I loved The Nightmare Man. I gave it all the stars, and I went into Mister Lullaby with eager anticipation, ready for more. Unfortunately, it just didn't grab me the way TNM did. I gave it a solid try, reading to the 33 percent mark, but that's where I left off. It just felt disjointed, and there were some aspects of the story that I just wasn't able to connect with. Thinking that it might come together, I gave it longer than I initially thought that I would after a description of animal violence, which is a hard stop for me. Thanks for the opportunity to review, and I will be eagerly awaiting J.H. Markert's next book.

Boy oh boy! Where do I even start? This book had me hooked from the beginning. There is a place we go when we dream, some say that’s where coma patients are. It’s like an opposite reality from ours. But there are secrets over there in lala land. You can’t always recall dreams you’ve had for that reason. And if you do bits and pieces seem well, out of sorts and unrealistic so of course it was a dream, right?, Coma Patience are being killed and no one knows why. is it because what is on the other side fears that if they come back, they will spread word to the others that what they saw was real that what they saw existed? When I say this book is a wild ride, that is an understatement. Hooked from beginning to end and I am the type of person who really wants closure. This book brings about an epic battle from two sides, our world and La La Land and with that said you would expect an epic conclusion however, that is not what happened and for me that immediately makes me want to give this book a one star rating, however, not sure if there will be a second to continue on where this book left off, because I feel like the ending of an epic battle. Should take up just as much time as the buildup to get to the battle which would require an entire book entirely, and it would be well-deserved. And I would totally be first in line to read it. I sometimes wish there was a way to look up whether or not there’s going to be a second book before you request but unfortunately, if that option exist, I am unaware of how to use it or where it is located, I wish I could be on some kind of watchlist for this book specifically to see if a second book would be released. I am not going to let my personal feelings of how this book ended get in the way of me giving it a good review anyway although, as I said, I am a person who needs closure and if you feel that way, please know this is a great book and it will keep you completely captured, fascinated, and enthralled page after page until it gets to the end and I was angry I was upset I needed to know if people were OK I needed to know what happened with the town I needed to know what happened with the characters that I fell in love with over the mini pages of this book my fellow readers that did not happen. So I will be on the lookout for a second book, and I certainly hope that that is something that this author plans to do in the future. Thank you to NetGalley. Thank you to Dreamscapes media for allowing me access to this audiobook and totally breaking my heart lol just kidding. but really?

This cover is so creepy and glorious. I had to have this after Markert’s last book, The Nightmare Man, left me with just that, NIGHTMARES! I couldn’t recommend it enough. But with this one, I felt like it fell short for me. Maybe I had too high expectations, but it felt a little too procedural for me. It was a little all over the place and the characters weren’t very likable. I wanted to love it, and will definitely rush to read whatever is next for this author. This one, unfortunately just didn’t work for me.

WHAT WAS THAT ENDING?! Is there going to be a sequel?! I’m so upset, clearly 😂
What a wild ride. Very unique premise and I loved it. It was a little difficult to keep track of all the characters via audio, though.

I believe this book is intended as a standalone, but it's definitely something to read after Nightmare Man. Chilling, scary even in daylight, brutal, with interesting characters you genuinely understand or full on hate. I think Markert intends to fully replace and outdo Freddy Krueger as our reason for not wanting to fall asleep. Imagine everyone everywhere's worst nightmare boogeyman, and then imagine them loose in society, and a bunch on a road trip in a crazy bus on their way to your town. Egad, what a nightmare!

This is a novel about nightmares. Nightmares that come to life to terrorize the small town Harrod’s Reach. Mister Lullaby is the follow up to The Nightmare Man, but can completely be a standalone. There are small connections between the two books, but they do not effect the story. While The Nightmare Man is the beginning of the nightmare, Mister Lullaby is the horrific aftermath.
The only issue I have with this fantastic novel is that the ending was way to abrupt. It feels like there could be another novel regarding nightmares from Mr. Markert. I certainly hope so.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this audio e-arc.*

dnf at 41%.

I really wanted to like this audiobook, but the pacing was completely off for me. This book is over 12 hours long and I just can't believe at about 5 hours nothing had happened yet...

On top of the book dragging, I couldn't connect to any of the characters, and there are a ridiculous amount. We kept jumping through timelines and pov's that it was beginning to be a chore to keep track of who was who.

This could have been such a fantastic read if it had been much shorter and less confusing. The premise was amazing and creepy. It's exactly what you want in a horror novel, but unfortunately it just didn't work out.

I don’t know if I have any logical reason for not being in love with this. Sometimes a story just doesn’t have a distinctive flavor, even if it has all of the right ingredients.

And it really does seem to have the right ingredients. Perhaps it was over mixed? Needed more seasoning? I don’t know. Enough with the recipe analogy.

The first few lines of this novel were eerie and inviting. The characters were meticulously crafted. The story was thoroughly developed and the plot followed a unique path.

I should be in love, right?

I simply never felt especially on fire for Mister Lullaby. It was immersive enough to commit to, but I do think the build was a bit too slow for my liking. The story is pretty gruesome, which isn’t my favorite thing, but I’ve loved some brutal books so I’m not sure this truly factors into my overall opinion. And while there were many unsettling aspects, some of it felt a little corny to me. I especially struggled with the narrative surrounding Belinda.

Those are logical reasons for a three star rating, right? Maybe my original statement is incorrect.

I will say that although the ending didn’t affect my final rating, I didn’t like it very much. It’s hard to enjoy a conclusion that feels so rushed, especially after enduring the slow path that led up to it.

I am immensely grateful to Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for my copy. All opinions are my own.

Mister Lullaby is the follow up to The Nightmare Man, but can completely be a standalone. There are small connections between the two books, but they do not effect the story. While The Nightmare Man is the beginning of the nightmare, Mister Lullaby is the horrific aftermath. There are more hellish characters, actually a bus load of them, that invade small town lives. These nightmare characters really deserve their own books, maybe follow up novellas, so we can get more of their background. With so many different killing specialties, and their bizarre personas, I feel like it’s reminiscent of RL Stine’s books. I would be down with each one getting a tiny paperback story, with a vintage cover.
I read this book as an audiobook, and couldn’t be more happy with it. There is male and female narrators, which bring the book to life. At some points they interact with each other, giving that real life feel to the story. Both narrators really took on the darkness of the book, and the struggle of the characters. The only thing that would have made it better, would have been music and sound effects! Lol
I’m not happy with the ending. First of all, I’m not happy it ended at all! I could have kept going, the story isn’t done. It was very abrupt, almost like running into a closed door. I don’t know if there is another book expected, but I feel like there could be. I mean, there will always be access to the nightmares, you just have to know how to let them out..

This book took a lot of excellent horror concepts and melded them into a unique, captivating story. I've always been a fan of horror... not for the blood and gore or the spookiness... but for the story. The triumph of good over evil... or the occasional success of the bad guy... all of the emotions and plot that come to the inevitable peak when the two forces come to a head at the end of the book.
This one read like a mini-series instead of a cohesive story. You never fall in love with any of the characters due to the number of them, but this would make a great multi-episode tv show. I really look forward to this story being taken down different avenues.
Go figure that the author is a screenwriter. lol.
I would suggest that there be a medical professional review the book before publishing, as there are a few inaccuracies in that area.

A twisty, creepy, disturbing horror that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Mister Lullaby is unique fusion of psychological suspense and supernatural horror, offering a thought-provoking exploration of the human psyche in its most vulnerable state. This takes you on a haunting journey into the depths of the unknown and will definitely creep you out for long after putting the book down. Multiple POVs keep you guessing and trying to connect the various stories.
While I'm more of a thriller girl over horror, I enjoyed this.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ALC!

Mister Lullaby is a classic horror that starts to answer the question: where do nightmares come from?

I found my self so drawn to the idea of this story and what it contained, there’s serial killers, a cursed tunnel and people going missing. Unfortunately, this book tries to do too much and loses a lot of the impact it could have had. There was almost too much plot and so much got jumbled. There were unnecessary characters, strange plot lines that went nowhere and so much inner drama between characters that didn’t add to the story. Not to mention, the ending (?)…. was it an ending? It ended so abruptly after all the build up of nightmares coming to life and the town in flames… it was so unsatisfying. I went back a few times to see if I missed something! Nope! That’s the end!

There was so much potential with this book and if it was a more concise telling – it would have been a great horror! Unfortunately for me it was just a disappointment.

I was lucky enough to have both the ebook and audiobook for this one so I listened along as I read. What a twisted disturbing tale this was! It took time to come together (be patient starting out!) but the story really got going after midway. I don't easily get scared by books but there definitely was an eerie element to this one. I do hope there is another book in the works as the ending was not what I'd hoped for and I need answers!

DNF at around 50% through the book. I really wanted to like this book, the premise was so intriguing…but alas me and the story just didn’t get along. I was pretty confused the entire time, finding it hard to distinguish between the different Pov’s and even what the story itself was.

I do think If I were to read it physically, I’d have an easier time of understanding what was going on, but I’m still pretty sure I wouldn’t have enjoyed it. I found myself dreading picking the audiobook back up to read and just had to accept that me and this book needed to break up.

I’m positive that this book has a perfect reader out there, but sadly that wasn’t me. I feel the same way about Stphen Kings’ work, so if you’re a fan of his I’d recommend to try this one out!

Big thanks to Netgalley, Dreamscape Media, and the Author J.H Markert for allowing me to listen to an audio-arc of this novel!

SO GOOD!!

Mister lullaby brings all the horrific lullabies you may have heard as a kid to life in haunting gory ways.

I loved the characters, and how it jumped from character to character adding more layers to the story!

The ending is VERY open which is slightly annoying but I am keeping hope that we may be able to get a second book set in Lala land!

make sure to check this one out when it comes out next year!! it's sure to keep you up at night!

Thank you Netgalley, J.H. Markert as well as Dreamscape Media for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review!
Edit Review

This one had some stand out moments and I specifically liked the creative descriptions of the realm of nightmares called "Lalaland."

However, I had a difficult time keeping all the characters straight with the alternating POVs and would have loved to have seen that streamlined a bit. I also had a hard time connecting with the storyline and being invested. It just didn't feel like a book I wanted to pick up or was excited to get to and was a little disjointed at times.

I ended up abandoning Nightmare Man so maybe if I finish that I would be more connected with this? I think they go together.

I did like the narrators used in the audio and that a woman voiced the female POVs and a man voiced the male. It was nice to have it switched like that and created a more dynamic storytelling experience.

I feel rather torn between pure love and slight disappointment. Let me explain why. This might be one of the best books I have ever read. I was completely captivated by ever single page. Mister Lullaby combined horror and fantasy in a way that made my heart race and my palms sweat. From the unique characters to the rich and creepy world building, I was blown away. I could read this over and over and get chills every time. But the ending. If this was going to be a series I wouldn't have minded the ending, but from what I see this is only a standalone. The ending left quite literally every question and concern I had unanswered. Knowing I'll never have the answers I want is very disappointing. But that doesn't make this book any less amazing somehow. Here's to hoping the author decides to continue this story eventually because I need more.

Thank you to Dreamscape media and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 3.5/5 Stars

This review is a hard one for me to write because this is a book I both really enjoyed but also didn't enjoy it. This one pains me to not give a 5 star rating to, but hey, honest reviews are what its all about right? Anyway, lets jump into the review.

Mister Lullaby is a story taking place in Harrods Reach where there was a tunnel that had previously been closed up due to past instances of harm begins to cause more issues. This story is told in multiple points of view, which I usually tend to love, however in this case it was actually really hard for me to connect with any of the characters because of how often the POV was switched. I feel like it was but wasn't easy to follow, mainly because of the constant shifting of narration, I found myself questioning who was who and how exactly they relate to this story. Mister Lullaby is also told in multiple timelines which I had no issues with, I actually enjoyed finding out how the timelines collided.

This was an extremely slow burn in my opinion, which is never really an issue for me, but I felt like the entire time I just wanted to know more about Mister Lullaby and LaLaLand. I felt like there was a lot more character building going on when all I wanted was world building, which in the end is totally a me problem. The writing itself is absolutely impeccable, to the point where J. H. Markert and his stories remind me of Stephen King, which I am a huge fan of. There are plenty of oddities within this story that I was so down with and the horror aspects and the gore in this one are on point! There were certain twists that were put in there that definitely threw me for a loop and I very much enjoyed them.

The concept of this one is so unique and spectacular that I literally couldn't stop reading and/or listening but it was just lacking something for me, and if I'm being honest, I still haven't been able to pinpoint what exactly. This book is definitely creepy as fuck, though I wouldn't say that I was ever actually scared, but it still had a pretty good shock value to it, especially with tying in the lullabys. I will say though the tie in of Nightmare man to this one was *chefs kiss​* absolutely genius and I loved it so so so so so much. The ending was pretty abrupt and I kind of expected more out of it, which leads me to believe there will be another book coming out, which if that's the case - hell yeah I'll be reading it.
I listened to this one via audiobook while reading the eARC. The narrators were David Bendena; Lauren Ezzo and they did a great job at bringing this one to life and really made this story extra creepy with their narration. Definitely recommend listening to this one.
Overall this wasn't my favorite, though I definitely enjoyed it. Will I read more of Markert's work as it's published? ABSOLUTELY, especially if there is a continuation of this story. I'm definitely recommending this one to all of my horror fans out there, I think this is definitely going to be one that people are going to love.

Huge thank you to NetGalley, J. H. Markert, Dreamscape Media and Crooked Lane Books for the eARC and ALC in exchange for my honest review. Mister Lullaby releases on 11/21 - be sure to check it out.

When Nightmares come to life!

There is an old, abandoned train tunnel in Harrod’s Reach, it’s a sinister tunnel that has seen its fair share of danger. A young boy is injured in the tunnel and bodies have been found outside of its entrance. It has become a real nightmare for the townspeople.

The young boy, Sully, who is injured is in a coma but wakes up just long enough to give a message saying “Run"! Sully has been trapped in Lalaland while in his coma! Lala what, you ask. Lalaland is a place where others in comas are trapped with the evil creatures of sleep. Sully with the others like him are fighting to keep the evil creatures from entering the waking world.

Teddy was never like the other children. He has growths on his head that he tries to keep hidden. He begins hearing the voice of Mr. Lullaby telling him to act by killing coma patients.

This was a dark and sinister tale that is not for the faint of heart. It is imaginative and does have strong Stephen King vibes. I had both the book and the audiobook and found myself listening to the audiobook more as I enjoyed the narration.

The book is slow to build and has many characters (mainly creepy), different timeframes, and an uneasy feel. I didn't find this book to be scary, but it is creepy, horrific and dark. Like other reviewers, I found the ending to be a little abrupt. I'm assuming the author is planning on another book.

While I enjoyed this book, I wasn't blown away by it. But I did enjoy the atmosphere, the sinister vibe, the danger level. Others are enjoying this book more than I did, so please read their reviews as well.

Original, dark, and atmospheric.

I liked listening to this one way more than I liked reading it. The narrators just made it that much better. I was enthralled.
And I liked reading the book!

Living in a train town is spooky enough. Do you know how many people died building and maintaining trains and train stations.
So many people, even kids, just died in accidents out there. Anyway, I love in a train town, THE train town, and it is spooky on its own, without comans and stuff. Make this a movie and film it somewhere cool. Thanks.