Thank you NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to review "A Mask of Flies." I loved the concept of an outlaw mixed with pure horror. It is a story full of constant action. A bit gory so I would recommend it for true horror fans.

I am so thankful to Tor Nightfire, Macmillan Audio, Matthew Lyons, and Netgalley for granting me advanced access to this galley before publication day. I really enjoyed the dialogue and plot of this book and can’t wait to chat this one up with my friends!

I genuinely don’t know why it took me so long to read this it was fantastic and at no point did I know what was going to happen next

The prologue for this is basically a perfect short horror story, but once the novel truly started it went downhill fast, at least for me. The writing is sometimes way less assured and strong than it is at other times, which led to a disjointed reading experience that wasn't particularly immersive.

We’ve got a good one here, friends. Mask of Flies is a super cool mix of genres. There’s a crime story about a bank robbery gone wrong, and our main character is on the run from the cops. You also add in a mix of supernatural, Lovecraftian elements and cult horror with the present story, and the main character’s back story, and I thought it was something that’s really fresh and new. The characters were really well written and drawn out & the action sequences were really well done. Overall, this one gets an enthusiastic 4.5 ⭐️ from this horror cult worshipper. 😵

Some comparable stories would be Todd Keisling’s “Devil’s Creek” & Daryl Gregory’s “Revelator” - a specific subset of horror - cultish, folksy, & otherworldly horror that I just adore.

A Mask of Flies was a wild ride reminiscent of a slasher movie with attempts of heartfelt reflections on grief woven throughout. Anne, the protagonist of the story, is a career criminal who finds herself at her long abandoned childhood home when a bank heist goes horribly wrong. But a return home means a return to the darkness she has long left behind, a darkness turned monster that makes getting caught by the police sound not too shabby.

The fast paced nature of this book is what kept me going, but there was so much going on that the moments Lyons attempts to add tenderness and romance fall incredibly flat and feel too far removed from all the action. I appreciated the ending and how things wrapped up, but continue to be at a loss for the why and how of all the monstrosity.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

This book is like a crime thriller mixed with some paranormal aspects. We follow Anne after a bank heist goes wrong and she is forced to face her childhood because she is hiding out in her families cabin.

This book just had too much going on for me and I hated how violent it was! I don't need all of the bloody descriptions. I didn't like Anne as a character and I just had a hard time with this one. I also think it was just too long of a book.

I hope others love this one but it wasn't for me.

Effective mix of crime and horror that does stretch on a bit too long near the end. But I really enjoyed this one, all in all. Anne Heller, part of a crew of bank robbers, flees a heist gone bad with another member of her crew and a police officer she abducted in the heat of the moment. They all wind up at an old cabin in rural San Luis Valley, Colorado, the site of her mother's death many years ago. When her friend, Jessop, injured in the robbery, goes missing in the night, only to turn up dead, she and the police officer bury him. But then he returns the next evening. This was a fast-moving book, with lots of violence, some cult-horror, even a bit of cosmic, Lovecraftian horror.

A Mask of Flies by Matthew Lyons is a creepy and gripping horror novel that pulls you into a world of strange happenings and dark secrets. The story centers around a small town with a disturbing history, and as the main character digs deeper, things take a terrifying turn.

Lyons does a great job creating a spooky atmosphere—there are plenty of eerie moments and unsettling imagery that kept me on edge. The tension builds steadily, and I found myself really drawn into the mystery behind the town's dark past. The writing is vivid, making it easy to picture the strange and sometimes frightening scenes.

I went into this book pretty blind know there was a bit of haunting/paranormal and I thought it would be a swampy setting. To my surprise this was more midwest/desert setting and there was a WHOLE lot more to this story then I expected. The main thing I took away while reading this book is I was able to just feel how long that horrible time felt for Anne, how it probably only all took place a short amount of time a week or so but the feeling that this lasted forever taking beating after beating. How she survived is beyond me because I could feel her pain.

You have a bit of action in this story starting off with a bank hoist gone wrong which will lead you to the cabin and the paranormal introduction. I think Matthew did such a great job with each character in this book each of them distinct and I was able to easily follow along with the twists and turns and changes that occurred. There are so many moving points and I never felt lost.

The imagery he painted with his worse at times I even had to pause and because there are some brutal brutal scenes throughout.
I really enjoyed this story and found it entertaining and unique.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with the ebook in exchange for an honest review.

It's a little difficult to write this review because at times I loved it and other times I was struggling to continue. It starts off with a bang. I thoroughly enjoyed the bank robbery/getaway side of the story. It was fast paced and entertaining as heck. But I struggled with the supernatural side of this story. They just didn't seem to gel together the way they were meant to. It was better towards the end of the book, but by then I just wanted it to be over. The supernatural parts were just too repetitive and overal, just didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I would have enjoyed the story a lot more if it was strictly based around the robbery and the getaway.

Incredibly thrilling, grotesque, and a book that kept me up for many, many, MANY nights in a row. Thank you!

This was a very interesting book. I love that it is inspired by Lord of the flies and the major themes present and the novel.

This horror novel is exceptionally well-written, providing an engrossing reading experience. With its compelling plot, it is a must-read for fans of the horror, crime, and cult genres.

An absolute read!

I was captivated by A Mask of Flies' intriguing premise right away. It has a compelling writing style along with my favorite blend of crime and horror. Unfortunately, the amount of plates spinning for the storyline lost me by the halfway mark. Before the dark history starts to come apart, I believe that Anne and Dutch would have had enough time to investigate against the supernatural being. Rather of a well-planned multicourse feast, each plate offered a random buffet. I would definitely watch A Mask of Flies if it were made into a television series.

Thank you Net Galley for sending me an arc of this title. I also received a physical copy from TOR. This book cover, cloth and naked front, is stunning. The book itself? Fucking visceral, hyper violent, and everything I love in a great cryptid horror book!

A Mask of Flies surprised me. I’m not exactly sure what I expected, but it wasn’t that-in a good way.

It’s fast paced and gruesome, with excellent body horror. Every time I thought I knew what was going on, Annie would pivot and take the story in a wild new direction.

Would have been five stars, but it felt a bit long and expositiony at times, and the cat seemed absolutely unnecessary.

I received a free digital ARC in exchange for my honest review

A mask of flies is full of nonstop action from page one to the very end. It starts with a failed bank heist with a complex and troubled protagonist haunted by her past and the horrors around her. The lines between reality and nightmares become blurred. It’s a great mixture of a crime thriller and cosmic/body horror.

Horror, an adventure, cults and hope await you in this story. I enjoyed reading and horror was not too intense to give me any nightmares. Good story line and the challenge of survival in each chapter, making me want to read more.

The first half of the book had me hooked. There was a bank heist gone wrong, some creepy things happening in a cabin in the woods, and then the cult is introduced. That's about when this book lost me. It tries to be too many things and succeeds at none. Through the introduction of the cult the "monster" is overexplained. The creature is also shown too much, diminishing the horror. The cult becomes the primary focus but they are too generic to be interesting.

The main character is Anne Heller who is continually described as a badass with a heart of gold. The story does not support this. Anne keeps a man in her trunk for a long drive and then handcuffs him to a bed for days but somehow the power of her good heart wins him over. She continually makes dumb and selfish decisions that harm and kill other characters. We're told she's funny and good but her actions and dialogue never support this.

It's frustrating because Anne should not survive the novel. There are three notable occasions where other characters pull a deus ex machina and save her. These characters put their lives on the line for Anne. The story does not provide adequate reasons for this. One character is willing to risk her livelihood because Anne has a pet cat and must therefore be a good person.

Anne should also be dead because of her injuries. She is shot, cut up, thrown around, and she keeps getting back up. The novel tells us that things like bullets to the stomach can be left untreated for hours so long as the injured person applies pressure to the wound. We quickly realize that physical injuries are of no consequence and that characters will survive or die as the story requires.

Finally, issues with the structure and pacing make the book drag on. At about the halfway point, it feels like we're gearing up for a final battle that never ends. The book has three endings that stretch out for about half the novel. The second half is also bloated with character descriptions and backstories that should have been dropped in Act One.

This was an exhausting reading experience and not one that I can recommend.