Alice who is 10, her brother Dean, 15 and her mom and dad have just moved into a gothic, thrown together, huge house. It's cold and needs a lot of work. Everyone is acting and hoping it will soon be a home and not just a house.
Alice noticed a torn strip of wallpaper that is coming off a wall. Something makes her pull it off of the wall. Underneath is a depiction of a family. The stick figures eerily resemble her family. The only difference is the family pet is a dog not a cat like they have.
Even though the drawing is disconcerting, the family continues moving in.
A cat disappearing is not uncommon. When the picture on the wall has a black "X" marking out the dog, well, that was a little strange. Especially when no one confesses to having changed the drawing. Even more significant is when the drawing of the boy has an "X" through it and Dean can't be found. The police are called. There has been a major snowstorm and there aren't any police available to help locate Dean.
Alice is thrust into a nightmare so profound she will remember it all her life. Perhaps the spirit of Mary, the girl who fell down the stairs and died can help her with the courage she will need to save her family.
Interesting. Entertaining. Good character development and storyline.

This story is my groove! I was completely enraptured with this book. I smoked less, and didn't even log onto Goodreads!
When I first started this book I thought, huh, I know this house! My squat, hairy man and I once looked at a house like this. I wanted to buy, he thought I was nuts. There was even the bedroom with windows that looked out into a laundry room. Of course I was over the moon! Turns out, it was on the flood plains! This story was tense as heck for me. I do love that! I'm giving no clues to how this one goes! I would suggest reading the book flap, and diving in!
My thanks, once again to Flame Tree Press, the author, and Netgalley.
I must say that Flame Tree is putting out some great stuff!

A surprising and frightful read! I haven't had the pleasure of reading one of the authors novels before but wanted something a bit different in terms of the types of books I have been reading lately. Well this one HIT THE SPOT! I thoroughly enjoyed this creepy little tale and could feel the fear almost as soon as I started reading! I am so excited to find more books by the author in the near future!

The Easten family are moving into a new house with a dark history, in the hopes of turning their lives around for the better. However, something dark is lurking inside, and it seems to be linked to a childish drawing on the wall which looks eerily familiar ...

On the face of it, 'One by One' does look and feel like your run-of-the-mill haunted house story. There are strange happenings occurring, and amidst a tangible air of confusion, no one knows who to trust. Nothing is quite what it seems, but what starts out as a typical ghost story turns into a slow descent into madness. The overwhelming paranoia will lure you down an unsure path, in a narrative with a lingering touch of Psycho about it.
I haven't read anything by D.W. Gillespie before, so I didn't have any expectations going in, but I really enjoyed the unnerving narrative he created - building the tension, always keeping you on the edge of your seat. I definitely recommend it if you like all things spooky!

I want to thank D.W. Gillespie, Flame Tree Press, and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Let me start by saying that this was my first time reading D.W. Gillespie.

You know the thrill that comes with reading an author that is new to you:

Will I like the writing style?
Will I DNF it?
Will the author become a new favorite?

Well, I can certainly tell you that I loved Gillespie's writing. And I'm looking forward to reading more of his works.

Now let's get down to business.

Here's the Synopsys:

"The Easton family has just moved into their new fixer-upper, a beautiful old house that they bought at a steal, and Alice, the youngest of the family, is excited to explore the strange, new place. Her excitement turns to growing dread as she discovers a picture hidden under the old wallpaper, a child’s drawing of a family just like hers.

Soon after, members of the family begin to disappear, each victim marked on the child’s drawing with a dark black X. It’s up to her to unlock the grim mystery of the house before she becomes the next victim."

"One by One" is the kind of book that is hard to review without spoiling the fun. For that reason, I won't go into much of the details.

A family moves to an old house and strange things start happening?
Yes, please!

The minute I saw it on NetGalley, I knew I needed to read it.

The story had me hooked from the get-go. And the fact that it reads like a movie helped to keep me furiously turning pages.

We follow Frank, Debra, Dean, and Alice. As they "try" to settle in their new home. But unfortunately—for them, not us—things start to go south after Alice discovers an old painting behind the wallpaper in her room.

The book starts off as your typical haunted house story. The descriptions of the house are very well done. I could feel the atmosphere growing tense as the story progressed.

But not everything is at it seems.

Alice finds herself more and more invested in the mystery that surrounds her family, and the old house.

What happened to the previous owners? Is there a dark past attached to the house?

And this is where I'll stop.

The only thing that prevented a 5-star rating was the lack of character development. We get just enough to make it work. Don't get me wrong, it does work!

Although I was able to maintain a connection with our protagonist, I can't say the same about other characters.

Overall, I feel like "One by One" was a nice read!

I really wanted to love this book - I adore a good haunted house mystery. But the characterization was thin, making it difficult to care about the people who'd landed in this situation, and the pacing really struggled. There was little sense of tension or looming menace. In the end, although I managed to finish it, it just didn't feel very satisfying to me although it tried very hard.

This book is the first novel I've read from this author and having finished it, I'll be going out of my way to read more of Gillespie's work! I cant believe it ended! This author had me hooked right from the beginning and turned into one of those books that eats you up and leaves you with a hunger for more when finished. This was a perfect haunted house story with all the right elements.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Flame Tree Press for an advanced electronic copy in return for an honest review.

A really well done dark fiction/thriller novel! I don't get to read enough of these, but this one was pretty good! It has a very 00s thriller feel to it. Think Amityville, Insidious, or Sinister. Character development is pretty spot on, though there were times where I felt extremely disconnected from our MC. However, I found that the story alone makes up for these few instanced.

Short review, but I really do think this may be one to check out if you were looking to try a new thriller novel.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Before I even get into the review about this book, it needs to be made into a film. Not in 10 years time like RIGHT NOW! I can guarantee you it will sell out cinema auditoriums.

This book is one of the creepiest and eeriest books I have had the pleasure to get my hands on. I literally had chills running down my spine at some of the chapters. The atmosphere created throughout the book is very creepy, suspenseful and just down right horrific.

The book is about a family who move in to a “typical haunted house” and I don’t say typical in a bad way. I say it in a way which means it set the scene for me. The creative writing describing the house is fantastic. Lots of similes used which helps set the scene for the entire book. Soon after the family move in strange things start to happen. The story focuses on a young ten year old girl called Alice. Alice is a very fleshed out character however a slight criticism is that I wished more of the other members of the family had been fleshed out. More about the careers? Life experiences?. However this dosent really take away the storytelling techniques that Gillespie uses.

The story is structured like a horror film, hence my reasoning for wanting this to be made into a movie. You are constantly guessing throughout the story if the sub genre is paranormal or slasher horror. You are guessing and guessing until the latter part of the book when it is revealed.

I loved the fact that Alice had a voice talking to her throughout the book as this helped to show a deeper understanding of her character. I also especially liked the epilogue on how the characters life’s panned out. It is so refreshing to see this especially in a horror book as many just end bluntly.

I highly recommend this book as it is a short and fast paced read. You can expect to find all the horror codes and conventions typical of the genre as well as a good protagonist.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and Flame Tree publishing for their ARC.

I was given a copy of this novel from the publisher, Flame Tree Press, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Flame Tree Press is really making a name for themselves among readers of dark fiction for publishing works that contain an artistry that transcends the genre and One by One is no exception. This is my first novel from D.W. Gillespie but I will be on the lookout for more after reading One by One.

I remember reading an interview with Brian Keene when he described his ground-breaking zombie novel “The Uprising” as a simple story about a man trying to find his son, and it is. That is when horror really works, I think. Sure, I enjoy a good two dimensional monster romp as much as anyone, but the best dark fiction is about so much more. Stephen King’s “IT” is more about the kids dealing with the bad things that happen in their lives than about Pennywise, and "Pet Semetary" is about dealing with loss. The real world connection makes the novel scarier because you understand and recognize the feelings are invested in the characters.

On the surface, One by One is about a family moving into an old house with a dark history. They are thinking that the incredibly low price they paid and the change in circumstances will be that big break that they need to turn things around, which have been going pretty crappy recently. They are not alone in the house.

Ok, so far that sounds like pretty much every haunted house story ever written. Let's keep going. Mom and dad are not on the best terms presently. Dad is more in favor of the move than mom. Brother and sister have sibling rivalry issues. They even bring along a pet cat. They find creepy drawings on the walls. It seems that they didn’t get the complete story on the house’s background and it is much worse than they thought. They find a diary that provides more details. Check all the cliché boxes.

But One by One is a lot more about the family than the house; and while it looks like a traditional haunted house story, it isn’t. To me it turned out to be something completely different than expected and I was fooled by apparent clichés into thinking that I knew what was going to happen when I did not. The novel is more about how a family confronts internal conflict amongst themselves as well as from outside forces. It really grounds the story in reality and makes us feel for and recognize the characters as realistic. The danger is real, also. The story is dark—darker than you think going in. It is disturbing and escalates quickly but resolves itself both realistically and in a way that should satisfy the reader.

4 stars. Check it out—both the writer and Flame Tree Press deserve interest to seek out their other works.

This book absolutely blew me away.
If you could take Scout, from To Kill A Mockingbird, put her in a perfect family, move that family into a strange, older home you just know has got to be haunted, and watch the family unravel into dysfunction slowly but surely then you'd have only part of what makes One by One a great tale.
Almost anything I say about this book will be a spoiler because the characters are so vivid and the setting so perfect that it's honestly all I can do to keep myself from gushing out the story line and spoiling it for everyone. Take my word on this one: read it. You will not be disappointed.
The insanely perfect part about One by One is that it makes you think you know where the book is going--and it never goes there! Instead of taking the easy way out, instead of the same, old, tired, hackneyed haunted house stuff we're all so accustomed to, D.W. Gillespie throws a proverbial monkeywrench into the tale at every juncture. I don't think I've ever said, "Wow... I didn't see that coming," so many times while reading a book.
Something I didn't realize until just now is that my mental picture of the characters was formed without having them described to me... and that is neat. Frank and Debra and Dean and Alice all look the way I want them to look with just minimal details tossed in. But they are all drawn so well, so brilliantly, that I feel I know them.
Horrifyingly original, excellently-paced, and thoroughly satisfying.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2837927578?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I really, really enjoyed this book. Is it supernatural? Is it criminal? You figure it out. Definitely reading more of this great author. I kept my lights on. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Good old haunted house story with an Amityville horror house feel and a twist at the end. Told in the point of view from a ten year old girl. Creepy stuff.

One by One is a book you need to read with the lights on and the doors locked. This is a fantastic book with great characters and well written.

I was hooked from the opening with this book, a very intricately woven family horror tale, narrated by the wise beyond her years Alice. At just 10 years old she is left to uncover the truth behind a sinister wall painting and find out just what is happening to her family.

The story begins with the family arriving at their new house, an absolute “steal” according to Frank, Alice’s father. Frank is prone to whimsical schemes and a bit of a dreamer, so when he buys this house it’s not surprising that the rest of the family isn’t exactly convinced.

Alice seems to connect on anther level with the house, she has her own narration of events in her head, from ‘Mary’, a girl who tragically died in the house. She know’s deep down that something is wrong and that something dark is t work, but she just can’t put her finger on it. When she finds the picture of the previous family under the wallpaper her suspicions seem to take on their own energy. A stick figure family, mother, father, son, daughter and the family pet – just the same as Alice’s family.

Their pet cat vanishes and at the same time a mysterious ‘X’ is drawn over the pet in the picture. The an ‘X’ is drawn over the boy, representing her brother Dean. Just what is happening to Alice’s family and what does ‘Mary’ have to do with it.

I love the mis-direct within the story – the reader is convinced it’s one thing happening when in fact it’s something even more sinister. The story of Mary and just what happened to her is an interesting and tragic tale. We get snippets throughout thanks to Mary’s diary after Alice comes across in and has to read it. It is a very well put together narrative, very clever yet simple at the same time, and for me, the characters, particularly Alice, really set this off.

One by One is my second read from D. W. Gillespie (thanks to Flame Tree Press for the eARC). I look forward to more.

Alice’s parents have found a peaceful house in the countryside, at an absolute bargain price. The perfect place to regroup and bond as a family, away from the stresses and strains of city life. So, .what’s the catch? There’s an awful lot of work to be done on the place, the stinking pool for one thing, but they are a tight team and they are sure they can make it a Home. Somebody, or something, has different plans for them....
There’s the crude drawing for one thing, hidden under peeling wallpaper. It shows a generic family unit with a pet, but then their cat goes missing and a black cross appears over the pet in the drawing. Alice discovers a mysterious diary and they are catapulted into a nightmare of survival.
The plotting is sharp, the characters believable. Some repetition jars a bit. At times it’s reminiscent of The Shining,but that could be the Father who seems to be changing and the snow that cuts them off from help. I liked the twist at the end when you find out what is stalking them through the house.

Well One by One is a terrifying book to read when you’re all alone in your house. Even with the sun shine outside and my dog cuddled up with me I still had goosebumps and was quite frankly scared!
A strong four out of five and I highly recommend.

Alice Easton and her parents have just moved into their new home, a house that should shine up like a new penny once they rehab it. Alice is the youngest member of her family and sets out to explore, only to find drawing behind the ugly old wallpaper. Drawings of a family, one very similar to hers. It’s creepy, but the real horror begins when members of the family disappear, their corresponding figure in the drawing crossed out with a big X. Can a young girl solve a terrifying mystery before she, herself, disappears? This story has hints of the first Insidious movie and should be a hit with fans of ghoulies, ghosties and things that go bump in the night

Not only am I the first to review this, it wasn’t even on GR site, I also had to create a listing for it. And I’m glad to do it, because this book is awesome and should be read, enjoyed and loved. I read Toy Thief, Gillespie’s previous book published by Flame Tree Press. It was the first book I’ve read by the author and by the publishers and it put both of them very prominently on my radar. SO much so that when I saw this book come up on Netgalley, I was sold immediately, no checking page count, no reading summary or reviews. And sure enough…totally worth it. Flame Tree Press has been on and off since, quality wise, but Gillespie continues to shine like a blood splattered disco ball. This guy is good. And sure, this tale of a family looking to save some money by moving into an old creepy ramshackle place with sketchy past only to find out that it might be haunted doesn’t reinvent the wheel per se, but it does the wheel justice by taking it for a really quality spin. By creating realistic characters and situations, Gillespie completely immerses your attention…you can practically hear the floors creek, see the glimpses of faces in the windows that shouldn’t be there. It’s that good. In fact the only regret here might be not having read this at night for the perfect complete effect, but days are just too long now for that sort of luxury. If you can, do yourself a favor and read this when it’s dark out, the way scary stories are meant to be taken in. The novel is narrated by Alice, a bright ten year old prone to daydreaming, who makes for a surprisingly compelling narrator. She’s the first one to notice how off their new place is and in the end, she is the one to set things right. Great story, start to finish. Dynamic, atmospheric, exciting…all you’d want in a scary story. Even the epilogue is perfect, somber and serious and much more in line with literary genre writing as oppose to cheap guts and gore reliant thrills. Awesome book. This author reminds me of why I love this genre. Apparently our library has never heard of the author, which is so frustrating, because I want to read every book he’s written. If you can, you really should. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

This is the first book by this author I have read, and I can tell you I’m going to be looking for his other novels because if they are as good as this one I will not be disappointed.

I can’t say enough about this book “One by One”. From the moment I picked up the book I did not move until I finished it late into the wee hours of the night. It is riveting, well written and the characters are all believable.

How many times do you hear or it’s happened to you as a child? You tell your parents something and they do not believe you or think you are imagining it, or go as far as blaming you for something you know deep down in your heart you did not do?

Well, One by One starts with a prologue in which Mary sets the tone for the story and once she has her hands on you she does not let go.

The premise of this book is about a new family moving into an abandoned house, a fixer-upper. The family consists of Alice, Dean, Debra and Frank. Their father has found a house he believes he can fix up and and then flip for a profit. To Alice, the house looks like a giant doll’s house, but something was off she could feel it. The Gothic, Southern mansion is quirky and the moment they step inside and begin investigating the different rooms they find odd hallways, windows that open into another room, and even a crawl space.

It is a non-stop thriller and horror novel that keeps you guessing until the end.

Without giving out too much information I just want to say I enjoyed seeing a summary of where everyone was at the end of the story. This brought some closure to me.

I was provided this book for free in exchange for my honest opinion.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book for anyone who loves a good mystery. 📕👍🏼

I GIVE IT A 5 STAR: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️