Thank you netgalley for the chance to review.

Alfie lost his wife. 9 months later his twins start talking about seeing an imaginary friend. this book was terrifying but I loved every minute of it!

This is the perfect read for this Halloween.
The whole story was super creepy. It's not your usual horror story. Yeah, sure, there's a "thing" lurking in the house but it is so much more. The book deals with grief, family connections and religious trauma.
I've always hated twins in horror movies and books and surprise, surprise: I hate the twins in this book too.😅
The whole thing about the twin's imaginary friend and the question of is he real or are they just making him up gave me the creeps.
I'm not gonna lie, the middle part felt a little dragged for me but then THOSE last chapters happened and oh my gosh.
I can't stop thinking about the ending.

I'd like to thank the publisher and Netgalley for the e-arc.

I had such high hopes for this one, and was immediately intrigued by the cover and description. Unfortunately, this one really missed the mark for me, and those were about the only things I did enjoy. I was expecting a really spooky book, but I didn’t even find it creepy, nor did the book ever pick up for me. The first half dragged, and the rest of the story was just very odd, went in a direction I didn’t like, and I never had the wow factor.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for my ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Let Him In is one of the most compelling novels I've read this year--Friend has such a way with words that, even if I wasn't fond of the story or plot, I think I still would have liked this. This is a roller-coaster; it's scary, it's creepy, it's horrifying. It's so good. I really can't exaggerate how worthwhile this is.

I can almost hear the eerie music while the twins are talking about their friend. The house becomes a character in LET HIM IN, William Friend's debut contribution to my nightmares. Alfie's family, he and the twins, still live in Hart House, the house where his wife died. As he works through his own grief, he must help the twins, who now see a man in their room at night. Soon this night time visitor becomes an invisible friend who tells them what to do and takes them on imaginary trips.....cue the creepy music. Alfie asks his wife's sister....you guessed it.....twin sister, for help with the girls and their "friend". Now comes a HUGE twist.....but you'll need to read the book to find out what it is.....I have to go turn some more lights on.

For a debut book, this blew me away. The writing, the creativity, the unsettling creepiness.

A haunted house that harbors dark secrets and death. Alfie is raising his twin daughters after the sudden and painful death of his wife. His daughters talk of their imaginary friends, and the journeys that they go on, but little does Alfie know it’s something sinister.

The setting and pace for the story definitely keeps you immersed. But really with an undertone of tragedy of the heart. This story is definitely different than other books I’ve read. If you like horror with a deeper meaning than look no further

I enjoyed this book, and while I was expecting it to be...something else, I did like the way the book ended. I enjoyed the characters, and I saw a lot of myself in one of the twins which was interesting. I liked how some of the parts were left.. kind of open to interpretation which I thought added a fun twist in the book.

Creepy, gruesome, fantastic! I was compelled by the authors writing style, and loved the eery story line! Fantastic horror.

Holy moly batman this was the perfect spooky season read! I was lucky enough to get this ebook and audio review copy, and I loved it!

A really well written and thoughtful novel on the nature of grief, twinship, and conscience. A creepy, atmospheric read that only lets its secrets out a little at a time and never fully. Highly recommended, even to a book club with a few scaredy cats! Thank you for a great read!

Alfie and his twin daughters are the family now. His wife has died. He is awakened by his twins who tell him that there is a man in their bedroom. He gets up and checks out the bedroom to find that there is no man in the bedroom. He thinks his daughters had a nightmare. However, it continues to the point that the twins set a place for him to eat with them. They also whisper to him. They tell their father that has told them that he is going to take them away. Alfie calls his wife’s sister Julia who is also a psychiatrist. He hopes she can get the twins to give up this imaginary man. Alfie will have to confront his own shameful secrets, the dark past of Hart House, and even the bounds of reality—or risk taking part in an unspeakable tragedy.

The author wrote an excellent creepy horror and suspenseful novel .I thought the family dynamics were fascinating. There are secrets in their mother’s family background. It’s a the author does an excellent job composing the essential elements in a narrative. There are unexpected twists and turns. Both Alfie and Julia’s secrets and sordid pasts flow into the narrative shaping the characters in the novel. It’s excellent for a first novel.

“𝑫𝒂𝒅𝒅𝒚, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆’𝒔 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒓𝒐𝒐𝒎.”⁣
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Rating: 2.5/5 ⭐️⭐️💫⁣
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Creepy AF premise, and I thoroughly felt creeped out the first couple chapters. But after a while I started assuming someone had a mental illness brought on by grief, this continued until the last few chapters when more was revealed. Not enough to give a conclusion or clear understanding of what the heck was happening though. For that this is rated lower, otherwise it would have been 3 stars.⁣
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Thank you @netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

One night Alfie wakes up to his twin daughters standing at the end of his bed. They tell him there is a man in their room. Alfie searches the room and when he can't find anyone, he deems it a nightmare and gets them back to bed. The girls recently lost their mother so it's no surprise they would be having nightmares. When the twins can't stop talking about this figure, who they now call Black Mamba, their aunt Julia finally steps in to help. Julia is a physiatrist and tells Alfie this is completely normal. But is it? Cause weird things are happening and what once made sense no longer does.

But now Black Mamba is taking over their lives and making the girls act in ways they never have before. Alfie has had enough and tries to get rid of him while also struggling with reality. Is this a figment of their imagination or is something more sinister going on?

This was full on psychological suspense and I loved how uneasy it made me feel. The twins were excellent and came across exactly how creepy kids in horror movies do. I can't say I was a fan of Alfie or Julia, I wish there was a little more to their personalities. Throw in some religious cult background noise and you have a thriller making you question what is real and what isn't. While I loved the suspense and the twins, I felt there wasn't enough story here. It could have been longer with more info on the religious cult aspect.

5 star ending though!! I will absolutely be on the lookout for more from this author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Let Him In was a chilling story about Hart House where a dad, Alfie, lives with his two twin daughters, Cassia and Sylvie. His wife, Pippa, had passed away years ago and now her twin Julia, the girl’s aunt, comes and stays with the family when the girls start seeing a man in their bedroom. Julia is a psychologist and is trying to help the girls and Alfie as this imaginary friend, they call Black Mamba, starts to take over their life.
The story was captivating at times but also a little slow. There were also some elements that were a little confusing. It kinda had a gothic, cult-ish vibe as well that is not usually something I gravitate towards.
Overall, I would still recommend the read if you are into spooky, but not overly scary, stories with ambiguous endings. I know some people like stories where they have to draw their own conclusion but I personally like my stories to have an obvious ending. In this case I do think it would make a good book club book.

A house with a scary history, a sinister imaginary friend and too many sets of twins. This book was slow and repetitive. I considered abandoning it, but I kept reading to see if it would take an interesting turn, but it didn’t. I also thought that the widower seemed to get over his grief in a particularly tacky way. This wasn’t for me. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

For a debit novel this is an amazing twist of creepy, suspenseful and down right gut wrenching!!
Twin girls Cassia and Sylvie have lost their mother and they are greiving. Their father is trying his best to look after them while struggling himself. His sister in law Julia is a psychiatrist and is called to assess them after Alfie their father is told by the girls that they are seeing a strange man who transforms into different things, snake, teddy bear, fish and takes them out of the window at night and wants to stay with them. As the house has rumours of being evil, could this be the demon that their granny is always praying against, to stop them trying to hurt the girls or Alfie?.
This is perfect for a Halloween night!!.
Thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for the chance to read this arc copy of the book via Netgalley.
#Netgalley, #poisonedpenpress, #williamfriend.

This book was WILD. A literary slow burn horror, this novel was a compelling read. Centering the story of Alfie, his twin daughters, and their aunt Julia, this story takes the reader on a creeping journey through grief that spawns monsters. The way the author took the imagination of children, psychological data, and grief and twined them into a story told by two unreliable narrators was inspired.

I really enjoyed this one.

Thank you, Netgalley and the publisher, for an early copy of this story. Opinions are my own.

A father and his girls live in the repurposed church that was sold to them by his deceased wife’s family before her death.
The children began seeing a snake that they refer to as Black Mambo. Over time they begin to insist the snake is real.
The deceased woman’s sister becomes involved when the children start hurting one another.
Ultimately…it comes down to the question of is Black Mambo real or imaginary. Is the church haunted.?
Okay book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunities to read this ARC.

I'm not sure how I felt about this one. On one hand, it was interesting and creepy. On the other, I felt like it could have been better. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm all in for creepy imaginary friends, but this went some weird directions that I felt either came out of left field or just wasn't entirely fleshed out to make it feel more cohesive.

There were more than a few things that were left open to interpretation, which could have been intentional, but I felt almost detracted from the story because of the direction the story took.

Maybe another 25 pages would have made room to expand a few of these parts and made me really love it. It's one of those books you'll either love or it will leave you questioning.

Let Him In is an impressive debut. William Friend’s writing speaks for itself; it’s creeping, laced with deliciously gothic imagery. Incongruous though it seems, the prose imbues our setting - Hart House - with a sense of both claustrophobia and cavernousness; its size, its history, come together to make our characters (and by extension, us) feel suffocated. Trapped.

However, as a debut, it is not without its issues. While Hart House itself is basically a character in its own right, and the adults in the story - particularly our dual narrators, Alfie and Julia - were well fleshed out, the twins felt flimsy to me. With so much of the plot hinging on their personalities, it would have made sense to spend more time properly establishing them.

Let Him In was at its strongest when it allowed its haunting atmosphere to speak for itself, rather than trying to explain away the horror. For the most part, it explores concepts with a broad brush, allowing their complexities - of religion, of family, of various relationship dynamics - to speak for themselves, rather than making any specific declarations. I felt like this approach was even more chilling, and made for a singular experience.

In the end, the narrative veered toward a more tangible explanation which didn’t quite work for me, though I’m sure some readers will appreciate the solidity of its conclusion. For the atmosphere alone, though, I’d happily pick up another Friend novel.