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.

Heists, bugs, and a really unhinged cult?! This one had it all. I kept accidentally putting this one off after receiving an advanced copy (sorry Tor Nightfire) and finally crushed through this one over the course of a couple days thank to Macmillan Audio !!

Listening to this book while slithering through the woods with my dogs took this one up a notch for me. Saskia Maarleveld had me looking over my shoulder every few minutes and anytime my dogs snapped to attention I was SPOOKED. I highly recommend listening to this one on audio for an even more atmospheric experience.

I kept seeing A Mask Of Flies referred to as a crime thriller with a huge focus on the bank robbery and criminal aspect of the story. Let me tell you - this sh!t is scary and definitely a true horror book. I loved every second of it and can’t wait to check out more from this author.

Check this one out if you like cults, heists, flies, and being suddenly afraid of everyone around you…

**Thank you to Tor Nightfire for the advanced copy and to Macmillan Audio for scaring the daylights out of me!**

Visceral, brutal, and thrilling. Mask of Flies toes the line between a crime thriller and backwoods folk horror to an exhilarating effect. What starts as a bank heist gone wrong, Anne, our hero, soon learns she's on the run not only from the law and vengeful thieves but also from her dark past. Without offering too many spoilers, this is a supernatural horror and the monster on Anne's heels is so chilling and imaginative, that echoes of horror's best with The Blob and The Thing are easily connected. Lyon's pace and gooey descriptions are vivid and disturbing, I loved it. This pace, however, is hard to maintain, and I thought the story's second act had a bit too much downtime setting up the finale. Characters I'd loved left so soon, which is not so much a critique as this reader wishing they had more resolution. All in all, this was fantastic. A Mask of Flies is an easy recommendation for anyone looking for a hard-hitting horror ride.

Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Nightfire for the ARC of this book.

I enjoyed this book and the pacing. It was mix of horror, thriller and suspense. It did have some graphic moments so be aware if that’s not your thing.

At times it got a little bogged down with the number of different threads going on in it. I think the bit about Iris and her husband could have been nixed. It could have just been a bank robbery gone wrong that lead her to her old home. Having the added element of a creature and people from her past coming for her as well as old partners just got a little too much. It didn’t really add much to the story.

That being said, I did enjoy the horror aspects of this and overall how it all played out.

Lyons' prose is well-written and evocative, but I just couldn't get into the characters or the main plot. DNF.

A Mask of Flies has a fantastic concept and gripped me from the start. It had the crime and horror blend I love paired with a captivating writing style. Unfortunately, it lost me by the midway point due to the number of plates spinning for the narrative. I think Anne and Dutch would've been enough to explore against the supernatural entity before the big bad past starts unravelling. All the plates provided a random buffet instead of a cohesive multi-course meal.

If A Mask of Flies was adapted for tv, I would absolutely watch it.

My biggest question after finishing the novel—When did the cat have access to a litter box?