Where to even begin with this novella? I rarely find anything creepy or scary, I'm always looking for something that makes me FEEL, and this one did just that.

The story is told through a mother's letters to her daughter, and every letter just gets more and more unsettling. We follow a descent into further madness and I thought I knew how it was going to end, right up until the end, when certain numbers were revealed and changed how I’d been viewing the entire story.

This novella was so poetic, the imagery was beautiful and horrifying and stomach churning. I couldn't get enough.

I want a full novel. I want a full backstory. I would pay for it right now, unwritten, unrated, unreviewed, if it were to my collection and eagerly awaiting any tusther works from AW Rene.

I so wanted to like this one but I struggled to get through its opening pages. I am still very thankful to the publisher, author, and netgalley for granting me advanced access to this one before publication day.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I appreciated the content warning at the beginning of the book; I enjoyed the way AW Rene wrote it as a warning letter to the reader, integrating it with the story without spoiling the content while also providing an explicit list of content and trigger warnings at the end of the novella.

Amelia's premise intrigued me, particularly with its unique format of being written in the form of letters from Madeline to her daughter. However, I found the prose to be awkwardly descriptive, feeling more like an atmospheric third-person narrative than a letter. The story was repetitive, and due to the letter format, it failed to evoke much emotion. I didn't feel the horror or disgust with the imagery as I had expected, as I felt detached from the narrative.

My favorite parts were the Incident Reports, it was a very unique way to inform the reader of what may be going on outside of Madeline's narrative.

Amelia uses letters written from mother to daughter to follow the mother's spiral into... well, I don't want to spoil it but I think you can guess with a couple of pages. This book was extremely transparent as to the plot and any twist that could have been designed. For this reason, I found it a little unexciting. The spookiness that was present in the beginning was abandoned pretty early on and the rest of the book just detailed events leading up to a big reveal which I already guessed pretty much every detail of. I praise the writing but the storytelling and plot left something to be desired.

This was wild for a short story!
Whenever I see moths I'm going to be thinking of this book.
I'm not going to lie my heart raced while reading some pages. Gave me chills and the end just brought it all together. Really enjoyed this read!

Amelia is a short story written mostly as letters from a mother to her daughter with 911 transcripts and police reports mixed in. I didn’t care for the 911 transcripts as they didn’t feel really realistic. I found myself questioning the 911 dispatcher’s ability at times just because it felt like they weren’t asking either enough questions or the right questions. There were also certain points that I found really unrealistic and had a hard time believing. The police reports themselves were super interesting to read and I enjoyed those as we get a more rational explanation of what was occurring during these letter’s Madeline writes to her daughter.

The story itself is jumbled and was a little hard to follow on my kindle. There were some parts I could recognize it was probably a writing choice but others it just seemed like it needed some editing. Granted I was reading an ARC so it may change once released or look different in formatting.

Madeline’s mental state is all over the place and we see firsthand how out of touch she is with reality all the while dealing with the hard emotional aspects of her relationship with her daughter. It was a hard story, and the ending left me both heartbroken and destroyed emotionally.

𝐀𝐦𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚 𝘣𝘺 𝘈𝘞 𝘙𝘦𝘯𝘦
Pub date: May 14, 2024
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𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘭𝘺, 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳 𝘈𝘞 𝘙𝘦𝘯𝘦, 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘺, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘉𝘋𝘈 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘥𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘤𝘰𝘱𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸.
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Amelia… what can I say about this book? I wanted to love it. It gave me strong Yellow Wallpaper vibes to begin with. I enjoy unique formats and this is written almost entirely as letters from the main character to her daughter. With a sprinkling of 911 and police transcripts thrown in.
They did wrap everything up in the end but I just found it all to be tied up too neatly, too quickly.
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‌The whole book is only about 100 pages give or take (I read it as an ebook) and although I loved some of the imagery and poetic prose used, it often got lost with the repetitiveness of talking about painting the stairs and the insects. Where it started off strong giving us little nuggets and clues as to what was going on, the unending stream of consciousness became somewhat distracting, especially when paragraphs would just end mid-sentence on multiple occasions. The author thanks their editor in the acknowledgments but this book felt like it didn’t use an editor at all. Even in the acknowledgments, editor was spelled as editwar. It was kind of a hot mess to read at times. And I know this could be a stylized choice made by the author to show Madeline’s descent into madness and her psychotic break I just think it could have been done tidier. Also, I don’t know if it was a typo but the main character is revealed to be 21 in the end, her husband was supposed to be 48, and the daughter Amelia around 6 or 7 which would have made Madeline 12 or 13 when she had her. This made no sense to me and didn’t fit with the narrative. Overall, it was a good story the execution just seemed lacking.

Amelia is a disturbing horror novella told through a series of letters from a mother to her daughter.

This novella was incredibly well written. The author really well maintains a sense of dread all throughout using a stream of conscious style of writing. You can feel the mother's deteriorating mental state through the writing. The author manages to leave little hints about what is happening without giving everything away, which makes it all the more thrilling as you come towards the end, where all is revealed. There is no point where this gets boring or repetitive. I was constantly wanting to read more right until the very end, and I managed to read this easily within a day.

I really appreciate that this novella had a list of potential triggers at the back, as it does include some extremely disturbing and hard to read topics.

This was a quick read, less than 100 pages. It's mostly a series of letters written by a mother to her daughter, and you as the reader witness her mental deterioration. Even for an advanced, unfinished copy, it appears as if it needs quite a bit of editing. There are run-on sentences, words missing, words crammed together, unnecessary commas and unfinished paragraphs. I don’t know if some or all of them were meant to be intentional as a way to portray the character’s state of mind, but in my opinion they are just distracting. (I read it on Kindle, though, so maybe a physical book copy would look more like a frantically written letter?)

There’s a lot of repetition in the prose itself, such as the character repeatedly finding the missing hammer and all of the repainting of the stairs and the constant descriptions of the bug imagery. (Though I did think the bug stuff was kind of cool, there was just so much of it that I eventually became desensitized to it.) And the painting of the stairs various colors could be an interesting plot device, but in a novella this short it just took up a lot of the story.

Also, I say this all the time, but making an entire book nothing but a series of letters doesn’t fully work because: full conversations recreated in a letter? That never feels realistic to me.

The 911 call transcripts didn’t feel entirely authentic either. I like the idea of including them, but I think stuff like that is difficult to write realistically because dispatchers have to ask so many questions. I thought the police reports were much better, very detailed and well thought out.

The twists are likely not too surprising if you read a lot of horror. The hints dropped earlier in the letters are nice ideas, though. I do think the concept for this is decent but the execution didn’t work for me personally.

Potentially spoilery TW list below:

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TW: Animal harm/death, Sexual abuse, Child harm

I loved the format of this! I thought it was incredibly well done, a sense of foreboding permeated the entire novel, extremely creepy vibes all round!

Ok. This was twisted. I do not generally read novellas but I’m trying to do just that because they truly are little hidden gems.
Told in letter format, Madeline Auger writes to her child Amelia. The reader has no idea where Amelia is or frankly if she even ever existed.
As the novella continues, Madeline’s writings become more and more unhinged and interspersed with her words of love for Amelia, is an undercurrent of hatred and resentment. Each entry in this diary format draws the reader into Madeline’s insanity, paranoia and possibly murderous rage and hatred for everyone around her.
As the end nears, the horror that is the truth of Amelia and Madeline’s lives made me cringe. This is true terror, building suspense and dread that brings to light that no one really knows what goes on behind closed doors.
This short novella was sinister and very dark. When the reader realizes not only what happened to Amelia, but what Madeline was hiding and how those around her were unwittingly ensnared by her evil and insanity, it is truly chilling.

My rating 4.5/5

AW Rene is by far the best at writing disturbing horror stories. Keep 'em coming A!

I really think epistolary is one of the hardest writing forms to pull off, but "Amelia" does it with beautiful grotesqueness.

I loved that it was difficult at first to tell what was real and what could have been the ramblings and fabrications of a failing mind. There was so much to process with each letter written to Amelia and the further it went on the more heartbreaking it became.

I never know if things like this are intentional or not, but the "Tell Tale Heart" aspect of the stairs was genius. The way she kept bringing up what color to paint them like it was just styling choices of a fickle person when in reality they were trying to say something she did not want anyone to hear added a bit of humor.

Overall, this novella is cringy, dark, emotional, and gross in all the best ways. Would definitely recommend for a light read. *wink*

Thank you to NetGalley, AW Rene, and BDA Publishing for this advance copy. This is my honest review.

“Even the most stubborn and persistent blood eventually gives way to the purity of the water, joining the streams that carry away the debris, the remnants of memories best left forgotten.”

A.W. Rene’s novella tells the story of Madeline Auger of 43 Maple Drive. Something isn’t quite right with her. Although she sees herself as the epitome of motherhood, there is a poison that rots away at her mind towards her daughter. These thoughts are leading towards something darker and sinister and once the mistrust kicks in, it is this force that will dictate how she behaves towards her family and others.

The synopsis of this novella had me intrigued. I thought how dark can this be? I was shown exactly how messed up this story really was.

It’s written in a series of letters from Madeline to her daughter. Within these letters are what appears to be a loving mother but between the lines you can see the slip ups that are hinting at something much more evil.

Things escalade quickly, the hidden messages become clearer and the suspicions of the reader are confirmed the closer you reach towards the end. This was definitely a disturbing insight into a broken mind and an evil that was deeply routed within the home of Madeline.

A quick and unnerving read I would definitely recommend.

3.5 rounded up
I enjoyed the format of the letters and the police reports at the end, and i could mostly follow along with what was actually happening in the midst of the letters, but i do wish we got a better explanation

*SPOILER*
If the mom/narrator was only 21 and her husband 48, was he the John Doe in the photos found? Was the mom abusing Amelia or she found out her husband/someone else was and her already fragile mental state broke? I just wish some of those details were clearer especially for such a serious/shocking situation learning the bare bones of what happened

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

I'm torn about how I feel about Amelia. For one, I loved the format (I'm always a sucker for epistolary), but at times, it was hard for me to follow. I realize this was most likely done on purpose, but certain scenes felt overly gratuitous and I'm not sure how they connected to the overall story. I did enjoy the imagery and prose of the writing and could imagine the scenes in my head. Of course, it was a though read with an even tougher subject matter, so I won't say I enjoyed it, but it was a story well told.

Amelia is an unnerving epistolary (mostly) novella. A mom writes loving letters to her daughter. At first, she sounds almost normal, but not for long. Soon, readers realize something's wrong. Very, very wrong. Amelia's mother spirals into madness.

It's quick to read and well-thought-out, but I don't think it'll leave a lasting impression on me.

Written entirely in letter or report form, Amelia is truly a unique read. As you read, you slowly start to realise that not everything is going right. Our author goes from a mother writing letters to her child to a completely unreliable and crazed person. It went on to be a lot darker than I expected towards the ending and with that, I certainly didn't want this one to end. I needed more in the middle. More of the crazy, more of the gore, more of the creeps. I just needed it all.

Amelia is perfect for anyone who needs a short and satisfying read full of chills and thrills (and creeps for anyone who like me, doesn't like bugs) There are a plethora of content warnings, so make sure you check those before diving in. Thank you to NetGalley, BDA Publishing and A.W Rene for an advanced copy. You can preorder this one now, it is set for release on May 14th, 2024.

Wow, amazing book. I love how it used letters from a mother to her daughter to tell the story. Great, detailed descriptions and it was vague when needed. Creepy, unsettling and lots of bugs.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for approving my request.

a sickening, epistolary horror that was very fun to piece together over the course of the narrative. however, the police report at the end was a little on-the-nose [i felt like the fun of the book was not being entirely sure about the information you're being delivered], and i thought that at some point the motifs of the book became more repetitive than scary.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC to review!

4 stars!

Wow this really did pack a punch for such a short and simple read. I loved how this was written.

We read letters from a mother, Madeline, to her dearest daughter, Amelia.

However, as you read on you begin to see that something is not right. Madeline comes across a normal mother writing to her daughter, but then she starts to mentions whispers in the house, the stairs are talking, the things she sees, the way she crosses things that seem way out character until you get to see more of her character unravel.

The way it was written, with almost poetic descriptions with settings, the moths, I really loved it and so stunned and glad I went for this!