A big part of me wished I had DNF'd.

Didn't like the characters. Expected scarier. Felt like a lot of build up and foreshadowing for not much ending.

Thanks to NG for an eArc for review.

The Dark Hour is a story that had me anticipating a dark and twisted read, a spooky story that would have me turning the pages at a rapid pace, a tale filled with twists and turns. Unfortunately, the book did not deliver those things for me.

The Dark Hour had an interesting premise, and it was certainly one that kept me turning the pages. I was curious about how things would come together, but it did not have the intensity that such a story needed. Everything happened too easily. There were no shocks. Nothing ever left me feeling uneasy. It all felt very surface-level, which prevented me from falling deeply for the story. Add in the fact that I did not like the main character at all, and this ended up being one that did not tick the right boxes for me.

I’m sure this will work for others, but it did not work for me.

Mark Norman begins working for an elderly couple as a home health aide, Roy and Alma have lived interesting lives as a magician and a magicians assistant and are now winding down in the elder years. Everything they offer Mark in exchange for his time and his help with day to day living seems to good to be true and dark and mysterious things start happening in the house which leads to a shocking conclusion.
This was a fast paced little creep fest. I loved Roy and Alma and learning about their days working the magic circuit in their heyday. I would have liked there to have been more focus on this and the Redevine Society as these were the most interesting parts of the story. Mark was an awful character, he was misogynistic, ageist & fatphobic to name a few. So it was difficult to read as if he had landed on his feet with a cushy job looking after these elderly people that were practically offering him the world on a plate. The ending was slightly rushed after quite a drawn out first half, but a quick read and I enjoyed it.

Great book. Highly recommend and will most defiantly read more by this author and suggest to others!

i really enjoyed reading this book, it was a great horror novel and it worked perfectly for me. The characters were great and I loved going through this book.

I love good old fashioned horror stories and this one definitely delivers. I hated the main character but then he was not put in the novel to be a likable person. The writing and story were stellar. The pace was steady and slowly climbed throught the novel. I really enjoyed this one. Highly recommended.

Too bad the author ends the book (in the about the author part) with a never mind to anyone that think the book wasn't so great. But I feel the right (after spending around six hours of my life reading it) to say that the plot was too obvious and I knew everything that was going to happen in less than 10% of the book.

Creepy and eerily good ! A total 180 from what this author usually writes and I totally loved it. Can't really get in to the plot too much as that will give it away. But if you want to read a book that leaves you guessing and wondering WTH is going on, this is it !

Ever read a book where you don’t want it to end? That’s how I felt with this story by @kjyoungauthor at every turn of the page. It’s got its creep factor, a breathable hook that pulls me in damn I want more details about that second floor!! Grab this book! I promise you won’t want to put it down! #amreading #addthisbook #horrorbookstagram #readinginbed

The Dark Hour was a good read, Mark was a pretty unlikeable character but by the end I didn’t want him to become a victim of the group, you could follow his downfall throughout the book and you want Mark to stop following the track that is going to take him to a place he doesn’t want to go. I marked it down because I felt it was a lot like the film named The Skeleton Key and it meant I knew what was going to happen so there wasn’t a surprise for me at the end.

I love horror books that rely more on atmospheric tension than chills and gore, and “The Dark Hour” successfully creeped me out!

The author had me hooked on the plot as soon as Mark enters the house. The author beautifully sets the suspenseful tone and maintains it throughout the tale. I sensed what was happening early on, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the story. Moreover, the author included a few twists and turns that surprised me, as I didn’t expect them. Also, some moments had me at the edge of my seat, like when Mark sees the figure outside the window telling him to come out or when they play the Victrola for the first time and hear what’s in it.

Moreover, the author also wrote the main characters very well. Mark is terrific in the lead. I enjoyed the backstory of the complex relationship he has with his family. I also found Lisa to be exciting and wished we had a back story of her. Even supporting characters like Doug and Nurse Darby creeped me out. But, what genuinely unnerved me about the story was Roy and Alma. The reason being, they are old and harmless in the beginning, yet you sense that something is off. I could feel Lisa’s frustrations when Mark did not feel what she felt when she initially showed him the room.

I felt there were moments where we didn’t get closure to few elements. The examples being Doug’s background and the history of the crows. Nevertheless, I felt these elements added well to the eerieness of the story.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed “The Dark Hour” and thought it was a remarkable ‘dark’ story by the author.

Interesting quick read. It was obvious where the book was headed from the start but it was still fun to see how Young gets there.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book. I would definitely give this more of a two and a half star rating than just a two.

The Dark Hour is about a man named Mark, who thinks that he deserves more from the world than his awful family, past terrible jobs he was forced to take to earn a living, and less than overwhelming or ideal love life. So when he gets the opportunity to be a home health aide for two elderly siblings, he takes the job without a question. Lisa, the health aide he is to assist, tries to warn him early on that something strange is going on and that the house itself is giving her bad vibes, but Mark, concerned with nothing but his potential to earn a lot of money, chooses to ignore all her warnings. Until it's too late.

While I didn't hate the story and there was nothing overly wrong with it, I found it extremely predictable. By around the halfway mark, I was honestly so bored because I thought I knew EXACTLY what was going on, and turns out, I was correct. I am definitely someone who loves trying to guess what is going to happen, and I get super pumped when I figure it out, because unfortunately I almost never see twists and turns coming, but everything in this story was super obvious. The author did perhaps TOO GOOD a job at detailing the scene and the characters emotions. It left little be figured out slowly or throughout the book.

I went into this somewhat apprehensively due to some underwhelming reviews. And what do you know…a pleasant surprise. Way to manage expectations, me.
It seems the consensus with those underwhelming reviews is the unlikeable protagonist and sure enough he is at the very least a scoundrel. A 25 year old deadbeat with a short trigger and unimpressive resume he gets clued in on a job far outside of his skills and talents and, desperate for money, applies and gets it. Turns out it’s a job he is indeed specifically suited for, only not in a way he ever expected.
Now he’s a caretaker for an elderly brother and sister, who live in a dilapidated mansion in a wrong area of town, a pair that once upon a time were famous magicians (the advertising poster of the Walgraves prefacing the book was a nice trick, definitely grabbed my attention) and now are being slowly beaten down by old age. They have money (lots of it) and friends (a Redevine social club they belong to), but in the end of the day they have…other needs.
And a handsome, greedy and not all that bright albeit accommodating Mr. Norman might just meet those needs.
To be fair, I understand the importance of a likeable protagonist, it’s usually very important for my enjoyment of the book, but every so often it just doesn’t matter or the book doesn’t need one. Not if it’s a book about nasty people taking advantage of one another. So this one worked for me just as it was, amoral all around. It might even be read as a morality story on greed, since greed in various shapes and forms is the main motivator for most of the cast of these reprehensibles.
Also, the writing’s quite good. I’ve never read the author or, since she is pseudonymed, I don’t think so, but it’s fun and atmospheric and dark in all the right ways and has some nicely realized creepiness. It is, after all, a scary story, and it does what it’s supposed to, nightmarishly so.
There isn’t ton of suspense in the narrative, it’s very easy to figure out what’s going on pretty quickly, though for the protagonist who is up to his shoulders in it and has no outside omnipotent perspective that the readers do, it’s all pretty freaking surprising, stunning and deadly. So it’s one of those stories, you know what’s up and you watch the characters get clued in. At least that’s how it read for me. But it read well, surprisingly so for a random genre book from an unknown author. And yes, the general idea behind it isn’t a most original one, it’s been done many times before, but it was done nicely here and the magician thing was a nice twisted cherry on top. So I say abandon your conventional character likability presets and enjoy the ride. The Walgraves are just dying to meet you. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

The entire mood of this book is as if you picked up a yellowing copy of a campy pulp fiction novel, the entire story played out in sepia tones. You can smell the musty pages as you turn each one rapidly, your heart pounding as you read each line of predictable but thrilling text. It’s a ghoulish and disturbing narrative set in the 1970s, a life of archaic isolation, before everyone was connected via cellphones and computers. It all lends to the creepiness and validity of the events that unfold, including a glaring abject lesson that further highlights the downfall of the “Me Decade”. With creepy cultish imagery and the built-in macabre of the ailing and aging characters, this is good old-fashioned horror at its finest.

I received an advanced copy of this book from its publisher. The opinions are my own.

Good Golly! I loved this book. It was so fun to read. I had a great time trying to figure out where it was all leading up to. I had an inkling what was happening but, I didn't have an idea of how it was being accomplished. Oh my...your mouth is going to drop to the floor when you find out!

Right off I will tell you I never read Horror. I'm super glad I took a chance on this one. I love the older couple who are actually brother and sister named Roy and Alma Walgrave who at one time had a world renowned magic act. Mark Norman and eventually his girlfriend move into their mansion to take care of them in their later years.

Roy and Alma belong to The Redevine Society. Mark can't figure out why they are in this group with two younger couples and what they have in common besides drinking together. There is also an old hippie that hangs around the industrial building next door who is always warning Mark that people don't come out of the house the same. The house is spooky.

This is the creepiest book I've ever read. It was a ton of fun! If you're in for a creepy, spooky time and love something different, this is your book! You won't be disappointed. I promise you.

I received a copy of this book from the author/publisher and #Netgalley for a fair and honest review. Thank you!

Plot is pretty standard, and you see the “twist” coming within the first chapter. The main character is an absolute douchecanoe, which I believe the author intended, but it makes sticking with the story rather difficult since I really wanted someone, anyone, to put him out of my misery.

Mark Norman is hired as an aide for two elderly siblings who live at Alden Manor, a run-down mansion. His employers are wealthy and careless with their money so Mark sees an opportunity to profit from them. When another employee insists that evil lurks in the house, Mark thinks she’s paranoid and unstable until he begins to notice odd, unsettling things himself.

This book is fast-paced, eerie and unnerving, it reminded me a bit of Polanski's Rosemary's' Baby and The Tenant. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Nightsky Press for the opportunity to read this book and to share my honest review.

People Need To See Some Truths For Themselves. But Will It Be Too Late?

At a certain point in life, you have to stop blaming your family for your own shortcomings, but it seems to me that Mark Norman never had a chance. With a mother who never nurtured him and a brother and stepfather who endlessly bullied him "for his own good," it seems that he has a drive to prove himself and become somebody important and successful, but doesn't really have a clue about where to start.

His character made me root for him, but then only want to give him a smack upside his head, like you want to do to the character in the horror movie who goes inside the dark barn, despite evident warnings that the chainsaw killer is lurking there. The goodness that appeared inside him was quickly tamped down by his lifelong habit of saving his own skin. He's a flawed person, but a great character.

The author has crafted a well-written horror story. Its roots are deeply anchored in classic novels with similar themes, but its branches have stretched into original territory. I won't name the other books because I don't want to give spoilers. Suffice it to say that about 65% into the book, the tension became nearly unbearable and I couldn't stop reading until I finished at four in the morning.

The author and publisher honored me with a free advance reader's copy. This is my honest, freely given review: The Dark Hour is an excellent , scary read!

I received a free eARC of this book from Nightsky Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book is about a man named Mark Norman who is down on his luck. He has no place of his own so he lives with his girlfriend, Monica. He doesn't get along with his brother, mom or stepfather and he doesn't have a job. Mark gets a job as a home health worker for Roy and Alma Walgrave who are elderly siblings. Once he starts working at Alden Manor, weird things start happening and his nightmare begins.

I don't usually read books with a taste of horror but I want to give this a try. I enjoyed the book and the spooky element that it had. I definitely did not want to read at night. I figured out some part of the mystery but the end was a surprise for me. The only part that bothered me was that Mark's character was the typical con man who received warnings but did not heed them due to his greed. That seems to be in most books. Overall ,I enjoyed the book and give it 4 1/2 stars.

I would recommend this book to Adults who enjoy a good mystery with some horror mixed in. I would not recommend this book to teenagers due to the adult content/themes