What a good one!!!
I enjoyed it, maybe I wasn't blown away and I'm admitting it but it was good. I was entertained most of the time but bored at times so that makes me say it wasn't the best.

It's a creepy read, sinister nightmares coming to life and invading a small town through a tunnel... it was a really creative story. I wasn't scared at all, I wanted nightmares myself 😂😂😂 You know me, I want the creepy scary ones and this one wasn't (for me).

There's some creepy and cringe characters which was part enjoyable and part confusing, specially with the different timelines.

I do recommend it for all those who like not so scary but scary reads hahaha if you know what I mean 😂😂 Won't give tou nightmares or anything.

🦌🦌🦌🦌 / 5

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

This was such a unique and chilling story that had all the right vibes: dark, sinister, creepy, dangerous, and more. I enjoyed the horror elements and incorporation of mythical creatures and lore. It took me a little bit to finish this one, as it was a bit complicated and sometimes hard to follow, but it was entertaining nonetheless. I’d recommend this one to my fellow horror fans!

Horror at its best - reminds me of Stephen King novels. A small town, a tunnel of terror. Years of missing people, dead bodies with missing body parts. Simon is considered simple by the town, both his parents missing with only a body part each recovered. Childhood friends Beth, Jax and Gideon have grown up with secrets and now may be the only hope to save their town from the ‘mares’. Every badman from children lullaby's are here, killing. The ending kept me from giving this five stars but ,I would still recommend reading if you enjoy this genre.

Mister Lullaby is an intriguing horror novel with an exciting premise. It was an engaging read. However, I struggled with the back and forth in time and the amount of characters. I did expect more from this story as I was a massive fan of The Nightmare Man. But I am looking forward to what Markert creates in the future.

Readers will be hard pressed to understand what is real and what is living in the characters imagination. The author keeps us guessing throughout the entire story. It is truly a story that will make the reader have vivid thoughts. The characters are very interesting including the animals. There are plenty of surprises to be had to the very end of the story.

A Tunnel Of Nightmares

This stand alone sort-of sequel to The Nightmare Man is as good or better than that first book. There's an atmosphere of dark foreboding evoked by otherwise prosaic scenery that reminds me of novels by Dean Koontz. It's frightening and fantastical and I absolutely loved it.

The author has created some likable and memorable characters. There are also others I wish I could forget. It's giving nothing away to declare that Mister Lullaby is about really monstrous human beings. Ticking down the list of my own trigger warnings I checked violence, murder, extrrremely k*nky BDSM and other dark se*ual content, homicide, child neglect/abuse, and I've probably missed other potentially upsetting topics. Markert handles events well and while some are vivid, they’re important to story development.

If you prefer your entertainment to stay on the cozy and vanilla side, this book may not be for you. But, if you love horror, reading it is well worth adding to your store of nightmares. I enthusiastically recommend it, and not because I want others to stay up at night or because I got a free advance reader's copy.

I have no obligation to them for their gift, but I give big thank yous to author J H Markert, publisher Crooked Lane Books, and NetGalley. Mister Lullaby is a five-star hit for me.

Mister Lullaby is a dark, fast-paced story full of mystery and serial killers. I really enjoyed the dual timeline, which helped build tension and intrigue as things progressed.

I would've liked a little more resolution at the end, it felt very abrupt, like we're meant to expect a sequel. But overall the creepy vibes were on point.

Mister Lullaby by J.H. Markert

Parents sing lullabies to their children hoping they will sleep. They rock or walk their little babies while whispering, shushing, and singing to them. This book puts a dark spin on dreamtime, comas, and might have you questioning what really happens when you dream while sleeping.

What I liked:
* The plotting, pacing, writing, setting, and story
* The characters, good and bad, and how they made the book come alive
* That the shift between past and present when telling the story worked seamlessly
* The link between lullabies and dreams/dreamland
* The historical aspect of the story
* Thinking about the ‘what ifs’
* Thinking about people I have known in comas and discussions I have had about “where they are”
* Growing to care about some of the characters and hoping that perhaps I will see them in a future book
* The hope at the end of the book…at least for some
* That the book ties in a bit with the previous book, The Nightmare Man
* Wondering what book will come next from this author

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Thinking about whether or not believing in something can make it real

Did I like this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars

There are strong Steven King vibes in this story which combines horror elements with a hint of portal fantasy.

In the town of Harrod's Reach, nightmares have a habit of breaking through to our world through a portal in the form of an old train tunnel. And now, something (or someone) worse than nightmares is breaking through, too. In this book, the reader follows the story of both the acolytes of the Something Worse as well as the family members of a small group of guardians working to protect the portal from the other side, culminating in an epic battle.

Unfortunately, I did not fully engage with this book - maybe because it was trying for something rather epic fantasy in scope but in a lower number of pages? - and the ending felt very cut-off. I smell a trilogy coming, but I'm not sure book 1 got me fully on the hook where I need to find the rest, you know? It felt like The Stand but less immersive.

My thanks to Crooked Lane Books and the author for providing this e-arc for review.

Mister Lullaby by J.H. Markert

QUICK SUMMARY 🖊️
In Harrod’s Reach, there has always seem to be strange things happening. Particularly around an old train tunnel. After a young boy was found inside the tunnel in a coma the town decided to wall it up.

But the train tunnel isn’t the only part in this world that these strange occurrences have been happening, and now they’re all coming together.

FINAL THOUGHTS 💭
The book starts out with describing a character as “Simple Simon” and it took me out of it completely because I feel there’s is defiantly a better way to describe a person, and this continued through the entire book.

The story itself is there, I love the different point of views and the fantasy aspect of the entire thing. Even the slow paced I was here for because there was so much included in the story and then it was destroyed BY THE ENDING.

I was intrigued by this book, because I love a good horror story. Stephen King is one of my favourite authors.
While I did enjoy this book, I wasn't terrified by it. I did find it to be dark and kind of creepy though. I did find it to be original. though, something a little different from what I have read in the past .
An old abandoned train tunnel, that has .become dangerous to the town of Harrod's Reach.
Children have been found in comas and others have been found outside the tunnel, dead.
The tunnel has been boarded up, but now, after a few years, something is happening again in this town.
If you want to know more, check out my review and others on Goodreads.
I give this story a 3 out of 5. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.

I originally gave up on this ARC as it read too dry and confusing for me. Waiting until the release of the audio was a brilliant idea and worked much better for me. Soon enough I was engaged and wondering what the hell was going on in this weird little town. In a very loose sense the book reminds me of The Stand, in that a bunch of random people are brought together to this random town to take out an evil entity that escaped from some dark and unknown hell-scape. The book covers multiple POVs and often brings you right into the middle of the characters thoughts and dreams. My biggest issue was the utterly cheap ending we got. In fact I still don't understand how or why we got such an ending after a pretty exciting and bloody tale. The end seemingly came out of nowhere and leaves many more unanswered questions than I'd like. Aside from the crap ending I enjoyed all the thrills of this book and was on the edge of my seat as the tension built up and all the characters were finally brought together!

This is old-school Stephen-King style horror, with violence and mayhem caused by monsters, paranormal and human.

Missing and injured people and horrifying ‘dreams’ lead to a town harassed by other-worldly entities and a busload of serial killers and their only hope are a comatose child, a developmentally delayed woodcutter, a pathologically fearless deputy sheriff and a trigger-happy self-proclaimed coward with a grudge against the town.

There are multiple bizarre and disgusting injuries and deaths as the story progresses into the dark side, and some particularly disturbing body horror (antlers, dolls and other deformations). Horror fans are really not going to be disappointed by the mixture of psychological and shock-horror here!

I did find myself a little confused about an apparent side-plot related to characters called Mr Dream and the Nightmare Man, which didn’t seem to come to anything, but I later realised there was a previous book set in the same dream-walking world, so perhaps the answers are in there?

Mostly I was happily carried along for the ride, completely hooked and unable to surface until I reached the light at the other end of the tunnel, but I was definitely left wanting more and the ending felt a little bit hasty after the epic build-up that led to it. I really hope there is more in future – I would love to explore Lalaland and its horrific denizens in more detail.

This book is not exactly a sequel to The Nightmare Man, somewhat of an extension in another part of the world with new characters. I’m not much of a horror reader but I loved Nightmare Man and was exited to see what nightmares were coming to life next!

This was more of a slow burn buildup. Overall the concept was interesting. The spooky tunnel, Lala land linked to the normal world through coma patients, the mares escaping. I liked the story, but found the ending to be very abrupt and there were a few too many characters I had trouble keeping up with. I wish there was more with Beth and Gideon’s story. I had both ebook and audio, and listened to mostly audio. I enjoyed the narration and narrators helped set a dark and creepy atmosphere.

This book ticked all the boxes. I was on the edge of my seat, I was scared out of my wits and loved every single second of it.

I love when books build that kind of atmosphere and you can feel the hairs on the back of your neck stand straight up!

Wicked character development and I loved the last one I read so I already knew the writing style was top notch!

Ending was perfect too!~

5 stars

Gideon returns home to Harrod’s Reach after being discharged from the military with a purple heart and a limp. He's not anxious to be home, a place he fled after being blamed for his younger brother Sully's coma. His welcome home party, thrown by his mother without his knowledge - or desire - is interrupted by a phone call that Sully had woken up. Upon rushing to their house, Sully is under once again. But the wheels are in motion...

A young woman from Charleston, SC, suddenly wakes up from her coma with a mission - she must go to a town in Nebraska, Harrod’s Reach, and see a boy named Sully. She met Sully in Lalaland, a place where coma patients live. Something big is brewing and she knows he needs her help.

A man named Teddy, who has spent his entire life with odd lumps in his skull is wandering around the country killing dead heads - people in extended comas. A voice has been helping him on his journey - telling him where to go, who to kill. Until one day he sees a bus and the voice tells him to buy it. He repaints the bus, names it Mister Lullaby, and moves toward Nebraska, picking up the most undesirable passengers he can find en route to kill Sully.

But what will happen when everyone arrives in Harrod’s Reach?

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed The Nightmare Man, I was so stoked to read this book. Horrible crimes with supernatural elements, a creepy tunnel, and people being put to sleep with lullabies. Honestly, this book just left me disappointed. I found it so confusing. The timeline seemed to be jumping around a bit, although it helped after I realized it was not in chronological order. There were tons of characters to keep track of. It just seemed all over the place, and the ending was a bit abrupt. I want to know what happened to Sully and the other coma patients. Was the sheriff okay? What about the rest of the town? So many unanswered questions.

Overall this was fine, but I was really hoping for a story more similar to The Nightmare Man. At this point, I may or may not pick up the author's next book.

Mister Lullaby is the 2nd-novel that I have read from Horror author, J.H. Markert and honestly, after my experience with this, I'm starting to second guess my feelings on The Nightmare Man, which I thought I had fun with. This story just did not work for me at all.

In this one, which is almost completely lost from my mind, we're in the small town of Harrod's Reach. Most of the action centers around an old railway tunnel and the fantastical, horrifying properties it may hold.

We follow a whole host of people as they deal with the repercussions of the nature of the tunnel. There's quite a few individuals in comas, there's a lot of characters in general and every once in a while there was a bit of a coherent storyline that I was actually intrigued by.

I know this is coming off as all sorts of salty, and I apologize for that, but these are the general feelings I walked away with; confusion and disappointment. In fact, I was confused by this right from the start. I found it muddled and hard to track, and definitely not an easy narrative to settle into. I'm not trying to work too hard here. I read for fun and escape. I don't want to be taking notes in order to follow a cast of characters.

Don't get me wrong, there were glimmers of interest, things I wanted to learn more about, but those portions never lasted long enough to really hook me. There were a lot of moving parts, and many of those parts were things I had seen before. It felt like a Hodge-podge of Joe Hill and Stephen King ideas rolled into a ball and thrown in a casserole dish, trying to make something delicious, but it burned in the oven.

And that's how I walk away. Burned.

With all of my venting out of the way, I am sure this review helps you not at all, because I am also going to say, if you are interested in this book, PICK IT UP!!! At the end of the day, I know nothing. This is simply my opinion based upon my own personal reading experience. Everyone's taste is different and everyone enjoys different things. I have read quite a few reviews and I know a lot of Readers are enjoying this. You could be one. I would never tell someone not to read a book and I'm not going to here.

There's a book for every Reader and a Reader for every book. The fact that I didn't enjoy this means absolutely nothing. Regardless of my experience, I want to thank the publisher, Crooked Lane Books and Dreamscape Media, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

I am 1 - 1 with this author now and do plan to pick up whatever he releases next. I am hoping this particular story is just a one-off for me and that I will love the next one!

Mister Lullaby by J.H. Markert
Pub date: November 21, 2023

Small town horror is my favorite! Add in an abandoned train tunnel with a history and you’ve got a winner. Harrod’s Reach has had it’s share of trouble and the tunnel seems to be at the heart of a lot of it.

I’m foregoing the whole rehashing of the synopsis but instead will say this:

There’s a gift that some writers have, one that leads the reader into a place of discomfort. That gray gloomy place of sinister intent. Most horror readers (any reader) know exactly what I mean. This is when I become wholly invested in the characters and their outcomes. This is when I clearly visualize what the author is describing to me. This is when I stay up late to finish a book because it has a grip on me.

That’s the beauty of storytelling and why I value those that can draw me into a story so fully. That’s how I felt while reading Mister Lullaby. I was captivated, horrified, and committed to the outcome.

Thank you for writing this, Mr. Markert, your story will stay with me for a while.

Dark and macabre, intense and eerie!

My thanks to Crooked Lane Books for this gifted DRC.

It was a rollercoaster as it's very fast paced and sometimes I felt a bit breathless. Mister Lullaby is a good horror with fantasy elements.
There's blood, there violence and there's anything you can expect from horror story.
The author did a good job in delivering this story, he never spares punches or surprises and the it kept me on the edge.
I liked it, recommended
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Important things you need to know about the book:

Pace: Mister Lullaby’s pace is fast. The book takes place within a week of Gideon’s arrival home after being honorably discharged from the Army. I was iffy on the pace. The author threw a lot of information at me at the beginning of the book. I had to reread specific chapters. If the pacing had slowed down a little, started at a medium pace, and then amped up, I could have processed the information better.

Trigger/Content Warning: Mister Lullaby has trigger and content warnings. If any of these triggers you, I suggest not reading the book. They are:

Mental Illness (graphic, on and off page)
Violence (graphic, on page)
Murder (graphic, on page)
Gun Violence (graphic, on page)
Rape (graphic, on page)
Grief (graphic, on page)
Fire (moderate, on and off page)
Bullying (moderate to graphic, on and off page)
Racism (minor to moderate, off page)
Alcoholism (moderate, on and off page)
Anxiety and anxiety attacks (moderate and off-page)
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (moderate to graphic, on page)
Blood (graphic, on page)
Gore (graphic, on page)
Body Horror (graphic, on page)
Coma (graphic, on page)
Dead bodies and body parts (graphic, on page)
Loss of autonomy (graphic, on page)
Homophobia (moderate, on and off page)
Sexual Content: There is sexual content in Mister Lullaby. It is not graphic.

Language: There is graphic swearing in Mister Lullaby. There is also offensive language used in various parts of the book.

Setting: The Before part of Mister Lullaby is set between Harrod’s Reach, Nebraska, and Lalaland. The Then part of Mister Lullaby is set in Harrod’s Reach and wherever Teddy drove the bus.

Tropes: Chosen One, Emotional Scars, Reluctant Hero, Dark Lord, Good vs Evil, Childhood Friends, Monsters, Humans Can Be Evil

Age Range: I recommend Mister Lullaby to anyone over 21.

Plot Synopsis (as spoiler-free as I can get):

The night Gideon arrives home, his younger brother, who has been in a coma for three years, wakes up and starts shouting names. Why he shouts out names confuses his family until Maddy shows up in town. Her explanation is crazy: Sully is trapped in a nightmare land called Lalaland. There, he is struggling, along with other coma patients, to keep the monsters inhabiting that world from bleeding into this one. But something is wrong, and the king of these monsters, Mister Lullaby, is trying to break through. While trying to process the information he has been told, Gideon and his best friend, Beth, are stunned when prominent figures in the community start showing up brutally murdered. Can Maddy be believed and trusted? What is happening in town? Can Gideon and Beth protect their loved ones and the townspeople from the evil trying to come through? Or will they fail?

Main Characters

Deputy Sheriff Beth Gardner: I didn’t know how to feel about Beth. On one hand, she was a great police officer and rose to the job when the Sheriff was attacked. But, on the other hand, her personal life was a mess. She was friends with Gideon and Jax. But her friendship with both was not equal, and it showed. She sided more with Jax (who was awful in the flashbacks and the present day) than Gideon. Even during the storyline, she didn’t treat Gideon like an equal. The use of his nickname, Giddey Up Gideon, was used as a way of putting him in his place. But she was determined to protect Sully at any cost when push came to shove. What she did at the end of the book was very selfless.

Gideon Dupree: I liked him, but he was so damaged that I thought his character wouldn’t rise to the occasion. He was bullied relentlessly throughout school and beyond (Giddey Up Gideon referenced how he ran). He blamed himself for Sully’s accident even though he had nothing to do with it (it did happen while he was watching him, though). And his Army career left him with even more scars. But, by the middle of the book, I saw something shift in his character. It happened when Maddy came to town, and it evolved. By the end of the book, even though he was still damaged, Gideon had come into his own.

Theodore Lomax (aka Teddy): Teddy’s character sent chills up and down my spine. He was a serial killer who had a very troubled and trauma-filled childhood. He had a voice in his head, called Mister Lullaby, that was instructing him to kill coma patients. Teddy also killed other people for fun. But Teddy realized the voice wasn’t a figment of his imagination until he bought a bus (which he named the Lullaby Express) and started picking up random people. It was real. His end game was to go to Harrod’s Reach and set those random people loose while he searched for the name at the top of his list, Sully Dupree. He was evil personified, and I couldn’t think of a better antagonist for this book.

Maddy Boyle: I liked her character. But I did wonder what her connection to Harrod’s Reach would be and what would happen once she got there. I liked how she was like an envoy to Lalaland (having been there herself). She was able to convince Gideon and then Beth about the dangers that were coming out of the train tunnel.

Simple Simon: I went back and forth on including him as a significant character. I decided to have him as a central character because of his actions in the book’s second half. Simon knew a lot about what was going on with Lalaland bleeding through, and he was a massive factor in the events that went down at the end of the book.

Sully Dupree: The whole storyline is centered around Sully. He was still a powerful force even though he never woke up and talked. I can only get a little into what happens with him because of spoilers.

My review:

Mister Lullaby was one of my most looked-forward-to-read books. I had seen it featured on other blogs and was thrilled when Crooked Lane Books sent me the widget. So, when it was finally time for me to read it, I dove right in. I finished the book liking it but was disappointed by it simultaneously (thus the star rating).

Mister Lullaby has various POVs. Not only that, but the author also split the chapters into Before and Now. The author labeled each chapter with who it focused on and whether it was Now or Before. But I got lost while reading. I would backtrack to determine when the chapter occurred (the who part was obvious). It frustrated me but not enough to DNF.

The main storyline of Mister Lullaby is good, and I find it fascinating. I liked that the author tied his previous books into this one. It made for an interesting read. But, sometimes, I lost sight of the storyline (Sully, the train tunnel, Teddy, Gideon, Beth, and Maddy). There were so many secondary storylines thrown in (some I feel were to fill in empty plot holes) that my head was turned around. Did I need to know why Jax was such a dick? Or why did Beth marry him? Not really (even though it was sad). That stuff could have been left out or mentioned in passing. Another example was the chapter with Chimp and the weird fish. My head was spinning by the end of the storyline, and I couldn’t keep everything straight.

The storyline with Teddy and his collection of serial killers was interesting. Unlike the main one, this storyline was tight and kept to just the storyline. The only time it deviated was toward the end of the book, but even then, it was all right.

The horror angle of the book was well written. I want to warn everyone that it is bloody and violent. I did jump during some scenes, and in others, I had to read gagging.

The end of Mister Lullaby did disappoint me. It seemed very rushed. The final battle was almost anticlimactic (compared to what was happening around them). I also needed clarification on why Beth did what she did. There were storylines left in the air. I also have not received a resolution about what would happen to the town or the aftermath. They might have plans for another book in this universe (or even a sequel). I also have an answer as to why the book’s ending was the way it was. The author explains everything in the acknowledgment section after the end.

Many thanks to Crooked Lane Books, NetGalley, and J.H. Markert for allowing me to read and review this ARC of Mister Lullaby. All opinions stated in this review are mine.