After the christening of Amy, Melissa, Jess, and Liz’s She Shed goes horribly wrong, Amy sets out to figure out just what in the hell is going on with Liz. She looks different, acts funny, and GOD her house smells. 

However, suburban mom duties call so between exorcism research and haunted vacuum battles, Amy and Co must also organize a neighborhood event so as not to let the children down. 

This book started out strong for me with a fair amount of wit combined with instant horror! The characterizations are great and the dialogue is obviously humorous without being too cheesy. It’s a fun book! 

However, I do feel that it could’ve been a biiiit shorter as it dragged on for me in the second half and the big confrontation was fairly anticlimactic. After all the hell they went through, I feel like the ending scenes could’ve given us more! 

Still, I think the author did a great job with the writing and creating a horror comedy that many will enjoy! The laughs did make up a bit for the anticlimactic end. 

The Ravenous Dead is the follow up to Darcy Coates’s The Whispering Dead. We’re following up on Keira- a ghost whispering mystery woman new to the town of Blighty. 

See, the thing is- Keira doesn’t know much about herself. What she does know is that she’s being hunted by a mysterious group involving flaky skin, skull masks, and dogs. Beyond that? Clueless. 

This is another book I’d categorize is New Adult Horror in the way the characters are written and the story flows. You’ve got your classic occult manic pixie chick and a gentle and pining love interest for best friends- oh, and an adorable derpy black cat. 

The writing is snappy and quick making for a fast, but tense read. 

Fresh from solving one ghostly mystery, Keira is now hunted by a dark specter in the woods that calls to her. As its strength grows she must find a way to not only save herself, but the souls that have not yet moved on to the afterlife. 

Overall, I found that I really enjoyed this book as I read both the Whispering Dead and the Ravenous Dead within the same day. TRD is a longer and more fleshed out story that pretty much picks off exactly where book one started. 

My main issue with this book is character development and dialogue in that the characters often speak the same and could’ve been more well rounded. 

Still, the story is quite intriguing with plenty of comedic relief and was very enjoyable to read! 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the eARC!

Beware mysterious figures in the dark.

They Drown Our Daughters is a horror book that reads like a haunting thriller and leaves you wondering if perhaps curses are real.

Meredith, freshly separated from her wife, heads back to her hometown of Cape Disappointment with her young daughter Alice. She returns to her childhood home despite a history of tension with her mother who warns of a curse- stay away from the water at all costs.

Long frustrated with her mother’s intense belief in said family curse, Meredith dismisses her concerns and takes her daughter to the beach- a decision that will change their lives forever.

For there is someone lost at sea and she calls to them.

I found that this book did such a fantastic job of utilizing multiple POVs and different timelines to weave a tense and rich story. Not only do you get to enjoy Meredith’s POV, but you find your answers through her mother starting in the 70s in addition to other women in the family who came before them.

Meredith’s mother, Judith, was a headstrong child hellbent on discovering more about the voice in the water and what that meant for her and her family. I really enjoyed Judith’s POV and found her childhood chapters to be particularly well written.

While some may find them frustrating due to her stubbornness and naivete, I found that to be what made them so real. The author did an excellent job of capturing a child’s perspective on this legend and you get to watch that perspective change as Judith ages.

They also do a wonderful job of showing how dangerous lying to and withholding information from your children can be.

I also particularly enjoyed the ending of this book and how the monster was made to be multidimensional- or maybe, the monster was never really the monster after all.

With all of that being said- again, I did feel like this book felt a lot more thriller than horror. This impacted my decision to give it four stars versus five stars. Still, I highly recommend reading this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this eARC! They Drown Our Daughters is out July 12th.

This is a book with a disgustingly pathetic narrator and her awful boyfriend and together they suck.