3.75 A great night read with some scare jumps, I have a thing for being scared of quiet windows and then seeing a shadow there starting back. That always makes me feel very, and it's super creepy. I wasn't expecting some elements in this novel that take it into the paranormal realm. I thought it wasn't going to be a discovering past kind of novel, but it has some small-town horrors to unveil as well.

DNF at 68%. It’s bittersweet to write this, as I was genuinely excited to dive into this book. From the opening , I felt immediately drawn into the story. The premise was magnetic, the prose vivid, and the early chapters utterly immersive, I couldn’t wait to keep turning pages.

Unfortunately, around the 30% mark, the pacing began to falter. What started as a tightly wound narrative soon became bogged down by excessive exposition. Scenes that once brimmed with tension began to feel like info dumps, pulling me out of the story rather than deeper into it. I pushed through, hoping for a return to the initial momentum, but by the halfway point, the clutter of details left me disoriented and disconnected.

That said, this isn’t a reflection of poor writing. The author’s style is undeniably captivating-lyrical, evocative, and brimming with moments that made me feel like a participant in the world. While this particular story didn’t resonate with me, I’d gladly explore more of their work in the future. Sometimes a book simply isn’t the right fit, and that’s okay.

Thank you Orbit and Netgalley for this Arc. This Arc was provided in exchange for my honest review

This book is best going into completely blind because the fun is in watching this bizarre town’s secrets unfold. This is a trippy, wild read that I devoured pretty quickly. Jesse returns to his backwoods home town because someone claims to have information about the mysterious death of Jesse’s mother. And, that starts the reader’s trip down a rabbit hole! Highly recommend!

Thanks for the opportunity to read in advance!

This was one with such an interesting premise that unfortunately did not stick the landing. Horror can be a tricky genre. Does it need to scare the reader, the characters, or both? Can a book be horror if neither you the reader nor the characters are scared but there still exists technically horror-coded moments? Who knows. What I do know is I found it to be lacking on the horror front. Really, it felt more like general fiction with magical elements. The magical elements themselves were very interesting, and I loved their inclusion. But horror they were not.

But to focus on the positive side of things, I loved how the weirdness with the Night House wasn't explained. We saw its effects, but there wasn't a moment where we were told how it all works. I greatly appreciated that aspect. I also really liked how the ending was handled. It became more and more chaotic, and there was a moment of realization as to what was happening. It was done very well.

That said, it wasn't all good. Over half the book seemed to be establishing the characters and the setting. And yet I feel like I barely got to know either. There were moments where Jesse, for example, would see things in the shape of the town's river. And it was purported to be this wild, revelatory thing. Yet all I could think was, "Oh. Huh. Cool, I guess?" The characters and setting didn't seem to exist outside the needs of the plot, and that just doesn't work in a book like this. The narration was too cold and distant. And then my more minor quip is that the chapters were so long; surely some of them could've been split even further.

This ultimately was a disappointing book that nevertheless has some very creative moments.