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REVIEW: Sundial by Catriona Ward
Sundial, much like its atmospheric veracity, blew me away. I stood in the desolated desert and allowed the dust and the sound of longing carried by the wind to scratch at my skin. I’ve never been one for extremes, especially the heat but this novel made it more claustrophobic, more suffocating, and felt myself clawing for the cool. Sundial had everything that I love in a horror story…oppressing sense of dread. A threat that is entirely human. A will to protect and survive. Horror isn’t exclusively about ghost stories, the supernatural, and things that go bump in the night. Horror examines just how the humanity (or lack thereof) of our…
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REVIEW: The Woman on the Pier by B.P. Walter
The Woman on the Pier…going, to be honest here, I felt like the title was the biggest spoiler. It’s not until you finish the book just how big a spoiler you have been dealt. The story dealt with difficult content and if you are triggered by child death and terrorist attacks, I would advise you to stay clear of this one. A mother and father grieving for their teenage daughter’s lost life and potential, Jessica. A marriage crumbling from the very seams. Secrets that could destroy everything. Jessica planned to visit her friend in Somerset so why on earth was she killed in a terrorist attack at Stratford train station?…
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REVIEW – Exit by Belinda Bauer
Exit by Belinda Bauer was a testament to humour and the conflicting need to do the right thing. Felix, a man that has known his share of hardship in the world with the deaths of both his wife and son longs to do some good in the world. He watched his son depart painfully and doesn’t wish to see others in that position, so after much deliberation, he joins the exiteers. A group that believes stringently in euthanasia and the right to choose. Bauer has created a tightly plotted and dark story that shows investigates the complexities of aided suicide. Exit is as complex as it is touching. Aided Euthanasia…
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The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley – REVIEW
The Loney was on my shelf for about four or five years and maybe subconsciously something was keeping me from reading it. Perhaps I should have listened to myself. It’s been shelved numerous times as horror, but I didn’t feel any elements of horror to the storyline apart from the atmospheric edge that The Loney held. Was the storyline slow, yes. Was I frustrated with the plot, also yes. Anyone that knows me well knows that struggle with religious storylines and had I known how heavily this story focusses on it I would probably have left well alone. I think possibly my expectations were way too high going into this…
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One Good Lie by Jane Isaac | Blog Tour Review
When this book landed on my kindle I just had that deep instinctual knowledge that this was going to be my kind of book. The relationship between siblings is a deep and complicated one. We have this passed down expectation that we should be close with them but don’t look away too quickly because sibling rivalry will soon be skipping down the corridors of the mind. The blurb had me searching for clues, is there something hidden in plain sight? Is a shadow creeping at the very edge of your vision? This stand-alone thriller was everything I needed at precisely the right time. One Good Lie had a strong opening…
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The Rising Tide by Sam Lloyd | Book Review
“The True end of tragedy is to purify the passions.” Aristotle. In a way I feel me taking The Rising Tide on was a bit masochistic. I have always had an indescribable fear of the sea. I think it has something to do with how little we know about it. It is a body of swelling emptiness, an ebbing flow of desolation and destruction. Water can give life but it can take it away just as easily. Lucy Locke and her family love the ocean, her children have grown up around it and in it, just what happens when a storm of a lifetime heralds the discovery of their family…
