4 stars - need to think about this MAMMOTH of a book a bit! Review to come!

I knew when I saw this cover and read the synopsis that I had to read this book! And I am pleased to say that this book does not disappoint in the slightest! It's full of coming-of-age, friendships, mystery/suspense, nightmares, and more. This book is a cautionary tale for abiding by the rules of any game played. Breaking the rules can have serious consequences. And in this case, the game they are playing is Hide and Seek. I can't even count how many hours and hours I spent playing this game with my friends and family as a child... but now I will never look at it the same again!

The book starts off about a year after Justin's mom has died and close friend, Zee, reappears after going missing for about the same time. Something is different about Zee and we will spend the rest of the book figuring out where he went, what happened to him, and how/why he came back. Every kid's nightmare will be explored in this story, and many of them were ones I also had growing up. It was fun, but not the most pleasant experience, reliving some of these childhood traumas. What seems silly to be afraid of now still evokes quite a feeling of discomfort and creepiness when looking back. But now the kids start disappearing from each other and the world as we know it, too. Who is Hyde? Who or what is the Seeker? How long have these connected childhood disappearances been happening? And as the kids band together in the Nowhere world of the Seeker, they must truly fight as one. They must communicate and explore each other's nightmares and fears if they have any chance for survival. Not since The Loser's Club in Stephen King's IT have I been rooting for a group of kids so much!

While this is middle grade horror, I still loved it as an adult. If I read this when I was growing up, I think it would have seriously scared me due to the situations the kids are put into as well as the monster. All the kids personalities and traits are fleshed out and explored. They have psychological traumas and terror as well as physical threats. This is Daka Hermon's debut and all I can say is that if she continues to write (and I hope she does!) and her books are even half as great as this one then sign me up every single time - she blew me away with this book!

The Poet X is Elizabeth Acevedo's debut novel, but it is the second of hers that I have read. It is a stunning story told in rhythmic verse about Xiomara, a young Dominican-American teen living in Harlem, who discovers her love for slam poetry as a way to help her cope with and understand her overly religious mother as well as her first young love that is in the making. In the past she has been extremely heavy handed in the sense that she expresses herself physically more than she has verbally/non-verbally on paper. Xiomara also uses poetry and her written word as a way to deal with the world in general: body acceptance, abuse, self-worth, sexism/misogyny, rape and assault culture, and more.

I ravaged this story in one sitting. Everyone told me how great it was, but I did not truly get the hype until I was about 30-50 pages into it. The Poet X explores so many topics from a different lens than my own and it is always interesting to me. Elizabeth Acevedo has a true gift, but you don't need me to confirm that for you. I will be reading everything she puts out and has put out that I can get my hands on!

Red, White, & Royal Blue takes us on a wild roller coaster journey telling the story of Alex, the son of the President of the United States, and Prince Henry. While attending a royal wedding, Alex and Henry get into a little tiff that results in the destruction of a $75k cake, bruised egos, and a potentially ruined political relationship between the United States and Britain. To remedy the situation, both young men have been given information about each other and will do some "forced" friendship by hanging out and doing charity work together... and that will be the beginning of their "enemies to lovers" quest.

This is a fun story full of laugh out loud moments and quite the steamy scenes! I thought, for their ages, everyone in the book had believable characteristics and dialog. The pace of the story never let you down. The beginning took a little bit to get into just because I am not a romcom reader, I ham not used to this author, and I was not at all adept on who these people are and how they all connect to each other. But once I got fully on board it was hard to stop this one. And it ended up being a book I never thought I would enjoy, per se, but will be one for me to recommend if anyone is looking for some m/m romance as well as humor mixed with political tensions. Both Alex and Henry are trying to understand what is going on and then, on top of that, how it might impact their parents' and family's lives given the situation of who they happen to be. I think any romcom fan will eat this one up!

Video Palace: In Search of the Eyeless Man rounds up a lot of stories, interviews, and first hand experiences and encounters of the Eyeless Man, which comes across as a blend of Slenderman, creepypasta, and The Ring. Everything we read is intended to support the author's theory that the Eyeless Man is real and we should all be more exposed. All of the stories bring different insight into this myth/legend and, as a reader, I am not sure what to think. As I had never heard of the Eyeless Man before, reading these testimonies and stories for the first time really started to creep me out. As with most anthologies and collections, there are some stories that are better than others. But all the ones here made me pause, look around, and wonder, "What if?" Fans of Slenderman, urban legends, and more will definitely eat this up!

3.5 stars and rounded up for Goodreads! Thanks to the publisher for this #NightwormsBookParty!

Calvin Demmer is back with another solid collection of stories with DARK CELEBRATIONS. There are 12 stories within and each one is centered around a different holiday/celebration. It is a unique format of storytelling and one that makes these stories even have greater re-readability! Many horror tropes you know will be examined and retold through Demmer's creative mind and you definitely need to see some of these twists firsthand! No story in this collection is too long or too short - they are perfect bites of horror and definitely easy to devour.

4 stars to this great collection and my favorites within are TRICK OR DEATH and PROM SCREAMS. This is the 2nd collection of stories I have read by Demmer and I will definitely be picking up anything from here on - I definitely recommend this one as well as THE SEA WAS A FAIR MASTER from 2018.

Chicken Chicken is basically just a cautionary tale to be kind to strangers and have good manners. If you bump into strangers on the street, burp in someone's house, etc then you should all know the proper etiquette response. In this story, siblings Crystal and Cole learn the hard way what happens when they do not follow the guidelines. And they learn it by crossing the "weird goth girl with black clothes and black lipstick." This book had a good theme but it sort of rambled all over the place for the first 1/3 and it was more difficult to get into than it should have been. Not a fave in the series, but the last 20 pages or so make up for it. 2.5 rounded up to 3 on Goodreads!

Transcendent Kingdom has a whole lot of story for a book ~264 pages long. The book essentially focuses on Gifty, a young woman studying the neuroscience behind addictions and impulse control. She is from Ghana and her family moved to Hunstville, Alabama. Her brother was a talented athlete who became addicted to opioids after an injury leading to his overdose. Her mother is overly religious suffering severe depression along with other issues. And Gifty hopes that all her education, experience, and work with neuroscience will help her unravel, understand, and digest all of the issues and suffering around her.

As you may infer, this book focuses a lot on substance abuse, internal conflicts and struggles of identity, religion vs. science, racism and assimilation, complicated family lives, immigration, and more. Gifty is definitely a strong, resilient, and smart character. We get to see her make the best sense of her life, both past and present, and watch her discover more of who she is. This book is thoughtful and emotional and will have you thinking about everything.

Before receiving this book, I had never heard of Jane Toppan. And now I can tell everyone about her! This would make a great intro to true crime book for readers trying to test the waters as it is not information overload or even stats upon stats. This book is sort of like a retelling and we get to witness the story from Jane's side. The facts in this book are actual facts, but they are just presented to us in a different method than most documentaries or bios... and that made this book even more fun to read! While serial killers are deplorable and make the worst decisions, there are times where you feel for them. What happened to them in their lives that made them this way? Are they struggling internally with mental illness that was never observed, diagnosed, and/or treated? Did one life choice make all the difference? Nothing takes away from the pain they have caused or the lives they have taken, but it makes you think that things are not always black and white. I also have to credit the author for eliciting these thoughts and emotions from me while talking about America's first female serial killer. I highly recommend this one!

Valancourt Books never ceases to amaze me and this company is always doing new things. With this anthology, they have looked all over the world, reading horror works from dozens of countries in close to twenty languages in order to find incredible and underrepresented contemporary international and translated horror stories. WHAT?? There was no way to say no to this one!

If you are unsure where to begin in your horror journey, this anthology will bring you some stories from all over the world without having to put on a mask or leave your house to experience. As true with most collections and anthologies, not every story is a 5 star smash hit... but that does not mean that each story did not unnerve me, bother me, or scare me in one way or another with varying degrees. You can expect to be entertained by every story in these pages for sure!

The Time Remaining by Attila Veres (from Hungary) is my absolute favorite here... it was so so good! I need more just like this! I also LOVED All the Birds by Yvette Tan (from Philippines) as I am a huge grief horror fan lately. Both of these stories are 5 stars and worth this anthology alone in my opinion.

Fans of international horror or literature will eat these stories up and I definitely recommend this for yourself or to gift to others! Just think of ALL the horror stories around the world we still have no concept of... and all the new scares that await! 4 stars!

Special thanks to Valancourt Books and Night Worms for sending this review copy for another #NightWormsBookParty