The Hungry Dark was one I could not seem to put down. I loved that it actually had a
paranormal aspect to it, without being cheesy or over done. The twists were great and it was spooky enough that you will be double checking shadows you see out of the corner of your eye. Definitely recommend!

The Hungry Dark by Jen Williams

Creepy scary compelling beginning to the story with the death of a young boy imminent had me thinking – I might really like this – only to then end up with a shyster family act preying on those who are grieving. As I got to know the Whitelaw family a bit better I kept hoping I might end up liking them…but never warmed to them. The tragic mother, rather dominant overbearing father, the brother that was and wasn’t there for Ashley and then Ashley… Ashley seemed lost and rather mired in nightmares resulting from a childhood event. She may have some paranormal skills – or not – she definitely sees things others do not.

I have to admit that I ended up skimming the book to get the gist of it and did not read it word for word. There were scenes that were dark and disturbing and characters that were worthy of fear and trepidation. There was a myth surrounding the Red Rigg House and its environs but I had trouble believing that those living there would truly buy into it and do what they did.

I am sure that many will love this story and yet either it was not the right time for me to read it or it was not a book meant for me. That said, thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane for the ARC – This is my honest review.

3 Stars

Games For Dead Girls was my favorite read of 2023 and Jen Williams’ newest thriller novel, The Hungry Dark, did not disappoint! The story follows “psychic” Ashley Whitelam and the children that are missing in the area of Green Beck. The story is atmospheric and chilling. I loved the supernatural elements and the twist at the end!

I highly recommend this book especially if you love to read atmospheric supernatural mysteries.

Thank you Crooked Lane Books for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

(This same review was shared on the Barnes & Noble website)

My thanks to Crooked Lane books, Jen Williams and Netgalley.
I've noticed how mixed the reviews are with this book, but I'm here to tell ya' that I kinda thought of this was the bomb-diggity!
As usual, I'm just going to let y'all know how I felt and not a review.
Okay! Ha! Just kidding.
I'm typing with 2 fingers and a thumb, and even if all my digits weren't encased in a god awful cast, and I wasn't high on painkillers.... I doubt I'd leave a coherent review!
Honestly? I was a bit weirded out by the heedless ones. Nobody needs that in their lives.
I liked everything about this story, except for the people. I just wanted the MC to get real. Being a breadwinner and also a stepping stool? Urgh! I'm
Still, I had a great time with this story. Honestly? The Heedless Ones were a bit freaky.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jen Williams and Crooked Lane Books for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This was a bit slower paced to start than I would have liked, but once it picks up - you are in for a wild ride. I loved the paranormal aspects of this one and the twists were phenomenal!

A spooky one that's not only a mystery but also a look at toxic family relationships. Yes, Ashley is a scam artist but she does have psychic abilities. This has haunted her throughout her life and now she's the one who found a child dead in the woods. She's not the villain but who is? She joins forces with Freddie, a pod caster to look for answers. I'm growing weary of the pod caster character in crime novels but Freddie is well drawn. I liked the setting (the Lake District!) and the story telling is good. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. No spoilers from me.

What is not to like? The scene is set under a large dooming fell in the Lake District, a charming little village next to it; an ancient curse and a mystery of disappearing children. To top it off, the main character - Ashley - is a bogus fortune teller with a very controlling family and a complicated history of her own. It made me hungry in the dark, gobbling up pages when I should have been sound asleep !

Ashley is a very likable character, despite being a despicable crook. She robs the grieving and mourning from their money who naively hope to get a message from their deceased loved ones, but she is mainly doing it to get love from her parents, something she has always been denied. She craves what she has always been missing and it is her way of getting some attention from the people who should have raised her to be an independent woman, but instead kept her being a child in order to line their own pockets. If anyone, I despised her parents way more than Ashley herself for her fraudulent behaviour.

The disappearing children and Ashley's involvement were very well narrated, and the side characters living in Green Beck were all very well portrayed. But the main character next to Ashley certainly was the house on Red Rigg fell, breathing and gurgling with its own life and history and as it turned out its own curse as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book as a whole and I will certainly keep the author on my radar, as she has a very fluent writing style and narrates a story just as I like it. I wish to express a heartfelt thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books and the author for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I freaking loved this book! It was fabulously eerie, dark, gruesome, thrilling and super suspenseful! The female protagonist was very likeable as was her partner in crime, some other characters not so much. The storyline is solid, told with alternating timelines, bringing it all together in a climatic end.

So if you're in the mood for something spooky and a little bit gory that will keep you in the edge of your seat, look no further!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an eARC of The Hungry Dark. Expected publication date 9/4/24.

Ashley Whitelam saw strange things as a child, things that no one else could see. Things she called the 'Heedful Ones'. As an adult, she works as a psychic. When children begin being murdered in horrific ways, she offers her services in exchange for free publicity. Soon the 'Heedful Ones' are back and Ashley finds the body of the last missing child.
The press goes into a feeding frenzy as the police look at her with suspicion in their eyes. She teams up with Freddie Miller, a podcaster covering the crimes. Is this place/town haunted? Is Ashley haunted as well?

I did enjoy the eerie and creepy vibe in this book. I couldn't help but visualize the 'Heedful Ones' as looking like dementors (from Harry Potter). I like the spooky feel that they provided to the book. I also enjoyed the look at psychics and how they operate. Plus, the setting provided an atmospheric read.

I had both the e-book and audiobook versions on The Hungry Dark and thought the narrator of the audiobook did a good job. Having said that, this book felt unnecessarily long and slow at times. I found my attention wavering and myself turning to other books.
Others have enjoyed this book more than I did, so please read their reviews as well to determine if this is the right book for you.

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this one! It was a slow burn thriller that kept me intrigued. Will definitely look for more books by this author.

A slow-burn thriller, with a very promising premise. I really enjoyed the supernatural elements and found the writing solid. I'll keep an eye out for more from this author!
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC to read and review.

A mystery with supernatural horror elements, full of delicious creepiness, this is the story of Ashley. She makes a living as a medium, even though she’s a fraud. But then she starts seeing dark figures that no one else can perceive. She used to be able to see them when she was a child, but it stopped until now. Ashley’s brother volunteers her as a police medium, thinking it will bring her publicity. What nobody expects is for Ashley to discover that she may have some supernatural abilities after all. There are several mysteries to solve. What happened when Ashley was a child that helped her survive a devastating fire? Who has been murdering children in gruesome ways? What are the mysterious specters that she’s been seeing and are they good or evil? Ashley is likable and relatable. She is also weak, and the evolution of her character is very well thought out. The plot is unpredictable and full of twists. Entertaining.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, #NetGalley/#Crooked Lane Books.

I quite enjoyed this book because it isn’t part of a standard genre. The premise is quite straightforward but the continuing story leads the reader into a different perspective - which is quite refreshing. Im not going to give away the details of the story but there are parts that make you want to read more …. Never a bad thing in a book! The characters are all very believable and well researched and I was drawn to a number of then, even if I didn’t particularly like them. A sign of a good writer. I’ll look out for more books from Jen Williams as I'm sure she’s got a great career ahead of her.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own

I'll be honest it was the psychic who saw figures that sold me. The story did not disappoint, although it did run a bit slow. If you like a mystery/thriller give the Hungry Dark a try.

The Hungry Dark by Jen Williams was a thriller that ended up taking me quite by surprise. To start, it’s quite the slow burn so I found myself uncertain about how I felt initially, whether I was going to get into it, and wondering if it would ever pick up the pace. But then, without my even clueing in to it, I was suddenly hooked and it became the kind of thriller that kept me up late reading because I needed to see where the story, and in particular the mystery, went.

The Hungry Dark tells the tale of Ashley, a spirit medium by trade, forced by her father to scam people of their money with fake messages from their dead love ones. Her entire life has been run by her father and his greed for money and this is the majority of the life she has known. So when an opportunity arises to work with the police to find a missing boy, Ashley’s father pushes her to do so only seeing the benefit of the publicity it will gain them. But when she actually finds the missing boys body, things grow a bit more complicated as she finds herself enmeshed in the Gingerbread House murders and a personal need to continue investigating them to find answers.

There were a number of elements to this book that really turned it into a page turner when I was initially so uncertain. It was the set up of the story with Ashley’s rather unlikeable family and line of work that had me struggling a bit in the beginning. Not to mention how unlikeable it made Ashley as a character herself. However, as the story opened up more, so did the sympathy generated for her character and the tough situation she is in because of her domineering family and it’s easier to see more where she’s coming from. Not just this however, as very spooky elements are introduced such as The Heedless Ones, and the air of the murders themselves take on a more horror-esque tone which really sucked me into the story.

There are also flashbacks to a very traumatic event from her childhood which play out slowly in chapters here and there breaking up the main story. Again, I initially really struggled with the flashbacks because I didn’t get the point and found it kind of a boring segue from the main story, but once it really got going and the story of her past started going somewhere it got very interesting and make more sense. So eventually I got hooked on the past part of the story as well and was intrigued to see where it was going.

All together, though I found it had a slow start and took some time to really hook my attention, I did end up enjoying The Hungry Dark by Jen Williams. In particular, the investigation into a slew of murders to uncover a serial killer, and the horror elements that had this book rife with a creepy, chill inducing atmosphere, really were highlights for me. If you have the patience, I definitely think this book is worth a read.

I just couldn't get into this one fully. I DNF'd around 70% and I really tried to push through. The whole psychic/police dynamic is overdone and everything seemed to trod along instead of a faster paced thriller. It was well written which is why I gave it 2 stars.

I wasn't expecting to love this this much. Our girl is scamming people by pretending to be a psychic. I can't even be mad because she is offering people comfort. It is victimless crime pretty much. Maybe. Anyway, it isn't her idea. Her domineering dad controls her life even though she's in her 30s..This makes it a story for my generation.
She also sees spirits or ghouls called the "heedful ones". She keeps this a secret after being shamed about it as a child. They are absolutely horrid. They've been gone for a while but while she is out helping the police find a body, using her fake powers, she sees them and they lead her to a dead child. She is traumatized now and seeing other things.
She ends up meeting a fine american man who wants her to help with his podcast. He must be charming because she agrees.
Also we get flashbacks to her childhood where she was sent to a camp after winning a scholarship. At this camp she meets her super rich best friend.
There is a lot to this book. It is complex.
Also I LOVE Freddies reaction to the time he spent at the ER.
I don't want to reveal anything that might be a spoiler or ruin the story but just know that it gets better and better.

This had a slow start, but once I got into it I enjoyed it. I had some ideas as to who the culprit was, but I was wrong so kudos to the author for that! I would purchase future books by this author. Thanks for the opportunity to read!

I struggled with this one. The pace was too slow for the genre. I never really connected with, or liked, any of the characters. The premise was good, but it fell flat in the execution.

Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. It's a slow moving, atmospheric novel. It was pretty easy to work out who the killer was early on, but I kept reading to find out the reason behind it. My full review appears on Weekend Notes.