3.5 stars This was suspenseful, with a good end twist…:but not for the faint of heart. This was pretty gory. Not my favorite by this author…but he does not disappoint.

Thank you Titan Books & Ronald Malfi for this read.

I was totally hooked from start to finish with this book. It has all the vibes of past mistakes and secrets that eat up the protagonists alive.

This book is so well planned and thought out. Everything ties together so unexpectedly at the end and I couldn't think of a better way to finish things off.

Throughout this read I felt myself getting creeped out multiple times. There is so much going on and some vividly spooky scenes.

Another solid read by this author! They know how to develop their characters so well, cast a plot that'll hook you from start to finish and as always end with a BANG.

Love this book! Love this author!

I am a big Ronald Malfi fan. In fact, he is one of my favorite authors. But, this book just felt different from the others that I've read.

If I didn't listen to the audiobook of this, I sadly would've DNF'd it pretty early on. I couldn't connect with the writing. The words were so flowery, complicated, and seemingly using big words to change up his normal writing style. But I enjoy his normal style. This felt like he was trying to be a different author.

The very basic storyline was good. It was interesting to a degree and had potential. But it was like trying to make a novel out of what was clearly a short story.

While this book just wasn't for me, I very much look forward to reading more of Malfi's work.
I gave this 3⭐️.

As always, I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to have an advanced ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤💛🖤

Small Town Horror is the latest release from one of my favorite authors, Ronald Malfi. As you could probably guess, it's also one of my most anticipated releases of 2024. I'm please to announce, it did NOT disappoint!!

In this story, we follow Andrew Larimer, a NYC attorney, who suddenly gets called back to the hometown he fled almost two decades ago.
Kingsport, Maryland, was where Andrew grew up. The beautiful coastal town holds a lot of memories for Andrew, but one in particular, an event that happened on his 16th-birthday in 2003, made him want to never look back. When he gets a call that his childhood friend, Dale, is in trouble though, and that he could really use Andrew's help, Andrew begrudgingly packs his things and returns to the place he swore he'd never see again.

Once in town, Andrew is ultimately reunited with all of his old friends: Dale, Meach, Eric and Tig. It's like getting punched in the face by the past. There's so much unresolved between them, you can feel the tension oozing off the page. Andrew is also staying at his childhood home, his father's house which transferred to him upon his father's passing a few years ago. The house is in disrepair, with a flooded basement and insects, it's a house of horrors come to life.

Through past and present perspectives, the Reader is slowly keyed into the truth of what happened on Andrew's 16th-birthday, which also happens to be the 4th of July. I found both perspectives equally interesting. The past did have an added nostalgic feel to it, which I always appreciate, but the present had an intensity that I couldn't turn away from. I felt like the connections between the past and present were also so well done.

The creepy imagery and lush atmosphere were absolutely fantastic. The coastal town, the lighthouse, the birds, the dark endless water, the mystery, the intrigue, the supernatural flourishes, it was all top notch stuff. Malfi is an incredible writer, who never fails to draw me in. While not all his characters may be particularly likable, they're always believable. Hell, I don't like a lot of people in real life, so why would I expect to like all the characters I read about?

I did feel for Andrew in this one though, and maybe even Tig. They weren't perfect, but I think the choices they made were understandable. As they transitioned into adulthood, they truly never got past the things that happened that one 4th of July night. The shadow they couldn't shake. The idea of hauntings, or being haunted; it's not just places and it's not just supernatural, people can be haunted for a variety of reasons, and I enjoyed that exploration here.

Malfi is always able to channel such emotion into his writing. It feels like he is pouring his heart into his stories. Honestly, it must be exhausting, but I feel like that extra touch makes his stories stand out against the crowd.

As an atmosphere girlie, I can't stress enough how deeply atmospheric this story is. As I was reading it, I was swept down the coast to Maryland. I could feel it. Unlike the standard Autumnal vibes we're used to getting from Horror novels though, this exudes Summer Horror. If you do not have this on your Summer TBR, you need to change that immediately. This isn't one you want to save until October. You need to read this now!

The beginning did remind me a lot of Black Mouth, but of course, Malfi brought it in its own distinct direction. I walked away from this silenced. I had to just stare off into space for a while and ponder everything I'd read.

The ending, wow. Dang! It was completely unexpected, yet somehow a perfect conclusion. It sort of broke my heart, but also made me just so excited that talent like Ronald Malfi's exists in the world, and that I can keep picking up his books for a long, long time.

Thank you to the publisher, Titan Books, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I recommend this to any Horror Reader, particularly if you are looking for great Summer Horror with palpable small town vibes.

Did not expect to like this one as much as I did! Moves at a steady pace revealing enough to keep the pages flipping with some gripping suspense along the way. Read in one day. This was my first by Ronald Malfi but I can't wait to devour more. My thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

BLOWN AWAY right now. Trying to be coherent and avoid spoiling this experience, which was visceral, disturbing, and did not go how I expected, in all the best ways possible. Adding fireworks, frogs, and anything made of wicker to my "avoiding it" list. Birds were already on that list but they're on their twice now.

Secrets and lies, no one can ever really escape their past. This one really is a small town horror, a group of friends that grew up together in this small town are all brought back together when lawyer Andrew receives a phone call from one of his old friends as his wife has gone missing and due to their troubled relationship he is a suspect and needs his lawyer friends help. But when Andrew returns to town, along with the mystery of the missing woman, secrets of the group of friends start to become unveiled.

“We were doomed from the beginning.”

A group of adults reunite in the town they all grew up in. The secret they’ve been hiding since they were kids is about to be exposed. I’ve read so many books with variations of this theme but I keep going back for more.

There’s something about nostalgia, even when it’s someone else’s, that draws me in. Nostalgia contaminated by unspoken trauma that’s been dragged into adulthood is intoxicating.

While I want to run in the opposite direction when drama threatens to knock on my door, I can’t get enough of it where fictional characters are involved. I blame a steady diet of shows like Days of Our Lives during my formative years. I mean, who can watch Marlena get possessed and not become a drama junkie?! But I digress…

Even though I was fairly convinced I’d been there, done that, I still wanted to read this book. It was in part because I’ve yet to meet a Ronald Malfi book I haven’t enjoyed. However, I also needed to know what the secret was and watch it bring together or destroy the friendship of the people who’d been living with it for so many years.

Andrew has secrets. There’s the big one from his past but there’s also the fact that he owns a house his wife doesn’t know about because … reasons. At least it gives him somewhere to stay when he takes an unwanted trip down memory lane.

“The five of us are cursed, man.”

I love so many of the books I read but, for whatever reason, they rarely surprise me these days. This one did. I was blindsided more than once and it absolutely delighted me when my assumptions kept being proved wrong.

I’d argue that every horror story needs a lighthouse. This one also has turkey vultures and itchy eyes. Counting has never been so creepy. This was such a fun read!

“You shouldn’t have come back here.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

Ronald Malfi serves up a dark-noir mystery with a slice of small-town Americana with his latest novel Small Town Horror.
Despite the title, the book is largely a departure from the horror genre and follows a group of childhood friends drawn together to their childhood town following the disappearance of one of the group's wives. The reunion brings up a troubled past and an old secret that threatens to tear apart the fabric of the group.
The story itself is a study of guilt and a group burdened by the sins of the past. The key modern-day mystery of the wife's disappearance at times takes a backseat and is almost secondary to the relationships of the former friends.
It's a solid character-driven novel but a very different one to Malfi's usual work.

This is not the first Ronald Malfi book I have "owned" (I know I don't technically own this one, but I'm not sure how else to describe it) but it is the first one I've read, and after all of the great praise I've heard about his books/writing I do have to admit I'm a little let down. First off, when I requested this book I think I was expecting something a little more akin to Stephen King's IT, and while there are a few similarities, I would more akin it to I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Which isn't a bad thing, but if you go in expecting one thing a find something else it can affect your perception, so please do keep that in mind for my review. Now I do want to say that the writing was fine, there wasn't really anything wrong with it, and while I perhaps found the phrasing of a few things odd that wasn't really the cause of my disappointment. I think at it's core my issues were 1) a kind of "meh"-ness, and 2) I didn't really find it scary in any way shape or form. So point one; I feel so much of this book was just...fine. The story didn't stand out, the characters didn't stand out, even the idea didn't really stand out. It also just seemed, for lack of a better word, hesitant. It's like it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a ghost story, or just a revenge story. I'm still not entirely sure there actually WERE any paranormal elements here. Sure, if it's not there were some pretty wild coincidences, but nothing really came out and screamed "ghost". And maybe that was the point? "Is it really a ghost, or is it just the guilt haunting them?" I don't have an answer for that. As far as my second point goes I don't think it requires an insane amount of explanation, but I will expand on it a little. Were there a few kind of gross scenes? Absolutely, but I don't really recall any scenes that gave me that horror-story chill down my spine. In fact, I think the biggest reaction I had was from more of a plot-twist element that wasn't actually part of the horror element at all. Sure, it made me go "oh, shit", but not in a scared way, more of a drama way. I feel like it also took a rather long time to dig into the why of what was causing these things to happen and I'm not sure why. I honestly don't think the story would have been much different if we had just opened with the terrible thing that happened all of those years ago. Seems like this just wasn't the right book/story for me, but seeing as I do still have a few of Malfi's other novels and there wasn't anything terrible about this one I'll probably end up reading at least one more at some other point, but I don't think I'll be going out of my way to recommend this one to customers.

An atmospheric, deliciously creepy, and haunting story of revenge. This dark tale is told mostly from the perspective of Andrew Larimer, although the story surrounds him as well as his four friends in a dual timeline. He's forced to return to his small hometown of Kingsport to deal with the ramifications of a tragic incident in the past that threatens to upend his happy life. With the pacing of a thriller and the darkness of a horror tale, this was a dream read for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Who doesn’t love some small town horror?

Slow start but it did help set the creepy vibe that followed throughout the entirety of the book, loved the atmosphere and the suspense. It was twisty, many I saw coming but others left me shocked.
Have enjoyed every book from this author and looking forward to reading more from him.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Thank you to @titanbooks and @netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you Netgallery!

I just couldn't get into this book. I wanted to love it but the writing style was not for me.

SMALL TOWN HORROR is a novel about a bunch of people I couldn't stand. LOL

A group of friends reunite in their hometown of Kingsport, Maryland. Their meet-up is not for pleasurable purposes. One of their wives is missing, and one of them is a lawyer who might be able to help. This group has secrets in their past and it is of the utmost importance that their secret is never divulged. Will they find the missing wife? Will the world discover their secret? You'll have to read this to find out!

I must be honest here and say that the horror trope of a group of old friends reuniting to face an old evil from their youth is mostly played out for me. It was Ronald Malfi's writing that kept me going. I didn't like the characters much, (but I don't need to, if the story is a good one), and I didn't care for the plot much either, but as I said, it was Malfi's writing that kept me going. He has unique insights into his characters, (in this, he reminds me of Michael McDowell's writing), and those insights were what I enjoyed most about this book. Another thing Ronald Malfi did here, and that I admired, was to hold his secrets back until nearly the very end. I know that I should've have seen at least one of those coming, but the book was written in such a way that I forgot all about that one salient fact that was right in front of my face the whole time. I love when that happens!

So, in spite of not liking any of the characters, in spite of being tired of this trope, I absolutely adored the writing and admired the building of such an intricate story. This isn't my favorite Malfi book, that's for sure, but I'm still a huge fan of this author and will continue to look forward to everything he puts out.

Recommended!

*ARC from publisher. Thank you.*

Please tell me somebody has read this book because I need you to explain the ending to me! I was sitting in the waiting room at a doctor’s office when I read the last couple of chapters on my phone and when I finished, I just put my phone down and stared blankly into space until they called my name. This creepy book follows a group of 5 friends, whose decisions they made in childhood have come back to haunt them, literally. This book contained such unsettling imagery and vivid descriptions, to the point that I could practically smell the scenery at times. Small Town Horror is set in the summertime so this is a great one for the horror loving reader in the summer!

"Small Town Horror" by Ronald Malfi was my first book by him, and it hooked me right away. The story follows Andrew Larimer, a successful lawyer in NYC, who returns to his hometown of Kingsport, Maryland, after a frantic call from a childhood friend. Back home, Andrew gets pulled into the mystery of his friend Dale’s missing wife and their shared dark past. The group of friends is haunted by a tragic accident involving a boy named Robert Graves, blurring the line between the supernatural and their guilt-induced paranoia.

Malfi excels at creating a creepy small-town atmosphere and delving into how secrets and guilt can erode a person's sanity. The dual timeline, similar to Stephen King's "IT," adds layers to the story, keeping the suspense high. The ending is both shocking and memorable, making the slow build-up worth it. The characters are well-developed, each dealing with their own demons. If you love horror with a psychological twist and a gripping narrative, "Small Town Horror" is a must-read. Malfi’s ability to build dread will keep me coming back for more.

Small Town Horror was an atmospheric story about a group of teenagers whose lives are changed one Fourth of July night by a terrible accident.
It was a dark, creepy read; most of the characters were not particularly likeable although I was rooting for a couple.
It was a good story which I would recommend to any horror readers.

This story definitely left me guessing the whole time. Very "I Know What You Did Last Summer" but with ghosts and witches.
It was a pretty solid read and I enjoyed where the story took me.
9/10 no notes.

I'm sorry to say that this book did not meet my expectations. First, the plot idea of a handful of friends coming together again as adults to face something sinister from their past is getting old. This book really has strong „It“ vibes. Second, for me it dragged like chewing gum. So much telling and rambling. I did not like any of the characters, especially our narrator Andrew. I despised him from the moment he arrived at his hometown.

This was my third book from Malfi and I enjoyed the two others well enough. But here he just fills pages of pages with words and the story does not get to the point. It took me ages to finish it and after doing so I wished I had stopped somewhere in the middle. Maybe his next book will be better.

This was a slow, slow burn but the ending was really dark. I would said this was worth the read but not a favorite or wildly unique book