West – 5/5
…and here we go! A lovely Drabble to kick us off. Begins as a bit of a love story then goes dark. Perfection.

In a Little Tin-Hut by Myk Pilgrim – 3/5
The image of the setting that this one creates in the mind is very intriguing. But… Ouch!

Colic by Billy San Juan – 4/5
The end of this one made me gasp!

On the Second Date by Mark Cassell – 5/5
So dark! I’d love to see more from this short tale! I’d be so interested to read about the first date, and then where the two go from this Drabble.

The Rash by Justin Boote – 5/5
EW! Oh my gosh the end…

One Shared Moment by Christopher Motz – 5/5
I did not see that coming! Wonderfully dark, creepy, and then bam! A perfect ending!

End of the Line by Mike Duke – 4/5
Oh no! This poor fellow. I wonder what his life had been like.

Snow Angel by Michael A. Arnzen
Unfortunately I don’t understand this one.

The Missing Undertaker by Eric J. Guignard
Darn it! I don’t get this one either.

Werewolf Dating Problems by Sarina Dorie – 4/5
Aww! Poor guy, and especially poor girl!

Ghost Hacker by Julian J. Guignard – 4/5
Eep! Creepy and dark!

Instant Messaging by Billy San Juan – 5/5
Oh my gosh!! This one was terrifying. This triggers some memories from high school when a random person (or likely a friend pulling a prank) was describing my house and the things around it, and had me terrified that it was a stranger in my house. I was home alone and went searching through the house with a knife.

No Such Thing by Shaun Hutson – 5/5
A perfect monster tale!

The One or the Many by J.C. Michael – 5/5
Aww! Love this one.

Haunted by Amy Cross – 4/5
Creepy!

Ghost Riders in the Sky by Billy Chizmar & Richard Chizmar – 3/5

Sylvan by Donelle Pardee Whiting – 4/5
Ooh!

Songbird of London by Lisa Vasquez – 4/5
Aww, this was a sad one.

Hooked by Stephen Stacy – 5/5
So sad!! I loved that you really didn’t know what was happening until the last sentence!

DIY by Mark Lumby – 4/5
So creepy!

The Weatherman by P. Mattern – 5/5
Oh my gosh! I need more of this story!! So well done!

In Conversation with My Mirror by Joe C. Young – 1/5
Not one for me.

Beachcombing by Mark Cassell – 5/5
So creepy!!

Intruder by Michael Bray – 4/5
Eep! So scary!!

Without You by Jasper Bark – 5/5
Perfect! That ending!!

Night Terrors by P.J. Blakey-Novis – 5/5
Terrifying!! I wake up at the same time of night multiple nights in a row pretty frequently and it always freaks me out!

Let’s Swing by Jay Sigler – 5/5
Sad and terrifying!

The Perfect Blend by Howard Carlyle – 5/5 **
WOW!! This one got me. A love story with a very dark twist. I read this one on my lunch break… Whoops. This one was my favorite of the collection. I loved how caught off guard I was! I read this one aloud to my husband, he didn’t appreciate it nearly as much as I did 🙂

This Way by Christina Bergling – 4/5
Oh no! So sad.

King of the Hill by John Boden – 4/5
Loved this one. So horribly sad though.

Making Mr Hide by Matthew Cash
Not one for me. I will say I think the idea of this story was quite creepy. But this one certainly had a gross out factor!

Out of Tune by Chad Lutzke – 4/5
Yikes!

A New Friend by Andrew Lennon – 4/4
Another sad one. This one left me with questions.

U-Bend Hell by David Owain Hughes – 5/5
Yikes!! Horrifying and disgusting! This one is gonna stick with me!

Shepherd by Jason Parent – 3/5
Yikes! This one is so eerie.

Maple Syrup Muse by Chad Lutzke – 4/5
Yikes! I wonder where this tree was located.

Breath-taking by Suzanne Fox
Not for me.

Widescreen Rapture by Craig Saunders – 3/5
Creepy! I love a good Armageddon tale.

Hide and Seek by Ellen A Easton – 5/5
Terrifying! What a poorly timed sneeze!

The Faces of the Dead by Robert W. Easton – 5/5
So scary!! A bit sad as well.

Clockwork Offal by Stephen Kozeniewski – 3/5
Yikes! True love or a toxic relationship?

Lying In Wait by Shaun Hutson – 4/5
Oh no! Sad and scary!

She Fought Back by James Newman – 5/5
Yasss! Good dog!

Devoured by the Darkness by Brandy Yasss – 5/5
Loved this one!

Hitori Kakurenbo by C.M. Saunders – 5/5
Yikes!!

Tiki Mug from R’lyeh by Nicholas Diak – 5/5
Woah! This was neat! This is another I’d love to learn more about.

No Greater Loss by Theresa Jacobs
Not for me.

Fear Production Department by Norbert Góra – 4/5
Creepy!!

Being Polite by Valerie Lioudis – 5/5
So scary!! I loved that this one was organized as a conversation!

The Nanny Goat by Myk Pilgrim
I missed something with this one.

S.O.S. by Justin M. Woodward – 3/5

A Ghost in the Corner by Mark Lukens – 5/5
Oh no! This one was terrifying!

The Dreamer and the Doom by Toneye Eyenot – 3/5

Kids by Howard Carlyle – 3/5
Yikes!

Monster in the Mist by John Dover – 4/5
Creepy!

A Walking We Shall Go by H.R. Boldwood
I think I missed something in this one.

No Fear by C.S. Anderson – 4/5
Oh! Don’t mess with Prudence!!

Spare Some Change? By Nicholas Pascal – 4/5
Woah! I didn’t see that coming!

Little Men by Andrew Lennon – 4/5
Oh no!! Such a nightmare!

Old Katy Bridge by Veronica Smith – 4/5
Oh no! This was a sad but creepy one!

Don’t Shoot the Messenger by Rhys Hughes – 4/5
What a twist! Too bad he hadn’t read the note before delivering it…

Young Blood by Derek Shupert – 4/5
Oh I love a good vampire tale!

To Save Us All by Paul Kane – 4/5
Eep! Gross and creepy!

Nearest Beach by Sarah Tantlinger – 4/5
So spooky! I wonder how many times stuff like this actually happens….

Prankster by David J. Fielding – 4/5
Oh no. What a dummy.

Survival Instinct by Eric J. Guignard – 4/5
Oh no!

Collectively by Stefan Lear – 3/5
Yikes! Boy the second sentence threw me!

Maiden Flight by Lee Murray – 4/5
Trust your gut, friends!

Pig Sick by Ian McKinney – 3/5
Gross but also a bit funny.

Prison by Christina Bergling – 4/5
Oh! Interesting.

Hollow Earth Food Chain by Mike Duke – 3/5
Yikes!

Just Like Your Grandma by Phipps Bailey – 3/5
Oh gosh!

Hung by A.J. Brown – 4/5
So dark! Poor kid.

Broken Heart by Lee Franklin – 5/5
Oh NO! This is terrifying, but what insane payback!

The Expert by Terry M. West – 5/5
Ooh I loved this vampire tale!

The Highwayman by Billy Chizmar – 4/5
Sad and creepy!

The Pusher by James Matthew Byers
Not for me.

The Man at the Window by Stephen Stacy – 5/5
Oh NO! This is so darn sad.

My Pet Unicorn by Sarina Dorie – 4/5
Woah!

Story Prompt by Christopher Motz – 4/5
This one made me chuckle!

Everyday Psychopath by RJ Roles – 5/5
So creepy! Such dark thoughts. You never know who is having thoughts like these daily and who may one day act on them!

Destroyed by Monsters by Jay Sigler – 5/5
I equally loved and (jokingly) hated this one. I’m so afraid of spiders!! How terrifying this one was!!

Growth by Andrea Lennon – 3/5
Ehhhhh! Another creepy crawly one. This one reminded me of the SSTTITD tale about the girl with the welt on her face though.

Percy Jacobs’ Last Sunset by Suzanna Fox – 3/5
Aww, another sad one. The poor guy. The fact that he didn’t get his last treat is making me unreasonable sad.

Glutton by John Boden – 4/5
Yikes! Didn’t see that coming. Probably should have considering the collection it’s in. So perfect!

My True Form by P.J. Blakey-Novis – 5/5
Yes!!! So perfect. I need more dark wherewolf tales in my life!

The Gurgle by Michael A. Arnzen – 3/5
Oh boy! This one made me nauseous for some reason… well done!

Basement Monster by Justin M. Woodward – 3/5
Creepy!

Spun by Gary McMahon – 3/5
Oh gosh! This one paints a creepy picture.

Why You Should Always Be Specific by J.C. Michael – 5/5
Ha! Love it.

Nano Bytes by Lee Franklin – 5/5
Yes!! I love this one so much! This makes me want to re-read Prey by Michael Crichton!

Last Thoughts by Shaun Hutson – 5/5
OH MY GOD. This is why I hate elevators.

Five Minutes Alone by Justin M. Woodward – 5/5
Ooooh! Lovely revenge.

School Lunch by Tom Deady – 3/5
Oh no….

The Lament of the Dying by James H. Longmore – 4/5
So terrifying to think about!

Bonfire by Mark Lumby – 4/5
Another great tale of revenge!

Call of the Void by RJ Roles –
I think I missed something here.

Rude Awakening by David J. Fielding – 3/5
Eek! One of my worst nightmares!

Cats Gathering by Rhys Hughes – 3/5
Oh, cats.

Spidertrap by Lee McGeorge – 4/5
Horrifying!

Death to the Light by Toneye Eyenot
Not for me.

Witch Dog by Julian J. Guignard – 3/5
Oh goodness! What a backfire!

Metamorph by Kevin J. Kennedy – 5/5
Eek! Spider tales! So freaky!

Sustenance by Rebecca Brae – 3/5
Oh no! Poor Mark. Just trying to help…

It’s a Twin Thing by Tom Deady – 5/5
Ah!!

Static Nighmare by Sarah Tantlinger – 3/5

Jack by Valerie Lioudis – 5/5
Ah! That twist!

Trapped by David Owain Hughes – 5/5
Oh gosh! What a scary idea!

Feed the Crop by Mark Cassell
Not sure I understood this one.

The Wishing Well by RJ Roles – 3/5
Woah, what? Dark but I have questions.

Fire by Joe X. Young – 4/5
Woah! Dark!!

Of Bubbles and Illusions by H.R. Boldwood
Not sure I understand this one.

How to Disappear in the Big City by Adriaan Brae – 4/5
So creepy!!

The Curious Case of Shadow Man by David Owain Hughes – 4/5
Oooh! Just enough to tell a tale, but definitely one I’d love to learn more about!

One Witch’s Cure for Vandalism by Sarina Dorie – 5/5
Too funny!

No Breath to Scream by Robert W. Easton – 4/5
Eek! Another sad but terrifying one!

Fur and Teeth by Rebecca Brae – 5/5
Yikes!! Terrifying!! I hate camping!

No One Believes by Jay Sigler – 4/5
Awesome and terrifying!

The Wolf and the Girl in the Red Dress by Michael Bray – 4/5
Interesting! I liked this twist!

Bedeviled by Mark Lukens – 4/5
Oh no!

The Man Who Comes Around by Billy Chizmar – 3/5

Victim by David Moody – 4/5
Ugh absolutely horrifying and awful.

Walkers by James Newman- 4/5
So creative and eerie!

The Perfect Guests by Howard Carlyle – 4/5
Yikes! Love it!

Leftovers by Christina Bergling – 5/5
Oh my gosh! I need to know more about this one! So terrifying!!

Night Visitor? by John Dover – 4/5
Spooky! Hearing things in the night is always terrifying.

The Trolley by James Matthew Byers – 3/5

Preserving Jar by Lee Murray – 4/5
I’d love to see more from this story!! Wonderfully done!

The Hunter by James McCulloch – 5/5
Woah!!

Doomed by Feind Gottes – 4/5
Oh no! I wonder what had happened to get them into that situation.

Laid to Rest by Derek Shupert – 5/5
ikes! Such a nightmare!!!

An Eye for a Tooth by Mike Duke – 5/5
Dang! Go Matt!

My Final Thoughts:
In the Afterward, Kevin J. Kennedy stated; “So, you have reached the end of our second Drabble book. I hope it was a fun ride.”

It sure was! I loved this collection so much!!

I highly recommend checking this one out if you’re a fan of horror, paranormal, humor, and/or sci-fi, and don’t mind a little darkness.