Told in dual first person points of view from Alfie, a widower trying to keep it together after the sudden and unexpected death of his wife and mother of his twin daughters, and Julia, a psychiatrist and the twin of Alfie’s late wife. This eerie tale gets its start when the girls come into Alfie’s bedroom one night to tell him that there’s a man in their room. After searching the house with the girls’ help and finding nothing, the girls later begin discussing him as their friend, Black Mamba, who takes them on adventures at night and the adults in the situation decide that it’s probably a manifestation of their grief over losing their mother. Except Alfie’s seeing things too and Julia is clearly hiding secrets from her childhood growing up in Hart house.

While the story explores concepts of grief within a close-knit family, the creepy atmosphere includes an historical family home that rattles and creaks with an equally creepy basement where Alfie’s late wife died under strange circumstances and everyone is loathe to visit down there, not to mention the strange stories of their late father walking the halls with a rattle. The maternal family was caught up in some mysterious religion with ties to the occult and had obsessions over the power of twins, but I never really understood what they were trying to do. It was a bit ambiguous.

Amdist nightmares and possible critters or strange men and imaginary friends who can manifest as any animal they want but are especially fond of the black mamba, this had a creep factor that had me thinking twice about reading it late at night in bed. More of a suspenseful scare than a gory one, this story would make the perfect addition to your list of spooky books for the upcoming season.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for a copy provided for an honest review.

This story features a grieving family and the development of an imaginary friend. While the girls become more and more entranced by their imaginary friend, they grow further from their father.

This story felt like a long trip to nowhere. It took most of the book to build tension and hook me to want to learn more about Black Mamba. I didn’t feel connected to the characters and struggled to finish the book due to lack of interest.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced copy of the book.

Alfie's wife just died and he isn't handling well. On top if that, his twins now have an imaginary friend called Black Mamba, who controls their behavior and isolates them from him. Alfie wonders if Black Mamba is a normal reaction to his girl's grief or if he is some type of supernatural entity, so he calls in his sister-in-law to help him out.
Let Him In by William Friend is part thriller, part haunted house horror, and part family drama. It explores the relationship between the twins and their father while contrasting it with the twins relationship with their mother. It explores the way people handle grief and loss. At the same time, it keeps you under suspense about what or who is Black Mamba. Is he a figment of their imagination? Is he a ghost or a demon? Is he the manifestation of their grief? Is he the dark side of Alfie? You keeping reading to find out.
I would classify Let Him In as cosmic horror because it makes you question the unknowable. It leaves you questioning what is real and what is imagined.
I thought it was an inventive original story. I read to try to figure out who Black Mamba was and why he had such a grip on the twins. It left me thinking about the story long after it was over.
Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

Thank you Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

Let him in by William Friend is a haunting story that slowly builds in suspense. It's an age old tale but still you wait to see what's going to happen in the end.

The book is told through two different perspectives, Julia's and Alfies. Alfie starts to notice that his twin girls suddenly have an imaginary friend after the passing of their mother. Not only haunted by grief but the insane demands of this imaginary friends Alfie calls Julia, their Aunty to come and counsel them.

Everything in here is hinted at. Or at least it was for me. There's a huge family history and you have to wonder, what really set this all in motion?

A haunting read that kept me up at night.

This book will be great when it comes out in October, it will definitely make for a scary night of reading during spooky season. There were some part that it got slow but I promise it will deliver in the end. I can wait to see it in book shop.

I’m not typically a horror gal but the cover and name of this brook absolutely drew me in. While I loved the overall concept once finished, i did struggle at times to keep trudging through. Sometimes I felt there was a lot going on, while other times the opposite. Overall I enjoyed this read, and I’m glad I finished it! It was for sure spooky and was captivating enough for me to finish.

From the start, I was excited to read the book "Let Him In" by William Friend. I've always been guilty of judging a book by its cover. I have picked up or skipped over a book because it was either eye-catching or just plain dull. "Let Him In" caught my attention the moment I saw the cover, and didn't struggle to keep my attention from page one. With my background in film and editing, I read books while simultaneously directing the movie in my head. I find that most books struggle to make that transition from page to screen; however, this is one of those rare gems where the movie might be better than the book, and that's saying something because the book was great. William Friend does an amazing job of taking the characters and making them come to life, especially "Black Mamba" who I felt slithered his way between pages and in between sentences even when he wasn't mentioned by name. I can imagine the characters on the screen moving from one room to another, and subtly seeing his presence in the background, for a split second or a flash, making us as the audience ponder if we saw what we thought we saw. Movie or not, author Friend is capable of giving you those "I'm being watched" feelings as you bounce back and forth between the perspective of each character. If the book was lacking anything, it was me wanting more from characters whose thoughts we didn't get to invade. I look forward to seeing what more this author writes, and if the world of "Let Me In" continues. If you are a fan of subtle psychological horrors, think of the movie Sinister, then you will love this book. The ending, while predictable, didn't leave me disappointed, but rather had me shaking my rattle and hoping for just one more chapter.

This was such an interesting, bizarre read but the pacing was SO slow I had to trudge through it. It has never in my life taken me almost a full day to read a novel under 300 pages but this sure did.

That being said, this was eerie but I just felt like something was missing. Black Mamba was creepy but he honestly wasn't even present for the majority of the book. We were just TOLD he was. I also feel like the entire church plotline could've been done without 😅 yes it gave some familial back story but I felt like it didn't add to what was happening in the present at all. Just added more pages to read.

Overall Let Him In was a decent read! Not my favorite horror I've read but not the worst!

Thank you NetGalley for a copy of this eARC!

A creepy dysfunctional family dynamic, between the 2 sets of twins, the odd religious background of the grandma, and the imaginary friend/possible demon haunting the children. I enjoyed reading this. I wished for a little more closure in the last chapter, but the reader is able to draw their own conclusions. Is this a horror book? It has some elements of a haunted house and a demonic possession, yet it is also a family drama about grief and loss.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley and the author in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely loved this book! So much I plan on getting a hardcover when it finally releases in the US. Chapter by chapter had me entranced until the end. Highly recommend!

Let Him In is a terrifying debut novel by William Friend (also, can I just say that William Friend sounds like the name of someone who writes horror books). It’s told in dual POV by Alfie, a widower and father of twin girls, and Julia, his deceased wife’s twin. Alfie and Julia both are grieving the loss of Pippa in their own personal ways, and both are trying to navigate the sudden arrival of Black Mamba — Alfie’s daughter’s shape-shifting imaginary friend. As the story progresses, Black Mamba becomes a more sinister presence and we learn the dark history of the family home in which they all reside.

The cover and the title grabbed me. I’m a horror lover through and through (you’ll catch me reading spooky books poolside when everyone else has their rom-coms in tow) and this horror story did not disappoint. There are several characters to keep track of in this novel, but perhaps my favorite character was Hart House. Hart House has a history that rivals that of Hill House, Bly House, The Amityville House, The Overlook Hotel — you get the picture. She’s a whole character - and you never know what she’s going to serve us next.

I couldn’t read this book at night — I felt too uneasy reading it in the dark (even in the glow of my kindle with my 85 pound lap dog snuggled up next to me).

Black Mamba absolutely terrified me. The movie Sinister came to mind a lot as I read this book and I pictured Black Mamba as the demon Bughuul from that movie. Even typing that conjures up an unnerving image that will undoubtedly keep me awake tonight. The whole book you’re left guessing… Is he imaginary? I still don’t know, which honestly, is better than knowing.

This book is true horror. I felt a sense of impending doom and nauseatingly uneasy the whole time I was reading it. It was twisty, tragic, and creepy as hell. I loved reading it! 5/5 for me.

*Also, on a more serious note, this book does an excellent job of exploring the dark and peculiar ways humans deal with grief.

This was not the book I expected - I was anticipating a more straightforward haunted house story, and it is actually a rumination on grief from the perspective of multiple family members mourning the loss of a wife, mother, and sister. LET HIM IN alternates perspectives from Alfie, the recently widowed father of twin girls, and Julia, his sister-in-law, as they deal with the imaginary friend the twins Sylvie and Cassia have recently manifested.

Something that I found frustrating while reading but fascinating on reflection was how much of this book is actually psychological. The ending has an uncertainty to it, and you are left to wonder how much of the supernatural events of the book are real and how much it is the product of combined grief and dealing with that poorly.

William Friend treats his characters with empathy, especially the girls - while we don't get any chapters from their perspective, we do get a peek into their relationship and how they are processing their trauma. The family bonds are a big part of the story, and Friend does not shy away from both the good and the hard parts of being a twin, being the less favored child of a parent, being a parent when you were maybe not ready to do so, and so on.

I loved this book! This kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat. I couldn’t go to sleep because I HAD to know what was happening! I stayed up all night to finish it. :)

This story follows a family who just lost their wife and mother. After an accident kill his wife, Alfie is left to care for his twin daughters alone. Soon after their mothers death they start talking about a man in their room. They call him Black Mamba and soon weird things start happening around the house. The girls are becoming obsessed with him and withdrawing from their own family. Alfie asks his wife's sister, Julia, to help him with figure out what going on with his girls. Together they leave the story of Black Mamba goes farther into their family history than they knew. Ultimately, Let Him In is a story about grief and all the different ways people manage their grief. I really enjoyed this one until the end. The ending was completely unsatisfying and disappointing.

This unsettling gothic read kept me turning the page! After the death of their mother, young twins Sylvie and Cassia find comfort in an imaginary friend, but worry their father when things escalate. Grief and the paranormal are central to this book, and the story will leave you questioning reality.

I absolutely loved this book. It has an amazing story and will grab you by the throat on page one and not let up until the end. Very creepy and full of unsettling and scenes that will make the hair on your arms stand up on end. I will be passing on the word of this book to all my friends who love a good creepy story. Read this from a NetGalley copy.

Starting off with a newly widowed father of twin girls, who are now friends with an imaginary friend named Black Mamba, who the girls see as many different animals and a man. At first Black Mamba scared the girls, but after a few months they started feeling like he was their father figure. He demands that the girls disown their actual father and go with him. The mental strain on Alfie, Julia (their aunt) and the twins is driven to the point of breaking. They THINK they’ve found the solution, but Black Mamba has other plans.

Honestly this book was a real slow one and a smidge confusing at times. Once it picked up, about 75 pages left it got pretty good. The ending is what really saved the book.

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” completely went out the window from the moment I saw this amazing cover. It captured my attention instantly and I knew I had to read this book.

In his debut novel, William Friend creates a perfect blind of eerie vibes coupled with grief to captivate the reader. I could not put the book down and the next thing I knew, it was 1:45 in the morning.

“Let Him In” was a wonderful story and I’ll be keeping in eye out for what’s next from William Friend for sure.

Thank you NetGalley, William Friend, and Poisoned Pen Press for gifting me this wonderful ARC.

OMG! such a good book! I loved this. Again first time with a book from this author, William you did an awesome job! I will read more by you for sure!

Did Black Mamba leave, or is he still in the house? Is he upstairs with Julia and the twins or in the cellar? These questions came to mind while reading the book's last chapter.

After the death of his wife, Alfie and his twins have a difficult time dealing with the loss and grief. The twins try to cope by creating an imaginary friend named Black Mamba. At first, the twins are afraid of him. The girls say he can take many forms, and one night, he even took them away someplace else.

As time passes, the twins are no longer afraid of Black Mamba and even treat him as a member of the family, saving a spot on the table during meals. Julia, Alfie's sister-in-law, hesitantly starts counseling her nieces. Is Black Mamba a product of their imagination, or is he an entity living in the cellar of Hart House?

This is a slow-burn book, and although I'm someone who enjoys fast-paced reads, I'm glad I pushed through with this. I highly recommend this to anyone who loves gothic and atmospheric horror.