Title: The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn
Publication Date- 03/05/24
Publisher- Saga Press
Overall Rating- 3 out of 5 stars (DNF @ 50 percent)

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this novel, give it a chance you may like it. Let’s talk about some of the good things. It’s a very unique story, with diverse characters, and a sci-fi feeling without being too in depth. You might like this book if you like fever dream stories, I do not so that is a me problem. Essentially our main character is going back and forth between two worlds after her neighborhood disappeared and in ways turned into a ghost. I did like that the neighborhood was it’s own character but with this and many other things I wish we would have gotten more about that. More detail, more description, a lot of the story felt rushed but not fast paced. When she travels back to her neighborhood the world is different and described as almost having a yellow tinted film over it. I just don’t enjoy fever dream stories very much so I will own that.

I think I could have pushed through and finished if we would have gotten more from the characters and if the story didn’t feel so rushed. You can tell the author has a lot of potential and really wonderful and unique ideas. I would have loved it if we went back and forth in time to be able to connect with the past more. Granted, I didn’t finish the novel so I imagine there is a lot I’m missing here and maybe these things show up in the latter half. The main character is in her 40’s and just didn’t feel like she was written that way. I felt like we were living in her early college years, she didn’t show a lot of emotional maturity or wisdom I would hope for in a mature character.

Again, I truly think this author has a lot of potential and I hope they will continue to publish books. We need more LGBTQ representation across genres. This is not a bad book and worth giving it a shot. I just can’t justify pushing through when I’m not connected to the characters and their story. I was also at times, a little put off by some of the wording and interactions between characters that felt immature. All in all I feel like a 3 star rating sums up my experience with the first half.

A ghost story for people who are underwhelmed by the usual ghost story. A rift in reality creates a rift in existence for Talitha. Her neighborhood suddenly disappeared one night after she and her friends, Brett and Grace, returned to college. The Velkwood Vicinity holds the remains of the street named after Talitha's family, along with her sister, mom, and secrets. Talitha longs to return to her little sister, but is her sister still there? Travel back to Velkwood with Talitha and Brett to find out what happens when you try to return to ghosts.

This book was super interesting and at no point did I know what direction it was going to go in (which I love). The writing was very good and the underlying themes were great. I did have a hard time connecting with the character though and found a lot of her actions questionable or annoying. Some elements also felt a bit underdeveloped. I wish we got more from Grace, Enid, and Brett. And some stuff felt a bit repetitive. This story just was not as strong as I found the author's previous work to be, but I will still recommend it to people who want to read a unique ghost story.

This was one of the best haunted house stories I have ever read, and I read a lot of them. I need to compose my thoughts better to make a post on social media, but this was fantastic. Beautiful prose, a heartbreaking plot that somehow still ends as happily as it possibly can. I was hooked from the first few pages and I could NOT put it down. Thank you so much for the arc!

I loved this! It was so original and hit so many different areas. There was horror, there was family drama, there was sci-fi.

Quick Synopsis: Talitha used to live on a "haunted street" called Velkwood. Her and her four friends left before the street just up and vanished. Of course, this is now brought up and being reinvestigated via documentaries etc.. Great blurb, right? Yes!!! Nope not giving any more away

What I liked: this touched upon every genre possible, and I could not put this down. It held my attention from page 1. This is a very short book and while i feel it filled those pages, I wanted more on the history of the street and Enid. That would have been awesome to delve into those two areas.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

The Haunting of Velkwood ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5 stars)

What Worked:
- Visually, Kistie was able to weave a story that had many moments I could see perfectly. Like, Sophie playing with her horses and the neighborhood’s physical grasp on the survivors and the boundary around it.
- The premise was creative, which piqued my interest and made me want to see what was going to happen next.
- I always love a good queer storyline. The author did a great job of adding many layers of complications (past and present) to make it feel like an integral and important part of the story.

What Didn’t Work:
- I didn’t really love Talitha as a character. Though we got to see some of her backstory and context for the choices she made, I found myself feeling a bit exasperated with her. On the other hand, characters like Brett and Enid shined the whole way through and I found myself very invested in their stories.

Recommendations/Final Thoughts:
- If you’re looking for a book that isn’t TOO scary, but has a unique and interesting premise, this is the book for you. You’ll get a good dose of how things rooted in real life, rather than the paranormal or unexplained, can truly be the scariest things of all.

An original and creepy story that looks at how secrets can destroy our lives. I really loved the creepy paranormal aspect to this tale.

Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for the opportunity to read and review The Haunting of Velkwood from Gwendolyn Kiste. All opinions are my own.

This was a very unique story about a possible haunting of an entire small town/street. It appears that 20 years ago something resembling a fog/mist/dome/wall has segregated a street of houses from the rest of the world. Many individuals and organizations have studied it, but no real progress has been made. Only three young women escaped including our main character Talitha and her two close friends. All their loved ones were left behind to become possible ghosts. Velkwood does not allow anyone to enter except those three same women. A researcher has contacted Talitha to go in and investigate. Will she? What will she find? Are her family ghosts, alive, or simply gone?

This book was very interesting in that I've never read anything quite like it. It's very atmospheric, creepy, with a gothic feel. The characters are haunted by their pasts and moving on without their families for the last 20 years. If you would like to read more pick up your copy of The Haunting of Velkwood on March 5th. Happy reading!

This book was so CREEPY. It was exactly what I was craving, and I think I read it at just the right time. The book was spooky and eerie, and Ioved learning more about Velkwood and the characters' histories. Definitely [ick this up if you are looking for something haunting.

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for granting me an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book!

Velkwoodwood is tainted, a neighborhood of ghosts. It disappeared behind a veil 20 years ago. It is only accessible by three women, who are too terrified to return.

This book is a mix of pseudo-science and paranormal. It is a journey through a traumatic past to discover what happened to the neighborhood. I loved the creepy atmosphere. I loved the writing style of the author. I loved how she showed the horror in everyday life. I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Saga Press Books for an ARC copy of the book.

BOOM! MIND BLOWN! This book is full of eerie, spooky, creepy goodness. I started reading it before bed and I was so enthralled that I didn't realise the time until I noticed light coming through my window.

Amazing read from Gwendolyn Kiste! I had never read this author before but had heard so much about her from other readers and through her wins at the Stoker Awards, so finally getting to read some of her fiction was amazing and I was not disappointed at all. An easy 4.5 star read and I look forward to reading more from her!!

Hauntingly beautiful gothic-esque horror about three childhood friends who narrowly escape a gruesome fate when their neighborhood gets turned into ghosts. No one can enter except for them and when they do, the darkness is beckoning. Twenty years later, two of our characters yearn for their loved ones left behind and the grief completely swallows their lives. When Talitha is approached by a scientist trying to do research on the paranormal phenomenon that is now known as the Velkwood Vicinity, she reluctantly agrees.

Where are my grief horror people at? Because hello, this book is for you. While this is very dark and eerie, I was hoping for more of a horror element but it leaned more towards paranormal suspense. Regardless, thoroughly enjoyable and incredibly unique. On the shorter side, which I personally liked. Highly recommend if you’re a fan of the genre.

The Haunting of Velkwood by @gwendolynkiste this book will be published March 05, 2024. This story is part ghost hunters sprinkled with some grief and mystery elements. There is a bit more going on than what it seems at the very beginning.

This is my second read of Kiste's work, and I loved this one almost as much as I loved "Reluctant Immortals." There's a haunted street that is frozen in the past, and our characters are tasked with figuring it out and saving their trapped loved ones. There's a ton of emotional ties in this one that will punch you in the chest (make sure you read the trigger warnings), but I couldn't put this one down. Highly recommend for fans of bizarre connections between people and places.

Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press Books for an advanced copy of this ebook.

The Haunting of Velkwood is about a suburb, where this bizarre phenomenon happened and years of investigation have led to no explanations. The street was suddenly somehow separated from the rest of the world, and everyone inside was trapped, stuck at that specific point in time, neither dead or alive. Anyone who entered the suburb that were not originally from there end up dying/disappearing. The night everything changed, three young women were able to escape, and have went on to lead very different lives from one another. Roughly twenty years later, a researcher contacted the women and wanted them to go back to their suburb in exchange for compensation, since they are the only ones able to move between the two spaces seemingly without dying (and he and his colleagues wanted to study them). Eventually one of them agrees, because she wants answers for what happened to her mom and sister.

There were a lot of different themes going on within this book: dealing with grief from loss, acceptance of who you are as a person, regardless of what everyone else may think, and how to move on from trauma. The tone was very ominous and creepy, especially when the women were back in their homes. It felt claustrophobic and hopeless, very well written. This wasn't a very scary or overly violent book either, I felt like it was more of an emotional read and I was welling up with tears by the end of it. I really enjoyed this, although it wasn't quite what I expected. It honestly kind of made me think of the movie The Sixth Sense - not necessarily the plot, but just how the ghosts in that movie interacted with people and the feeling they gave throughout.

Thank you @simonandschuster @sagapressbooks for the #gifted copy of this e-arc!

This author is new to me and for sure one I am telling you to check out if you’re a horror fan. Once again I’ll say it…I am super picky when it comes to horror and I LOVED this one!

In this spooky story we visit an entire haunted neighborhood. One that many years ago on night the entire neighborhood turned into ghosts. All except for 3 people who managed to get out. Many years later the survivors are called back to the scene to help a researcher understand scientific evidence about what happened to the people that lived in the Velkwood neighborhood. Talitha, one of the survivors, agrees to help him as she desperately needs money 💰 and thinks this is the chance to help. What could possibly go wrong?

I loved the scientific part of this book and seeing what happened as Talitha visited the neighborhood each time. The idea that the “Velkwood Vicinity” was left to sit abandoned and rot as the rest of the world moved on. I thought it was neat that as she entered the neighborhood it’s almost as if she entered a portal where time warped and energy and life was zapped! This was such a uniquely creepy idea for a book. The setting felt mysterious, hair raising, ghostly, eerie and bone chilling. I could envision Talitha “crossing over” each time and envisioned the change in energy and scenery. Almost like watching a colorful movie switch to black and white! This book is THE perfect book for creepy season! Add this one to your TBR if you’re looking for a one of a kind ghost story!

20 years after their entire street disappeared, Talitha and her fellow survivors are pulled back toward the haunting remnants of their home. Researchers for decades have been completely stumped on the infamous "Velkwood Vicinity", and now with Talitha's return, will they finally get their answers?

All I can say is just, WOW! The concept of this story alone is fantastic, such an interesting take on haunting stories. The story starts off very quickly, and while it is a bit confusing at the start for that reason, the context and background information begins to make its appearance rather quickly. I found it really neat to read a fast-paced, gothic, haunted house story - they usually tend to creep along slowly, and this was a nice change! It sucks you in from the very start.

I truly felt for Talitha. She is far from forthcoming and is incredibly guarded, but as the story progresses we find that she has a very good reason to be guarded. The interactions between her and Brett, as well as the hardships they had endured, pulled at my heartstrings. I could feel their pain about their distance and it was heart-wrenching. There were a couple of aspects of the characters and their interactions that bothered me, such as Talitha's stubbornness and inability to open up, but honestly they're necessary features to show off her character development - which is phenomenal! Also, I was so thrilled to see LGBTQ+ representation! It isn't nearly as common as I would like in the horror/gothic genre, and I absolutely loved how it was incorporated in this book.

All around, this was a fantastic story that will pull you in from the jump. The characters are easy to love, the atmosphere is incredibly unsettling and creepy, and the concept is fascinating - all around a super enjoyable read. Thank you to the wonderful Saga Press for this eARC!

This is a tale of regrets, loss, and secrets that explores these themes within a frightening and unique ghost story.

In this novel, a small subdivision of eight homes is haunted. Not just the houses but that whole area. For twenty years it's been the subject of the government, paranormal teams, and scientific research. All to no avail nor answers because nobody can enter the area. The area won't allow it.

But this area is named after the Velkwood family and our protagonist is the daughter of the namesake. When a researcher convinces her that she can "get through" the ghostly barriers to explore her former home, she reluctantly agrees. But she was there twenty years earlier when something happened to cause this haunting. Now the question is, once she goes in can she get out and, if so, at what price?

As the book progresses, we'll learn of horrible and heartbreaking secrets about this neighborhood and other characters. These secrets have changed the characters, molded them into who they are now and not in a good way.

But going inside the haunted area has it's own risks. And some secrets can be deadly.

I loved this concept of a haunted neighborhood. The atmosphere is exceptionally creepy and some of the things that happen within that area are terrifying and often heart wrenching.

And once things start to be revealed it all begins to lead to a particular gruesome event and the consequences of that event.

This is a book you won't want to put down and I highly recommend it.

I am so thankful to Saga Press, Gwendolyn Kiste, and Netgalley for granting me advanced digital access to this twisty horror before it hits shelves on March 5, 2024. I couldn't put this one down, and neither will you, dear readers.

When the people of Velkwood Street go missing 20 years ago without a trace and what's left of the neighborhood bars outsiders from coming in, plaguing them with blackouts and connectivity interference, the whole world is left baffled, making it the top occultist-favorite, late-night-special town. Three girls were able to escape, however, and now, all this time later, they're going back, with the funding of a non-profit, to find answers on why this mysterious town is still standing, but the people who lived there are now gone and ghosts.

Talitha Velkwood is the star of the neighborhood. She leaves behind her next-to-nothing rental home and deadbeat jobs to search for her baby sister, who was left behind in their childhood home the night everyone vanished. Every time she ventures into the town, she's faced with mind-bending side effects and a time hangover like no other.

The people of Velkwood Street can't see her, but she can see them, leaving her pining for explanations and further guidance from the non-profit's scientists and her fellow friends, Brett and Grace. So it's a call to them to get them on-site to help solve the mystery before it's too late for those who travel in between worlds because, oh yeah, the side effects are life-threatening.

Twist after twist, you'll be playing detective trying to figure out what's going on. I promise this one doesn't disappoint.