Though I enjoyed parts of this book, overall it was not my favorite and I found it a bit hard to get through. But I think that for some, this would be just the right book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for the chance to read this book!

I now think that aside from the stellar Bird Box, Josh Malerman is just not the author for me. I found Daphne to be bloated, way too repetitive, and a slog to get through.

3 1/2 stars.

Let me start by saying that for me, a three star book is a solid book that most of my friends would rate as a 4 or 5 start book.

Daphne is a book about the Samhattan High girl’s basketball team and their star Kit Lamb. The night before the summer league championship game, the girls have a sleep over, and one of the girls tells a ghost story about Daphne, a ghost who will come to kill you if you think about her.

As the days progress, strange occurrences begin to happen, and then people start dying.

Let me start with the good. I felt like the bodies hit the floor at a fast pace. The first 20% of the book started slow, but then the pace quickened and the deaths started in and I found myself engrossed in the story.

I also felt like Kit, with all her anxiety, was an intriguing protagonist and I love how Malerman depicted a basketball star and her anxiety. Good protagonists face the fears and rise in adversity.

Now the bad—there’s something about Malerman’s prose I don’t like. It feels clunky and far from conversational or beautiful and it takes me a bit to move past it, but when I do move past it I realize the man knows how to craft a good tale. This is a fun one.

I also felt like this book is more YA with some graphic violence rather than a coming of age/adult book. Nevertheless, the books is fun and will fit in the ghost genre perfectly.

Although this book was a bit on the nose about anxiety equating to ghosts or monsters, I read it more as a tale of a character with anxiety rather than the anxiety being an allegory for ghosts. At first it hindered my enjoyment, and then, as I tend to do with Malerman’s books, I realize I enjoy story first, and the story for me prevailed here.

In the end, the book gets a star for overall entertainment value, and star for intriguing characters and good pacing and a star for story and half a star for various other aspects of the tale. It loses a star and a half for prose and the more YA feel, which is probably more a problem in how it’s marketed rather than a failing of the story.

Overall I was entertained and will recommend the books to others.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

Daphne by Josh Malerman
🏀ARC thoughts 📖
Daphne is a legend in the town of Samhattan which no one ever talks about…
When Natasha tells the story of Daphne at a basketball team slumber party, the team starts getting killed one by one.
Everyone is on edge and everyone is thinking about Daphne again.


I have been going through it with this book because I felt it was a good read. I just have such mixed feelings about it. There is a great discussion about mental health and the representation seems meaningful to the author. I went from 5 stars to 3 and finally I am settling with 4 stars . The characters are interesting and likable. They are the perfect combination of annoying teenagers and smart young girls willing to do anything to save their friends.
If you love basketball, urban legends and paranormal stories you will enjoy this book. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Ballantine for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Anxiety was a huge character in this, which in my mind is a sign of the perfect horror! So well done, I could have done without as much basketball, but it was almost so weird it worked?

My thanks to Random House/Ballantine, Josh Malerman and Netgalley.
Well, heck!
The fact is that I've been trying to read this book for awhile now, and I keep getting hung up on basketball.
I hate basketball! Love playing it, but anything else? Forget about it! Damned squeaky shoes!
I never even made it to the point of Daphne killing anyone!
Every time I tried to read this, I found myself bored.
Sadly, Malerman screwed the pooch in this one!
Just my opinion!

*2.5 stars rounded up.

Josh Malerman says this 'is a love letter of sorts to the game of basketball and the horror genre, both.' It's also a novella that he expanded into a novel, probably fleshed out by all the basketball talk. Although I did play HS basketball many years ago and have watched many games in both high school and college, now as an adult, I am not much of a fan of the sport, so I read thinking I am probably not the right audience for this book. The first 15% of the story is almost all about girls basketball and that emphasis, along with the YA feel, nearly lost me. But I hung in there and the horror aspects of the story finally drew me in.

The story is set in Samhattan, Michigan, the center of which is the local cemetery. How creepy is that? During an overnight before the big game, one of the team members tells a scary urban legend about a seven-foot-tall girl named Daphne who was murdered by several boys. If you think her name often enough, she says, it draws her to you to seek revenge for her murder. Of course the girls cannot STOP thinking about Daphne, and soon the first team member dies...

I enjoyed the horror aspect of the story--very creepy. I did however get mightily sick of the repetition of the town's name and calling the residents Samhattanites. That might have seemed funny at first, but got old quickly. I enjoyed his earlier book, Bird Box, much more.

I received an arc of this horror thriller from the author and publisher via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Josh Malerman for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Daphne coming out September 20, 2022. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I will upload my review to Goodreads. I’ll also add it to Amazon when the book is released on September 20th.

Kit Lamb has one summer left before college. It’s the last summer with her high school basketball team, and with Dana, her best friend.

The night before the big game, one of the players tells a ghost story about Daphne. She was a girl who went to the school years ago and died under mysterious circumstances. Some people say she was murdered, others that she committed suicide. And some say that Daphne is a murderer. They also say she’s obsessed with revenge, and will appear to kill again.

After Kit hears the story, her teammates start to disappear and Kit begins to suspect that the stories about Daphne are real. Now it’s a race for Kit’s life. Can she find the truth about the legend before it’s too late?

I loved this book so much! I love fast-paced dialogue and suspense. I loved the horror and ghost aspect of the book. I loved the plot! I know it was set in present day, but it reminded me of a 1980s slasher. Also the parents were there, but it felt like the girls had to take care of themselves and do it on their own like many 80s teen horror books and movies.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys ghost slashers.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of Daphne.
Daphne is a coming of age story about a girls high school basketball team and their town's urban legend. Mental health and anxiety are also themes, which are accurately described and respectfully handled.
I was really excited for this, since Birdbox is one of my favorite books ever. It seems like I am in the minority but this book was a miss for me.
I felt like the pacing was slow and the first 40% of the book was boring. It started to get more interesting about halfway through but ended just as things were getting exciting. The book has no chapters, which made it seem to drag more. The ending seemed very abrupt and was anti-climactic.
The excessive use of the word "baller" drove me insane. If you took a drink of an alcoholic beverage every time you read "baller" you would actually die, because it appears all the time.
I thought this book would be a lot scarier than it was, it seemed to be more of a basketball book with a touch of horror rather than a horror book with basketball players as the main characters. I wish Daphne's story and her attacks on the players were fleshed out more.

Kit just made the game-winning shot in her high school basketball game. She should be on top of the world, but there’s something eating away at her—a story she heard the night before, about a woman who was killed years ago and comes back to stalk basketball players. Daphne.

I enjoyed this horror story. It had an interesting premise, and the author does a good job creating a creepy atmosphere in the small Michigan town. I liked Kit, and identified with her struggles with anxiety.

This is definitely a horror novel, but it was also trying to explore other questions, like what’s a bigger horror? The thing we’re afraid of, or silence?

I felt like the author was going for a deeper metaphor with this story but it just didn’t gel for me.

I was also frustrated with the lack of clarity; I wanted an explanation for why everything was happening. Why these girls? Why now? But I actually think it was kind of brilliant; I was feeling the same way Kit and the other girls were—confused, anxious, frustrated.

However I didn’t really understand the twist at the end. It left me with a lot of questions.

All in all, this is was good book that muddled up genuine scares by trying to get too deep.

Thanks to @netgalley and @penguinrandomhouse for the eARC. This novel comes out on Sept. 20, 2022.

Check out this book if you like small-town horror or basketball (or both).

One of my favorites from Malerman so far. The only thing is that for some reason the version that got sent to my Kindle was pretty messed up in its formatting so it was hard to tell where I was in the book, and when new paragraphs began.

I'm having a difficult time expressing how I feel about this book. It had a slow start, and I didn't really get into it until I was about 25% of the way in. At that point, the story really picks up and gets interesting, but then I felt it started to get repetitive and meandering until the last 75-80%. Then it ramps up with a great conclusion and ending. All in all, I did enjoy this book and found it to be a quick read. The author does say in his afterword that it was originally a novella, and maybe it would have been more enjoyable that way. I liked the book, and if you're intrigued by the premise I would recommend it.

Daphne is a love letter to horror giving a deeper exploration of anxiety by way of urban legends and slashers. This book is so much more than just a slasher. It is smart. The main character is anxiety-ridden to the point that anxiety is the monster in the story. When a ghost story is told at a team sleepover the night before the big basketball game about a girl who will come back to kill anyone thinking about her, it leaves Kit with an overwhelming fear that she's next. Think Bloody Mary. The writing is fantastic bringing the pure love for basketball to life. And the illustration of anxiety in a teenage girl's mind is so true to life. It's incredible what Malerman has brought to life. Highly recommended! Be sure to check out Daphne today.

Daphne was a strange book and I still don’t know exactly how I feel about it. I wanted to read Malerman’s latest novel because I loved Bird Box. I was hoping to love Daphne, but it was just an average read for me. While I loved the premise of Daphne - a town legend/curse haunts a high school girls’ basketball team - the story itself was just okay. I think the book was too long and would have worked better as a novella, or a shorter novel. Parts just seemed to drag and I became bored, especially during the middle of the book. I didn’t connect to any of the characters and the ending seemed anticlimactic to me. While I really like Malerman’s writing style and I loved the setting and small town feel of Daphne, overall, this book was a little disappointing. I was creeped out in certain parts, but I just wanted more from the story. I’m hoping I will enjoy future books from this author since I do like his writing.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC of this!

I have been trying to read more horror as an absolute chicken, and this one’s titular character has the same name as my daughter so it caught my eye. This was extremely creepy and I really enjoyed the POVs we got. I don’t always like a law enforcement POV in thrillers, but maybe because this was more supernatural it felt different. If you’ve been obsessed with Vecna in Stranger Things, or have always loved the Bloody Mary urban legend, this one is for you

Malerman is in a league of his own with this metaphorical horror tale, and wow! I loved every bit of it!

Daphne…

She is a legend. A 7-foot tall denim-wearing monster who wears kiss make-up, drives a muscle car, and comes when you think or talk about her too much. And when she comes… she’ll kill you with her bare hands!

Pretty cool, right?

At the surface, this if very much in the vein of the classic horror slashers we know and love—big scary killer working through victims, tallying up the body count with ever more creative kills--but Daphne is so much more. Malerman takes the genre and turns it on its head. This isn’t because we have a female in a traditionally male slasher role (although, that is pretty cool). Daphne isn’t just a woman Jason or Michael Myers. She is a thing that lives inside you.

This novel is the best exploration of anxiety I have ever read in fiction, and tying it to horror, to a slasher no less, is so damn crazy it shouldn’t work… but it does. ”Will Daphne kill me?” We follow this question trough Kit Lamb, a high school basketball player who suffers from anxiety that jumps off the page. It is through this that the novel becomes more than horror. It’s profoundly deep and addresses mental health in a manner that avoids becoming preachy or dry. It is more of an experience than a book. Something to thrill any horror fan while seamlessly speaking to a core human emotion.

A book like this doesn’t come around often, but I’m not surprised that it came Josh Malerman. If you’ve read his work, you know why. Do yourself a favor and tap into your own anxiety and ask yourself, ”Will Daphne kill me?”

This new story by the author who brought us Bird Box is part coming of age and part horror that will appeal to fans of basketball, small town urban legends and 1980s slasher film vibes. This book will be the perfect spooky story to read during October! Thank you Netgalley, Random House Publishing-Ballantine and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on September 20, 2022 and can be preordered now.

I don’t know if this is the right story for me, as I often don’t love YA. That being said, I do love Malerman’s writing and I did appreciate his inclusion of anxiety, especially for teens. I could relate to that as an adult and all the feelings that come with it and his descriptions of it were very accurate and thought provoking. I also liked the urban legend storyline.

A solid YA thriller with an 80s slasher vibe and urban legend trope. An atmospheric, slow burn that builds to an exciting conclusion. A scary good time with an interesting premise.

I was unsure of what to think about Daphne throughout the majority of the novel but it really kicked in at the end! Daphne took a long time to land for me just because I could never really pinpoint what was the unique "pull" of the novel till the final confrontation. While it had me confused, I understood a lot more of the bigger themes that Josh Malerman was pushing at the end. In terms of the spookiness it delivers. I think Daphne is definitely worth sticking with, it took me a few different directions but I liked the outcome.