The perfect mixture of horror, mystery and crime.

So the main players in this book are single mother Rebecca Carter and her daughter Moonflower, who are on the run as well as Special Agent Marc Donner of the FBI who has been hunting down a serial killer whose MO is draining the victims of blood before severing their spinal cords. To add, these victims seem to have a dark past of their own. Unfortunately, the closer March finds the serial killer, the closer he is to Rebecca and Moonflower. We mainly follow Rebecca’s and Marc’s point of view and get the added extra of hearing the letters Rebecca to her daughter and towards the end of the book we get to hear from Moonflower.

There is so much more I could say but I don't want to provide spoilers, so you'll have to trust me when I say you need to pick this up!

Thank You to Stuart Neville, RBmedia and NetGalley for the audio-digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Blood Like Mine is a fast-paced crime thriller with horror elements throughout. It follows a woman and her daughter who are trying to evade police detection for reasons that become clear as the story goes on. There are twists and turns and the plot definitely keeps running right up until the end.

I really enjoyed this and in particular loved the characterization of the main three characters we follow. Motives were explored in a very understandable way and I felt empathy for the characters. I do feel the plot was a bit predictable but the writing was enough to keep me invested.

Highly recommend the audiobook which has two narrators - both of which are fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!

It is a well done book, readers who enjoy books about vampires and adjacent, will enjoy this more.
I'm starting to understand that I do not enjoy stories about them, so that's on me.
And sadly, I did not enjoy it as much as I would like to. The story was slightly different from what I was expecting it to be.

Thank you Netgalley, Soho Press | Hell's Hundred and Stuart Neville for the e Arc of Blood Like Mine.

Blood like mine is a psychological thriller with some great horror elements. Set at 3 separate first person POVs, we follow the journey of Rebecca and her daughter, Moonflower on the run from someone or something sinister. The 3rd POV is of FBI Special Agent Marc Donner, on the hunt of a serial killer. who prolifically drains the body of all their victims of blood. These two narratives start drawing closer and closer together we get a gruesome thriller of cat and mouse.

I love narratives like these. This is my first read of Stuart Neville's even though Ive seen his name in reading circles so I will be picking up more of his books in the future, The plot pace and structure was medium and constant. Drawing you in with details of the 3 MC's and their surrounding areas and who they come in contact with. It's gripping and I found that I just wanted to keep reading and not put it down. There is some quite gruesome and graphic scenes within this storyline that is well detailed but not too heavy. The horror elements, mixed in with the thriller elements mixed very well and made for a great gripping read.

I really enjoyed the dynamics between both Mother and Daughter, the protection the daughter needs but also the freedom and visa versa.

I had the pleasure to ask listen to the audio book.in which Elizabeth Rodgers and Michael Braun did a fantastic job.

4.5 stars for Storygraph. 4 stars on Amazon, Goodreads and Netgalley

A great blending of horror and crime fiction. It was far paced, gripping, great character work and I loved the ending.

🌟Book Review: "Blood Like Mine" by Stuart Neville
🌟Genre: Horror, Mystery & Thrillers
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

🔪 "In a chilling blend of suspense and horror, LA Times Book Prizewinner Stuart Neville takes readers on a pulse-pounding journey through the desolate highways of the Southwest. 'Blood Like Mine' is a gripping tale of a mother’s desperate fight for survival, where the line between predator and prey is dangerously blurred."

This book kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time.
💀 Why You'll Love It:
🔥 High-Octane Suspense: "Blood Like Mine" is a relentless, heart-pounding thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. Neville expertly weaves a tale of suspense that never lets up.
🩸 Dark and Gritty: The novel’s atmospheric tension and chilling portrayal of a mother’s desperation create a sense of dread that lingers long after the final page. It’s a dark, gritty story that isn’t afraid to explore the horrors lurking in the shadows.
🎯 Complex Characters: Rebecca and Donner are both haunted by their pasts, and their stories are deeply intertwined in a way that makes them compelling and memorable. Their motivations, fears, and desires drive the narrative forward, making every twist and turn feel deeply personal.
🛣 Haunting Setting: The vast, desolate highways of the Southwest become a character in their own right, amplifying the isolation and danger that Rebecca and Moonflower face. The bleak landscape mirrors the bleakness of their situation, adding an extra layer of tension to the story.

🎯 Perfect For:
✨Fans of psychological thrillers with a touch of horror.
✨Readers who enjoy high-stakes, fast-paced narratives with complex characters.
✨Anyone looking for a chilling, edge-of-your-seat read that explores the darker side of human nature.

📚 Dare to embark on this terrifying journey, but remember—nothing is certain when the hunter becomes the hunted. Happy reading! Thanks to @Netgalley for the #ALC

#BookReview #StuartNeville #BloodLikeMine #MustReadThriller #DarkReads #PsychologicalThriller #SuspenseReads #HorrorFiction #EdgeOfYourSeat #ThrillerAddict #GrippingFiction #HeartPoundingSuspense #ReadersOfInstagram #IGReads #InstaBooks #Bookstagram #Bookstagrammer #BookstagramCommunity #Netgalley

Excellent narration. No issues there with listening at faster speed. Male/female voice for each character so easy to follow.

Cat and mouse type story between FBI agent Donner and mother/daughter duo with a secret. Great mystery storyline and unwrapped well. Could relate to the characters even though they all had unlikeable qualities. Lots of explicit language throughout, just unnecessary and takes from the quality of the writing. No major gasp moments from me but some nice twists along the way.

Thanks to netgalley and recorded books for my advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

A pulse pounding thriller with a twisted storyline that will make you doubt what is real and what is not. The mother and daughter relationship in this book is top-notch. The narration itself was great to say the least and I was fully immersed. The audiobook in itself is an experience, something I would suggest highly for people's fall tbr. (Rating - 4.75 out of 5 stars)..

Strange book but it keeps you wanting to keep reading/listening. A mother love to protect her child and do whatever it takes. Rebecca takes Moonflower away from dangers and only goes after people that would hurt others. At strange as Moonflowers “hunger” is I still do not know if her was a vampire or a wear wolf of something else or even a cross. In the end Rebecca turns into what her daughter is. The book is left open ended so you make up what happened after the mother turns. I would like to think they found each other again and continued to fight living and to not let the “hunger” take over.

Blood Like Mine by Stuart Neville

I wasn’t sure where this book was going until suddenly, I did and it was terrifying.

Rebecca and Moonchild are running from something. They have to remain hidden but what they are running from is breathing down their necks and the danger is too close.

This was a really fabulous twist on a vampire tale. Rebecca isn’t coping. They are both living out of their van and they are being hunted. Staying one step ahead on no money is taking its toll.

It’s split between 2 POV, Rebeccas and Special Agent Donner. It wasn’t fast paced enough for me but the story was entertaining enough that it kept me engaged. I loved the vampire lore and it was a really well done horror/thriller.

4 stars

3 ⭐️ - DNF due to unnecessary violence towards animals around 20% of the way through the audiobook.

Thank you for the opportunity to listen to this ALC!

I loved this blend of survival thriller and vampire horror. It's such a unique take on the legend of vampires. Rebecca Carter and Agent Marc Donner's POVs ran deep with elaborate backstories and flaws woven into their desire to do right by their families. I was glued to the page and I highly recommend this one for fans of darker thrillers who don't mind scary creatures.

Thank you NetGalley for the Audiobook!

The book was slower paced than I initially expected, a mix of police procedural and thriller. The dual pov with the letters in-between was great for the story progression, sometimes the chapters overlapped in time and sometimes they were sequential. When the story gets graphic it gets really graphic and I enjoyed the carer / creature they're protecting / unhinged agent story.

This just simply wasn't for me. As I continue to learn more about my reading tastes, I've come to realize there are certain tropes (cat and mouse) that I just don't enjoy. It's very detective heavy, which I'm sure a lot of other readers like. I just wasn't feeling wowed by anything and it failed to really grasp my interest. I don't think it was bad, and the narration was done well, I'm just not the right audience for it.

"Blood Like Mine" by Stuart Neville is a horror novel with a bit of thriller in it. I kind of liked it, and I feel it was well written. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Michael Braun and Elisabeth Rodgers. They did a great job with this.

Moonflower and her mother, Rebecca, are on the run. It takes a while to figure out why. After that, it makes sense, except they never once say the name of it. You know the game of "Tell me you're an XYZ without saying you're an XYZ"? Yeah. That's what this book reminds me of.

They are being pursued by an FBI detective, special agent Donner. This part gives me X Files vibes.

The chase is pretty exciting, as is the end. You might enjoy this book if you like thrillers with a bit of horror. It wasn't any more scary than the average thriller to me.

Characters - 5/5
Writing - 4/5
Plot - 3/5
Pacing - 4/5
Unputdownability - 4/5
Enjoyment - 4/5
Narration - 5/5
Cover - 4/5
Overall - 33/8 = 4 1/8 rounded to 4 stars

Thank you to Netgalley, RB Media, and Stuart Neville for providing this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Oh this one is a funnnn ride and I highly recommend going in blind. I listened to this on audio courtesy of RB Media and was absolutely hooked. I took a day and did nothing but play Mario Odyssey and listen to this book. Highly recommend.

I loved how twisty this one was and I always enjoy when the horror is a slow burn. I would consider Blood Like Mine to be equal parts thriller and horror, with some crime procedural elements sprinkled in. The character development was also really well done and I enjoyed the writing! Moonflower is an incredible character and I especially enjoyed joining her and her mom and learning about their nomadic ways. This was my first book my Neville but I plan to check out more ASAP.

The narrators knocked this one out of the park as well and I would recommend listening to this on audio. Check this one out if you love horror, thrillers, moral dilemmas, and books on crime!

**Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books for letting me listen to this one a bit early!!**

Blood Like Mine
Stuart Neville

4.75 / 5

Reading and listening to this novel felt like I was watching one of many great thrillers from the early 2000's (to mention which ones would be too spoilery), but told through a refreshingly unique lens.

Even the way the novel is paced feels like a film. It's perfectly balanced in its exposition, its character development, and its many thrilling, horrifying, and more gruesome moments.

It kept me up reading all last night.
Just when I thought I had everything figured out, I had not ... I hadn't figured out shite.

I almost always figure out how a thriller/mystery novel is going to end about a third of the way through, simply cuz I've read sooo many.
But that was not the case with Blood Like Mine ...
A third of the way into this novel, I was still unsure of what GENRE we were going to land on. The expert way that information is doled out, and when it's given to us is what kept me from predicting things too early. Mr. Neville sure knows his stuff!

Every time I thought "Ohhh, I see! I get it now." ... I did NOT see ... I had NOT gotten it yet ... Things kept happening out of nowhere that kept changing my perspective. Then another scene would play out, and it would completely change genres.

Every quick change of direction worked SO well for me; it all kept me so engaged in the story and incredibly intrigued; needing to know where things went next, and then needing to see how everything was going to play out. (I took off my detective cap after awhile, and just absorbed and enjoyed the journey. Stuart sure keeps you on your toes in this one.

I enjoyed being just as frazzled, paranoid and discombobulated as the characters ... getting to know them through their individual journeys / actions / inactions.

This book was an unexpected treat to read from an author I'll be checking out a lot more of.

I'd like to compare it to two other books in particular - and say "if you like these, you'll love this" but that would spoil some of the surprises that I got to experience ...

I don't even read synopses anymore, because I find that lately the marketing almost always gives things away... Sometimes it's just small things that I'd rather discover on my own.
But, if you're capable of reading between the lines, than you know that book synopses and movie trailers, ESPECIALLY within a particular genre, gives way too much away lately. So I just go off covers and word of mouth, and sometimes reviews.

(*I'm not saying whether that is or isn't the case here ... I'm just recommending going in as blindly as possible so that you can hopefully have the same exciting experience that I had while reading this extremely well crafted novel.)

4,5 - Novel
5.0 - Audio = 4.75

From the book description: <i> “On a snowy December night, single mother Rebecca Carter drives her van into a snowbank to avoid hitting an elk on a desolate mountain highway. She is at the end of her rope, out of money and food. Still, she refuses help from a man in a pickup truck—Rebecca’s adolescent daughter, Moonflower, is on the run from a grisly secret, and the last thing they can afford is to be remembered by anyone they meet.

Meanwhile, Special Agent Marc Donner of the FBI has spent the better part of two years hunting down a gruesome serial killer who drains victims of blood before severing their spinal cords, leaving a trail of bodies throughout the American West. As Agent Donner’s investigation brings him closer and closer to where Rebecca and Moonflower are hiding out, in the foothills of Colorado, the life that Rebecca has fought so hard to hold together for her daughter becomes increasingly </i>

This book is told mainly from two POVs: Rebecca’s and Marc’s, interspersed with letters written by Rebecca to her daughter and chapters by Moonflower.

It’s best to read this without knowing too much about the plot so that the twists hit hardest, as it goes with most horror stories. I will say that in this book, we find out the main twist about halfway through the story, with the second half being mostly about the final chase and climax of the tension that’s been building. It’s the big payoff of what we’ve been building to all this time. And I was really excited to see what happened!

Because the key to a good horror story, IMO, is a good set-up, and this one is a really good set-up. So I was along for the ride, metaphorically, as the book is about a mother and daughter who have taken to the road, lol.

But the other aspect of a good story is good characters you can either root for or “love to hate” and I just didn’t really like these characters. Or care about them at all. I don’t want to spoil anything, but Rebecca just made poor decisions at every turn, while Moonflower wasn’t very fleshed out. And Donner? He was a bit of a trainwreck, but I feel like I would be to if everyone in my life just kept screaming at me. I mean, geez, every time he picked up a phone it was someone just railing on him. I couldn’t take it anymore, especially when he was right about most of the things he was talking about. (not that I am saying he was a good husband or father, but WOW.)

So I’d recommend the plot, but be prepared not to get invested in the characters’ arcs. It’s the big picture that’s worth it here.

The perfect mix of horror and crime. It grabbed me right away and never let up. I didn't figure it out either which is a plus. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest rating.