Rating: 3.4 leaves out of 5
-Characters: 2.75/5
-Story: 3/5
-Writing: 3/5
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
-Crime: 5/5
-Horror: 2/5
-Mystery: 4/5
-Thriller: 4/5
Type: Ebook
Worth?: Yes!

Want to thank Netgalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book.

I know it doesn't say but I really feel like Sleep Tight could be in the same universe as The Nightmare Man and Mister Lullaby. Honestly I would recommend reading at least The Nightmare Man before reading this one and it will make so much sense.

The story had me hooked since the beginning and where as I was needing to find out I did hit some bumps of "ok" around the middle. As for characters, if Tess has no haters then I am dead. That woman worked my never.

And that ending... J.H... you gotta stop leaving these open ended and not following up with another book.

I really enjoyed this book
This is not my usual style of read but I took the change when it was sent to me as an ARC.
Really good story but was a little slow at times.

J.H. Markert has a way with deranged killers. I mean, depraved offenders are his specialty! If you've made your way through his previous two novels, I know you can appreciate what I'm saying. I have come to expect interweaving plot lines full of uniquely eerie villains, and Sleep Tight is no exception.

What should you expect when picking up this book? You will find a main character that is utterly annoying and exasperating. (I'm sorry, but she is.) You will also endure an unbelievable investigation of murdered family members, followed by her kidnapped child. A case that is being worked by none other than whom? Yep, our annoyingly exasperating protagonist. (No way would she be allowed anywhere near that case.) And finally, a hugely knotted ball of twine, otherwise known as the plot, that you have to meticulously unknot and unwind. (We're talking muddled folks.) Sounds painful, right? I know. However...stay with me.

Here's the real deal. As you unwind that knotted ball, you are thrust into some truly devious backstories that captivate and horrify simultaneously. (Sucked right into the insanity!) As per his usual, you will encounter absolutely unique boogeymen that are not your average ski mask wearing, knife wielding, mouth breathers. (Where does he come up with these monstrosities of evil?) And ultimately, as you get to the center, you will be submerged in the world of a young boy, his extensive mental illness, and his will to survive. (Leaving you engrossed, breathless, and wanting more!) Sounds fabulously fun, right? Well, it is.

Final thoughts? Once again, this reader has enjoyed her way through another one of J.H. Markert's nightmares. If you love a deliciously sinister story with a large helping of menacing creepers, this will be just what you're looking for. Now an automatic read author for me!

Many thanks to J.H. Markert and Crooked Lane Books for an opportunity to read an advanced readers copy via Net Galley. I am willingly sharing my reading experience.

2.5

I thought it was alright. It didn't really grab my attention, so it took me a while to get through it. I was hoping for more scary stuff, so I was let down that it turned out to be more of a suspenseful story. There were some parts I liked, especially the beginning which got me interested. It had its moments, and I was curious about the ending, but it felt like it was missing that special something for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this advance copy in exchange for a review.

I so wanted to enjoy this book. It’s frustrating to dislike something that so many other people have highly rated; I keep wondering what I’m missing. I will say this book was thrilling and (mostly) well-paced, and I truly found it hard to put down which was a point in its favor for me.

My biggest complaint was how all over the place the different plot points seemed to be. There were so many different POVs and story components that all felt shoehorned into place, as if the author tried to incorporate every single story idea that he had instead of trimming the fat and only including things that worked well with the overall story he was trying to tell.

Some of my more minor issues with the book (I’ll try to keep it vague to avoid spoilers):
- The FMC had amnesia related to some childhood events, but conveniently remembered things exactly when they were needed to progress the plot.
- There were several instances where a chapter would end on a cliffhanger by stopping just shy of revealing something, but later on other characters would reference it without batting an eye. To me it seemed as if the author forgot to actually do the “reveal” as he continued writing, which resulted in me having to flip back dozens of pages to try and find where (if at all) we had actually learned that information.
- The book relies heavily on a trope that I find to be overdone in horror/thrillers. It’s never something that’s portrayed accurately, and both the character himself and the way he was interacted with was quite cringey to me.
- Then ending felt surprising anticlimactic, although it could have just been that the characters were hard for me to actually connect with and by the end of it I wasn’t super invested in their individual fates.

While this book definitely wasn’t for me, the overall idea was intriguing, and despite the convoluted labyrinth of a plot I did find it hard to put down at the end of the day.

Sleep Tight is a scary, riveting ride that will have you checking behind your curtains at night. The premise of this book is wild and disturbing and was difficult for me to wrap my mind around, but when the AHA! Moment dropped, I was speechless. The best horror book I have read this year. Bravo! Thank you to NetGalley and the Crooked Lane Books for granting me an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Markert's 'Sleep Tight' reminded me of the old police procedural/serial killer thrillers I used to read. There was definitely an undercurrent of nostalgia for me, of something I've been craving and missing from my crime reads. What a relief to not always the bad guys dying. Sometimes the good guys get shot and killed on the job. This was what I wanted Longlegs to give me.

Despite this, it wasn't perfect. There was so much going on. Too many characters, too many killers. Though this was a short book it felt like it would never end. More was thrown at us in every chapter. And I absolutely hate a character with amnesia. This one has recurring memories drizzled throughout the story and it irked me to no end. One of my least favourite tropes. The ending was slightly anticlimactic but I'll definitely be reading more from J.H. Markert.

Wow. Sleep Tight was a wild story!

This was a psychological thriller mixed with the supernatural and it was done so well. There were a few parts that genuinely freaked me out.

I loved how certain parts ended up being connected and definitely didn’t see some of it coming.

The short chapters and various timelines/POVs really kept the story interesting and I flew through this one

I definitely “slept tight” through this book and its severely uneven pacing 🥴😴

What to Expect:
After a child kidnapper/serial killer is given the final outcome of the death penalty, the town of Twisted Tree, Kentucky quickly learns he had a cult following. Detective Tess Claiborne, originally from the area, also learns the child kidnappings have not ceased. When her parents are murdered and her child is taken, it is up to Tess and her cheating psychologist husband Justin, along with a police and FBI force, to come together and solve the mystery of the continued kidnappings before it’s too late.

My Thoughts:
Listen, it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t that good either.

What hinders this book is its pacing and the lack of clarity in its resolutions. I enjoyed the premise and felt it was unique, but it just needed something more. Just when it felt like the book would pick up, it would immediately slow back down to a snail’s pace. So much of the story dragged and was stalled by endless conversations and a plateaued plot. This could have used a few more rounds of editing for sure. SHOW ME, don’t tell me. And keep me thrilled and engaged the more I read!!

Like the rest of the buddy read group, I have SO many questions left. Things were not fully explained, even though you’d think with the endless amounts of dialogue, it would all make sense in the end. NOPE. This, combined with unreliable narrators, drastically lowered the rating for me.

ALSO! Went into this, based off the spooky af cover, that I would be spooked throughout this entire thing. And trust me, I handle horror about as well as a child terrified of the dark. I was maybe spooked .5 times?? Not what I was expecting at all.

Might be a better read towards the spooky season, but I wouldn’t anticipate being all that scared of it any time of the year.

2.5 Stars

╰┈➤˗ˏˋ 𝓠𝓾𝓲𝓬𝓴 𝓢𝓾𝓶𝓶𝓪𝓻𝔂

Detective Tess Claibourne has spent many years haunted by a terrible event that happened when she was a teenager. She can’t remember all the details but it ended with her father arresting a serial killer called Father Silence. Now, after all these years, Father Silence is executed.

But there‘s a new serial killer in town. He‘s calling himself The Outcast and he just murdered Tess‘s parents and kidnapped her daughter. To stop this new horror, Tessa must face and untangle her web of lost memories.

╰┈➤˗ˏˋ 𝓜𝔂 𝓣𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱𝓽𝓼

I'm a little conflicted with this one. Some parts were compelling with cliffhanger chapter endings and super short chapters that had me reading much further than I had planned and other areas of the book I experienced some lulls where the pacing slowed and was too detailed on inconsequential things.

There were times I found myself not eager to pick the book back up. It started strong and punchy and honestly horrific but didn't hold the momentum for me. I didn't like the FMC - I just couldn't connect with her at all. Not even as a mother of a missing child. Her character was poorly constructed and she felt half-assed.

I'm still left with questions- nothing crazy. I mean, the most basic questions that tie the entire story together. I'm trying to make the puzzle pieces all fit together so I can see the entire picture but I'm coming up empty. I'm left underwhelmed.


╰⪼ Police Procedural
╰⪼ Cult Horror
╰⪼ Crime Thriller
╰⪼ Psychological
╰⪼ Serial Killer

Thank you to my girlies for letting me buddy read along with them -💋 Courtney , Cara and Divinity ❤️

Many thanks to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, and J.H. Markert for the complementary digital copy in exchange for my honest review 🖤🔪🩸💋

This was a HECK of a book. I don’t think I’d call it suspenseful so much as I’d call it captivating. It didn’t have the sit on the edge of your seat feel of most suspense books, but I found I couldn’t put it down. As the story wove in and out of past and present, it kept you hooked, trying to figure out who the bad guy was and how the main character was entangled with him. I totally did not see the ending coming and how the two characters stories merged together, but I really liked it. The last third of the book really pulls everything together nicely and while not a feel good novel, you feel good about how things turned out.
*I received a copy of this book for free in return for my honest opinion.*

Whew!! I am going to preface this review by saying do not read this book if you want to sleep or do anything else!!

Summary: It is the eve of the execution of the Silent Priest serial killer. Twenty years ago, the Silent Priest dressed up as a priest and hunted and collected vulnerable children and adults. He brought them to his "House of Horrors". When the police finally catch him, all but one child is dead. The investigation is led by Tess Claibourne's father. As a teen, she would listen to her father and his partner discuss the case. Now she is a detective, married (but estranged from her husband), with a daughter of her own. Her partner is her husband's best friend and godfather of her daughter. There is something in Tess' past that causes her to blackout- her husband is a psychologist and calls these episodes "holes in her memories".

The story opens in the past with a boy, drawing eyes, then coloring them black. These pictures hang all over his wall that leads to a tiny door of a dark closet. His mother is coming upstairs to punish him. He continues to scribble and thinks about her dying. His name is Noah Nichols.

We segue to the night of the execution. Tess receives a phone call the next morning from "The Outsider" saying he didn't do it. She realizes this has to do with the Silent Father and rushes to her parents where she discovers they have been murdered. Tess doesn't have time to grieve her parents because dark eyes are drawn on the window. She also is told that the last words from the Silent Father before he was executed were about finding "the one that got away", The eyes give her a clue that her daughter is in danger. When she arrives at her daughters school, she discovers that her daughter has been taken. She and her husband then receive a phone call.

This book dives right in! The pace isn't just fast- it is break neck speed. There are many characters in the story, and it is told through the perspective's of Tess, Justin (her husband), Danny (her partner), and The Outcast. The plot tells about the investigation, a cult, split personalities, and even a little paranormal aspect. Although there are all these strands, it is a tightly woven story and the revelations roll out in a way that is connected, urgent and adds to the culmination.
The atmosphere is dark and creepy with a sense of urgency. I felt like I was in the book with these characters. It is a tense read, and I found that I would have to get up and stretch because I was so immersed in the story. Although there were times I wanted to throttle Tess, I still liked her and as the story goes along, I began to understand her character much better. I like her husband Justin. He added insight to the multiple personality story line, and was supportive to Tess. Danny was also a rock star! The possible list of villains weren't just evil. I liked how the author tied their brokenness of things past, and we got to see multiple facets. There is a morally gray area with some of them as we see the motives reveal themselves.

There are many twists! And yet, when I finished this book I was completely satisfied! It is very well written, and honestly I am surprised the author was able to keep everything straight and then bring it together!

I also (guiltily) really liked the "character" Oskar!

I highly, highly recommend this book if you like tense, dark mysteries and thrillers. But be warned- there is not time to breathe while reading this, and you will not be able to put it down!

I now have to go find a simple, easy romance to read after this roller coaster ride!

Many, many thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for this fantastic ARC. This is my honest, voluntary review!

Fantastic premise and plot but the execution left something to be desired. I felt that the pacing was a bit slow in parts and I wasn't DYING to get back to it. Still, definitely solid and not bad, just not my favorite!

I really enjoyed this book so much! It was such a wild scary rollercoaster! It felt like I was watching a dark horror thriller. I had no idea what was going to happen next and was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I absolutely will be checking this one out again when it releases, but on audiobook because I think this would be fantastic in that medium - especially if they got someone to do all the different characters.

J.H Markert is a wonderful author and his attention to dark detail does not go unnoticed. Every character was carefully thought out and and every location was so detailed that you can almost feel like you were reading a movie script. It was so easy to follow along and envision what you were reading. Those types of novels for me are the best in this spooky genre.

I will say at times I felt as though there were too many characters to keep track of, however overall it did work for the story being told. The flashbacks and the full circle moments of it all were brilliant. The ending of the story did not feel overdone or easy to solve - but original and fresh - which can be hard in a horror novel.

I will be recommending this to my friends! And I will be talking about this long after its official release day in Sept. 2024! Very excited to pick up some other books by J.H. Markert!

Thanks so much to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for the ARC!

I liked the premise of this book and the plotline was very intriguing, but I wasn’t a big fan of the pacing and I felt like the author tried to do too much with the story. I thought that the first 60% of the book were very slow paced and then once we hit 60% it started to become too fast paced. In other words the lead up was slow and the reveal was almost too fast.

I also thought that there were too much happening in this book. It got very confusing sometimes, because the author kept adding on to the plot. There were also a few things I didn’t feel like we got a proper answer to.

However the atmosphere of the books was very spooky and I liked the suspense in the book, so I will definitely still recommend it!

If you read this be sure to set aside enough time to read it in one sitting. This is a fast-paced psychological thriller with super crazy characters. Lots of bad people. Perhaps too many characters but I was surprisingly able to keep up. I wouldn’t say this has lots of twists, just lots of bizarre stuff happening. I didn’t like that Tess had a drug problem. It seemed totally unnecessary to the plot. Other than that I highly enjoyed this book. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

This book is so disgustingly good, I don't think I was deserving of a gift as wonderful as this ARC. J. H. Markert once again creates the creepiest detective story that is boarderline supernatural. I love that not everything can bee 100% clearly explained away, always making you wonder if there is more at play than the obvious. I appreciate that his characters are never perfect, they have their own flaws that actually bring value to the story and make them more relatable.

Though Markert is his own unique genius, he continues to remind me of a more graphic Stephen King with the cohesive worlds he is able to build across his books. When I open one of his books, I know I'm in for the craziest ride.

J.H. Markert's horror books have never disappointed me, so I went into his new horror novel totally blind. 'Sleep Tight' turned out to be one of my favorite books of 2024, perhaps ever: it's smart, atmospheric, complex, incredibly well-written... and totally scary! It's written as a crime/thriller/mystery type of a book, with a lot of emphasis on the mystery part; but when things click somewhere around the middle, you realize this is a superb supernatural horror book, selling itself not on gore, jump scares, or other cheap gimmicks, but on a magnificently plotted fast-paced cult horror story, full of uncanny evil characters, relatable family people, and terrific supporting figures. It's very hard not to care about them all, even the villains. The names are also immediately eye-catching: a serial killer named "Father Silence," a kidnapper of children, calling himself "The Outcast," and the bizarre "Mother" everyone is afraid of! Not to mention the various places the unrelenting action brings you to: an abandoned orphanage, a convent, a killer's basement, and, of course, the brilliantly conceived Playhouse, where the missing kids are taken to. Everything builds bit by bit into a supernatural adventure involving abuse survivors (some with multiple personalities - the most absorbing, chilling scenes in the book revolve around them!), creepy children, strong women, and monstrous parents. The book's style and focus is reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs and the movie Split - though the story's resolution and the characters' approach to family and evil are entirely different. In sum, this is simply an amazing read recommended to all horror fans who like slashers, cults, nasty revelations, and detective thrillers with a supernatural twist!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, & J.H. Markert for the chance of an early read! All opinions are my own.

This story was dark and creepy and had supernatural undertones woven throughout, all while uncovering a compelling and complex mystery.

Our FMC (Tess) is the daughter of the small-town detective who made a name for himself after capturing Father Silence. Now, 20-ish years later, Tess is following in her father's footsteps and has become a detective as well. She's thrown into a case that involves a serial killer that has haunted her since childhood (Father Silence). Tess gets word that he's off death row and has finally been executed - but instead of getting a moment of relief, a copycat killer is on the loose; This time, Tess's own daughter is one of the missing people.

Thank you to NetGalley, Crooked Lane Books, & J.H. Markert for the eARC copy in exchange for my honest review!

I had heard of J. H. Markert previously but had never read any of his books. That will definitely be changing after reading 'Sleep Tight'. I must now consume everything this man writes!

I was completely captivated and utterly enthralled by the very beginning.
Each chapter had me feeling equally intrigued, confused and on edge right up to the very end when it all came together beautifully.
Playing on personal fears of mine this book had me holding my own child extra close each and every day.
If you are wanting an amazing thriller which will keep you on your toes with every page, this is for you!

Thankyou to Crooked Lane Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Review has been posted to Instagram, Goodreads and StoryGraph.