Member Reviews
For the most part, I enjoyed some of the book. However, the ending really spoiled things for me. It felt rushed and unfinished. The other things I didn't enjoy is it felt less psychological horror and held more reflections of feelings of inadequacy as a teen. Some positives, While the FMC's feelings are not mine, I found her actions can be relatable when being an autistic teen/adult. It was also nice and compact, meaning it was finished in a few hours.
I'm still very much of two minds. I liked it, but I also didn't.
I listened to the audio and read the ebook - the narrator held me more because of the "creepy" vibes. She did an excellent job in performing.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy. This one is available now.
This book is perfect for spooky season! Rebecca (Bex) is just trying to get through her senior year at a very competitive high school. Out of no where three of her fellow classmates start hallucinating and end up dead. How far would you go, if what happened to them start happening to you. No one is listening and just thinks something is wrong with you.
This was one of those what the heck did I just read books in all the best ways. I was trying to figure out all the things. I did not see the twists coming. It was wild. I really enjoyed this and highly recommend it. I will definitely be checking out other books by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Off Limits Press for the arc in exchange for my honest review.
first off i wanted to say, this book is not my usual genre. i don't really read horror or anything "spooky" but i wanted to try it out and especially because this book had autism rep which i am autistic so i am always looking for more books to read with autistic characters! that being said, i didn't enjoy this book as much as i hoped. it had an interesting concept but in reality i was kind of just left, confused? i wished it hadn't of ended the way it did. it felt very rushed and out of nowhere and i was left with more questions than answers honestly. this book could have benefitted from being a full length novel instead of a shorter book like it was. maybe if you're more into horror you might enjoy this more because i did think some parts were kind of spooky and thrilling, but overall just wasn't the book for me.
This was a surprising page turner and another good fall read! 💀
The story follows Bex, a senior at a highly competitive high school. When several of her classmates die mysterious deaths, she seems to be the only one noticing connections between the “accidents.” The investigation that follows causes her mental health to spiral…but nothing is as it seems…
The thriller/mystery aspects of the book are great, but what makes this book work, and what makes it unique, is the voice of the narrator. She has autism, and the way she is written is so empathetic and nuanced; we are really put inside her head and come to understand her thought processes. If it weren’t for the thriller elements making this not necessarily for all readers, I would suggest people read this to learn more about neurodivergence. The author manages to inform the reader without it feeling like we are being taught anything. I can’t personally speak to whether it is all accurate, but based on other accounts I have heard or read about, it seemed accurate to at least some people’s experiences.
I will say the ending threw me a little—certain things felt a little out of the blue and a little unsatisfying. As is often the case with mystery/thrillers, the ending is the hardest part. I have seen other reviews where people really loved the ending so it may just be a preference.
This doesn’t read like YA, or at least doesn’t have any of the aspects of YA that people often don’t like.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mark Wheaton for the ARC of this book in exchange for a review.
This book centred around Rebecca ‘Bex’ trying to uncover what happened to her classmates leading up to their mysterious deaths while also struggling to believe what is real and what is a figment of her imagination.
This book has fantastic autism representation, it was refreshing to see how it can impact someone’s life but also showing ways in which thinking in different ways very much “saved” the MC.
The twist at the end was great but I do feel it was a little rushed and I would have liked it to of had more substance.
Overall a solid YA horror/ supernatural read.
Who Haunts you was a very enjoyable story. Rebecca was a well written character and the portrayal of her neurodiversity was good. I liked the supernatural aspects of the story, also.
I loved to see authentic and positive autism representation in one of my favorite genres with this novel. Bex is an a multi-dimensional character who openly discusses her neurodivergence. She exemplifies both the incredible empathy and some of the potentially scary symptoms of autism, beyond stereotypes.
The pacing kept me turning pages until I was done. My only critique is on the rushed ending. The puzzle pieces don’t come together, and I think the resolution was limited by a desire to keep things implied and not tidy. However, the conclusion is still impactful. Even with the messy end, I highly recommend this read for the absorbing narrative and the compelling protagonist.
Rebecca is a high school senior ready to graduate (and hyper-fixated everyone’s GPA and class rank thanks to her Autism). Things are going fairly well for her until a few of her classmates die back to back—is it a coincidence? Or are the deaths connected somehow?
This was a great book and perfect to kick off SPOOKY season. It was a quick easy read/listen and held my interest for most of the duration. It even took a few turns that I wasn’t expecting! This is a great YA book and I would recommend to others!
Thank you NetGalley and Off Limits Press for the ARC and ALC!
Who Haunts You by Mark Wheaton: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Format: ALC and ARC courtesy of Mark Wheaton and Off Limits Press via NetGalley
At an elite South Carolina high school, where the social hierarchy revolves around class rank, Rebecca “Bex” is finding her own way to thrive as a neurodivergent student. But when her classmates start dying in strange but unrelated ways, Bex begins to connect the dots that no one else can recognize. She determines that the victims of the strange deaths all had one thing in common: In the days before the incidents, they each were haunted by long-dead relatives- relatives that their surviving family claim never existed. But when Bex begins to see visions of a ghost herself, the line between perception and reality blurs, and she must fight to discover the truth before she becomes the next victim.
Wheaton has over 50 books under his belt but this was the first I’ve read from him. According to his bio, he is an author with autism who often writes neurodivergent characters in his books. I really appreciate the representation in the book, and that it comes from the lived experience of the author!
I would classify Who Haunts You as a YA horror novella. Clocking in at 170 pages or 4.5 hours of audio, this is a very quick “done in a day” book. I didn’t want to put it down once I started it! I thought it was a very compulsive story, and I was really rooting for Bex from start to finish. I thought the story was unique in concept and was fascinated as it played out. Some plot twists I saw coming, others I was surprised by. If I could change one thing about this book, I would want it to be longer and more detailed in the second half of the story as I still have some unanswered questions! I actually think this would make for a really good movie one day.
I got this book “Read Now/Listen Now” from NetGalley and I’m really glad to have read it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes lite horror, especially to anyone looking for a good audiobook! Who Haunts You published on September 2nd and is available now on Amazon, Bookshop, B&N, and Audible.
“ 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓶𝓮…”
Title: Who Haunts You
Author: Mark Wheaton
Rating: ⭑ ⭑ ⭑ ⭑✩
Release: September 2, 2023
Genre: Horror, Paranormal Thriller, Young Adult
Format: Audiobook 🎧, Ebook 📱
Narrator: Annalee Scott
Length: 4h 30m
Start: September 13, 2023
Finish: September 18, 2023
Favorite character: Bex
Would I read again: Yes
Thoughts:
What better way to bring in the spooky season than a story that gives you the absolute heebee jeebees? I had no idea what I was getting into with this one. But after finishing it, it is still on my mind and the chills still go down my spine.
We follow Bex, a high school student on the spectrum, surrounded by classmates obsessed with GPAs, volunteer work, scholarships, and acceptance letters. Bex just wants to finish high school in the shadows with no social imprint, but all of that changes when students are dying back to back. The only connection is that each student that died proclaimed they had relatives that actually didn't exist. Could these ghosts that haunt them be the reason for their deaths? And why now?
This book really played on my fear. The fear of not being believed, the fear of not understanding what you see with your own eyes. Seeing the story play out through Bex’s eyes, with everything she deals with while being autistic, it constantly broke my heart. But the strength behind she shows is inspiring. The story has you constantly doubting her experience. Is she seeing what she says she is? What could possibly be the true and logical explanation for all of this? How could this even happen? So many questions and unbelievable scenes, this story was one mind explosion after the other. What is even reality anymore?
And that ending! Wow! The twist of that is so good, I literally can’t write about it without spoiling it. I get so excited about and I will forever get the creeps when I think back on this book.
Mark Wheaton’s writing style is fantastic. From the beginning, the world building is solid and Bex truly comes to life. Page after page, you slowly find yourself in her shoes, seeing through her eyes. But the narrator, Annalee Scott, is the true MVP. She became Bex. I just loved the way she spoke, the emotion, the singing! Even when she read as the ghosts, I literally shivered. She is by far the best narrator I have ever heard since I started to listen to audiobooks. She is absolutely amazing.
I highly recommend this book. Especially for this upcoming spooky season. Four star read!
First person POV (1)
Read this in tandem with the audiobook, the narration is fantastic.
*Quick read
*Great opening - Best scene in the book
*Likeable protagonist
*Ghosts
*Follow the breadcrumbs
*Satisfying whodunnit
*Weirrrd
Carefully written, cleverly played with interesting, delicately defined characters. This is a murder tale centred on Bex, autistic and intelligent central figure. Bex seeks out pattens to solve the mystery of why people are dying. Haunting and mysterious, a ghost story with a twist!
Really interesting YA (mildly) horror story about people’s perceptions and how they can be altered by others as well as themselves. I was really invested in Bex’s story, both the high school horror aspects as well as her neurodiverse challenges. Bravo for writing so candidly about this! Thank you to #netgalley and #offlimitspress for this complimentary copy of #whohauntsyou to read and review, all opinions are my own.
Blurb says Bex "has to get the bottom of this horror before she’s its next victim..." She gets to the bottom of it, but not with a happy ending.
I found this well-written, craftily plotted story with a strong horror/scary atmosphere to be a heavy and unrewarding read. Well done - just not my kind of entertaining read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Off Limits Press for the chance to read an advance pub copy. Pub date Sept 2, 2023.
This was a really good haunting story. Bex was a well written character. She has autism and I felt like the author really captured that. I found myself cheering her on as she searched for clues in the deaths of her peers. I definitely didn't see the twist coming!! If you're looking for a good YA horror read then I would definitely recommend this book.
Thank you NetGalley and Off Limits Press for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.
Who Haunts You is a quick read. Perfect for spooky season. Not so great in the rep department. Unreliable narrators can work. But, as with mental illness, I don't like things that you can't change, such as being neurodivergent, being used as a plot device. Though, Who Haunts you is a bit different than your typical YA thrillers. This one is more of Psychological thriller.
Thank you to Netgalley and Off Limits Press for providing me with a review copy.
This was one of the best advanced reader copy books I’ve read . I absolutely loved it and loved that it kept me interested and I couldn’t put it down !!
My thanks to NetGalley and Off Limits Press for the ARC of "Who Haunts You" in exchanged for an honest review.
Had no idea that to expect with this book.....but wow, what a swift, creepy and unexpectedly complex little thrill ride. It wastes no time at all sucking you in to its story of an autistic teen girl seemingly tormented by a haunting that's killing off her classmates, one after the other.
Even as it maintains a literally breathless pace of suspense, scares and mind-bending twists, you still come to care deeply and fear for its narrator, Bex. She's forced to cope with way more than the everyday human interaction struggles of neurodiversity. Her school Claremont High boasts a student body heavily populated in overachievers with GPA's worthy of college placements reserved only for the best and the brightest. Bex, equally smart and armed with a deadpan wit, does her best to keep up with them.
But why are some of the classmates she grew up with dying in horrible accidents? And why, in their last moments do they appear to be fleeing in terror from something (or someone) unknown.....and unseen? Bex quickly becomes desperate to find out, since this paranormal virus, or whatever it is, lands on her as its next victim. And her sense of what's real in her life and what isn't starts to rapidly warp like a funhouse mirror.
Given the sheer brevity of the book, I'm duly amazed and impressed at the density of the core mystery at the heart of all the strange goings on. There's truly some vast, overwhelming evil at work against Bex.........and as a fan of Hitchcock-type suspense, I couldn't help loving the scenes where she's hurled into the maddening position of sounding delusional to everyone around her.
With its satisfying, ironic finale twist, "Who Haunts You" finishes up as one of the fastest, most enjoyable YA thrillers of this year.......a well earned haunting 5 stars.
Loved this! Bex is on the spectrum and in the last year of her high school. When her classmates start dying in mysterious circumstances, Bex goes down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what's happening. And then she's targeted. Really good creep factor.
I love how her character was written, totally like watching a movie. I'm making a plea to the author for a sequel, please please please!
++++++