I thought the book went a little quick but overall the book was pretty good. I enjoyed listening to this and thought the plot was decent enough, especially at the end. The author's reflections about death were powerful.

This book has everything I like in a horror novel. Gothic car is one of my favorite genres. I often look for dystopian books. I can list so dystopian books many books on my favorites list. The characters in the book were great. I will look for more books by this author. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this advanced copy to me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Jo Kaplan, and CamCat Books for this arc in exchange for an honest review.
Starting off this is a great audiobook to listen to while working and while trying to survive a cardio session. It kept me captivated in the story while still being able to focus on what I was doing while listening.

During my listening experience I felt myself invested in the trials of Lavina, Mads, and Waynoka. While there were dual timelines, I did not find myself lost, trying to figure out where I was in the narrative. With that I absolutely loved the setting and enjoyed the image of life in the wild west contrasted in a dystopian modern America.

Getting down to the horror aspect of the audiobook, I was delightfully shocked by the creatures Jo Kaplan was building up to and was shocked and amazed by the twists and turns throughout the ending of the book.

Overall, this was a great listen and will be on the lookout for more by Jo Kaplan.

This was an interesting horror story. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the story. All the characters, present and past, were very interesting. The two narrators were great on giving the characters life.

Dystopian. Gothic. Creepy. This one was perfect for me. Years into a societal collapse due to climate change, two women Mads and Waynoka stop in a ghost town looking for water. Their search leads them to an old mine where they end up trapped. The room they find there has the diary of a woman from the 1860’s. She details her husband and brother in law’s search for silver in that very mine and the evil that was unleashed. Chapters flip back and forth between present day and the diary as each discovers more about what they’re really up against.

I loved this story. It reminded me of Lone Women meets The Book of the Unnamed Midwife. We get rational, strong, capable women in both timelines who slowly descend into paranoia and panic as their worlds change. I loved the mix of the horror of the real world, the ills of humanity and actual creepy supernatural creatures. The final reveal was perfect!

Read this one if you liked Mexican Gothic or Vampires of El Norte.

Thanks to CamCat Books for gifted access via Netgalley. All opinions above are my own.

Another excellent book by Jo Kaplan who has become a favorite horror author of mine. It Will Just Be Us was one of my favorite books of 2020 so I was thrilled to get the audiobook version of her new book on NetGalley.

The story is original and well written, I loved it! If you are claustrophobic like me there were quite a few stressful moments. The monsters were creepy and unique.

The audiobook narrators were decent though I did not understand the southern accent for Lavinia. It isn’t directly stated where she is originally from but Boston is mentioned so I was confused (though a Southern accent is much easier on the ear than a Boston accent in my opinion).

If you liked her previous book, like a good monster story with fully realized characters then read this. I’d also recommend this if you liked the horror movie The Descent.

**Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the audiobook I received in exchange for my honest opinion.**

I first received this book in the Twisted Retreat book box. The book was more of a historical fiction than a horror movie. I wish I could have finished it but I found myself getting distracted and I thought that maybe the audiobook would help and unfortunately it did not. I am not going to write this author off yet, but I wish it had more horror elements in it.

When the Night Bells Ring is a great blend of classic horror, American gothic horror, and climate science horror.

I loved how the two perspectives of the main characters intertwined between time lines. And the gothic western part of the story is rich with strife and discomfort. And the present time is eerie and very unsettling.

Really enjoyed the book from start to finish. Author wrote this with great pace. This book is now one of my top books of the year for sure. Loved every second of this book.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

This was good, different than I expected but still enjoyable. The alternating timelines were very easy to follow, pacing was slightly slow but still ok and I liked the characters. The narrators did a good job as well.

Not for me so much I am afraid. This was my first audiobook and as much as the story was ok, I found it too slow and the narrator's voice really annoying, making it for too difficult to concentrate.

Loved the narrator!! Fulginiti and Zanzarella did an amazing job at bringing these characters to life. Pair their narration with Kaplans eerie and dark writing; instant goosebumps. This story takes place on two different times lines. One in a post apocalyptic world and the other set as flashbacks from a diary one of our main characters come across. Kaplan did a marvelous job and creating a story in both timelines, that would keep the readers engaged. Sometimes with dual storylines, I would find myself disinterested in one of them and skin it till I got to the storyline I liked. I did not get that feeling with this story. I enjoyed Kaplans writing so much, I’ve picked up her 2020 novel to finish off my spooky season!

Climate change has brought an apocalypse. Characters, Mads and Waynoka, trek to East in hopes of finding over survivors and some stability within the chaos. They come across a mining town and venture into a mine in search of water and find themselves trapped. They find a diary, of a settler, Lavinia, who details strange happenings in the town. It becomes clear that there is evil lurking. I enjoyed the idea of a dual timeline but they felt incomplete and the scarieness fell flat. I enjoyed the narration, it brought to life the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and CamCat Books for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook!

The split timelines and slow descent into panic and fear that was mirrored across both made the story just the right amount of unsettling. The cast of characters was well-fleshed out and I was entertained by the random moments where Mads and Wynoka broke the fourth wall. The build-up, however; did not pay off for me. The ending felt abrupt and incomplete to me but it did have a resolution. I’m still not really sure how I feel about this book after that ending.

3 ⭐️

When I first got this book, I was so excited. The premise sounded incredible but I think it fell a little flat for me. I received the audiobook version of “When the night bells ring” via NetGalley on exchange for my honest feedback.

The audiobook of this was great. The narrators were really awesome to listen to and I loved the fact that I coukd listen on 2.5x the speed and it felt like they were just having a conversation. This story is told in dual POV. A past and present storyline. Overall the narration was really great and I think if you’re going to read this one, the audiobook version is the way to go!

With all that aside, this story ended up being a bit different than I was anticipating. It looked and sounded spooky but it really wasn’t, I thought I was going to be shaking in my boots by the end of this novel but I felt like I sat around waiting for the horror side of things and it just wasn’t there for me, it is in no way a bad story. It was entertaining to listen to and kept my attention for the most part,

While it may have fell flat for me, I can certainly see why others may love this.

"When you disrespect life, do not be surprised when your life is disrespected in turn. Violence begets more violence."

4.5

In a dusty, waterless near future, where climate changes has ravaged the West Coast of America, two women travel on dirt bikes through the desert on their way to New York, in the hopes of being seeking refuge. When they come upon a small mining village, at the base of a mountain, they stop. Examining the mines, hoping to find water enough to last the rest of the trip, they discover an alcove with a bed, a fire pit, a diary and a small, silver bell stationed above the entrance to the next shaft. As they begin to read the diary, what becomes apparent are the hardships of a life in 1860's Nevada and a monstrous reality too frightening to believe.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I began listening to When the Night Bells Ring. I had read a number of varied reviews and was worried I would either be terrified or bored. As it turns out, I was neither...but I was gripped. This book hit a brilliant balance between reality and fantasy/horror for me, reeling me in and holding my attention throughout. I was, admittedly, much more drawn to Lavinia's chapters, as this is where the majority of the mystery takes place. However, the suspense was definitely heightened when resting with the Dust Devils, who seemed to be surrounded by an ever present danger which could not be seen or named. I found the narration of the audiobook to be engaging, particularly the performance of Lavinia's chapters, which portrayed all of the emotion I would have hoped for. This is an excellent read for Halloween and I would recommend it to anyone who is after an immersive, supernatural/monster thriller with some very light body horror thrown in for effect. (If you're worried, I don't do well with body horror and I was fine)

Impressively, Kaplan juxtaposes a dystopian future ravaged my fire and drought with monsters uncovered by silver mining during the 1860s mineral rushes of American West to set the stage for the horrors of human greed and the debt nature demands to be paid when humans take too much from it. Although the atmosphere and suspense of Lavinia's boomtown timeline would have left me thoroughly satisfied, the modern timeline and true climax of that storyline do nothing but compliment its counterpart; ultimately the way Kaplan weaves the two timelines creates a perfectly balanced tale of dread and hope in turns.

All this is so incredibly enhanced by Fulginiti's and Zanzarella's narration. Each performance is crisp and emotive, and their respective narrative voices, cadences, and accents are distinct enough that listeners will never have trouble telling which POV is which.

I received and audiobook copy of 'When the Night Bells Ring' through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review; after reading/listening to that and the ebook version and loving it, I accepted an invitation by Henry Roi PR and Black Tide to participate in a virtual book tour. All opinions are, as always, unpaid and completely my own!

I always love an audiobook with multiple narrators and I also appreciated the narrators didn't sound similar so I never felt lost. This book was a slow burn and in my opinion, a little too slow. I loved the cave and atmosphere, it had all the spooky settings. I wish more was revealed a little sooner as I felt like everything was left to the final 10% of the book. I think if the reveals happened a bit sooner, it wouldn't have felt so long.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing the audiobook in exchange for a fair review. All opinions are my own.

This book is a usual mix of genres, starting as dystopian and ending in monster/horror? But somehow it just works.

The book follows Mads and Waynoka in a dystopian universe where water is scarce. After an incident and stumbling across Lavinia’s diary , the narrative goes back and forth between present day and 1869 to follow Lavinia’s story. Both timelines are interesting and hook you in.

The book was definitely not something I had read before but I enjoyed it. The way that Jo Kaplan has written this brings about an air of mystery but making sure you have all the answers by the end of the book.

If you enjoyed The Descent (2005) or the mini series Midnight Mass (2021), then you may enjoy this book. Two climate refugees in the not too distant future flee the West in search of better temperatures in the East. When they end up in an abandoned mine from the 1880s, they discover a journal and discover that perhaps something sinister happened to the townsfolk there. There’s something down there in the mine. And they’re going to find out what it is.

This slow-burn horror/mystery intrigued me. It’s almost more of a thriller/character study with some supernatural elements rather than strictly horror. I enjoyed the alternating perspectives between “now” and then, the developing story and the character arcs. I listened to the audiobook, and it’s probably just as enjoyable in print, but the narration was great. Do recommend.