A young Irish woman goes missing after getting engaged and shows up several days later with no memory of what happened. Years later, her twin girls tour a television set of a childrens’ show, which inspires one of them to be in children’s tv production for a career. A couple of weeks later, the othet child disappears. Years later again, the remaining child is in college, trying to take care of her unloving mom and denying her feelings for the girl she lets herself have for just a little while. All over the backdrop of Irish folklore and a hidden horror.

5 full stars! I loved the folklore. Loved the horror and mystery elements. The characters. Just wanna hug them. And the pacing was great. It jumps around a lot, but it builds a puzzle of the full picture in a really cool way. Do recommend.

"Knock Knock, Open Wide" is unlike any novel I have ever read. It was a horror novel, but it was also a love story and a mystery and a story about found family and about finding yourself in the midst of unspeakable horror and tragedy. This book is as tender as it is terrifying and I don't think I will ever forget this story. I will carry it with me, hoping to recommend it to just the right person so that when they finish it we can look at each other and be glad that we had someone else to share the experience with.

At its core, "Knock Knock, Open Wide," is a story of supernatural and incomprehensible generational trauma that seems to follow the Larkin family. Etain Larkin spends the majority of her youth trying to dodge the wrath of an unloving mother who resents her family's downturn into poverty. She manages to slip away one evening to a party, and when her on-again-off-again boyfriend proposes, it should be the start of the happiest chapter of her life. Instead, as she drives home she finds herself on an unfamiliar road. Through the pouring rain, she sees a corpse on the side of the road and stops to save his body from being ravaged by a dog. She stops at the nearest farmhouse hoping for help but instead finds herself being dragged into a sequence of events so unimaginable and so traumatic that she will be forever changed.

Her own daughter, Ashling, has had to bear the brunt of her mother's descent into paranoia and alcoholism and has escaped to university determined to free herself from the shackles of her family's pain. When she finds herself, the girl her mother always deemed unworthy of love, falling head-over-heels for a fellow member of the Dramatic Society, Betty, she can't stop herself from trying to push away her would-be lover in order to protect her from the horror of her life. The closer Betty comes to her inner circle the more determined Ashling is to get to the bottom of the horror that has plagued her family. The secrets she sorts through seem to draw her closer and closer to the edge of an unthinkable conspiracy, centered around a beloved Irish children's show. Ashling realizes that every child who's watched along has a slightly different viewing experience, and although there are some differences in the stories they see play out across the screen, she alone seems to be the only viewer who has seen a black goat puppet that pops out of his box to bring naughty children to a grisly end.

A truly stunning sophomore effort, "Knock Knock, Open Wide" shows us just how close the line between the supernatural and the horrible is to our regular world. Once doors to that other realm have been pried open, they can very rarely be shut again. A truly unforgettable horror novel, and one that has all the makings of a modern classic, Neil Sharpson has become a must-buy author for me after reading this novel. I will be snuggling down under my blanket a little tighter tonight and maybe plugging in a nightlight after getting a glimpse of just what might be waiting for me in the shadows. Special thanks to NetGalley and to Tor Nightfire for providing an Advanced Reader's Copy of "Knock Kock, Open Wide," in exchange for an unbiased review!

Atmospheric and immersive. This is a recommended first purchase for collections where horror is popular.

Blog post goes love November 24th
Youtube Review goes up in October Vlog and Wrapup
Amazon Review submitted for system approval

As far as horror books go this one was further into the creepy territory than horrific. The slow dread of somethin coming was strong, and the ‘oh god really?’ was a solid factor in the later portion. As far as staying power though? I’m not so sure on it.

Knock, Knock, Open Wide has at it’s core the disappearance of a young girl and the kidnapping (years earlier) of a young woman. These two events are closely connected, horrifyingly so, and over the course of the book we find out why and how. It’s a story told over alternating time lines and view points and it moves quickly. Each section is broken into smaller sections which makes the whole thing fly by, so pacing in this is fantastic.

The characters themselves have a fantastic voice, and I genuinely liked the humor and the interaction between our characters. Truly the only failing in this novel for me is that I’m simply not sure on the staying power. Because the horror wasn’t as intense as I anticipated this one sits more solidly in the creepy area and those books eventually fade for me.

I do recommend this one, especially for fans of Irish Folklore and those books that have a slow creeping factor to the. The kids show that repeats through the story genuinely freaked me out - that part will stick with me.

4 out of 5 Black Boxes - I ain’t going in there.

This book was creepy at its best!! I need a movie however I am not sure cinema could do it justice. But I need to see this on the screen. If you are addicted to everything spine tingling creepy then this is the book to pick up!!!

Thoroughly enjoyed Knock Knock, Open Wide. I was pleasantly surprised that the general description of the book, is only one aspect of the story. Definitely a book to keep you up at night.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review..

This was such a delightfully creepy, but also heartfelt little novel. I saw "Irish folklore" and "a children's TV series that no one remembers quite the same way" and I was sold. Parts got a little slow in the middle there, when there were less creepy/fantastical things happening, but the ending wrapped it all up so nicely. Definitely a little gross at times, very much like a fever dream at most times, but the characters and the relationships felt so real and lived-in. An excellent book to read during Spooky Season (or anytime you want a little thrill).

I don't know exactly how to describe what Knock Knock, Open Wide is other than a complex, multilayered, and unbelievably eerie horror story centered around Irish folklore. This was a fascinating horror story that left me both intrigued and uncertain at different points. I feel like this book is not going to work for everyone because of everything it has going on and how it's all put together, but if you have the patience and find yourself intrigued by the first couple chapters, then I'd say it's a read that's well worth it.

Knock Knock, Open Wide opens with a punch and caught my attention right away. It's eerie, highly atmospheric, and sets the tone perfectly for the rest of the book. I loved how we slowly learned about Celtic myth and folklore from the very start and continued to be introduced to more and more of it throughout the rest of the book. We start out following Etain as she comes across a corpse in the middle of the road deep in the country, and from this moment on everything for the rest of the book is set into motion. I'll confess that I was a little disappointed at first when I realized we wouldn't be sticking with Etain throughout the rest of the story, as I found myself immediately intrigued by her and her story. However, as the story progressed I came to become invested in plenty of the other characters and loved seeing how the author developed each one and their individual stories and backgrounds–and also realized how Etain would still play a role.

There are a lot of different storylines going on in Knock Knock, Open Wide, and with these storylines come a lot of different jumps in timelines, character focuses, and tone of the story. The first third and last third of this book were easily the strongest, with a some parts in the middle that I personally felt dragged a little. All of these shifts affected the overall tone of the story and often felt a bit abrupt or took me out of previous storylines and left things feeling a bit disjointed, or almost at times like they were part of different stories. Because of this, the pacing also felt very stop and go and I was constantly wavering on how much I actually liked the story. For instance, I loved the first portion of the story following Etain's storyline and Betty's initial storyline, but then there were some shifts mid-story that lost some of my interest and almost made me consider whether I wanted to continue the story. Fortunately, anytime this feeling felt too strong the book would shift again and I'd be interested once more, so the end result was overwhelmingly positive for me.

What I appreciated about all these different storylines and characters, however, was seeing how they were all interconnected and eventually came together in some really genius and intriguing ways. Neil Sharpson is an author I want to keep my eye on and whose previous work I'd like to check out. There is so much detail and careful plottingin Knock Knock, Open Wide, and I loved how well he managed to develop each character in such a way that I felt fully invested in their lives. Ashling, in particular, had so many intriguing layers that I actually started out feeling unsure about her and ended up really rooting for her and wanting to see how her relationships with her mother, Betty, and her aunt would work out.

I've also already mentioned how eerie and well-crafted the atmosphere of this story is, but I really just want to emphasize and drive that point home. This book is not constantly throwing out crazy things left and right, but the overwhelming sense of dread and a sort of "waiting" for something to happen was strongly present throughout the entire book. There are things constantly lurking that just feel unnatural and wrong. You know when you watch a movie and the entire thing is sort of bathed in a dreary fog or misty backdrop that tells you 'hey, this is a dark movie?' That's exactly what this book felt like, and I couldn't have found the kid's TV show featured in this creepier any creepier than I did. This book absolutely nails atmosphere and creating a setting that brings the horror and creepiness to life.

Lastly, I just have to note that the ending of Knock Knock, Open Wide is honestly pretty wild, and I really loved and appreciated everything about it. The author knew what story he wanted to tell and he really went for it. Everything came together and provided me with constant surprises and some shocks–I really do mean it when I say things get weird and somehow eerier than that they were.

Overall, I've given Knock Knock, Open Wide four stars! If you need a fall read to make you feel weird, then this is the book for you.

Sharpson is an expert storyteller, entangling you in an Irish countryside occult conspiracy brimming with folklore. The writing is atmospheric, sharp and beautiful, creating beautiful bleak landscapes and bloody messes. This also features a sapphic romance sub-plot that I’m always a fan of.
The progression of the story jumped around the timelines building a fantastic dread and had me checking back for clues. Anything with Irish folklore makes me giddy and this was a fever dream spin that was delightful. The ending was AMAZING and weird in all the right ways.
I will note that at times I felt like the queer women represented were very…‘stereotypical’ 90s queer which stood out to me quite a bit in a negative way and took away from the characters which in of themselves were fantastic already. While some things were inherently true and funny to look back on, others were just off kilter stereotypes that was just media induced.

Thank-you NetGalley for the ARC! This was the first work I have read by Neil Sharpson. This is a dark tale of stolen children, changelings, and fractured families. I found the first couple chapters slower, but I ended up really enjoying the tale as it wove the multiple points of view over the decades. I am hoping for another story from the author in this world. I need to know more!

Real Rating: 3.5 / 5 Stars

This book was simply an issue of (pardon the metaphor) a bunch of individual ingredients that should’ve tasted spectacular together but, for whatever reason, just didn’t end up tasting right.. Like a roast that’s been cooked too long or chicken that’s just way too bland. Sure, I’ll eat it, but it won’t be the best meal. It’ll leave me distinctly unsatisfied and wishing for a better meal.

That’s what happened here with Knock Knock, Open Wide. We’ve got Celtic folklore, a sapphic romance, a black goat, fractured family dynamics, a sinister group of priests, and a creepy children’s television show that’s been on for decades. These are all the sort of book ingredients that I could roll around in like catnip! These things are what attracted me to the book in the first place. It’s just that the book wasn’t put together in a way that I enjoyed much. It was just tolerable.

The biggest issue, I think, was the swiftly shifting timelines and POVs. This book not only likes to shift in time, but it likes to shift narrators, too. Sometimes, if you’re not paying close attention, you kind of lose track of where you are and who you’re with. I’m okay with this narrative styling usually, but not when it’s used so extensively. When it’s used as extensively as it is in this novel I feel like it’s a crutch for not knowing what else to do for exposition. We always say, “Show, don’t tell,” but that doesn’t mean you swing the pendulum all the way in the opposite direction and just show everything like a scattered mass of scenes. There has to be a meeting of minds somewhere in the middle because the scattershot approach ends up destroying pacing. Pacing in a novel has to be a natural and organic thing with natural ebbs and flows. This is a thriller and a horror: the ribbon needs to be kept taute, but not so taute that there’s no give for readers to breathe every now and again. You can’t keep a ribbon thrumming with tension if you keep letting it go to switch to somewhere else and someone else. It rips readers out of the story temporarily and then expects them to pick the same ribbon of the main, present-day storyline back up and pull the ribbon taute again. After a while, readers just get tired of it. I know I did. I was tired of it before the book was halfway over.

A secondary issue was that I thought the book was just too long for the story offered, seeing as I knew how the book was going to end and what was going on from probably about 25% into the book. After that it just felt like a whole bunch of hurry-up-and-wait.

A huge positive is that I love Sharpson’s writing style, sentence structure, and dialogue. This book has a terrific sense of self and the characterizations are wonderful. The dialogue is witty, sharp, and sometimes downright funny. The horrific parts of this book are absolutely nightmarish and fabulously written. I only wish the rest of the book had been as good.

I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. This review will not be appearing on social media.

This was a gorgeously unsettling slow-build of an Irish folkloric horror, and I loved it. The storylines were captivating, the horrors (see: children's show with creepy named thing in a box, "don't misbehave or he will emerge"; zero-affect priests looming and haunting in their inexpression and grins and things in the dark; an aspect of evil faerie changeling tale) very original and spooky, and the pace perfectly quick-walked. The Irish countryside and Dublin urban life aspects added another quality layer, but in my opinion that's where any Tana French comparison ends. This book was much more Mona Awad a la "Bunny" to me with its strangeness then horrors, but also just a story about young women making their ways in the world.

This book was kind of a wild ride, but I also kind of got lost in it. I really wished I jived with the authors writing style because the premise was so good!

First, this is not my normal go-to read, but I did enjoy it a lot! There were times that it got a bit confusing keeping characters in line or feeling like I missed a clue or that it went over my head. It also went in phases where I could not put this book down or stop thinking of it, but there were also times I thought meh about some parts. I felt like it all came together well at the end, but I also felt confused! Overall a great book and a solid 4 stars!

this beautiful written book by @neilsharpson is a book of Irish Celtic myth and horror.

The story takes place in Ireland and the author dives into the Celtic myth and Irish folklore.

Towards the end, I couldn't put it down. It was so good that when I finished it I had to take a few moments to gather my thoughts. My first thought when I finished reading it was,
"what the heck did I just read". Honestly, I found it fascinating.

I have never read anything like this. This would be my first book that involved Irish mythology and I thought it was very interesting.

I have to admit that this book might not be for everyone, but I really liked it.

Knock Knock Open Wide is a generational horror story that takes place in Ireland and adds a modern take on Celtic myth. I was a tad unsure about this one when I started, but once we shift more to the present day- the storyline with Ashling and Betty- I was hooked. I LOVE Ashling as a character, and her and Betty’s college romance was kind of my favorite part of the whole book. The horror/mystery elements were also really cool, and I adore folklore-inspired horror, because I think it’s cool that what I think is so original and creative really has all this background and culture that inspired it. It’s just new to me. The familial dynamic between Ashling and her mother is so heartbreaking. I would go into this one blind, but it weirdly reminded me a lot of Mister Magic by Kiersten White. So if you liked that one, I think you’ll like this one too!

My review will be posted on my Instagram- @boozehoundbookclub in October

The first chapter of this book was a 5 star short story. Absolutely wild and everything that is going to haunt my nightmares forevermore *slow claps*. The horror elements in here were phenomenal and I can't wait to read more about the original folktales that inspired this story!
I do feel like the endings all wrapped up pretty quick for such wild goings on, I could have spent half the book in that cabin [in that puppet lol]. And although I loved Betty and Ashling, it was Etain who stole my heart and I selfishly wish we had stuck with her from the beginning to end of this story.
I found myself filling in blanks as the book wrapped up, some ambiguous fun, but also some blanks that I feel should have been better planned out or delved into deeper.
But yeah, a memorable read, I will never forget this first chapter and I can't wait to read more from Neil Sharpson in the future!

3.5 stars [but the first chapter is like 12 stars]

Much like Mister Magic, there's something about a creepy children's tv show that I can't resist. Knock Knock Open Wide has that....sometime that just....grabs me from that first page.

A woman finds a corpse on the side of the road, and LOGICALLY, the very best thing to do is putting the body inside the car with her. Then there's another woman, falling in love. And slowly....very slowly everything is starting to connect. It's the kind of story that I crave.

Neil Sharpson has taken Irish folklore and modern horror and combined them into a masterpiece with Knock Knock, Open Wide. With a robust storytelling and a satisfying way to complete the entire storyline, this is a writer to watch.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Folk horror is really starting to become more mainstream in both books and film and Neil Sharpson's Knock Knock, Open Wide is a brilliant new installment into this growing genre. I would love to give this book 5 stars but unfortunately it loses moment after the first chapter and I was slightly let down with the rest of the book. The first chapter is absolutely terrifying though.

Alright, honesty time: if someone handed me this book and said “here is a really scary sapphic horror story written by a man,” I wouldn’t have touched it with a 10 foot pole.
And yet…I loved this book. I’m confused by this book - greatly. But I did love it. It’s one of the most unsettling things I’ve read in a long time. It’s written like a lot of loose threads. You don’t know what you’re looking at, but things slowly start to come together into a horrifying, eldritch web.
This could be a challenge for some readers - it takes a long time to come together (truly the definition of a slow burn). But I believe it’s worth persisting for.
I don’t know to say too much in regards to the plot - even though it can be maddening at times, it’s better to let Sharpson tell it in the way he intended.
So, if you like -
Folk horror ✔️
Generational trauma ✔️
Changelings ✔️
Sapphic love stories ✔️
Creepy children’s tv shows ✔️
Cults ✔️
Irish war goddesses ✔️

This may be the book for