WOW!! This was not what I was expecting but in such a good way.

This is a coming of age story but with a slight paranormal twist. This doesn't focus so much on the horror/paranormal as it does the wonderful characters that Tim McGregor has thought up. The true focus here are the horrors of growing up and feeling like you don't fit in or you have to pretend to be something you're not.

I fell in love with the character, George. She's witchy. She's quirky. She's funny. I can see why Mark risked it all to get to know her.

Going through high school, falling in love, and dealing with grief from Mark's point of view really gripped me. I felt like I was right there with him going through his life.

I really loved this and I can't wait to check out more of Tim McGregor's work!

** Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. **

Rating: 5 stars

I love when a 5-star prediction ends up being a 5-star read! I loved this in every way, from start to finish. This is my top read so far this year. I saw aspects of myself in both George and Mark - I was, at times, the "quiet/weird" girl and the "I don't know why I do the things I do" teenaged fool. I look back and cringe at the latter self often. For a relatively short read, Tim McGregor manages to pack so much heart and punch into this novel. I can't wait to read it again and recommend it throughout this year.

This story was such a blast to read! I couldn't set this one down. I meant to read just a chapter or so, but read the first 80% in one night. And I only set it down because my baby woke up screaming and needed tending to. I picked it up as soon as I had the chance the next day and whizzed through the end.

I loooooved the nostalgic summer vibes so, so much. I loved Mark and George. The way their story unfolded was both beautiful and heartbreaking. The town's history with the Farrow girls felt both dangerous and sadly believable. And I appreciated how very real Mark felt--especially his struggles with peer pressure and toxic friendship. Another stunning read from Tim McGregor. I'm eager to pick up all the books of his I haven't read yet!

Summer of 1987 rolls around, and all Mark wants is to hang out with his friends and ignore his new stepmom. But, his plans go a bit sideways when he meets the weird and reclusive Farrow sisters up close and personal.

This book has some good spooky aspects for sure. It was easy to get into, although it did lose me a few times as far as interest. While I wouldn't label it horror myself -- it's more of a kind of spooky coming of age -- it was a fun and mostly light read.

3.25 stars rounded. Thank you NetGalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Wasps in the Ice Cream was a surprise new favorite for me! Not to mention the title is so unique and made so much sense once i started reading, I also love the horror/thriller genre, and this book delivered there in a slow-build non-gore kind of way which was enjoyable, I didn't anticipate the wonderful throw-back to the 80's, which is the time period I grew up in and I LOVED it for that as well as the story line. Several themes including coming of age, bullying, friendships, and secrets. Highly recommend as a quick and enjoyable read.

Thank you to Raw Dog Screaming Press and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A creepy, lovely slow burn about growing up, fitting in, and the ways we hurt each other and ourselves trying to figure ourselves out. There is a tender love story at the center of this book, wrapped up in explorations of the many ways loss shapes our experience of “coming of age.” Scary, moving, and thought provoking.

𝒯𝒽𝒶𝓉’𝓈 𝒿𝓊𝓈𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓈𝑒. 𝐼𝓉’𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓊𝓃𝓉𝑒𝒹.

This was a quick read! And one I enjoyed very much. It reminded me of a twisted version of The Sandlot. We go through the summer and beginning of the school year along side sixteen year old Mark Perewitt. He makes an unlikely friend in one of the daughters of the town’s family of outcasts, the Farrows. There were some twists and turns I wasn’t expecting, some decent imagery, and overall it just felt deeply personal to see the world through Mark’s eyes. This is not my normal read, as a 30 something year old woman a teenage boy is going to be the furthest for me to connect with, but I honestly really had an enjoyable time reading this. I love a good haunt and I’m super into all things witchy, so I really connected with George (Georgia) the most. I wish we would’ve had her POV, that’s my only real grievance. With that being said, my favorite part…. I LOVED the ending. I would recommend this to anyone looking to escape the real world and climb back into a teenage summer filled with hauntings and witch craft and just some adventurous teenage experiences.

I hope to read more of Tim McGregor’s books! I really loved the writing style in this. I felt like I was reading something written directly to me. Felt deeply personable in the best way.

“We live on this thin crust of order and civility, so smug in our fancy cars and pretty homes. But underneath all that? Chaos. Something waits to drag us down into the darkness.” -George
Wasps in the Ice Cream by @timmcgregor1 from @rdspress sounded like it was going to be a mean, diabolical story of evil corrupting something pure and innocent, and in a way, it was, just on more of an emotional level than I expected.
I cursed Tim McGregor out multiple times during this book. I mean, these are my friends! How dare he do that to them?This is the second book this year that I wanted to not read any further. I got to a point and I just knew things were about to spiral out of control and I didn’t want to put the characters through that. I wanted to let them hold onto their happiness, their ignorant bliss. Of course I couldn’t do that to them, their story needed to be told.
This is not a scary book. It is dark and devastating but not scary. I feel like it should be required reading and discussed for hours with a book club. There are so many great lines that resonated with me.
This is a Ray Bradbury-esque story of how life changes so fast, how we grow up, mature, and summer always comes to a close. The choice you want to make is not the easy choice, not the popular choice. Do you take what is socially difficult but makes you happy? or do you go with the flow and get swept up in the pedestrian life?
I could gush on and on about this book and all the elements it contains and why you need to read it but I think it’s best that you go in empty and let the surprises fill you up.
To sum up the book I will quote Mark’s stepmom, Liz-“Sometimes we do things we don’t understand.”
Thank you to @netgalley and Raw Dog Screaming Press for the early copy to review.

‘Wasps in the Ice Cream’ is a unique and majestic look at
small town boredom, first love and witch bottles

I love coming-of-age novels and Tim McGregor’s superb Wasps in the Ice Cream ranks amongst the absolute best of them. It took me right back to being bored and sixteen, living in a small town where there was not much to do, with episodes of underage drinking, video games, loud music, sporadic acts of violence and unobtainable visions of the opposite sex. I grew up in the north of Scotland and although this novel is set in Canada, the feelings of alienation and disaffection are identical, with Tim McGregor absolutely nailing what it was like to be sixteen and not giving a f**k what your parents and teachers say.

Although the excellent Raw Dog Screaming Press are undoubtedly promoting Wasps in the Ice Cream as an adult novel it had a vibrant and convincing Young Adult (YA) feel to it. The protagonist is sixteen and has issues with his dad and stepmother and since it is narrated in the first person by Mark Prewitt it becomes even more teen driven. Mark’s developing infatuation for the enigmatic Georgina (known as George) Farrow was pure YA and I found the scenes around their developing friendship/relationship to be perfectly pitched. There was a scene near the end of the book where the cult science fiction Robocop was showing on the cinema that almost had me in tears it was so powerful. Mark, you bastard. If that moment had been captured in an eighties teen John Hughes movie it would have had a very different outcome! I will most certainly be buying this book for my own school library as I am certain it will find an audience amongst genuine teen readers.

Wasps in the Ice Cream is set during the long hot summer of 1987 and I guess another reason I loved the book so much was the fact that I was about sixteen in the same year and also saw Robocop on the big screen! But I had to blag my way in, as it was rated ‘18’ in the UK! The eighties name dropping of films, pop culture and raiding the local video-shop for gory and gaudily boxed horror films was also spot on, as was the obsession with what was going to appear at the cinema the following week. As their fleapit only showed reruns, their long and frustrating wait for the appearance of Robocop for really funny, as in those days it really did take a year or longer for films to appear on home video.

Ultimately Wasps in the Ice Cream is about what happens when you fall for the girl everyone hates (or at least don’t understand) and the weird peer-pressures teens feel around standing out, with the story taking its time getting around to introducing the spiky George Farrow. Mark has had the same best friends for years, Eric and Kevin, and he is no longer sure he even likes them anymore. He works two parttime jobs and is in a rut, whilst trying to save enough cash to restore an old car he has sitting in the garage. He spends his time fooling around with Eric and Kevin, doing a combination of dumb stuff and rewatching their favourite films whilst trying to stay out of the way of his dad who has married a much younger woman whom Mark is dismissive of and unpleasant to, even if he has no real reason to be so.

In small towns everybody knows everybody else’s business and rumours are known to get blown out of all proportion, none more so than the stories surrounding the three Farrow sisters. The Farrow family live in a dilapidated house outside of town and if the rumours are true are down on their luck after losing money at some stage in the past. The girls were withdrawn from the local school after the suspicious death of a fourth elder sister and there are idle and unfound rumours that the family dabble in witchcraft. Although the Satanic Panic phenomenon is never mentioned, this story is set during a period were many Americans (okay, this is set in Canada) believed Devil worshippers walked amongst us in plain sight.

Through the bored troublemaking of Mark and his two friends Eric and Kevin he eventually meets George, at which point a very good story becomes a truly excellent one. Mark is totally torn, as he cannot let his friends know he is interested in a girl who is effectively a pariah in the small town where he lives. The story cleverly explores these internal conflicts, taking in lust, infatuation and the lengths he will go to keep his dream girl a secret. How he keeps this hidden from both his friends and family is both a key and important part of the story and anybody who has ever sneaked a girl or boy into their family home will feel and identify with Mark’s pain.

The support characters were drawn outstandingly well and how they interacted with Mark, I particularly liked his stepmother and his unfound casual unpleasantness towards her. Also, how his two best friends reacted to change and the possibility that Mark might have a life beyond them and rewatching the same old flicks or playing the same arcade machines to death. And in the background we have the largely symbolic wasp nest close to the ice cream parlour where Mark works and his casual obsession with the gorgeous older girl who works in the cinema kiosk across the road. All these factors contributed to a beautifully drawn small town and the relatable characters who inhabited it.

You might ask what makes Wasps in the Ice Cream a horror novel rather than a nostalgic coming-of-age drama? The use of the supernatural is used very subtlety and is beautifully restrained, you will have to read the novel yourself to decide whether it exists at all. I adored the manner in which ambiguity was used by the Farrow sisters and their interactions with each other. George makes witch-bottles (and Mark helps) to keep their property safe and she also believes the ghost of her dead sister is not so far away and not such a fan of Mark. I loved this part of the story and it naturally flowed with the development of their relationship.

I have read Tim McGregor before, but Wasps in the Ice Cream is significantly better than everything else I have come across, this powerful story impressed me so much I have already cued Taboo in Four Colors on my kindle and am going to take a closer look at his back catalogue. Mark does some crappy things, but his voice is so authentic I guarantee you will forgive him. The ending was also both outstanding and reflective and not dissimilar to any of us looking back upon a pivotal part of our own teenage years. Simply outstanding and sure to be one of the books of 2023.

We all have a George in our past, whom we probably think about more than we would care to admit.

A great 80s set coming of age novel that really captures the angst of being a teenager. The Duffer Brothers wish they could evoke the era half as well as this story.

Once I started this book I couldn’t put it down. Can definitely see this becoming a major hit. I definitely enjoyed every second from start to finish. Not much of a horror book but still had my eyes glued to the pages waiting to see if mark and George ever fall in love.

This is a solid entry in the coming of age genre. It's not much of a horror story but I was perfectly content to enjoy it for what it was.

While I'm not always one for romance, I enjoyed the boy meets girl narrative of this one. It actually reminded me most of the Virgin Suicides. Like that story, this one is very slow paced and character focused. The plot and mystery are very much in the background.

This one certainly leans into the tropes of the coming of age genre so I can't call it fresh or innovative. Yet it follows tropes that I love and it did them well so I can't criticize that aspect of the story.

I would recommend this one to anyone looking for a new well developed coming of age story.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher last.

I got through the book quickly as it had captivating moments. I am a huge fan of the Addams Family, and George, the love interest and female lead had many Wednesday Addams vibes. There were moments, however, when I felt that the book was turning too much into a romance novel, and labeling this book as Horror may be a step too far. There were minor elements of Horror, such as the sister's ghost appearing to be present in various parts of the book, though it is never made clear that was the case, which I believe was the novel's point. However, from what I took away from the book, the girls may have never had much in the way of supernatural gifts; they just thought they did. If those themes were developed a little more, it would have been a bit more interesting, but that is more my love for Horror novels than the fact that something big was missing from the book.

I would have liked to have seen more of an explanation of why the city and the Farrow family had such animosity toward each other. This subject is alluded to at various points throughout the story, but the hatred these sides have for each other seems to be more established than what is provided by the story. I understand that the Farrows have a reason for hating the town as they blame the residents for the daughter's death, but the city wanting to run the family out of town and destroy them seems like much more than simply thinking they are weird.

I don’t know how I feel about this book. I couldn’t put it down and finished it in one sitting. I like the creepy paranormal aspects but didn’t care too much for the rest of it.

In the summer of 1987, Mark Prewitt is living his best life spending time hanging out with his friends. His friends decide to play a cruel prank on the recluse, weird Farrow sisters. Mark is talked into participating and when he sees the end result he goes to her home to apologize. Mark quickly develops a relationship with the middle Farrow sister George. They bond over books, movies, and the loneliness each feel. They keep their friendship a secret from everyone. Mark realizes that leading a double life isn’t easy and when his friends find out things get out of hand quickly.


Wasps in the Ice Cream is available February 7,2023.

Thank you netgalley and raw dog screaming press for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Summer 1987

Mark Prewitt's father has remarried and, in an attempt, to stay away from his father's new wife, Mark keeps busy spending time with his friends. When not hanging out with his friends, he works two jobs in order to make money to fix up his old car. While hanging out with his friends, they play a prank on the reclusive Farrow sisters.

The Farrow sisters and their family live on the outside of the community in a large and crumbling home. They are the subject of rumors and disdain from town members. Mark can’t help but be drawn to them especially, George, the middle sister. George, practices folk magic and buries jars around her home to keep it safe.

Knowing that others will not understand his relationship with George, Mark keeps their relationship a secret. When the secret is revealed, things will never be the same.

This was an interesting coming of age tale about a boy who meets a girl that no one likes. It’s about loneliness, secrets, friendship, guilt, bullying, growing up, and longing. It takes place in the '80s and feels nostalgic. The characters are flawed and make questionable decisions.

I enjoyed this book and how things played out. There were times I wanted to say "No, no, no" to Mark and tell him don't punish yourself for the guilt you feel.

Heartbreaking, captivating, nostalgic. This is a short book which packs a punch.

What a wonderful book this is.
When Kevin is with two friends they toss a firecracker at Georgia Farrow, the strange girl who lives in the strange house with her strange parents and who goes by the name “George”. Kevin, being the kindest of the three, feels bad about this and decides to leave George a token of apology in the form of a book he saw her try to steal. This act leads to a secret friendship between George and Kevin. He can’t let anyone in town know for fear of losing what little popularity he has at school, and George can’t let her stern, over-protective parents know. One who does know however is George’s sister…her dead sister…Liesl, who is also very protective of George and who knows of the one secret Kevin doesn’t dare share.
Although this book was listed under Horror, I did not find any scares within and the only horror was the powerful damage that bullying and the fear of being bullied has on people of all ages. This has a nice coming of age backstory and readers of young adult fiction would enjoy accompanying Kevin as he navigates the age of 17, friends and frenemies, love and the fear of what others would think if they knew paired with the shame of having that fear at all. Thank you #netgalley for allowing me to read and review “WaspsInTheIceCream

It’s the summer of 1987.
Mark, who’s Mother died a few years ago, spends all his days either hanging out with his friends or working at the ice cream shack. There's really not much else to do in the small town and it doesn't take long for Mark and his friends to get bored.

Only the rumors about the Farrow family offer a little distraction from their otherwise monotonous life. The Farrow family is very odd and since the death of the eldest daughter they live very secluded and are rarely seen. Seeing the Farrow sisters around town on a rare occasion, one of Mark's friends decides to pull a prank on them. And although Mark has a bad feeling about it, he goes along with it.

When Mark, feeling guilty about the cruel prank, decides to apologize to George, the middle sister, he is drawn into the mysterious world of the Farrow girls. A world full of folk magic and séances, grief and fear.

Mark knows he needs to keep his relationship with George a secret, but living a double life is tough... and eventually the truth will come out.

This was such a great and dark coming of age story. It was heartbreaking and shocking at the same time. I really liked the main characters, the strong female representation, the paranormal aspects and the 80‘s cultural references.
Even if it was described as such, I wouldn't necessarily consider it horror. There were a few spooky moments though.

Overall it was a solid 4 star read for me

This book, to me, is a combination between Stranger Things and the book The House of Hollow. The boys hanging out and going to the arcade and George is somewhat like Eleven. That mixed with the sisters that everyone talks about like in the book the House of Hollow and they all have different abilities/powers. Also the fact that everyone tends to avoid them as well. With that being said, this one was really slow. Slow until about halfway in the book which took so much effort on my part not to put it down and start something new. I get that it's a coming of age story but I need more interesting things to happen other than mentioning the scratch marks Mark had when he woke up then the next day he's going to look for meteors with George.

Mark, avoiding his home life with dear old dad and stepmom, finds himself losing interest in his two best friends as well. In this coming-of-age tale, Mark continues to question the behavior of himself and those closest to him, while falling into an unusual friendship with the one of the town outcasts. Mark has to decide where his loyalties lie and who he is going to stand beside... while trying to ward off the spirit of a dead girl hanging out in his room.

While I would consider this more paranormal than "horror", it was a great read and did have some horror-ish parts. I can understand the blur in genres but don't go into this expecting it to be your typical horrorfest. The cover pulled me in, and the story kept me turning pages... quickly. This book made me feel like I was walking down the main strip of this town in 1987. I loved the pop culture nods to well-loved movies as well. I will reread this again down the road!

4.5 rounded to 5!

Not quite horror--no true scares of any kind--but definitely spooky, ominous. A very nostalgic coming of age story around kids and their last summer being kids. The summer includes a pair of eerie sisters and a haunted house. A fun read for summer time.