This book was just ok for me. I enjoyed the first half, but the second half seemed to drop off and repeat. I was hoping for more and had to trudge through to the end. Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy.

It begins like any other domestic thriller. An already fragmented family relocates for a wife’s new job as police chief of a small town. The husband, a failed author who has lost himself in alcohol, is responsible for the accident that killed his young son. None of this endears them to the suspicious, closed minds of the townspeople of Dahlmouth. Those townspeople still whisper about the old legends and tell their children to stay out of the woods. They don’t. Then the true horror begins.

Nowhere pulls you in slowly. You concentrate on Chief Rachel’s failing marriage to Finn and her attempts to gain respect from the rest of her small force. You don’t notice what is really happening until it is too late. Nowhere is skillfully paced with an expected ending. 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, Atria Books and Allison Gunn for this ARC.

I think the descritpion of Mare of Eastdown and The Outsider was spot on. This book was everything you could want in a horror novel. It gave that heart pounding, can’t sleep because you’re too scared feeling. I enjoyed that while there were supernatural elements, the characters had their own demons and issues haunting them, it was a multi layer story. I thought it was well paced and it definitely kept me invested. I do feel that the ending left a little too many questions unanswered and I wish that the Appalachian setting was a bit more descriptive and atmospheric. All in all, I think this was an excellent debut horror and will definitely pick up the author’s books in the future!!

After losing her young son in an accident, Rachel Kennan throws herself into her career as police chief of a small Virginia town to avoid focusing on her grief. Meanwhile, her husband, Finn, a washed-up writer whose alcoholism led to the devastating tragedy that changed everything, struggles to redeem himself before his family completely falls apart. Their two daughters are the only things keeping Rachel and Finn together, but the girls have demons of their own.

At the same time, a disturbing crime rocks their tightknit, religious community, sending Rachel chasing leads in a place that does not take kindly to outsiders. When an ominous force in the forest starts calling to the children, fear spawns hate among the townspeople, placing the Kennan family directly in the line of fire. Left with no choice but to rely on each other, Rachel and Finn must come together to face threats inside and out.

The atmosphere here was creepy. This is such a thought-provoking book, in the way those thoughts send creepy vibes down your spine. The writing, the POV switch, the forest, the characters. Love them or hate them. This book was SO good. Read it! 4.5⭐

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. This is my honest opinion of the book.

Nowhere tells the story of a grieving mother who throws herself into police work to avoid feeling her emotions. This read like a classic crime thriller. The backdrop of a fundamentalist town definitely made the reading experience more unique as opposed to similar stories. Overall, this was an engaging book!

First, the cover on this book is fantastic, and it was the first thing to draw me in. But I also thought the story sounded interesting, so I requested the book. I’m glad I did. The writing kept me engaged and I appreciated the pace of the story. I especially liked Rachel as a character. Sure, she was miserable and angry, but also so full of grief and sadness. This book is a well written thriller, and interesting from start to finish, I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

I liked the premise of this book and the eerie setting the author created throughout. The story did get a little muddled as it progressed and became a little confusing, but it was really creepy and pretty interesting.

I personally did not like any of the characters, I thought they were all annoying but they did have a bit of a ‘come to’ moment. I also wasn’t too keen on the depiction of poor folks, especially if this books takes place in a rural area with majority low income people.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC of Nowhere by Allison Gunn. Rachel and her family start a new life, when Rachel becomes the Chief of Police in a close knit Virginia town. Her husband Finn is a writer and most members of the community do not like his editorials and different views. The community is especially against them when he is blamed for a horrible accident their son goes missing. Rachel blames the always drunk Finn and although they are stilling living in the same house, they are not speaking to each other. Meanwhile a dead body is found in the woods and Rachel is spending her time chasing leads and not seeing what is happening with her family. Their two daughters are the only thing keeping Rachel and Finn together, but they have demons of their own. This is a fast paced, haunting family saga, horror, mystery that I could not put down. Bravo Allison Gunn on this debut novel! Looking forward to more books by this author.

What a Debut! The way the story gradually builds tension and ramps up the creepiness is definitely one of its strongest points. A debut novel that can deliver that level of suspense is pretty remarkable, especially when it has moments that genuinely unsettle you, like the epilogue.

That final twist or the way the narrative leaves you hanging can have such a lasting impact, and it sounds like the author did an amazing job with that. The pacing and atmosphere must’ve really pulled you in, keeping you second-guessing what was real and what wasn’t. I imagine the sense of isolation or the unsettling environment of "Nowhere" played a huge role in creating that constant feeling of unease.

This book is BONKERS, but in the best way. This is a horror/thriller novel that consumed me the entire time I read it. This book is creepy and I truly understand the genre being marked as horror.

Regardless, this is a novel with many POVs but largely set around the Kennan family who had relocated to a small, religious community in rural Nowhere in western Virginia due to circumstances you’ll learn about later. Rachel Kennan is the newish Chief of Police of Dahlmouth, Virginia who became all consumed in her job due to scandals and ultimately the death of her young son. She has two other children, 6 and 13 year old girls. Charlie is a rebellious teenager while Lucy is a 6 year old who just keeps getting the sense that something is not right and was deeply affected by the death of brother. Rachel’s husband, Finn, has his own demons and nothing is quite as it appears. People are suddenly not acting like themselves, especially the children. What do you do when history repeats itself and you can’t stop it?

Nowhere kept me on my toes and did thoroughly creep me out, especially the epilogue!! This is amazing for a debut novel.

Holy cow! This book was interesting, scary, disgusting, sad, and kind of confusing at times! I had an excellent time reading this book! It was so messy and I really don’t know how I feel about that part of it. There was just so much going on with it and felt I pretty confused most of the time. It was definitely chilling creepy children are definitely one of the things that can make me feel super creeped out!!!! But this story also scratched the surface on a few things that are really actually heavy. I wouldn’t say there’s not trigger warnings but I would say some of the triggering things didn’t get too far into depth they were just kind of presented but not explored entirely. What a great debut, definitely creepy as heck!

A supernatural thriller with a broken family at its heart.

After a horrible accident leaves their son dead, the Kennan family tries to cope as best they can while they slowly implode. After a disfigured corpse is found in the woods surrounding the town, family and town secrets slowly bubble to the surface and something from the forest starts calling to the town's children.

I found myself completely invested in this family's plight. I found the mother's rage and grief very realistic and sobering and found this to be a fast-paced thriller. However, I found certain important parts of the story were left unexplained. Like how the body found in the woods connected to the supernatural aspect of it. And the explanation for the events that take place are left open to interpretation. I enjoy enigmatic endings but I felt a bit cheated with this one.
3.5 stars

Nowhere by Allison Gunn delivers an intense narrative with moments that really pack a punch. While the story keeps you engaged, its intensity might feel a bit overwhelming at times. Overall, it’s a gripping read, but not without its challenges. A solid 3.5 stars!

Nowhere by Allison Gunn starts off with spine-tingling terror and an eerie Appalachian atmosphere that immediately pulled me in. The story follows Rachel Kennan, a grieving police chief navigating personal tragedy while battling a sinister force threatening her small town. The blend of folklore, family drama, and horror is compelling, and the forest scenes genuinely creeped me out.

However, the characters—especially Rachel—were tough to connect with. Her anger and misery overshadowed other emotions, making it hard to root for her. The pacing faltered in the middle, and some plot points felt unresolved or rushed. That said, the writing is solid, and the unsettling tension kept me reading.

If you enjoy dark, folklore-inspired horror and don’t mind unlikeable characters, Nowhere delivers chilling moments worth exploring. For me, it was a mixed bag—promising but uneven.

The beginning was great! So creepy and scary! But it did end up losing me somewhere in the middle. But was fast and scary

[Snack-Size Review] Nowhere, by Allison Gunn

Quick Bite: Could have been much better than it was.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

What It’s About: Rachel Kennan is the chief of police in Dahlmouth, a small town in Virginia. She’s reeling from the loss of her son Finn and dealing with plenty of old-school, small-town BS, further complicated by her alcoholic husband alienating the town with his scathing brand of journalism. But when she finds a terribly mutilated body and her daughter starts behaving strangely, her own problems have to take a back seat to the horror threatening the entire town.

A Word From The Nerd: Duckies, I love me a good backwoods folklore horror story. I really do. But this one was so hard to enjoy. For starters, Rachel is awful. And I don’t mean unlikeable - I mean consumed by anger to the exclusion of virtually all other emotions, cruel just because she can be, just… miserable. Being in her head was exhausting. And the book was just too crowded with extraneous characters and locations, it was too much work to try to keep up, and after being in Rachel’s head for so much of it, I didn’t even really care to.

The Nerd’s Rating: TWO HAPPY NEURONS (and some pancakes, just because I have a random craving.)

Allison Gunn’s Nowhere masterfully blends family drama and horror, crafting a tale as deeply unsettling as it is emotionally resonant. At its heart is the fractured Kennan family, struggling to heal from the loss of their young son while navigating the complexities of grief, guilt, and redemption. Rachel, the stoic police chief, and Finn, her self-destructive husband, grapple with their own demons as their daughters confront an eerie force tied to Appalachian folklore. The novel’s small-town setting brims with tension, where religious fervor and fear escalate into a community on edge. Gunn's haunting prose and layered characters pull readers into a chilling story where the true horrors lie not just in the dark woods but within the human heart. A poignant and disturbing debut, Nowhere is a must-read for fans of literary horror and atmospheric thrillers.

This was definitely a really creepy book to read! I had a hard time putting it down. Kept my attention for sure and was easy to read.

Creepy Appalachian horror/thriller! It wasn’t 100% my cup of tea because I don’t generally like this genre, but I will recommend it to customers (I work at a bookstore in Appalachia!).

From horrifying monsters to a vital exploration of bigotry and toxic relationships, Nowhere has a lot of great elements, but they never quite came together for me:

1. The novel’s solid plot isn’t matched by its execution. The plot kicks off, as so many successful thriller plots do, with a brutally and mysteriously mangled corpse. The victim’s story and how they came to be murdered near a small Virginia town is very interesting. Unfortunately, Rachel, the local Dahlmouth police chief and a dual lead protagonist, doesn’t solve much of it. Another minor character solves most of it off the page and reveals it all at once through dialogue towards the conclusion. Other plot points play out in similarly confusing ways.

2. The atmosphere isn’t consistent. The scenes with the evil lurking in the forest are often absolutely terrifying. They might make you afraid of the shadows in your own home. However, other scenes suffer from more mundane backdrops. I really love novels about small towns where the town itself becomes a character. Dahlmouth largely felt generically unpleasant and so I was only intermittently engaged by the world.

3. The characters already feel beaten at the beginning. The evil in Nowhere is the type of horror monster that draws secrets and bigotries out into the open, playing characters against each other by using their weaknesses. Since all the characters are already miserable and awful to each other with their secrets exposed, it doesn’t feel like the evil needs to do that much. There wasn’t much room to descend into despair which is what I usually love from these types of narratives.

There’s a good way to tell if Nowhere is right for you. Through antagonistic interactions the novel quickly establishes how most of its characters behave like assholes toward each other. In a quick read of a sample, if you find these interactions engaging, rather than aggravating, I recommend giving Nowhere a try.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.