“Nowhere, Ohio” has a fun premise and feels like a fun 80s werewolf horror story. But the execution is just not there. There are so many extra words in the sentences, when it’s not necessary. It feels like someone wrote a rough draft and then threw every thing the thesaurus had available into it. Even the first page of Anna getting ready for a Halloween party was a mix of too many words and just mansplaining makeup to the reader and how she didn’t really wear makeup, just concealer & mascara but when she did it attracted so much extra attention. It was honestly really off-putting. And some of the action scenes need some editing and work. I have a pet peeve about authors describing a fight and details don’t line up throughout. Door was shut but all of a sudden something appears in the doorway? I honestly had to DNF at 30%. It was just too much detail and the dialogue was so forced and unnatural.

Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this.

I sadly had to give up on this book at 23%. The story sounded interesting and I was excited to read it, especially after the opening scene. But unfortunately the main story fell flat for me.

There were paragraphs and entire pages that were nothing but unnecessary descriptions. We don't really need to know the layout/room description of Ryan's entire house and the year/make/model/color of every person's car. To me the abundance of descriptions took away the enjoyment of making it up in my head. I understand we need some information but not overly done.

I struggled to make it as far as I did, but even at almost a quarter of the way through the book, I couldn't connect with any of the characters. They all had enough backstory to them but I just couldn't bring myself to continue reading about them. Maybe I will finish the book in the future and have a new updated review.

This werewolf novel delivers a brisk, no-nonsense narrative, spiced up with a supernatural twist involving ghosts for an extra layer of excitement. It’s also packed with 80s nostalgia, making it a treat for anyone who grew up during that era and appreciates those nostalgic nods. Will say though I love that this was in Ohio, and the premise was intriguing so thank you Netgalley for the arc

Norton, Ohio is a small community close to Akron, Ohio. A place struggling after it's largest industry shuts down leaving many of it's residents in hardship to find work. Ryan and his family are not immune to the struggles of their town. With his mom and dad separated, and his mom dying of cancer, Ryan and his older brother Devin, and younger sister Layla try to navigate their new existance.

When a father and daughter in town are brutally killed by a giant wolf, the entire town is turned upside down. Reality is suspended when Ryan and his sister start seeing spirits that seems to be trying to tell them something. With the adults in their lives completely ignoring the attacks, it's up to Ryan and his friends to figure out what is going on and to keep everyone safe.

This book reminded me of a mix of 80's classic horror movies and Final Destination. Full of 80's pop culture references, this brought back so many childhood memories for me. My main beef with this book was the writing style of flowing between characters POV's in the same chapters. Most of the story is told from Ryan's point of view but in the middle of paragraphs we switch into the other characters thoughts. It was disorienting at times and I found myself having to reread to figure out how events were playing out. Despite this, I really liked this book. It was was gory, and scary with "I can't believe that just happened" moments. The ending was gripping with action and a sequence of events that had my jaw on the floor. If you're looking for a good monster horror book for spooky season, I can't recommend this enough.

This book is a thrilling departure from my expectations. It is truly a gem for those with a taste for the extraordinary, especially if you have a penchant for werewolves!

Nowhere, Ohio is a horror story set in a quiet town near Akron, Ohio. Fourteen-year-old Ryan Hatcher believes that his father and other locals will transform into werewolves during the full moon. He also discovers spectral entities communicating with his younger sister through her toys. Despite skepticism from his friends, Ryan investigates paranormal activities in the town, uncovering eerie behaviors in neighbors and his own family. The story explores the challenges of growing up in a small town with a terrifying twist.

In this gripping tale, a group of teenagers stumbles upon the dark truth behind a string of vicious animal attacks in their small town. Despite their best efforts to warn others of the impending danger, they find themselves battling against disbelief and skepticism. As they race against time to put an end to the bloodshed and unravel the enigma, they are haunted by ghostly apparitions and faced with life-altering decisions as the sinister identity of the werewolves is unveiled.

The novel has garnered high praise for its spine-chilling werewolf elements, though some have noted that certain descriptive passages may momentarily slow down the breakneck pace of the narrative. Nevertheless, it comes highly recommended for aficionados of savage werewolf sagas. Prepare yourself for a wild ride through the shadows of the unknown!

Thank you NetGalley and Anthropolis Publishing for digital ARC copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Bloodthirsty werewolves, set in the 80s, a group of teenage friends, and a slight Final Destination vibe... what more could you want?
When a werewolf terrorises a small town one Halloween night, everything changes. Ryan, a young teenage boy, witnesses the wolf attacking family and sees what happens once the wolf is killed. Now he's seeing dead people, and feels like he's the only one who can stop what happens next.

This was, I felt, a slow-burner. It took me a lot longer than usual to get through this one because I felt that it was just incredibly slow at points. The moments with the werewolf attacks were brilliantly brutal, and I had hoped there would be so much more of it than there actually was. At around the 75% mark, the story was amped up, and it was full steam ahead from then until the end. I loved the idea that Ryan was having visions of what was going to happen, but it definitely messed with my feelings a little as it didn't let on that these were visions until afterwards.
If you love 80s werewolf movies/books, this is definitely one for you.

Very interesting premise.
Wouldn’t hurt to be run through a few more edits. Writing felt a little clunky and some outdated language. Punctuation and paragraph style just felt a little off too.
Made it feel a little stuttery to read. But tried to push through because I did like the general idea of the story/plot.

DnF at 12%

I should have read the reviews first. I usually do, but I was so excited for a werewolf story that I skipped it and requested the book anyway.

First off, the grammar was terrible. I personally don't know much about grammar and spelling etc, but I can tell whether something is readable. This is not. I mean, I could have stuck it out but then this review would be a lot worse. The writing comes off as a young teenager first experiencing a thesaurus. It is like the author had to meet a word limit so they went through their story and added big words, extra words, and even more spelling and grammar mistakes.

In saying this, with a nice big edit this book has potential. I would give it another go if there was some editing done on it.

I really love that this was in Ohio, and the premise was intriguing. It starts off strong and creepy and then kind of fizzles out but does pick back up a little over halfway. I felt like it was very predictable and just didn't vibe with me. However, the writing style was enjoyable, and if werewolves are your scene, give this one a try.

Nowhere, Ohio
Bryan Wayne Dull, Bryan W. Dull
The setting is a community close to Akron, Ohio.
Werewolves are blood thirsty creatures; they hunger for flesh and the fresh blood that oozes from it. They are vicious and when transformed they are mere predators. In a community on the outskirts of Akron, Ohio vicious animal attacks are leaving mutilated bodies.
On Halloween night Ryan Hatcher and his friends discover werewolves are real. As though Ryan does not already have the weight of the world on his shoulders. His parents are separated, his brother is withdrawn, and his mother has cancer. Ryan believes his father and several other men in the community are werewolves. He believes they transform during the full moon. Ryan and a group of teens are sure the animal attacks are caused by werewolves, and it is their responsibility to stop the werewolves and their vicious attacks.
Something is communicating with Layla, Ryan’s younger sister. Whatever the entities are they are using her toys to send her messages. They are unsure what the “spirits” are trying to tell them. Could it have something to do with the murders? Ryan is determined to discover what is going on. The closer he gets the more paranormal activity he discovers. His neighbors are acting weird, and his family is even stranger.
This is a supernatural HORROR tale. I found the werewolves interesting. They no longer thought like a person, they became animalistic and a killing machine. They tried to resist the transition between being a human and being a werewolf, but the curse was too strong.
The plot of this book is well done unfortunately, this book needs a good proofreader/editor. It is very distracting to attempt to read a book when it is filled with grammatical errors.
Thank you NetGalley for the review copy.

This werewolf/supernatural novel is a good mix of terrifying blood thirsty creatures, haunting gruesome spirits, and a coming of age story.

I love a good werewolf story and these ones are the unsettling type. They're vicious, hungry, and have nothing but predatory instincts in that form.

Of course, when a close knit group of teens realise what's behind the "animal attacks" in the town, convincing others isn't so easy. So it's going to fall on them to try and stop the carnage as the bodies pile up. But other people have secrets and might know more than they're letting on.

In between the gruesome murders, our main protagonist and his little sister experience horrifying ghostly visions. These spirits are trying to tell them something but it's unclear to either of them how it factors in to the killings.

As the next full moon gets closer, they have to make some life changing choices as the identity of the werewolves are revealed.

Overall, this is a fantastic novel especially if, like myself, you love the werewolf vibes. My only minor criticism is only a personal one and probably won't affect most readers. I thought perhaps it was a tad too descriptive in some sections and slowed the otherwise fast paced narrative down. Again, I know people who LOVE this kind of descriptive narrative so I'm probably in the minority. This is, in no way, a criticism of the author. This novel is well written and he knows his stuff!

I definitely highly recommend it especially if you like your werewolves horrifyingly brutal!

This was a fast paced straightforward werewolf novel with some added ghosts to make it even more fun. There’s a lot of 80s nostalgia thrown in as well, so anyone that grew up during this time period is going to enjoy those references for sure. There are some typo and grammatical issues that hopefully will be corrected before release, if so then I would raise my star rating to 3.5-4 stars.

Love a nostalgic read and werewolves, PLUS it’s based in Ohio (where I reside) so I had to read it! Aside from grammatical errors-this was a solid story. Loved the take on the curse of werewolves. Very atmospheric throughout. Slow to start, but picks up in the middle! Will definitely look for more from this author!

I enjoyed this style of writing. I loved how you not only got the werewolf, but also the ghosts. This was full of blood and gore which is exactly what I want in a werewolf horror. I definitely had some nostalgia from the 90s slasher style of this book.

I will say that there is some editing that needs to be done on this. I look forward to seeing this do well.

Thank you NetGalley, Bryan Wayne Dull, and Anthropolis Pubishing for allowing me to review.

First I want to thank Netgalley for giving me the chance to read this book!

I love horror and when I saw this was about a town in Ohio I had to read it. As an Ohio resident, it felt like it had to be done.

I enjoyed the supernatural elements in this story and the werewolves. They were interesting in the way that they thought. Less of the person becoming a mindless werewolf machine, more of them attempting to "fight" back against their curse. My favorite part of this book was the apparitions though and how things could feel so real and then not be. I did struggle at the beginning of this book because it took a bit for me to get into it. The action picked up more towards the middle and that ending! I was not expecting the plot twist that was thrown. I can often tell when a story is going to go a certain way and the author really got me this time.

The main reason this was a 3-star read for me and not a 4-star is due to mechanical errors within the story that would stop me in my tracks. There was one point when Valerie was thinking of the wife but instead husband was written, for example. I don't think these errors mean the book isn't worth reading though.

If you love horror and things that go bump in the night you will enjoy this book. I also felt rather nostalgic about the 80s setting of the story. So many toys that I had as a child were included. My husband still has his garbage pail kids cards from when he was Ryan's age. If you remember the 80s and 90s this book will send you on a terrifying trip down memory lane.

I wanted to love this book. The premise was so intriguing. Unfortunately, the writing kept me from being able to get into the story.

ARC Review

This book had a good premise, I really enjoyed the mix of supernatural creatures & being from Ohio, i was intrigued.

With that being said, this book had a lot of grammatical errors. Whether that be due to spelling mistakes, using the wrong word (example: “the” instead of “there” or “an” instead of “and”, etc), forgetting quotations or periods or commas & occasionally using the wrong medical terms. Not to mention there were several times in the story where one character would speak but then the next character would use the wrong characters name or one character would be in the scene but then all of a sudden, a new character took over the scene. It also felt like i was reading a book written by someone who found a thesaurus & wanted to tryout all the complicated similar words besides just a normal one and like they were trying to reach a word count.

I was going to DNF at about 50% but decided to push through. It got a little better with the story picking up, though the grammatical errors kept coming. The “plot twist(s)” were also pretty predictable.

All in all, the story has good bones, if you will, but just needs a good look over to correct the grammar errors & plot issues.

DNF'ing @ 8%. This is why I almost never review anything from independently published or super small press authors – I hate, hate, hate being put in the position of giving a less-than-stellar review. I mean, Stephen King? Whatever. He probably gets a hundred bad reviews every day and laughs over them while rolling around in his millions. Small-time authors are much harder.

But, anyway, I didn't love the writing in this one. I think it has a great premise, and I love me a good werewolf story. It has potential, but (and there's always a but) it needs some editing. Lots of editing. The writing isn't bad, exactly – it's obvious that the author has talent – but it reads more like a college creative writing assignment than a published novel.

I did love Miss Boot-Boots Bittenbacher, though. Leave it to a cat to watch from behind the sofa while you get maimed by a werewolf.

So, yeah, it's gonna be a 2-star rating from me, dawg. Sorry. I'd love to give it another try once it's a bit more polished. Truly.

I wasn't so sure about this book but it proved me wrong. It was pretty good. I am not a huge fan of the cover but oh well.

I had to give up on this book. I read the preface and the writing was horrible.
The author should SHOW the reader what is happening NOT tell what is happening.

I thought that the synopsis was good enough to pique my interest, but the writing leaves a lot to be desired.