Hollows Bend, New Hampshire is the quintessential small town. Low crime and the perfect place for tourists to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city. But the day a naked young girl shows up to the town's diner and birds start dropping from the sky, all hell breaks loose. The town will never be the same again. This book would make a great horror movie.

There was a lot of action and strange things happening at every turn. It's one of those books where you don't know who is going to die and who is going to live. It keeps you on your toes!

The story mainly follows Matt, a sheriff's deputy who witnesses the young woman come into the diner, and then starts getting called out to multiple crimes around the town. Everyone is baffled about what is happening - there are no answers and calls outside of their town fail to connect. A mystery, thriller, horror, and sci-fi book that wraps up nicely at the end. What a crazy ending!

Not much of Patterson present in this novel except. perhaps. for the short chapters.
Too out of this world and not at all what was expected.
I think some of these double/shared authors should reconsider their "fandom" before going ahead
with some writings.
I was leery going in and as it turns out. that never changed.
Disappointed.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #GrandCentralPublishing for the book #ConfessionsOfTheDead by #JamesPatterson and #JDBarker. Wow. This book is super good! In a quiet town of Hollows Bend, that has absolutely no crime, all is quiet and peaceful. That is, until a stranger shows up and then everything goes crazy. Nobody is allowed to leave town and “judgement” is implemented. This book blew me away and I never expected the explosive ending.

Confessions of the Dead by James Patterson and J. D. Barker is like reading an endless loop of horror movies combined with the Twilight Zone and a shocking end.

Confessions of the Dead by James Patterson; J. D. Barker was a tense and exciting story!
Being a major fan of Patterson and Barker I was thrilled to read this one.
This was a very intense novel that had me guessing the entire time.
Full of action and suspense right from the very beginning. The pace is quick throughout the book which left me turning pages quickly to see what would happen next.

Thank You NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Fast paced and wildly fun horror story! The action was nonstop which got my heart pounding, I wasn’t able to put this down!

Confessions of the Dead James Patterson, J.D. Barker. Interesting premise. Nothing is as it seems and nothing plays out the way one thinks. Once all h*ll breaks loose, this becomes a wild, fast paced sinfully good horror story.
Thank you to Authors; James Patterson, J.D. Barker, Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I absolutely love when James Patterson and J. D. Barker collaborate together and "Confessions of the Dead" does not disappoint. I need another book by them like right now, lol.

Very strange read coming from Patterson. It seemed more sci fi which I’m not usually a fan of. I did like the characters despite the odd story line.

Interesting and different for Patterson. Not a bad read with a different take on horror Iwas surprised that I liked this book , but I did enjoy it

I am so sad. I love J.D. Barker but this did not live up to my expectations. Amazon had an original sow on called FROM and this was very similar to me. Unfortunately, I was bored and not invested in the story. I read about 15% but could not continue.,

This book was non-stop action and horror from start to finish! The tension and utter chaos kept me turning the pages like a maniac. What in the world was happening in this small town?! I tried so hard to figure it out but didn't even come close. The reveal was beyond epic to say the least. My mind is still reeling over the cleverness and representation of this story. There are many characters in this one, but I had no trouble following along with all of them. My only gripe would be that the POVs kept switching, leaving me on the edge of my seat with anticipation of what would come next and impatience with having to wait to find out. I really enjoyed this one! A stellar collaboration of Patterson's action and speed alongside Barker's thrilling horror, this book is one that fans won't want to miss. I definitely recommend it!

Thank you to Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for granting me early digital access in exchange for my honest review!

Talk about tense moments!

Hollows Bend, New Hampshire is one of those sweet little New England towns that are inundated with tourists for the Fall Leaf Show. By Sunday they will have cleared out and gone back to the city. Right?

A quite Sunday with tourists leaving and the town settling down. Deputy Matt is at the cafe having breakfast when a naked girl walks in. And then all hell breaks loose. Seriously.

I was off-kilter through the first two thirds of the book. That isn’t a bad thing at all.

All I can say is, what a story!


NetGalley/ Grand Central Publishing July 09,2024

I wasn’t expecting James Patterson and horror, which is why this book is only three stars. I don’t enjoy horror books. This is a science fiction and horror novel with some study in what the worst humans will do to each other, so please keep this in mind before reading.

I had several different guesses on where this book was going and how it would end, but I was not even close.
A small, crime free town in New Hampshire, suddenly becomes a place where it seems only bad things happen. When an unknown girl arrives, she seems to set off a series of events that are good for no one. Cut off from the outside world, some people attempt to do the right thing while others feel free to let their true natures show.
Chapters alternate between quite a few characters, eight if I remember correctly. I honestly had no clue what was going on in Hollows Bend. There were 115 chapters, and at times I thought I was getting a handle on what was happening. Then poof, my latest guess proved terribly wrong yet again. I read part of this outside, part while sitting on my couch, and part while getting my steps on my treadmill. I guess that’s my way of saying that I just didn’t want to put it down until I figured it out.

If you're a Stephen King fan, this book is right down your alley. A small town in New Hampshire is shattered as a naked young woman shows up in the diner. Immediately after that, crows start dive bombing, not only the diner, but the town. And the townspeople become an uncontrollable mob. There are many characters in this story and some of them have a lot to want to cover up. Exactly what is causing this terrifying and unexplainable event?

Confessions of the Dead is a very intense, fast-moving book! Typical James Patterson to move a story along rapidly with lots of action. I had not read J.D. Barker before so can't comment on his typical style but this combination is electric!

Thanks to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for the opportunity to read this ARC.

Disclaimer: I was not aware of the controversy surrounding author JD Barker, otherwise I would not have requested this book to begin with. With all due respect, TBR lists are long enough without adding to them with writers who resort to ridiculous stunts for publicity. That being said, I tried to keep an open mind once I saw accusations on social media, and was almost finished with the book by that point. None of that has anything to do with my low rating.

Content warnings: Confessions of the Dead isn't too graphic, but it does manage to stick everything in here--off the top of my head there's Nazis, the KKK, school bombers, child abusers, rapists, and lots of serial cheating.

So I think we understand by this point that James Patterson isn't writing these "co authored" books, but I've still been picking them up here and there, because they all have the hallmarks of his original works: they're fast paced thrillers, mostly unbelievable in their action, but that doesn't usually matter because they're more often than not fun stories that you can read quickly.

But Confessions of the Dead doesn't read at all like a Patterson, which although wildly unbelievable is typically rooted in reality; rather it felt more like a Stephen King book--and I don't mean that as a compliment. It's a weird kind of horror and the NetGalley description pretty much sums it up: it "brings more questions than answers."

There are Patterson's trademark quick chapters, so the book reads quickly in a way, but it felt like it took forever to get to the ending at the same time. Much of the narrative felt repetitive, and it was frustrating how little closure I felt. We were given some answers, but I was mostly left with a "what is the point of all this?" feeling at the end. I'm trying so hard not to be too spoiler-y, but the only way the ending could have been worse is if we were given a "then Matt woke up and it was all a dream..."

Additionally, while I usually enjoy multi-POV books, it felt unnecessary here. The voices mostly sounded all the same, from the stressed-out mom done with everyone's nonsense, to the veteran cop, to the middle schooler who wanted to blow up his town. And there were some that served no purpose to advancing the plot. Malcolm and Hannah? Was that just so we could add a teenage girl getting violated?

Honestly, I appreciated the premise and what the author was shooting for, but the execution was not for me. I wouldn't recommend this.

Thanks to Grand Central Publishing for granting me the opportunity to read and review this book through NetGalley.

Twisty, dark, suspenseful. Just a few words to describe this book.
You absolutely cannot turn your head for a minute or you’ll miss the point if you’re here now or were you here before?
A small town has gone bizarre with crime all at the same time. Local law enforcement can’t keep up, they may even be a part of it but you’ll never know until the end.
“Fell out of phase with our visible spectrum” Is how the disappearance of one girl is described.

Thank you #netgalley #grandcentralpublishing #confessionsofthedead for this ARC

The heart pounding suspense! The action! The horror! The psychological gymnastics! This sci-fi horror pulled me in from the beginning and felt like a movie the whole time. I gasped, I held my breath, and I was on the edge of my seat while I devoured this book.

It’s one of those “well that escalated quickly” type of days in the small town of Hollows Bend. With a police department of 3 people total, they’re no match for the strange happenings that keep piling up. Numerous characters and POVs were introduced, but it didn’t feel overwhelming or confusing. Like all my favorite JD Barker books, I was fully immersed in the world created and watched it all play out in my mind’s eye. With all the detail and storylines it felt like it would be impossible to wrap everything up by the end in a way that would feel complete and enjoyable for the reader, but I was not disappointed. Everything came together and left me feeling a combination of content and stunned in all the best ways. 5 SOLID stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Pub Date Jul 09 2024