Thank you to Saga Press for sending me an e-ARC of The Haunting of Velkwood!

Everything Gwendolyn Kiste writes is written so beautifully. I love that with every word she puts on page, a dark atmosphere is painted & you get washed with a feeling of grief.

The Haunting of Velkwood may be a haunting story, but not necessarily in the way that invokes fear. Sure, the idea of an entire town being haunted & practically removed from the map taking its residents with it is scary but this one is much more than that. There’s grief, there’s heartbreak & there’s even a love story.

I recommend everything Kiste writes & this one is no different.

(4.8 stars rounded up)

This is the second book I've read from Gwendolyn Kiste, and both books have had really interesting premises. In this one, a whole neighborhood disappears behind a nearly impenetrable veil that can only be crossed by the three women who escaped. Now, 20 years later, a researcher convinces the MC Talitha to return to her childhood home. Talitha and her friends Brett and Grace all left something behind the night they fled. In a way, all three are already haunted.

This is another book that "hurts so good." It was such an emotional and raw story. It deals with traumatic events in childhood, among other things. I appreciate that the author was able to include difficult topics in a way that wasn't gratuitous. This has to be one of the most unique haunting stories I've ever read. It's not just a house or one person who is haunted. It's a whole neighborhood.

I really liked the relationship between Talitha and Brett. It was layered and complex. So much about this book was heartbreaking. Definitely check trigger warnings on this one.

I enjoyed the sense of tension throughout the book as we slowly learn what happened to make the neighborhood disappear and why the three friends fled. I'm a sucker for a slow burn with amazing payoff and this delivered. The last few chapters, especially the climax of the story were some of my favorite parts of this book. One scene involving everyone in the Velkwood Vicinity was particularly powerful. I loved the way everything came together.

This is one of those books that stays with you. Despite having a lot of dark subject matter, the overall message was positive. You can't change the past, but you can overcome and move forward.

The ending was just right, in my opinion. I fell in love with the strange world that Kiste brought us into. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.

I'd recommend this to anyone, especially if you're looking for a different kind of ghost story. Or if you enjoy horror that has to do with childhood.

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for review.

This book is beyond creepy and Unlike anything I’ve ever read before!

Twenty years ago, three best friends fled their home of Velkwood St, leaving behind a literal ghost town encased in a sunny veil, trapping everyone who lives there inside. Only Talitha. Brett, and Grace are able to enter the neighborhood, and only Grace has in the last two decades. When an investigator trying to make his late ghost-hunting aunt proud approaches Talitha and offers her money if she’ll go home she decided to try it to see if she can somehow find her little sister, Sophie.

Switching between the outside world and Velkwood St, we get to see what happened twenty years ago and why everyone in the town stopped aging and seem to have no idea what’s happened. I wanted so badly to find out just HOW this happened, and how Talitha could break whatever curse had laid over the street. It was fast paced and has short, page turning chapters. I’d recommend this to fans of Stranger Things. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a hard copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Haunting in Velkwood is an erie and emotional ghost story about 3 girls who are the lone survivors of their ghost street. They are the only 3 who walked out of the barrier, and the only 3 who can go back in. We follow their journey and discover what happened that led to Velkwood Street becoming a Ghost Street so many years ago. I absolutely loved the character dynamics, and the glimpses of the past memories that put the puzzle together. This was a beautiful story that gave me all the Ling Hun by Ai Jiang and Stranger Things vibes. Highly recommend to those who want a unique kind of ghost story!! 💜👻

This is such a beautifully written and haunting story. THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD is heartbreaking, but also shows the power of women. I enjoyed the characters so very much and the way Kiste writes about monsters is.a terrifying gut punch. The human monsters in THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD shows that sometimes humans are scarier than the supernatural. A lot of to unpack and think about in this one. I highly recommend.

Thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free copy for review.

I devoured this book in two sittings. It's not a long book, only about 250 pages, but the pacing was excellent. Each chapter was crafted so I could feel the plot ramping up towards the end, then they would end on such that I would have to keep going. And not only that, but the character work was well done within the propulsive plot. The blend of external and internal was all crafted so well.

I don't fully understand the haunting, how the "magic system" actually worked in this novel, but that's not the point of the novel, so it really didn't both me too much. What mattered was Talitha and Brett; what it was about was letting go of your past and moving forward, and Kiste did such a good job with this theme.

I loved this so much I read it in a single night. A weird, unsettling, and highly original story about one of the scariest places of all — the suburbs. I loved the suburban gothic atmosphere, and the dynamic between Talitha and Brett was really compelling. Such a heartbreaking story, but ultimately kind of hopeful. I was left with a lot of questions, but not in a bad way. I think some mystery really worked with what this book was going for.

(As a side note, the Yellowjackets comparison in the publishers description is kind of odd to me. I was reminded more of The Haunting of Bly Manor, if that show was good.)

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Talitha, Brett and Grace made it out alive! They're whole neighborhood became the site for a famous haunting. Researchers are at the ready 20 years later to study and analyze.

This is unlike anything I have ever read and I liked it very much.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Saga Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free e-copy of The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste for review. While the novel revolves around the supernatural and excels at delivering a unique twist on it, at the center is a love story that is deeply melancholic. After encountering Talitha and Brett and their years-long plight in this neighborhood, I was rooting for a happy ending for them. The writing excels at delivering a wonderful character-driven world that is highly atmospheric and engrossing, which only serves to enhance the story and drive the plot further along. Through the excellent writing you get to see how Talitha and Brett were highly constricted in their agency and choices long before the supernatural came into play. The Haunting of Velkwood is an easy recommendation for lovers of gothic and ghost stories.

Thank you Saga Press #partner for the #gifted copy and @simon.audio #partner for the audiobook!
——
Twenty years ago, three friends left Velkwood street that turned into an invisible, haunting sheath impenetrable by nobody except the three friends. Grace went in once and came out traumatized and barricaded herself against humanity. Now it’s Talitha’s turn when a researcher approaches her. Talitha only agrees to go in to save her trapped little sister. Brett, the third friend, wants no part of it. Little does Talitha realize that by reentering the Velkwood Vicinity, she has to reckon with the very traumatic experiences that made her escape in the first place, so she can move forward.

Gwendolyn Kiste has now become my latest autobuy author! Haunted house tropes are my favorite but this book has not one but a street full of haunted houses with characters that lived in them, but also, they are analogies to the inherited familial and communal trauma that we carry from our childhoods and adolescence wherever we go. I also loved how the author portrayed the three friends’ individual coping mechanisms in moving forward with the choices they made. The entire story is melancholic and be prepared to cry in the final pages. However the ending is also optimistic.

If you loved 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙥𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙃𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 where haunted houses are channeling inner traumas, then you will love this book! I’m going to be thinking of The Haunting Of Velkwood for a while. Reading this story was a cinematic experience and I would love to see it being made into a movie.

I continue to be very impressed by Gwendolyn Kiste’s creativity and her ability to take traditional horror and ghost story themes and spin them into something new and unique.

I absolutely loved Reluctant Immortals, so I was really looking forward to this one. This proved to be a fun and intriguing read as well, this time more ghost story than updated gothic horror.

I loved the structure of this and how the story unfolded. Kiste does a lovely job of keeping things creepy and unsettling without ever veering off into ickiness or shock for shock’s sake.

Like many horror or horror adjacent novels this is in some ways a meditation on desperation and the desire to be seen, though what Kiste has done with that idea is very different from how it typically manifests in these types of books. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

This book was chilling and eerie and the haunting vibes were immaculate. I truly loved reading this. (Probably like a 4.5 rating, but rounded up to 5 because this was actually so good.)

An entire street disappears behind a veil of mystery and only the three girls who walked away from their sheltered hometown life can go back in - but there are too many questions. What lies on the other side of the shadowy perimeter? Do they even want to go back? And what happens if they do?

My unfiltered thoughts upon completing this book:
- I loved our main character her. Talitha has such a relatable attitude; she's likable but she has typical mc qualities that have her making questionable decisions.
- The ongoing mystery of what lies in the Velkwood Vicinity (I hate this name btw) was done SO WELL here. Like the creepy atmosphere of this ghost town/street was excellent. What's better than one haunted house?? A WHOLE STREET OF THEM!
- The dynamic between Talitha, Brett, Grace, and eventually Enid when we meet her is so interesting and I really loved the exploration into their friendships.
- Talitha and Brett's relationship journey was so well conveyed - from their childhood to adulthood and discoveries along the way, I truly loved them.
- Grace's twin brothers not having clear faces was SUPER creepy but also... the description of what they looked like is actually the perfect description for how I always visualize characters faces when I read soooo I actually loved that. Also they deserved to not have faces in my opinion (justice for Enid!)
- Why is every character named Enid just naturally super weird (at least in the eyes of everyone around them)?
- Jack is introduced as this semi-charismatic researcher man who I didn't end up totally hating by the end, so kudos for giving me a side male character who wasn't atrocious (I was worried he was going to turn into a selfish jerk at one point but we're all good)
- Sophie was so cute, I loved the child addition to throw in a different perspective on the whole thing.
- The changes to the mystery (surprise! sending people into a ghost town means that the ghost town is going to show subtle changes over time) added an extra element of urgency that had me not wanting to put the book down so I could find out what they were dealing with.

Minor spoilers:
- I kind of hated that it all came back to be focused around the asshole dad (like no sir you do not deserve to be the center of attention here, go away) - but also I get why this was because it wasn't just a family secret, it was a shameful secret of the whole street turning a blind eye to what he was doing.
- But also in regard to the asshole dad thing, I actually love that the root of the problem was someone not directly involved with the mc (yes, Brett was directly tied to Talitha, but most books would probably have the asshole dad be Talitha's dad to make it more direct, and I like that it was Brett's dad instead)
- Justice for Enid (again, in case you missed it above)

Just as Talitha Velkwood ventures back to her childhood home, Gwendolyn Kiste returns to familiar topics from her past works, exploring the traumas and abuses of youth, female friendships, and the ways in which our own personal histories continue to haunt, all set against the backdrop of an all too-familiar suburban gothic.

Talitha hasn't been home in twenty years. She spent her entire childhood seeking a way to escape, and was finally gifted that chance when her entire neighborhood was swallowed by a supernatural event. Only Talitha and her two closest (and now estranged) friends, Brett and Grace, made it out. When a researcher contacts her with the promise of money, Talitha is forced by circumstance to return. Her mother and sister still haunt their home, along with the other unfortunate families trapped within the timeless veil of the Velkwood Vicinity, and Talitha sees this an opportunity to not only fix things but to finally save her sister.

After passing through the veil and stepping into her own past, Talitha herself becomes the ghost haunting the homes she grew up and played in as her past and present begin to converge. Forced to deal with the violence and secrets of her and her friends' past, Kiste explores the thin line -- if such a line even exists -- separating past and present, and the ways in which one can influence the other.

The Haunting of Velkwood is a tender gothic focused on the exploration of Talitha and her history. Even outside the veil of the Velkwood Vicinity she's practically a ghost, perpetually in limbo as she floats from job to job, house to house, never building her own life or consecrating her present as she attempts to escape the past. By returning home, Talitha has no choice but to face the consequences of her past actions, exploring her old life, prior loves, and suburban secrets of sexual abuse and murder. There's no escaping the ghosts of our past, but the real question here is whether or not they can be conquered before they destroy us and those we hold dear.

Three friends leave their hometown, headed back to college, and receive the worst phone call imaginable. There are eight houses in their neighborhood, and everyone who lived there is gone. Not only have the residents vanished, but Velkwood Street refuses to allow anyone to enter.
That is except Talitha,Brett,and Grace,the three girls who got away. Talitha has drifted from one dead end job to another for 20 years. When a researcher tracks her down and offers her enough money to live on for a while, if she returns to that street, she says yes. But returning home comes with a steep price. She has finally found her little sister, looking the same as the last time she saw her. Are the resident somehow still alive or is Talitha just seeing the ghosts of what once existed.
It’s quite a mystery and deals heavily with the traumas these girls lived through growing up.Talitha convinces Grace and Brett into coming home too, as the three of them need to finish what they started on the night they left. A spooky and definitely creepy story, but I didn’t find it extremely scary.
I was sorry how it ended for some of the characters and happy for others. My first read by this author, and I’m definitely going to check out her backlist.

Twenty years ago, the Velkwood Vicinity became shielded behind a barrier that nobody could breach, except for three women who survived. Ever since, the ares has been investigated by paranormal researchers and documentary makers.

Talitha Velkwood, namesake of the little subdivision with eight houses, is approached by Jack to go back in and help him with his research. Having avoided anything to do with her childhood home, she reluctantly agrees. What will she find when she sets foot in her old neighborhood? Will the secrets the three have been harboring for the last 20 years finally come to light?

This slow burn tale was quite enjoyable. I liked Talitha and felt she and her two childhood friends were well fleshed out. I was quite intrigued by the plot and it kept me interested throughout the book. The book looks at the perils of suburban living and how people tend to "look the other way" so that their own skeletons don't see the light of day. I also liked how the subplot of Brett and Talitha unfolded, from their youth and understanding sexuality, through the end of the book. The only minor issue was some repetition, including the same adjective being used repeatedly. Overall, this is one thar I'll be thinking about for a while.

My thanks to Saga Press, author Gwendolyn Kiste, and NetGalley for gifting me a digital copy of this book. My opinions are my own.

The Haunting of Velkwood starts with a street that is haunted, with researchers trying to figure out why nobody can cross onto the block from the end of the street, and those that have feel sick. They have spent twenty years trying to learn more about the eight houses and the ghosts that still live in this impenetrable area and what events led up to the entire street being filled quarantined and with ghosts. The researchers have also tried for years to get one of the three survivors who escaped the street right before it turned into a ghost to go back into the haunted street for research purposes. Grace went back a few years earlier and has not been the same since. Brett has told the researchers there was no way she is going back. This leaves Talitha as their only option. Talitha has been drifting between dead end jobs and dead end boyfriends, not really doing much with her life but running from her past at Velkwood. When a researcher proposes money and the chance of saving her eight-year-old sister Sophie, who has been trapped in the area, she reluctantly agrees. 

Gwendolyn Kiste has appeared on a few podcasts in promotion of this novel (This is Horror and Dead Headspace are the ones I have listened to), and she has repeated on both that she was half way through writing the novel when she realized she was writing a novel about her history of struggling with her bisexuality. Kiste has feelings from her teenage years that are explored through the relationship of Talitha and Brett, and in the end, the haunting of Velkwood is really a love story, with Talitha and Brett being brought back together and the haunting of the street is about resolving the problems that they were running from as teenagers. 

I liked the story and the writing. I thought the premise was interesting, and I did enjoy the Velkwood Vicinity in the beginning with the researchers and the mysteries. It reminded me of the mysteries of The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, Once Talitha started going back to the street, the story shifted focus away from the area and more on the people inside of it. The story is good, but I did not attach to the teenage girls in the love story much. This story was not much for me, but there might be a young person reading and struggling with the same feelings as Talitha. This could be the story to encourage them to follow their heart. We could always use stories like this. 

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What if the past that is haunting you is an entire street? What if that street is haunting the entire country and not just you? Have no fear Gwendolyn Kiste has answered these questions with The Haunting of Velkwood. Twenty years ago, three teenage friends left town the same night everyone in their unambiguous neighborhood disappeared from society and essentially turned into ghosts. For years the world was captivated with the news of this mysterious impenetrable veil that surrounded the suburban street known as Velkwood. No one could get in and no one could come out. The fate of its residents and the cause of the disturbance was a complete unknown. The only people who could enter Velkwood were the three girls who made their escape with no intention of looking back. When a researcher asks the survivors to return home for scientific purposes only one girl will say yes, Talitha Velkwood. What then unfolds in the pages is haunting, mysterious and deep. This is not your everyday run of the mill gothic horror story, this is angering, heartwarming, spine tingling and psychological horror done right. The setting is pitch perfect with its delivery, it isn’t just a place and feeling, it is alive. The whole book throws off heavy 90’s movie vibes filled with biting social commentary and edgy personalities. I found this book to be nothing like what I expected it to be, and it smashed through my perceptions of what one can achieve in the gothic genre. This is a short quick read and is well written.

3.5/5

This book had such an interesting premise. A town lost to time, stuck between the living and the dead and only three people could come in and out. There was a good setup for a great creepy mystery, but there was just something that didn’t quite feel right in how the story unfolded. It felt very scattered to me, very unsure of what it was trying to say at first and then overbearing in its message with no subtlety later on. I wish it let the reader draw their own conclusions rather than the heavy handed way it presented all its ideas and morals.

A lot of the characters felt rather hollow too, more of stand-ins to fit a role rather than actual people. The whole research team and Jack felt like they were just there with no real purpose. The characters inside the town at least had a reason to feel hollow. In the end the only interesting characters were Talitha and Brett.

Overall I think there was a really cool idea here but it was not quite executed as well as it could have.

This book was mostly a miss for me. The writing was well done, but that was pretty much the only thing that I liked. I didn't think the characters were very interesting. They weren't very well developed, especially the side characters. But even the MC didn't feel like a fully fleshed out person and I couldn't connect to her at all. I also wasn't a big fan of the plot. There isn't really an explanation at the end about what's happening. It's kind of like "Oh, we did this magic thingy somehow and we don't know why but let's just get together and another magical thing will happen again!" I wanted more from the story than just bumbling around, hoping something happens. I also didn't like how the main conflict between the MC and another character is lack of communication. If these two characters acted their age and simply talked to each other half the conflict of the book would have disappeared. And that's not the kind of story I want to read. I want something more interesting than "I'm scared to tell her how I feel."

I don't think this is a bad book, but I wish the author had developed the story a little bit more and had a more interesting plot.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Book Review | THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD by GWENDOLYN KISTE

3⭐’s |  PUB DATE: 5 March 2024

Read if you're looking for:
- A strange event that caused a neighborhood to disappear many years ago, à la X-Files
- A beautifully written eerie & unsettling atmosphere
- A slow-paced meditation on trauma and loss
- Lots of ghosts & bugs


Our main character, Talitha, has been floating through life in a dead end job since her neighborhood back home blinked out of existence. A paranormal investigator approaches Talitha to help his team, as it seems only previous residents are able to enter the shimmering boundary of the ghostly neighborhood. With no other prospects and guilt about leaving her little sister behind in the neighborhood, Talitha accepts, and eventually convinces two other survivors, and old friends, to join her. As Talitha makes several journeys back into Velkwood Street, she begins to put together the pieces of how she might be able to save her sister, all the while trying to keep the true events of the night of the schism hidden from the researchers.

This book really caught my attention with the summary, the idea is really intriguing. And I was really hoping some super weird stuff going on in the old neighborhood. However, although this is categorized as a horror novel, it’s more paranormal, and Talitha has a lot of interactions with the ghosts of the neighborhood. This story is also more metaphorical, dealing with the “ghosts of the past” and revealing old traumatic events in order to process them and move on.

Kiste does an amazing job making the reader feel the creepy and mysterious atmosphere, and I loved the descriptions of the neighborhood. I also really enjoyed the romantic relationship that is built over the course of the story. However, the substance wasn’t quite there for me. There is a lot of repetition, of ideas and plot points. I think that this might have worked better as a novella, so that the pacing worked a little bit more. The dialogue and setting was well written, but the characters felt a touch flat to me. I would have liked to see a little bit of a deeper dive into the main characters. Overall, this was a well written ghost story, with amazing creepy atmosphere, but don’t go into it expecting a ton of action, as it is more of a meditation on trauma.

CW: Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence

NOTE: I received this ebook for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.