This book felt all over the place and there should definitely be some trigger warnings for this. The short stories were uninteresting, and I wish there was something connecting them. It's difficult for a short story collection to have all great stories, so I don't hold it against the author, I just was not super into the book.

This one was okay. A little disjointed. The separate stories made it easy to get through. Overall it was pretty good.

Thank you to DartFrog Books, Kelly Ennis, and Netgalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love weird fiction (H.P. Lovecraft, Jeff VanderMeer, China Miéville, Haruki Murakami) and that is what I expected from this collection based on the description. That's not at all what this is. I had a bad feeling right from the start from this little drawing before the first story. I only made it through the first story before I DNF'd this. It was extremely gory and tried too hard to be dark and sadistic. I was really looking forward to reading the stories mentioned in the synopsis. I think this has a lot of potential, but right now it isn't for me.

I liked the use of different stories in one collection, I think they were well written with interesting characters and a great horror element.

When I checked this book's average rating on Goodreads after I finished it, I laughed. Why? because this book's rating is horribly low. On the other hand, though - it might be that it's just me enjoying the macabre and twisted stuff a little bit too much, who can really tell?
From start to finish, this book was a certain 5-stars-read to me. I enjoy seemingly unrelated stories, which eventually all fit together and the setting of this - I loved it. The cover is wonderful and fits the book perfectly in my opinion.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

First of all it is nowhere mentioned it is an anthology. It is said that the stories are standalone and yet connection. Well, the only connection here is that they are taking place in Brookville. No other part is connected.
That is not even a problem.
I love horror, thrillers, mystery, murders, etc. These are my favourite genres but this is something else. Like I have read murders and also violence, but not of this kind. I am not comfortable with that. I hate when authors go extreme without letting you know in the title or synopsis and even cover in this case. Look at the cover, it is not horror, not at all! It does not give horror vibes. The book has some other level of violence like eyes cut out, heart pulled from chest, chest torn, etc. etc.
I DNF’s the book. I had no power to read all this.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an e-ARC of this short story collection.

While not every story was a hit, this collection of eery stories was suffused with lyrical language and unreal nightmares. The language used perfectly captured the haziness of nightmares, and although the scares didn’t land for me (I’m an avid horror reader) I enjoyed how creative these stories were. I look forward to seeing how this author grows as she publishes more!

Definitely one of the weirdest books I have ever read. Gross, uncomfortable and just depressing are a few words to describe the book overall. I don't really see the connection other than extreme torment in each story. Very weird read. I don't think I would have been able to handle reading if the length were any longer. I did enjoy the little, spooky illustrations a lot.

I'm sure there is a readership out there for this collection, but I am not a part of whatever demographic it's trying to reach. I wanted so badly to love these stories, but each one left me feeling frustrated that I had dedicated the time to reading it. I love speculative fiction, I love horror. But these felt somewhat underdeveloped to me. Perhaps a non-horror reader would have been better suited to pick up this particular collection.

A collection of stories all taking place in Brookville. However, that’s the only connection there is. That the title of the book lets you know that the stories take place there. There isn’t anything else to really connect the stories in that regard. Regardless of that though, I did enjoy these stories. There are a lot of different emotions in these stories but all of them have an undercurrent of darkness and uncomfortableness. Would definitely recommend for fans of gothic horror.

ARC via Netgalley

I don't really know nor understand what this book was trying to achieve. It was odd and disjointed. The story didn't really flow as it was trying to jam too much into small chapters. I would have liked more character development as well as more fleshed out stories.

Welcome to Brookville is a weirdly fascinating collection of loosely interrelated short stories. These stories deal with torture, child abuse, anxiety, compulsive behavior, etc. Needless to say, this collection is horrific and macabre.

I'm new to surrealism in fiction, so I suspect that may be one of the main reasons for my lack of enjoyment here.
However, as someone who rather enjoys dark psychological fiction, I anticipated liking this more than I did. I didn't foresee that I would, in fact, struggle to connect with this book.

While I found some of the stories fascinating, I have mixed feelings about the writing style. I enjoyed the bizarre imagery, but I also found the prose to be difficult to get through, at times.
Some of the metaphorical components may have gone over my head, and likewise, I needed more information about Brookville, in order get a better sense of the tone and atmosphere.

The premise of this book intrigued me, and so I was really excited to read it. Unfortunately, though, the narrative left me too much in the dark for it to fully work for me. I was often left feeling confused, which in turn prompted me to skim-read a few times, which in turn ultimately affected my overall interest in what was happening.

All that being said, it was a quick read, and I would still be interested in reading more from this author in the future.

Brookville is weird. It's very dreamy in that you see and understand everything that's going on, then realize you don't, and wake up in a cold sweat just before the ending. Very effective Lynchian weirdness. I think, though, that there was just not *quite* enough information to connect the reader to the stories. It felt more like someone describing their dream more than being in it. I needed more.

These narrow stories are all vaguely thematically related but were otherwise unique pieces, each exploring a different aspect of horror. The buffet of creepiness was very successful and made me hungry for more information about Brookville. Unfortunately, I never got it. I didn't enjoy every story, but that's to be expected in a collection. I loved everything with Redmond. He was so interesting, visceral, and layered and I hope he returns in this author's future works. I did not care for the ending at all. That type of twist not my taste, but it may work for others. I'd average my rating of each individual story at a solid 4 stars, but the frustration of too little information overall takes my rating down to 3.

Whatever's going on here is fascinating and I do want to know more. I'd read a second installment for sure. Welcome to Brookville was world-building without actually building the world, if that makes sense. Somehow, it was too much show and not enough tell. Go figure.

Bottom line: If you like New Weird, have a strong stomach, a vivid visual imagination, and don't mind being left in the dark, you'll enjoy Welcome to Brookville. If you can't tick off all of those boxes, take a pass.

CW: scenes of child abuse and themes of psychological distress throughout. This book is not for sensitive readers.

Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Welcome to Brookville was an interesting collection of short horror stories. The stories all take place in a fictional town called Brookville.
I liked the stories and was quite interested in seeing how they turned out. However, I got the feeling that each story was unfinished. Even lower down, when some of the characters from the earlier stories are mentioned, there's no satisfying conclusion.
There was no real description of Brookville so I was a bit lost about what atmosphere there was in these stories. Horror stories flourish when readers have an idea as to what type of surroundings the characters' adventures are happening in.
I did enjoy the stories even with those issues and actually wouldn't mind reading more of this author's work

Due to some frightening scenes as well as violence and child abuse, this book should be read by adults.

A generally solid collection of loosely connected short stories with all the highs and lows you would expect from a collection.

The horror aspects are on point though, easily leaving your skin crawling through both graphic tales of body horror or more psychological trips into madness.

Where the stories struggle is in their sudden ends, as if you've only watched the first episode of multiple TV shows. Just as you get a glimpse into the characters introduced, the story stops and you're on to the next one. You're intrigued, but never really given a chance to see that particular world again.

As the end nears, things do start to come together a little more, but it's not completely satisfying. This is meant as a criticism and a compliment though, as I enjoyed each story enough to want more. I just never got quite enough. The fact that each story managed to capture my attention says something, as I can't recall any collection pulling this off recently, even when diving into the works of my favourite authors.

A good one for horror fans, but be prepared to be left a little too much in the dark.

The premise of this book was so intriguing to me, but it fell a bit short. I love the idea of short, thriller stories, but this book did not quite get there.

An interesting set of stories, reminiscent of "Welcome to Nightvale" and "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark". They were not as scary for myself, as a little bit confusing, I felt as if each story sort of dropped off, and that there was not much tying them at all toward the town of Brookville, besides stating in a couple that it was occurring there. As they all take place in this mysterious town, it would be interesting to get some kind of clue in on the surrounding environment and aura of this town that it is all occurring within.

Overall it was interesting but just not to my personal likings.

This book is well written and has good character development I just couldn’t personally get into the story and found it a little bit of a struggle to keep reading. It’s a book of short stories that is almost akin to a scary stories to tell in the dark but a lot more graphic and grusome. Either way it just left a little lacking for me personally. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I was really excited to read this - short, strange horror stories is 100% my cup of tea! But unfortunately I struggled to connect with this book. I found the prose style awkward to read, and I wasn’t interested in what was doing on in the narrative. I’d try this author again - but this one didn’t work for me.

Since I’m the first person to rate and review this, you’d think I ought to be rolling out the red carpet, welcoming you to Brookville…alas, no, This won’t be that kind of a review. I’m not going to turn you out at the gate, suggesting you go visit some other ville. This is somewhere in between.
Brookville is somewhere in between too, between sanity and madness, between the author’s imagination and a credible stab at metafiction. Between scary and tragic, between genres, between worlds. A liminal place, a dark dream of a place, imagined vividly and bleakly.
This slender book comprises a bunch of profoundly disturbing short stories, connected at the tail end of it all and bound to a place that is Brookville. The tales range genre wise, the author does her best to disturb her audience. But actually for me the best stories were the more reality based ones, like the one about the theater actress.
The entire production is very sad and very, very dark. It’s kind of like reading someone’s dream journal only to realize that all of their dreams are nightmares. Mind you, I’m no stranger to dark psychological fiction and I enjoy it when done well, but this didn’t really wow in any way. It was decently written for a first effort and well edited and even had sketches for each story, so it’s definitely a professional appearing effort, but it seemed too meandering and dreamy for what it was trying to be, it’s possible that it needed more overall coherence and direction, especially considering the ending. The author shows some promise and might mature into a fine writer someday, but at this time Brookville isn’t that inviting of a destination and, considering her plans to make it into something like a series, it really should have more on an initial draw.
On a positive note, it was a very, very quick read. Thanks Netgalley.