Some great stories! Perfect for the spooky season. 5 stars - full review to come soon! But now I need to go read Harrowing Horrors: Demon Weed which is free at JZFoster.com if anyone wants to join me!

Camp Slaughter is just the book I needed to satisfy my pre-fall craving thirst for slasher horror. It's got a few different layers that come together to tell a great story: 1) some teens are going for one last celebration in the secluded woods 2) a pair of documentary filmmakers who specialize in mystery, occult, and supernatural 3) a cannibalistic killer with heart. All of these factors are what I loved so much about Camp Slaughter.

From the opening prologue I was HOOKED (and not like meat-hook hooked...) It really set the tone of the book and during one part I actually got shivers and had to look around my room to make sure I was alone. I love when a horror book can give me that feeling!

From then on, the story has a great pace and alternated back and forth between different groups of people until all stories ultimately collide at the end. I found all the characters extremely likable. I was rooting for them all and hated for any of them to die. I even found myself sympathizing with our killer from time to time.

I gasped quite a few times at how the author totally shocked me with his twists. I didn't see so many things coming. And while this book has this blend of Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Conjuring (slightly), it was refreshing that I still had no clue what to expect as I turned each page. But that is just another reason I really enjoyed this one!

The death scenes are quick and brutal, much like you might expect on-screen. A quick "AHH!!" moment and then you're back in it watching it all happen and waiting for the aftermath. There isn't tons of deliberating and bathing in the guts and gore and the blood like some books do.

Overall this book is easy to rate 5 stars! I absolutely loved it! And I thiiiiiiiiiiink there is going to be a sequel?! I can't wait! I highly recommend this one and I think it will make for excellent fall reading!

Dobby is here, ladies and gentlemen! I love this book for many reasons, but one of the biggest is because we get Dobby's debut. The Chamber of Secrets is the perfect sequel in this series because of how it continues to play with Harry's "fame" and "infamy" at the same time to throw the reader off the scent of this installment's mystery. We get to see our Gryffindor trio form an even stronger bond as they are trying to discover the identify of the threat at Hogwarts. And we learn a little more about what happened to Harry after Voldemort attacked him as a baby that changes his life. This book has some beyond-memorable scenes (even Lockhart couldn't rid them with one of his famous memory charms!) and is another easy 5 star read!

Oliver Crum and the Briarwood Witch is the first in a new series from Chris Cooper. I loved The Dreadful Objects and the writing style in it so I was eager to see what I would find in Cooper's second book. I found all of the things that I loved: cozy mystery vibes, paranormal suspense, and light horror. After thinking about it for a while, I think that "cozy horror" should be a new genre (if it is not already one, that is). Because that's how I thought this book was - it had all the cozy elements: distant family, quaint historical town, local business, etc. But then it had the witch! His writing style is so clear and precise and each word matters. I fell in love with all the descriptions. 4 stars from me and I will absolutely be reading the second Oliver Crum book whenever it comes!

I have always enjoyed the Archie universe. As a kid I can remember getting the little comics at the checkout line in the grocery store all the time. And Veronica was always my favorite! So you can imagine how pumped I was to see a Archie meets Horror with this installment of Vampironica.

It is a quick read and full of all the characters we've come to love over the years. It has all the Ronnie charm, wit, and sass you can imagine. I could have read even more to these if it were longer, but the way it ended definitely seemed like it would remain a limited series only. I can maybe see them turning this into something more with a "Buffy", vampire-hunting vibe if they want to. 4 stars!

Buffy is my top fandom and I love any chance to visit Sunnydale! When I saw this reboot graphic novel was being released I almost didn't even believe it. I enjoyed the extension of the TV show into the graphic novel seasons so I went into this optimistic. I like how things are more modernized and some of the characters are already different. This is going to be a great series and any Buffy fan should check it out!

Looking for a coming-of-age horror story that isn't centered around boys becoming men? Look no further! The Dead Girls Club is your answer. Damien Angelica Walters crafts together a wonderful story that blends horror and thriller. The story is told from one person's POV but is told in a "Then" and a "Now" setting. I don't know why but any alternating timeline like this in a book ALWAYS encourages me to read more quickly and more in one sitting. This format just works for me - it keeps my attention and always has me wanting more. The Dead Girls Club is no different in that aspect.

But this book has something more that kept me hooked: a sense of nostalgia. In our story, young girls in the past are playing games like Bloody Mary, Light As a Feather, and are involved in a club that focuses on all things macabre: serial killers, Stephen King books, and scary rituals that are "supposed to be fun and maybe not real." Who didn't spend some of their youth involved in just these exact same activities with similar interests? I mean, I know I did... which is maybe why this book resonates so well with me.

Walters can absolutely craft a mystery and coming-of-age tale so well together! I found the horror elements to be more so in the past setting: the actual "Dead Girls Club" the girls are in, the tales of witches and ghosts, the spooky coincidences we learn about, and the dark games and rituals. All of these are part of the girls' upbringing. The current setting of the book to me reads as more of a thriller. Each chapter sets us up for a flashback to the past where something dark has happened. And each chapter in the present is full of fast-paced action, paranoia, and/or lies told here and there which are all elements of a great thriller to me, too.

I had a few predictions on how the story was going to end... all of them were mostly wrong for me. I did have one little piece figured out around halfway through... but that did not stop me from thirsting to put ALL the pieces together and see what happened and what IS happening. I can't recommend this book enough! If it isn't obvious yet, this book is a 5 star read!

Thank you Crooked Lane Books for this copy!

Either 3.5 or 4 stars! Full review to come... need to think about this one for a minute!

Asylums and serial killers with paranoid schizophrenia?! Sign me up! If those two things do not intrigue you, then perhaps it is worth adding that one of the doctors in the asylum here wants to use an experimental drug on one of the nation's most horrific killers to "cure" his schizophrenia. But when doing so it is like reality bends and all the "inner demons" of this murderer are unleashed on the world... or at least within the walls of the asylum. What is real and what is a lie? How are will you go to help someone?

One of my favorite aspects of this book is all of the character development. I got to know these characters and find out how they ticked. But it is all for a greater purpose, as well. We have to get to know them because we have to be able to understand just what they are afraid of and what might break them. This is seen later on in the final third of the book.

This book is quite unputdownable as the pace of the story is strong and has a good mix of different story lines and characters. You never get too settled and are always wanting to find out more. Kirk does a great job keeping the reader engaged and interested throughout the book while we are trying to understand just what is happening to the characters as well as to us the readers.

We all have a darkness. Not just the serial killers or the criminally insane paranoid schizophrenics.
All of us. Even the doctors and helpers. It's whether or not we choose to accept the inner darkness and how we go about our lives making sure it doesn't win that ultimately defines who we are.

4 stars and I am highly looking forward to more from Brian Kirk!