As someone who has a soft place in her heart for THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW, I always go into reimaginings of that story with excitement and trepidation. I've had a lot of good experiences with adaptations and retellings for the most part, but HORSEMAN didn't quite live up to the other adaptations I've read or watched. There were definitely things that worked, specifically the protagonist Ben, the grandchild of Brom Bones and Katrina. Ben identifies as a boy and wants to live life as a boy though others see him as a girl, and he has complicated relationships with his grandparents. Brom loves Ben for who he is, though there is question as to whether that's because of the fact he misses his dead son Bendix. Katrina worries that life will be difficult for Ben, and also resents that she doesn't connect with her grandchild as well as Brom does. I thought that all of this was interesting and well done (that said, I'm a cis woman, so if the trans character and representation wasn't good, I want to know). But a lot of other stuff didn't work for me. For one, I didn't like that Brom basically gets a pass for being a complete jerk in the original story, his torment of Ichabod Crane being undermined by plot points and by pretty much making it a 'boys will be boys' situation. I'm fine if you want to make Brom more complex, but to try and make him into an affable great guy when he was the town brute was disingenuous. I also thought that some of the big reveals and plot points as to what is killing people in Sleep Hollow (and taking their heads) wasn't laid in a strong enough foundation, and therefore when we got the reveal and how it relates to Ben, it didn't feel earned or emotionally resonant. And finally, there just wasn't enough Horseman in a book called HORSEMAN. While I did kind of enjoy how the connection between Ben and the Horseman shook out at the end (no spoilers), overall I really wanted more of the Headless Horseman character that I have loved ever since I was probably five years old.

HORSEMAN didn't really work for me, but I'm definitely going to look into reading more Christina Henry in the future. If I don't have a deep personal connection to the stories she is reimagining, I may have more luck, as I did like her writing style quite a bit.

Overall I enjoyed this book! This story expands upon The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and returns to all the characters we know from this classic story while introducing new ones. This new tale centers around Brom Bones and Katrina Van Tassel’s grandchild, Ben. A new evil lurks in the forest of Sleepy Hollow as children go missing. Ben becomes entangled in unraveling secrets the small town hides as well as the secrets of the Headless Horseman. There were some info dumps that could have benefited from more showing instead of telling. But, there were a lot of well done spooky and creepy moments that had me turning pages!

Its a 5 star for me. With all the spooky vibes, this book is perfect for Halloween/fall season. To be honest I enjoyed it till the end. Never for a second I felt distracted or bored while reading this book. Woods, magic, headless horse man o boy it was so atmospheric!
I have fallen in love with author's writing style and now I am going to pick more of her works.
Thank you Netgally and Penguin random house Canada for my complimentary copy

Sleepy Hollow hasn’t changed much in the twenty years since the Horseman chased Ichabod Crane across the bridge and out of town. Brom Bones still smirks anytime someone mentions the old legend. Brom once had his happily ever after: he married Katrina van Tassel after Crane disappeared, their farm made them the wealthiest family in the Hollow, and they had a son and eventually a grandchild. Unfortunately they lost their son and daughter-in-law and are raising fourteen-year-old Bente (who identifies as a boy and prefers to be called Ben). Brom and Katrina are still grieving the loss of their son and Katrina takes it especially hard that Bente will not become the well-mannered lady she hoped for, causing strain between the two.
However, Ben adores Brom and spends time reenacting his adventures with a friend in the woods. When the friends stumble on the body of a headless child in the woods, Ben is certain that the legend of the Horseman is real …and maybe something even more sinister haunts the woods too.

I adore The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. I re-read the story every fall and love re-watching the Disney cartoon! It just feels like the perfect Halloween season read and gets me excited for all things spooky. Christina Henry has taken the well-loved classic and instead of giving readers a retelling, she has expanded on the legend to consider what happened to Brom and Katrina years after Ichabod Crane’s disappearance. It is atmospheric, mysterious, and entirely worthy of being a companion story to the classic in my opinion! I love that woven into the threads of a gothic mystery, Henry gives readers the tale of a loving family, acceptance, and the lengths we’ll go to in order to protect those we love.
Horseman is an incredible read that fills me with spine-tingling anticipation for Halloween!

Thanks to Berkley Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow is scheduled for release on September 28, 2021.

This is not your regular Sleepy Hollow story. This is a new and refreshing remake of the story and I have to say I really liked it. This book has believable characters that fit right in and takes place many years after the original story of the headless horseman. Ben the grandchild of the infamous Brom Bones is now in the middle between the horseman that protects her and the monster that eats the head and hands of children in the forest. It is her that will ultimately decide who wins between the two.

I really loved this actions packed, suspense filled book. It is a great story coming at a great time of year so curl up in a nice blanket with a warm drink and get to reading.

This review will appear on my blog on Sept 28th.

Christina Henry's books are among my favorite things in all the world. And when I saw this one, I shrieked like a fangirl. A twist on the headless horseman? Heck yes!!

This is a five-star read from the start and stays that way. This gender-fluid tale brings a whole different flavor to the headless horseman story, bringing to life the haunted forest and what could have happened to Icabod Crane when he disappeared on that spooky bridge.

The MC is relatable and hates the constraints society puts on a female of the time, and she wants to be free to do her own things. Not surprisingly, this gets her into trouble, and that trouble leads her into a murder that will set Sleepy Hollow on its ear.

Loved it and I didn't want it to end. Have already started telling my customers about the book at the store and even some of my co-workers.

Tense, creepy, emotional. Henry’s take on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is so much fun! Ben is a wonderfully brave and entertaining character to follow.

I am fascinated with Sleepy Hollow and was excited to read this story. I must say it wasn't my cup of tea as the saying goes. I was a little sad that it didn't meet my standards so to say. I'm sure others may find this story fabulous and wonderful but for me it just wasn't enjoyable.

This dark fantasy is a sequel, an expanded twist on the Sleepy Hollow tale we all heard as children and it is strangely transposed over a young girl's contrary and emotionally wrought journey into adulthood.

I admittedly had high hopes for this book after reading the blurb and seeing the cool cover art. I was truly intrigued. The author started out with a clever concept that for me never fully developed into the masterpiece it could have been.

There are brief flashes of mystery, fear, death, and mayhem . . . so, if you were searching for a strong addition to your Halloween Spookfest Stack, you might be a bit disappointed, this one is a little light on the sliding scale of midnight frights.

I'd like to thank the author, NetGalley, and Berkley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Horseman for an honest review. 3 stars.

“A story is only a story, unless it comes true …”

Horseman takes place twenty years after the events of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman in the village of Sleepy Hollow. Brom Van Brunt is married to Katrina Van Tassel and they’re raising their granddaughter, Bente, who goes by Ben and identifies as a male.

“Once I was old enough I was going to cut my hair and run away and be a man in some place where no one had ever heard of me.”

Ben and his grandparents live a good life in Sleepy Hollow and Ben loves his Opa, Brom more than anything but Ben suspects he knows more about the Horseman than he lets on. The village treats the legend as a mere hoax until a child is found dead in the woods, missing their head and their hands. What unfolds is a tale of terror that gave me goosebumps and made for the perfect spooky read.

I really love that Ms. Henry took a classic tale and reimagined what that world would be like 20 years later. Using well-known characters from Irving’s tale and incorporating new ones to give this tale a bit of a modernized approach while still keeping the tale true to its nature made it both familiar yet new.

I adored the characters but none so much as Ben, rough and tumble, and fighting her Oma Katrina’s attempts to make her into a lady at every turn. Ben is brave and fierce and the perfect protagonist for this eerie atmospheric tale.

“I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to be inside with a book when there were trees to climb, but Sander always said that he went further inside a book then I ever did on my own two feet.”

My thanks to Berkley Publishing for the gifted DRC! I highly recommend this one and it’s coming out just in time for spooky season!

Horseman is the first novel that I’ve read from Christina Henry. Based on the blurb and the novel’s description, I was excited to start reading the book. The cover is creepy and mysterious enough to pique any reader’s interest. But like most things, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Not to say that I didn’t like the book. I did like it, but I didn’t jump out of my seat or had sleepless nights while reading it. I probably just expected a lot more than a bad dream kind of novel.

No doubt the characters are developed. But I’m not sure if a Dutch-based town was an appropriate setting for a novel as dark as Horseman. Perhaps my reluctance on having a Dutch town is partially due to my being unfamiliar with pronunciations and the daily vernacular (Oma, Opa, etc.)

The storyline flows nicely, with occasional surprises sprinkled throughout. But there weren’t enough surprises in my opinion to get that “unputdownable” vibe. Three likable stars.

I received a digital ARC from Berkley Publishing Group through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

This book was well-written, atmospheric, and spun a great story, I just wanted more spooky monster folklore and less family drama and gratuitous monologuing.

Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow by Christina Henry is a standalone novel. Henry has been giving us some modern & dark tales on various stories such as this one. Horseman takes place 20 years after the headless Horseman and Ichabod Crane events, as Sleepy Hollow has been quiet. Ben Van Brunt, is the granddaughter of Brom Bones, who was part of the stories years before. Ben (who is a girl, but acts like a boy), is 14 years old, and loves and wants to be like her grandfather; she is strong and tough; as she stands up to the boys who tease and threaten her. One of those boys is found in the woods with his head and hands missing, and the town is in an uproar, fearing the that the magic and horror is returning.

Ben tries to find more information about her deceased father, and learns he was killed years ago in the same manner these young boys were. Brom and Katrina (her grandparents) warn her to stay away from the dangerous woods. When another boy’s body is discovered in the woods, Ben finds herself being accused by the boy’s father as the one who is using magic to kill his son, and the other boy. Ben sees the creature who is killing the boys, as well as hearing sounds of the horseman trying to come to her rescue. Is she imagining the thumping sound of the horse, is the horseman real?

What follows in a dark and intense story, where we follow Ben when she finds herself in danger, as she is taken captive by the dead boy’s father, and she does everything to fight and survive, even if she has to kill. But when she comes face to face to the creature, her survival is dire; can the Horseman be real and save her? One of the amazing parts is when Ben is in the woods, I can actually feel the thumping of the hooves as she can feel the Horseman coming. To tell too much more would be spoilers, and with all that happens, you do need to read this book.

Christina Henry wrote another interesting and dark storyline, as well as being scary with chilling scenes. If you like intense dark stories, based on old tales that are created in the modern world, you should read Horseman, which was very well written by Christina Henry.

Thank you Net Galley and Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced ebook of this creepy tale!

I picked this book up because one of my favorite horror authors is Christina Henry, and that is me rarely diving into the genre and randomly picking up her Alice duology once. I don't even remember much about the book, but I remember loving it and rereading parts that creeped me out so much.

I wouldn't say this book is a retelling, but more of a continuation of the original Sleepy Hollow story. This starts 20 years after, in the same town with no believers. Our main voice is a relative of someone who was there when the legend was born, but doesn't put a lot of stock into it. Until he and a friend comes across a headless child. They start to wonder if something is still lurking in their woods.

I loved the atmosphere of this book! There were hints of magic, but in the way of "we don't talk about such things" but everyone know of 'such things," which is what made it super creepy. The characters were memorable and the story was fantastic. There were some slow parts here and there, but over all Christina is still an author I go to when I want the living daylights scared out of me! Highly recommend.

I'm going to write about this book at length for Comic Years, so I'm going to be brief now. I really, really liked it. That's no surprise, though, since it contains many of my favorite things, including the woods, the spooky woods, local magic, and love being the only engine of survival.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and may not reflect the views of the author, publisher, or distributor.

The more I think about this book, the angrier I get. A lot of spoilers coming up, so brace yourselves and bow out now if you're not into them.

HORSEMAN starts off with a grisly murder being discovered in the woods of Sleepy Hollow. The grandchild of Brom Bones is out playing with his friend when the body of a kid their age is discovered dead in the field, lacking his head and hands. This kicks off a whole rigmarole. People start blaming the Horseman, but Ben knows it can't be him. The Horseman isn't cruel. Then people are like, "Whatever happened to Ichabod Crane, anyway?" And only one person in town knows: Ben's banana-pants maternal grandfather. When two more kids drop like flies, the investigation gets more serious.

Lol just kidding. It totally doesn't.

Everyone blames Ben for the deaths because he's the one who finds the bodies.

Listen. That's the summary. Boom, done. Now we get into what made this book a mess.

The Plot
Or lack thereof, because the mystery only takes up bits and pieces of the story. I cannot describe to you what a huge chunk of this book was Ben fawning over his grandfather. The strongest, biggest, loyalest, most perfect-est man in the entire world. That's Brom Bones. And Ben wants to be just like him when he grows up. Paragraphs and paragraphs of this, even well past the halfway mark. Come the heck on, Ben, we get it. Fawn over someone else for a minute. Gracious.

And made worse by this is the fact that Ben was born as a girl, so the transgender commentary is questionable at best. It's brought up every single chapter that "I'm not a girl, I'm a boy" and that people always think Ben is weird, and Brom always refers to Ben as a boy because of how he and Katrina lost their son Bendix, and on and on and on. It's never expounded, never explored, and never wrapped up until the end--which I'll get to, cuz hoo boy.

Wouldn't you think that teen boys having their heads and hands bitten off, and their bodies literally melting shortly after, would cause the entire town to bring up pitchforks and torches 18th-century style and bang down doors in the dead of night? Nope, not in Sleepy Hollow! Apparently everyone's cool with throwing around accusations and then forgetting they need to look for some of the OTHER missing people from years before, too.

I'm sorry, what? Small-town upstate New York doesn't raise a stink over this? I'm surprised that there wasn't an entire witch hunt and people being dragged into the street to be flogged. Small-town Maine in the freaking 21st century is a nosy man's paradise. It would be even worse before crap like Facebook and Twitter.

Three-fourths of the plot is Ben running around the woods, arguing with his grandmother Katrina, telling us about the history of Sleepy Hollow and showing us next to nothing, refuting people who call him a girl, and finding corpses in the woods. And there weren't even that many corpses! I'm so disappointed that there wasn't a bloodbath.

The Conflict
Ben's banana-pants maternal grandfather is a creepy old dude who pretends to know exactly what's happening, and guess what! He totally does. But he's also a mean old codger who hates literally everyone and everything, so he keeps to himself and no one bothers him to get information. Again, small-town mobs would burn down his house if he locked himself inside it if they even suspected he might have something to do with the murders.

Some of the townsfolk raise a beef with Brom because of the guy's inaction and protection of Ben when everyone thought it was "that little witch" who was killing the boys. And to be fair, I'd suspect Brom too. He tries to calm everyone down and constantly defends his family instead of saying, "Hey, so we should find out what's actually happening so that my family isn't the main suspect pool here." But he doesn't! He just says, "Nah, not my little Ben. C'mon, little Ben, and let's go home and forget this happened."

Like...dude! Your grandchild's other grandfather is under zero suspicion, and he's crazier than a shithouse rat! Approximately zero percent of the people in Sleepy Hollow trust him, and you're worried about just going home for dinner??? How is brushing this off a good idea?! And does BEN, the one who's found most of the bodies, even attempt to find out what's killing the boys? Yes, and it's really stupid. Which leads us to:

The Reveal
Hey, remember that little issue with the original legend of Sleepy Hollow? That one guy who kinda up and disappeared and no one bothered to look for him? Yeah, that guy. Ichabod Crane. Turns out, he didn't die. He just got turned into a shadow monster with a thirst for blood, and how did he get turned into that? Oh, that banana-pants shithouse rat, of course! Schuler, Ben's grandfather, is actually a mystical creature from the Old World, and in order to pass on his legacy he needs a son. Whoops! His wife produced a daughter, cuz women are definitely capable of controlling that, amirite? Dang-flabbit, you useless female! How dare you only carry X chromosomes!

But then Bende renames herself Ben and becomes a boy, and Schuler is like, "I can work with this." And then they have one interaction a hundred pages before the final conflict.

So...last I checked, in order to train someone to take on your mantle, you need to befriend them and then actually teach them to use the powers they inherited from you. Call me crazy, I'm not a Danish warlock capable of creating shadow monsters who lust after blood. How would I know what I'm talking about?

The worst part about Ben finding out about Crane and all that is the incessant monologuing that happens before and after. First Brom goes on and on and ON about how he was the Horseman who scared away Crane, and no one is the wiser about it. Pages and pages of him and Ben riding back home in the woods, and Brom will not shut up and cut to the chase. Then Ichabod Crane reveals himself to Ben, and CRANE starts in! Paragraph on paragraph of exposition that reads tonally indistinguishable from Brom. I skimmed and missed nothing.

Why do only hands and heads get eaten? Because Crane started to eat Katrina's son Bendix, and when he saw Katrina, his love for her overwhelmed him and he ran away before he could eat the whole body. So now he's stuck eating those parts, I guess.

Why was Bendix going after Crane? Because Schuler told his son-in-law that the only way for the fever in the town to break was for Bendix to sacrifice himself to the Kludde, the Old World monster in the woods. So Bendix is like, "Sure, cool, I'll totally do that." No cross-referencing this information with his mom, who's ALSO DUTCH and would know about anything called the Kludde. Just jumping headfirst into self-sacrifice like it's noble or something.

Why did Schuler tell Bendix about the Kludde? I don't even remember, as it was never elaborated enough.

So Crane gets done monologuing and Brom shows up to find Ben, and a scuffle ensues. Crane touches Brom's chest, which starts melting away the flesh and exposes Brom's heart, and Brom gets in a single slash before he falls. That single slash is somehow enough to do in Crane, a nefarious shadow being who feeds on human blood. Okay.

The very last standoff takes place ten years after Brom's death, and it's Ben v. Schuler for the title. Ben hears the Horseman calling his name and takes off into the deeper woods to find him. Surprise! Horseman is being held in some kind of suspension by Schuler, who (GASP) is actually the Kludde! What does that mean! What does he look like! Up yours, reader, Christina Henry will never tell! Like...no, seriously. We're told that he has terrible eyes, looks darker than shadows, and has giant wings. For all we know, he could be a literal fruitbat.

Naturally, a dangerous bloodthirsty cryptid from the Old World needs to monologue. He came from the Old World (we know) to pass on his legacy, and created Crane to torment the Hollow! Commence evil laughter! But Ben wouldn't let his grandfather teach him his ways--like the old man ever offered--and is down diggety to take this guy out once and for all. Because of Ben's inherited powers, the Horseman has been real all along because Ben believed that he was real.

I'm surprised Ben didn't try to revive the Horseman's power by closing his eyes, clapping, and shouting, "I do believe in Horsemen! I do believe in Horsemen!" After the fight where the Kludde is defeated somehow (?) Ben becomes the Horseman.

Listen...

Don't ask me to explain, because I don't know how that works. The system of inheritance for magic is never elaborated upon and never even brought up until this last quarter of the book. We're told to believe all of this, but the narrative never lays down rules for how magic works in this world, or even that it exists in the first place. Monster does not always equal magic. But here, we're supposed to believe that it does and then not question why exactly zero percent of it makes sense. It's more upsetting than the "magic system" in Once Upon A Time, which is basically the Fight Club of magic systems.

First rule: don't talk about the magic system.
Second rule: you do not talk about the magic system.
Third rule: someone yells "Well, hello, pretties!", waves their hand, steals an object, you can't do the same thing to get it back cuz reasons.
Fourth rule: True Love is a magic cure-all.

I'm so disappointed. Hopes were so high for this book, but it just...crashed and burned and got eaten by Ichabod Crane. Gracious me.

I really enjoyed this vision of Sleepy Hollow and the horseman. The descriptions of the decomposing corpses were so vivid and awful in a good and spooky way. It made clear that you did NOT want to encounter whatever killed these poor creatures.

Everything about this story from the writing style to the imagery, to the dialogue immerses the reader into the foggy and gloomy world of Sleepy Hollow. I very much enjoyed reading this at the end of summer as a way to get excited about fall.

I also loved that the main character we follow, Ben, is a trans man. We get to see his journey from a pretty personal perspective. It was nice to see a historical fiction acknowledging and highlighting the fact that there have been trans people for as long as there have been people.

Overall I thought this was a fun, spooky read with engaging characters in a fantastic setting. If you are a fan of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and it’s related works, then you are very likely to enjoy this novel. I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars.

I really enjoy the way Henry re-writes the classic tales, but this one was really hard from me to stick with. I think it relied a lot on knowing the original more than I did, and therefore things got a little confusing for me. I ended up DNF'ing the novel about 40% in, as I just couldn't keep a grasp on the characters and plot. I'm still giving this a 3 star rating though, because I think the struggle I had was more of a personal issue than the novel itself.

A wonderful cover, but unlike The Girl in Red, Horseman doesn't deliver. At first, I thought it would be a fun take on the original. When the two fourteen-year-olds were playing Sleepy Hollow Boys, I expected to love this different perspective on Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Instead, the story begins nearly thirty years later.
Which was fine and still promising. Brom and Katrina have married, had a son, lost both their son Bendix and their daughter-in-law, and have been raising their grandchild, Bende, usually shortened to Ben.

As a coming-of-age or self-actualization story, Horseman does have some merit, but in the end, the impact is lost. The first person narration tends more to "telling" than showing and feels clumsy--like explanations of what is happening.

I looked at some reviews and there are plenty of positive reviews, so the fact that I was disappointed, doesn't mean that you will be. And no one can fault the cover!

NetGalley/Berkley Publ.

Fantasy. Sept. 28, 2021. Print length: 320 pages

"In this atmospheric, terrifying novel that draws strongly from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," the author of Alice and The Girl in Red works her trademark magic, spinning an engaging and frightening new story from a classic tale.

Everyone in Sleepy Hollow knows about the Horseman, but no one really believes in him. Not even Ben Van Brunt's grandfather, Brom Bones, who was there when it was said the Horseman chased the upstart Crane out of town. Brom says that's just legend, the village gossips talking.

More than thirty years after those storied events, the village is a quiet place. Fourteen-year-old Ben loves to play "Sleepy Hollow boys," reenacting the events Brom once lived through. But then Ben and a friend stumble across the headless body of a child in the woods near the village, and the discovery makes Ben question everything the adults in Sleepy Hollow have ever said. Could the Horseman be real after all? Or does something even more sinister stalk the woods?"

The illustration of the horse on this cover is perhaps one of my favorite cover illustrations ever.