When Alex’s uncle dies suddenly, Alex regrets not being able to say goodbye. He would do anything to make peace with his estranged uncle: even summon the dead. But something hungry is waiting in the dark as well.

These Things Linger is a really punchy read from Dan Franklin. Dan’s writing style is well-honed and he could frankly make the phone book seem atmospheric. Every character comes to life on the page and every singe one will break your heart at some point. The action is fast and gritty, with a real sense of foreboding and desperation in the build-up, I was hooked from the start. If you have ever felt grief, loss or even anxiety you will relate to these key characters incredibly quickly: flaws and all. The descriptions in the book make everything seem really real, which only helps to make sure that this story will stay with you.

Tearfully sad horror novel that’s very well done. Thanks for the ARC and the legacy of grief is well done

Wow. Really enjoyed the book by Dan Franklin. Haven't read him before. The characters were great, and the story was also great, with great pacing. Can't wait to read more from Dan Franklin. #TheseThingsLinger #NetGalley

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Horror

A young guy named Alex Wilson has suffered the loss of his parents and his uncle. His uncle was the only family he had ever known. He makes the decision to try and contact his uncle Matty through an occult ceremony because he is unhappy that he was unable to make amends with him before he passed away. Alex performs an initiation ceremony using his own blood and a picture of his uncle. The ritual does not go according to plan. What Alex brings is a dark force that will make him regret doing the whole thing.

The novel is a horror story that incorporates aspects of the supernatural with topics that are psychological in nature. Grief, shame, and the repercussions of interfering with the unknown are some of the subjects that are discussed in this book. I feel the main character is well-developed. However, the secondary characters still needed some more attention from the author.

The book is quite atmospheric, but going between the present and past was taking me out of concentration and was spoiling the thrills that were happening in the present. There is no explicit present and past structure in the story, but through the main character’s narrative, we are occasionally taken to the past, which disconnects my mind from the atmospheric present. I also feel that Alex's relationship with his uncle needed more buildup. Regardless of all that, the story is entertaining and can be read in one session.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

***ARC ***
Thanks to Netgalley
Expected Publication Date: February 2024

These Things Linger

Hindsight is 20/20.
Despite our plaintive plea for a chance to redo vital moments in our lives, we comfort ourselves with the lies of what we would do differently. However, if given another chance, the same mistakes are often made.

The story follows Alex, who is raised by his Uncle Matty in the poverty-stricken town of Fair Hill. Here, the residents are cursed by small-town bigotry focused mindsets, and toxic cycles that are frequently associated with generational poverty. Although Matty is unable to provide Alex with materialistic comforts, he is still every bit a father figure and tries to instill Alex with practical life lessons. Like most child-parental relationships, theirs is strained by the typical naivety associated with youth and the repressed emotions often seen in older generations.

Subsequently, as the story progresses, Alex clambers to escape the suffocating dead-end trap that is Fair Hill while unfortunately becoming estranged from his uncle.
To cope with the embarrassment of childhood poverty and the fallout with Matty, Alex strives to ignore his past and his complicated feelings, by reaching the typical benchmarks of success: career, relationship, and home.

Consequently, everything Alex tried to suppress resurfaces when he is notified of his uncle’s unexpected death. Blind-sided, Alex is faced with overwhelming grief, guilt, and sheer desperation for closure, thus, performing an impromptu blood ritual that sets into motion events of Lovecraftian proportions.

“He taught me all the most important parts of fishing, with only one mistake: he never taught me the greatest blessing can be a line that breaks.”

Not only did the unplanned blood ritual work in bringing back a horrific version of his uncle, but it also brought forth an entity with a penchant to cause suffering.

In short, future readers be warned, as Dan Franklin liberally dishes out horrific misfortunes to his characters which raises the stakes to an anxiety inducing magnitude. No character is safe.
Above all, Dan excelled at creating an atmospheric horror that was punctuated by a vast sense of helplessness.

In reflection, one of my favorite aspects of the story was the uncouth depictions and raw writing style which added an additional element of discomfort to the narrative. Dan really nailed the gritty small-town setting with its dysfunctional thinking, that was reminiscent of backwoods towns in the early 80s. Even though the ignorant mindset, bigot remarks, and ‘turning a blind eye’ depicted made me cringe with its realism, the crude aspects cemented the setting and its characters’ personalities and did not feel cheaply used to seem edgy.

Largely, I appreciated the realistic dynamics of Alex as he mentally struggled with various complexities of trauma, depression, guilt, and fear, while battling against events with forced bravery.

In contrast to all the bleak horror, Dan also portrayed the limitless aspects of love and loyalty which added yet another aspect to the emotionally charged journey.

As far as critique, even though the story was gripping and the protagonist was well-developed, I would have loved to see more character expansion with Buzz, Raychel, and even Uncle Matty. I was also hoping for ties to the loss of Alex’s mother, which was briefly mentioned in the beginning of the book.

Overall, I would still recommend this book to readers who enjoy a very bleak horror story that dances on the fringes of cosmic horror.

Tag lines: desperation, occult rituals, grief horror, cosmic horror.

Trigger warning: graphic violence, strong language, self-harm, death, occult ritual, bigotry, (some additional triggers I will omit to prevent possible spoilers)

Rating: 3.7 / 5.0
Author: Dan Franklin

I recieved this ARC courtesy of Netgalley and Cemetery Dance Publications. I'm not great at preambling so let's just get into it:

Rating this one 4.5 out of 5

Alex Wilson returns to his small, rural hometown after the death of the estranged uncle who raised him.

Now, while I didn't grow up in a SMALL small town, I did spend a lot of my child and teenhood years in what I would call a smallish town. Many of the descriptions of the town and experiences of Alex's youth rang familiar for me.


This book has some well-done, genuinely creepy moments. The descriptions range from wonderfully grotesque to the feeling you had as a child when you imagined the monster in your closet. While the scares are very good, the strongest points in this book are the emotional depths we go through with the main character. This novel explores grief, regret, desperation, love, and ultimately, acceptance. There were several points that I just had to stop reading to collect my thoughts and feelings and just allow everything to marinate and process.

Franklin did not pull any punches and I highly recommend you remember this one when it comes out!!

This was such a great overall horror novel, it had everything that I was hoping for from the cover and description. I enjoyed that this used the darker themes to add to the horror. The characters worked well in this universe and were written in a realistic way. I enjoyed how well Dan Franklin wrote this.

Dan Franklin delivers a haunting romp through a town terrorized by an unstoppable lurking evil. Alex Wilson’s memories come calling to collect payment for actions he took as a hormone fueled teenager. The story contains several uncomfortable and unsettling encounters along the edge of the supernatural world. This taunt terror filled novel, by a horror author to keep watching, is worth the price of admission - and then some.

After Alex’s uncle unexpectedly dies, Alex resolves to try anything to make peace with the man who raised him. Even reaching out to the dead through a ritual a high school girlfriend taught him.

However, things more dangerous than ghosts haunt the quiet one-gas-station town of Fair Hill. Things that can consume the living and the dead too. And they’re all too ready to answer Alex’s call.

Eater of Gods acclaimed author Dan Franklin returns with These Things Linger. A twisting and unforgiving novel of desperation, depression, heritage, and other hungry, vicious things.

Franklin begins with a lot of exposition in order to build background and set the stage for the uncanny situations to come. Some readers may not be as forgiving, but those who stick with the tale are well rewarded.

The main character’s hot and heavy petting session morphs into a strange blood ritual with his high school girlfriend. What she taught him in that moment will later help bring his dead uncle back from the grave. Playing around with forces he doesn’t understand is a portent for disaster.

Alex has several encounters with his dead uncle and a strange dead girl. She can’t communicate well, but seems to blame the uncle for the injuries covering her body. It would seem his uncle was a lot darker and more trouble than Alex ever realized.

The story proceeds through a lot of exposition by Alex, the main character. There is not much action for readers to observe, or progress to the main plot. Much of the novel is a series of minor incidents, and Alex’s interpretation and thoughts about those moments.

The tension does increase through his encounters with the strange dead girl. As she continues to grow more menacing and threatening with every passing page, the plot begins to take form. In fact, the early story provides the background and setup required for later events to echo against. Readers will find the later story to be much more full, rich, complete, and satisfying.

Scenes of grotesque, horrific gore, fulfill their purpose to convey terror in the reader. Not a drop of blood is spilled without a deeper meaning or purpose by the author.

This rapid fire thrill ride contains a cathartic ending that will linger with readers long after passing the book onto another victim to enjoy. Franklin delivers a story filled with terror that will grip you tight as a knot in your chest!

Dan Franklin wrote his first attempt at a horror novel when he was seven. It was terrible. He has, since, improved. The winner of several local awards for short stories and an occasional poem, Dan Franklin lives in Maryland with his extremely understanding wife, his cosmically radiant daughter, and a socially crippling obsession with things that creep. The Eater of Gods is his first published novel.

This book will break the heart of a lot of people, but it'll surely be one of the very best horror books of 2024. It proved to be one of those novels it's a real shame they have to end! It employs my favorite horror tropes: rituals that go wrong. hungry demonic things from the other side, and creepy small-town horror to be resisted only at great personal cost. Not to mention the strong urban legend vibes of the plot, the atmosphere of grief and despair, on a background of genuine love and gritty realism. The writing is brilliant - no wonder since this is Dan Franklin, the author of "The Eater of Gods"! I personally found myself identifying with Alex, the central character, his patterns of thought were really familiar and his reflexes seemed to me reasonable. Well, they probably weren't; nevertheless, his presence was the driving force of the story, his choices (or non-choices) and his tendency to procrastinate shaped a lot of the plot, till the explosive ending. The real hero of the story, however, was his fiancee, Raychel; she was honest, resourceful, and caring. She faced the supernatural threats brought on by Alex's actions, with great courage, patience, and compassion. As far as the supernatural threat itself is concerned, it was original, scary, and worth exploring further. But the sense of mystery around it enhanced the story, plus its presence made the story definitely unsuitable for children (viz. the scene with the heroic cat and the poor baby girl...!) Overall, Dan Franklin's new novel sets the bar quite high for 2024 and won't disappoint even the most experienced horror fans!

Big thanks to Netgalley and Dan Franklin for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book was about an occult ritual gone terribly wrong. It was so dark, heavy, and quite emotional. The characters were well developed.

I've read both books from Dan Franklin and I can't wait for the next one. Definitely check this book out when it releases in 2024!

I really enjoyed this book. I feel that the title is more suitable to young adult readers than adult audiences but it was definitely a real page-turner with believable and well-developed characters. I have a few issues with the ending as it reminded me too strongly of another book whose title I won't mention for fear of spoiling it, but overall I thought the storytelling was well done and the writing was evocative. I would happily recommend it to new readers of mystery/thriller stories.

Have posted a review onto GoodReads as well! Thank you very, very much for making this available to download!

Fantastic horror novel from Franklin about a man, Alex. who must face his past and present in order to battle an evil spirit that he seemingly helped pass over into this world by participating in not one but two blood rituals designed to bring loved ones back from the dead. What appeared to be naive attempts at summoning become a life and death struggle to keep things in another realm from causing those around him to suffer terrible fates. It pulled me in right from the beginning with solid writing and strong characters and kept me invested right to the last page. It's a dark journey, and Franklin isn't afraid to have bad things happen to his characters. As a result, you don't really know just how everything will wind up until the last page is turned, which I rather like. I was very impressed with this effort and will definitely be reading more by Franklin in the future. 4.5 stars. Highly recommended. Thanks to Netgalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

“Some door open and don’t close back up.”

“These Things Linger” by Dan Franklin is a horror story about Alex Wilson. When Alex’s uncle dies, he is determined to make peace with him even if that means contacting the dead. Alex finds that there’s more dangerous things than just the ghost of his uncle out there.

The book was definitely spooky. My problem with the book is that the side characters were more told than showed as the main character Alex POV was viewing most of the other people in his life in a disassociated way, but it did add to the creepy unusual feel, its just not something I really liked. It’s worth a read if you like creepy ghost horror. I gave it a 2 out of 5 stars.

Creepy and I was too scared to read this at night. With that being the case the author did an amazing job of pulling me in and keeping me on the edge of my seat.

Thank you NetGalley and Dan Franklin for the Arc of These things linger.

Having really enjoyed Eater of Gods by Dan, I was really looking forward to reading These Things Linger. I was not disappointed! Dan really knows how to deliver a storyline that emotive, claustrophobically scary with stuff that only occur in nightmares!

The story starts with Alex, a young man in his late teens living with his Uncle Matty. And as most teens, interested in girls. Or at least, one particular lass called Lacey.. Lacey has a very free spirited life and has a deep interest in spiritualism. Just one ritual won’t hurt will it? Even if it wasn’t completed ?

Dan’s character building of Alex ( told in first person ) for me was hugely emotive. I felt like I would actually know this person. The relationship he had with his uncle I can very much relate to which made both Alex and his uncle such likeable people. Even though they may of made the wrong decisions. It broke me when Dan only really finds out who his uncle
Is after he dies. The struggle his uncle had with his own sexuality which was the reason why after a flippant remark from Alex one day. Matty flipped out . I found this very subtle foreshadowing.

As an animal lover… Bartholomew the cat stole my heart! Loved how he could always see and protected Alex. So inevitably, cried when he died!

I loved Ray, She had an independent feel to her character. An inner strength that kept coming back, again and again. Until the bitter end.

The plot was great. It has a medium paced feel to the storyline. Then the waves of terror just keep coming after midway through the book until it peaks at the end. I like how it’s left slightly open. The whole point of the title? Or could there be a book 2?

Definitely a great read, kept my interest an a good solid 4.5 stars 🌟 ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

5 stars

Wow. Just wow. Dan Franklin pulled no stops with this one. This is dark and suffocating and so heavy. Franklin uses such vivid prose and sets the atmosphere so beautifully. His characters are all well developed and perfectly flawed and relatable.
This is exactly the type of slow burn I enjoy.

When Alex Wilson's estranged uncle unexpectedly dies, Alex realizes he would do just about anything to make peace with the man who had raised him as his own. He'd even reach out to the dead.

This was a really well-written horror novel and a great meditation on grief and depression. I enjoyed it.

This is the first I've heard of Dan Franklin, but I will now be going to check out his other work - I read this in a single sitting!

These Things Linger sees Alex attempting to make contact with his recently deceased uncle in order to make peace. What follows is more than he bargained for. It deals with grief, loss, and horrors both real and supernatural.

The horror picks up gradually during part 1, grows more & more throughout the book and then is full-on horror action for the end.

At times, it felt very much like it would lull you into a false sense of security and then BAM, you're afraid again. Who knew jump scares were possible in books as well as films?!

I did find Alex a little unlikeable - he could be quite infuriating at times, but admittedly did get better as the story went on.

I found the writing to be great, the descriptions conjured up gloriously gruesome images in my mind. At times I found myself almost screaming at the characters to do/not do this or that.

I find I'm quite desensitised to most horror as I have been reading or watching it from a relatively young age, but These Things Linger definitely kept me feeling anxious and uneasy throughout the book and at times on the edge of my seat, eager to know how actions would pan out.

The book definitely keeps up the tension all the way through to the end. Although saying that, there was a part of the last few chapters which I was less a fan of, but don't want to post for fear of spoilers.

Overall, I did really enjoy this book. I felt like it ended well - so often books like this can leave things unanswered, but I didn't find this at all with These Things Linger. Highly recommended.

Characters and plot were well thought out and developed. Definitely more for the YA audience than adult. I did notice a few spelling/grammar errors but nothing too wild. Overall, I enjoyed and would definitely recommend to my friends who read YA thrillers/mysteries.

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