I was hooked from the very beginning "This morning, I heard the name Black Mamba for the first time.." ! This chilling horror novel follows Alfie, a widower, trying to raise his twin daughters after the loss of their mother Pippa. One night, the twins wake Alfie claiming a man was in their bedroom - evolving to an imaginary friend named Black Mamba. However, as the girls become obsessing over Black Mamba, Alfie enlists Julia, Alfie's late wife's twin sister, to help him determine if his daughters are acting out, or if there is something more sinister occurring in their home.

William Friend wrote an engaging, suspenseful, and creepy debut novel. It is a must read!

4 stars!

Thank you NetGalley, William Friend, and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Beautifully written suspense horror about the mysterious legacies of Hart House, occupied by recently widowed Alfie and his twin daughters. Shackled with grief, and concerned for his daughters hyperactive imagination about a mysterious figure in the house called "Black Mamba", Alfie employs the help of his sister in law Julia(also a twin), who reluctantly uses her psychotherapy skills to help the twins.

Told through a two person POV. Let Him In encases a chilling tone throughout its slow build suspense. Hart House toys with its inhabitants by skirting a fine line between the supernatural and grief-stricken symptoms of reality.

For a debut, I really enjoyed this. It lulled me in the middle but then kept surprising me. Secrets kept rising to the surface. The family's own strange rituals came to light. The ending mesmerised me, and felt satisfying all the same. Chilling.

I got this book for free, in exchange for my honest opinion via NetGalley.

I'm a sucker for a great cover, and this one was incredible. Let Him In is an explosive debut from William Friend.

A grieving father left to raise his 6 year old twins is struggling to cope. One night, he finds his girls standing at the foot of his be. Naturally, upon looking, he finds no man anywhere in their house. Yet the girls remain convinced they saw him.

Alfie thinks the girls are suffering from night terrors due from losing their mother. However, after several months the girls stop waking up in the middle of the nigh, which Alfie thinks is a good thing. That is, until he realises the girls entertaining their nighttime guest. They refer to their new friend as, The Black Mamba, who is able to shape shift and takes them on wild adventures at night. Alfie then recruits his sister-in-law, who happens to be a psychotherapist. And they make a plan to figure out what is actually haunting the girls.

This book is a fast and fun read, and it's a fantastic debut novel. There's something about children in thrillers that creep me out. Then throw in the fact that they're twins with a creep imaginary friend? Yes, please! This is an absolutely chilling book that preys upon grief and tragedy.

The ending wasn't quite what I was expecting but I didn't feel let down either. All in all, this was a pretty good read for me.

Thank you, NetGalley and William Friend for allowing me to review! As always, my review is my own opinion and thoughts. This review will be shared to my Instagram @fictionluxblog shortly.

Thank you NetGalley & publishers for this ARC!

This has been in my shelf a while and I wish I’d picked it up sooner because it was such a fast read! I literally read the first 60% straight, then woke up the next morning and read the last 40%.

This book was fast paced and mysterious, so it was easy to zoom through it. It’s also super short, which is always a nice surprise.

Overall, this book was chilling and creepy, and I loved the simplicity of it (we didn’t have a ton of random characters that didn’t contribute to the plot, no excessive unnecessary dialogue, and everything felt useful) which made it easy to read as well.

I do think it got confusing at times with what was happening due to time jumps and scene changes just didn’t flow for me, BUT still a fun book and recommend it for spooky season! You definitely get that kind of confusing, almost inconclusive ending like you would in a horror movie, which is fitting!

I loved the cover and the premise sounded intriguing. The book is very slow moving and I found myself confused with what was happening. It just wasn’t captivating to me. The last couple of chapters were relatively exciting, but it felt like it took too long to get there.

Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and William Friend for the eARC.

This wasn't for me it felt a little slow moving and I wanted to be scared but just wasn't so I stopped 75 pages in and since it only a little over 200 pages I didn't feel the need to finish it.

Let Him In was a bit too odd for me. I would recommend it to someone who is dedicated to the genre. Overall, I give it a 2.6/5

Thank you NetGalley for my ARC!

I truly enjoyed this book! It was creepy and atmospheric, much in the same vein as Haunting of Hill House and Ruth’s Ware The Turn of the Key.
This book centers around 2 twins who are extremely close, and their widowed father. The father is concerned that the girls have an imaginary friend who is becoming more sinister by the day. He enlists help from his late wife’s sister, who is a child psychologist. As they delve deeper into the mystery, they become increasingly concerned and try to help the girls survive.
I would definitely ready more by this author, and look forward to his next book.

This is the creepiest story I have read for a long time. I read mainly at night and couldn’t help imagining something was coming out of the shadows to get me.
I loved the book and can’t believe this was the writers first novel. Highly recommended for horror fans.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a free digital copy of the book in return for an honest review

I absolutely love this cover and it spiked my interest to read it. I really enjoyed this book. I loved the eerie setting, complicated characters and all the tension.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. An intriguing story that literally kept me up at night. A perfect read for a cool, dark, October evening.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press, Sourcebooks, and Netgalley for the advanced reading copy!

This one had a lot of potential but unfortunately fell short for me. I listened to most of it and was so engrossed and freaked out by the first 1/2 of the book. The author does a great job of keeping you on your toes about the twins as well as their new friend. Then the last 1/2 of the book it just ended. I was left feeling unfulfilled with the resolution / the ending of the book.

I’ve been on the fence about my feelings about this one. What I liked- Grief horror, meets psychological horror, meets creepy imaginary friend. I love a spooky kid and an imaginary one takes this eerie trope to the next level. I loved the atmosphere of claustrophobic horror that is created here. - So effective. I loved the perfectly ambiguous ending that lets your mind go to all the dark possibilities. That is always terrifying to me. What I didn’t love was how it started. It was too slow and took way too long to go anywhere and I almost quit reading it numerous times. Once things did start happening it was great, but it took almost half the book to get to that point. . Overall, this was a mixed bag for me. Thank you to @netgalley and @poisonedpenpress for an e-arc of this book.

Creepy and insidious - is he real? Imaginary? A ghost? or something worse? And what energy is making him stronger? As the entity strengthens and takes hold more and more - some real truths will need to be revealed if they have a chance in the fight. Who will win? If you like creepy "haunted house, imaginary friend" vibes - this is for you

This book gave me all the right creepy vibes.. I was genuinely on edge and felt the heeby jeebys. It was a quick, easy read

Delightfully eerie, twisted and guaranteed to keep you up all night! There were so many twists and turns, the characters are well developed and the plot was incredibly creepy.

After a slow start to the book I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue but after reading in for a while i was hooked and couldn’t out the book down! Never in my life have I ever experienced heart pounding fear that consumed me until the very last words. Let Him In, is a fear gripping book and if you can get past the first half of the book you will not be sorry!

A gem of an audiobook with excellent narration. Hart House is not a place of fond memories for many members of this family; this becomes abundantly apparent in the most recent generation, when twin girls start speaking of a "friend" who visits, which none of the adults can see. Calling on their Aunt Julia, a psychiatrist, to help get to the bottom of the situation, Alfie, their dad is hopeful it will soon be over. Deep generational scars are tough to heal, though.

I was just too slow for me. I kept reading expecting things to move on and something to happen, but it was only at the very end, I think the second-to-last chapter, but by then all the interest was just... I liked the premise, the idea, and the characters had so much potential, but there was hardly anything happening.

I jumped at the chance to read this one based on the description. It seemed like a heart-racing horror novel based off the description. Unfortunately, this ended up being a super boring read! I gave up reading at 36%. just could not finish this one. In the first third of the book, nothing remotely scary happened. I felt the writing was all over the place and messy. It was hard to follow. It felt like a chore to read, which is why I stopped.