Special thanks to Poisoned Press and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

First I have to say I was excited , so excited to get this book and usually the book doesn't live up to the standards I dream it to be.

Let Him In is a layered book, slowly enraveling layers of creepiness. I hate to tell too much in reviews. It always feels like I'm giving g something away. All I will say is this book is about twins, being raised by their father and aunt Julia, who happens to be a child psychologist.

The twins are not even identical but were always dressed the same and also even though not identical, they resemble each other in their mannerisms. So when their mom dies they start talking about a man in their room. At first they are scared and go screaming to sleep with dad, but slowly they stop coming to see dad and they are soon talking to him about "Black Mamba", their friend.

Children grieving or going through loneliness sometimes create an imaginary friend that everyone poo-poohs it off as just that, but is it? The house they inherited from their mom has always been a bit spooky but...besides her mysterious suicide, no one wants to talk about the squeaks in the night. Not Julia who lived their, not the twins grandmother who also lived there, but now after the twins mom passed, it was left to them.

Their tales of Black Mamba become the topic of conversation all the time. They talk about him and finish each other's sentences about him turning from a man, to a black snake, to a black crow who took them on a ride one night that was soo fun
Then he turned into a fish and took them swimming down the drain. It gets more and more creepy. The father sees a shadow standing over his bed when he told them no more Black Mamba and now the twins are doing things "Black Mamba" is telling them to.
A very slow unfurling of some scariness, but not where you will be shivering in the dark of your house, or will you?

I give it a 4 star rating and I'd recommend it to anyone.

3.5/5 stars - This was a slow-build creepy story complete with eerie twin children with an imaginary friend called "Black Mamba." A quick read great for the spooky season.

There is a lot of good here. Friend’s writing is strong and accessible, smoothly creating a sense of creepiness throughout the story. The portrayal of the twin daughters was compelling. I also enjoyed the way the narrative keeps you guessing as to what’s real and what’s the result of trauma and grief.

There were also things that didn’t work for me. The characterization could have been deeper. We spend the entire time in the heads of the girls’ father, Alfie, and their Aunt Julia, but I didn’t feel like I knew them. And while the creepy elements of the twins’ behaviors shone, I was often surprised by the way their personalities would be described, as those traits didn’t show through. There was also some imbalance with the pacing, particularly in foreshadowing things that either took too long to come to fruition, or never did at all.

A solid debut novel that delivers some spine chilling moments, I would recommend giving it a try if you’re into the more subtle brand of horror. I would definitely read the author’s future works.

I think this book fits right into a fall reading list with many other titles that aim to send shivers down your spine, despite not being what I would call a ‘traditional’ horror novel. It’s a very atmospheric read, and while not containing overly many settings, they all contributed to the mood and progression of the novel while still being memorable on their own.

For a medium-length book, I’d say, this was a faster-paced read, and I think my favorite part was by far the language. While some of the similes were a bit of a miss for me, the author has a great grasp of language in general and words are used to their fullest to completely bring this setting to life. I enjoy any book that can make me feel like I can reach out and touch whatever is being described, and the diction chosen was very effective at conveying a certain mood while still being functional – I wouldn’t call it flowery, but more elegantly pragmatic.

Overall, this was an enjoyable novel that I think would fit well on most fall TBRs. If anything else, I would recommend it solely for the writing – even if the story it tells is not your cup of (spooky) tea, I think the way its told more than speaks for itself.

Thanks to the publisher for the ALC and eARC.
This is a perfect creepy book for this October. A family is shrouded in grief, and the twin daughters start seeing an imaginary friend, but then things get weird. I loved the suspense created here. I was gripped by each narrative and every layer made the story that much more spooky. I didn't see where this was going and was kept guessing the entire time I read. The dual narrators was also a great thing. It added the element of intrigue and mystery. I wasn't always sure who to believe, which kept me wanted to ignore responsibilities and just read.

The premise sounded promising - widowed father of twins starts to feel uneasy at his children’s ever growing adventures with their imaginary friend “Black Mamba” and begins to suspect that the friend is not imaginary. However, I really had a hard time connecting to the characters and the story pacing seemed a bit off and a bit wandering. It just didn’t click for me. Thanks to NetGalley for a chance to read and review this book.

Good but meh for me. It was a lot slower than I anticipated and the it started off strong. It lacked at the horror side I’m used to with some jump scares I didn’t like the ending either. It shocked me just not in a good way.

This had so many horror cliches within its pages that it really should not have worked so well. Yet, somehow it did.

The ending was superb! I love when horror stories end like that because I find myself what happened next.

This author is extremely good at his craft and it shows. I wouldn't mind reading more of his work.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to review this book

The premise is great - twin girls with recurring stories of a shape at the end of their bed. Sometimes a man, sometimes a snake, sometimes...Other things. Eerie, right? But rather than a thrilling, scary story with lots of action, this is a combination of quiet horror and an examination of grief, with an ambiguous ending that didn't satisfy me and honestly kind of squicked.

I noticed a blurb mentioning this is meant to be literary horror, which tempered my expectations of jump scares, etc. slightly - but it's still a very slow drag of a book. I've read classic horror and enjoyed it, so complex wordiness is not the issue here, it's repetition and boring language used. Characters drink a lot of tea and wine. And if the idea of a maybe-possessed widower getting with his dead wife's twin unsettles you, I wouldn't recommend.

This wasn't really the kind of horror the summary made me think it was, with clear-cut resolutions, but if you like the kind of creepy, ambiguous ending that makes you doubt everything that happened, this is for you.

TWs: harm to children, miscarriage, parental death, oppressive cultish religious upbringing.

Alfie is attempting to raise his twin daughters after their mother tragically passes away and when they start coming to his room in the middle of night because "there is a man in our room", Alfie thinks it's a coping mechanism. However, stranger and stranger things begin to happen, food is missing, the children are behaving strangely and mysterious bruises are appearing so Alfie calls in the twins aunt, Julia, a child psychologist to help the children.

Julie knows that something more sinister could be going on as her mother has always had some eccentric religious ideas and she's worried that she has filled the twins heads with talk of demons.

But, no matter what Julie or Alfie attempt, the twins behavior continues to spiral and the "imaginary friend" refuses to leave and becomes more dangerous to the twins and Alfie's own mental health is affected!

Let Him In starts off interesting with family drama combined with horror building up to a good plot but falls short on keeping the story going. There is a lot repetition and limited development with a lot of jumping between different aspects of the story with a rushed conclusion.

Thank you Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A quick read that can easily be completed in one sitting. Alfie has a problem -his wife has passed away and their twin girls are starting to mention Black Mamba consistently. At first appearing as a snake, but then a man and reaches a point where Julie & Alfie both start to see a silhouette... it begs the question -Is Black Mamba a figment of the twin's imagination or is he a real threat?

I found myself reading the book quickly to be able to get to the bottom of the mystery -IS BLACK MAMBA REAL?! Looks like you'll have to read to find out. (;

An atmospheric gothic horror read, I would recommend this to someone who loves to keep guessing what the ending will be like and also be left to interpret the ending in the end. Not to mention dual POVs (which to me are ALWAYS a plus)

Thank you NetGalley & PoisonedPenPress for allowing me to read this novel ahead of its release date.

Enjoyed this creepy tale. Young twin girls that have recently lost their mother start talking about a man in their room. Their father is barely surviving his grief, their grandmother is in a weird cult/religion, and their aunt (the mother's twin) is avoiding a dark past.

Is it real? That's the big question. Well paced with creepy reveals through out.

📚 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 - Let Him In⁣
𝘉𝘺 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘍𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥⁣
⭐⭐⭐️⭐️ (4.5/5) ⁣⁣⁣
𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘖𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝟹𝘳𝘥⁣
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𝐓𝐡𝐞 "𝐆𝐢𝐬𝐭": Alfie's wife just died, and now he's left to raise his two twin daughters alone. Understandably, he's pretty bummed. But things get worse when his twins start having nightmares and claim, "𝘢 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘯𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵." The man has a name, they say---𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘔𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘢---and can turn into anything he wants. Alfie is thoroughly creeped out and calls his sister-in-law, Julia (who is also a family therapist) and she assures him that "Black Mamba" is an imaginary friend and it's totally normal. But it soon becomes absolutely 𝘕𝘖𝘛 normal when the girls start drawing disturbing images, sleepwalking in the middle of the night, being violent toward one another, and....oh yeah...Alfie and Julia start seeing things as well. 😬⁣
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𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 💭: Okay...wow...I honestly needed a full day after finishing this to reflect and decide how I really felt about it.⁣
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Turns out: I loved it! It was fast-paced, absolutely CHILLING, well-written, and 𝘛𝘏𝘈𝘛 𝘌𝘕𝘋𝘐𝘕𝘎....😳⁣
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It messes with your head in the best possible way, and I'm still thinking about it!⁣
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The dual perspectives from both Alfie and Julia were much appreciated as well and definitely made the story that much stronger! ⁣
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If this isn't on your radar for spooky season, it absolutely 𝘚𝘏𝘖𝘜𝘓𝘋 be. Get ready for some major heebie-jeebies. 😬⁣
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Big thanks to @netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.⁣
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𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐟 📖: You like: The Whisper Man by Alex North; creepy twins with their creepy twin connection; old houses with dark history⁣
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𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: R (for language and adult situations)

A spooky gothic tale perfect for Halloween reading, Let Me In has a little of everything: demons, ghosts, and religious fanaticism complete with a family that has twin girls who claim to see a man who can transform into any animal: Black Mamba. The setting is an old manor with a storied and haunted past.

Let Me In will keep the reader guessing throughout, and has a couple of surprises along the way. It is a fantastic gothic read that would fill out anyone’s spooky season TBR.

thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the free e-book! ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧₊

4☆ for Let Him In by William Friend.

okay WOW. admittedly what drew me in was the cover of this book. whilst the title felt a tiiiiiiny bit cliché, the art is beautiful and definitely set the tone in for this book - round of applause for the artist please 👏🏻

now to the story. i knew i was i gonna like it when i realized it had so many elements i loved: possibly haunted house? check. creepy twins? check. some psychology sprinkled in? check check check!

the book follows Alfie, a recently widowed father and his twin daughters that start seeing a man (is it really human though?) around the house. Alfie is in over his head obviously and he asks his late wife's sister Julia, who's a therapist, for help. but obviously this is a horror book and things are not as simple as they seem. i won't be saying anything more than that as i personally thoroughly enjoyed not knowing much going in - so believe me on that one.

as far the horror goes: i loved it. this is not a Scary™️ book per se. it has no jump scares, no gore, basically nothing that was written simply for shock value. Let Him In is an atmospheric, psychological horror novel that takes its time getting under your skin. let me say that again: that book is not fast paced. whilst i disagree with some comments calling the pacing slow, it's definitely not quick. i think it was the perfect pace for this genre of horror.


i really enjoyed Friend's writing style and was definitely hooked by the story pretty early on. obviously the book's main theme is grief and how people deal with it, and i found this book's takes on it really interesting - specially people's relationship with religion and faith. (disclaimer: this book does not push any religious beliefs onto the reader so you're safe to proceed ^.^)

perhaps my only gripe with this novel is the ending. a lot are confused by it but i think that was Friend's goal perhaps? i personally drew my own conclusions and found them pretty satisfying (and thats on being delulu). however my only issue is that some questions were actually left unanswered by the end - and not in a vague sorta way, but more like a plot hole way. like .... are we not gonna address that? at all? i will refrain from mentioning them in this review as to not spoil anything for anyone but AHEM! mister William Friend, if i could have 5 minutes of your time and ask some questions, i would definitely sleep better at night.

anyway. overall, i really enjoyed this book and it would be an amazingly creepy halloween read for fans of atmospheric horror!

This book will make you uneasy and give you the creeps. Alfie has recently lost his wife. Their house was previously owned by his in-laws and he knows of two deaths that have taken place in the house. One of those deaths was his wife.

Now his young twin daughters are obsessed with a man who visits their room at night and he's always around. They also believe that he's can become all sorts of animals and they describe their encounters with the animals. There are also physical manifestations to their bodies.

Alfie begs his wife's twin sister, a physiologist to help him with the girls. They will not shake their belief in the Black Mamba, their name for the man.

Scary, dark, and it pulls the reader in. You will want to know how it ends.

LET HIM IN was a creepy, atmospheric, psychological thriller that really immersed you into Hart House and the family that inhabits it. It's an interesting blend of THE SHINING, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, and THE WHISPER MAN/SLENDER MAN. I liked that Black Mamba was first seen as the vehicle for grief and mourning; a way for the twins to cope with the death of their mother. But when you start to see the smaller pieces of the puzzle come together between the religious/spiritual elements and Julia's childhood, you realize BM is real. Alfie wasn't my favorite character. He definitely took on man-child, misogynistic characteristics (like finally understanding that motherhood is constantly cleaning up, doing the same tasks over and over and over). I think in some ways he took Pippa for granted. It was a matter of convenience that she had a twin. The twins running in the family was also an interesting element. The writing was really immersive but sometimes inconsistent. Overall, though, this was a great read for spooky season and fans of horror.

This book started off wonderfully frightening. Twin daughter seeing a spirit in their room after their mother dies and the father is left coping with raising twin daughter who now have an invisible friend who starts controlling and taking over the little girls time. The sister in law is a psychologist and tries to help the girls while trying to to cope with her own trauma of growing up in her childhood home and her sister’s death. It’s never seams clear as to what or how the mother dies, but just that they all fear the spirit known as the black mamba. The spirit starts to demand that the girls call him daddy instead of their real father.

Rating: 2.5/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️✨
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Look at the cover of this book - it screams HORROR. I literally am obsessed with the cover. But unfortunately it didn’t hit the mark of horror for me. It was more like a symbolic book on grief and what it can do to the mind of all ages while simultaneously a back mystery/story about a sort of religious cult type thing? Honestly, I’m not completely even sure I got that right lol.
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Creep factor was at 100% for the twins who could see Black Mamba, but Black Mamba could transform into so many different things, I just wanted him to do something more sinister - that would have given me that horror feel. Alfie was weird with his jealousy issues and what happened in the end was just weird to me.
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The story, I felt, had pretty decent pacing, I just kept waiting for something more to happen, something super scary - which I understand is totally be a me problem. I found the writing to be pretty decent as well! I liked that this one was written in a dual POV between Alfie and his sister in law Julia. I would have liked to have the twins POV thrown in too for some extra creepiness, but again, a me problem. The ending was pretty open ended in my opinion which is not my favorite, but I think it could spark some pretty great topics for a book club.
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I was able to listen to this one via audiobook and read. Let Him In is narrated by Jodie Harris and Jonathan Johns and they compliment one another great. They were able to bring that creep factor to life. Very well produced audiobook.
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While this necessarily wasn’t what I was looking for in a horror, I definitely think William Friend is someone to keep an eye out for. I will be looking forward to following his work. Let Him In will be released on 10/3!
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Huge thank you to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, Poisoned Pen Press and William Friend for my ALC and eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Let him in is a story about two little girls with an imaginary friend, Black Mamba. At first they are scared of him and then he becomes a friend. After the death of their mother, they come to trust Black Mamba but things aren't what they seem.

This book had me hooked from the beginning. I wasn't sure where it was going to take me. I'm still not sure after finishing it what the author was trying to achieve. It definitely had that thriller, what is going to happen next vibe. Where he let me down was the ending. Was he real or fake? Was it a demon or imagination? I have so many questions I don't know what to think. He also left some scenes open without resolution. What happened to Alfie in the basement? I wish the author had tied up these loose ends.

Thank you netgalley for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.