This is one of those book you cannot read at nighttime if you want to be able to sleep.
It's creepy, well written and it kept me hooked till the last page.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

Now THAT is a horror story.. Great story, good characters, an ending I didn't expect.. Very well written.

Scary, atmospheric, creepy and enjoyable. Great book that was a real page turner. Good story and relatable characters

A very creepy read! This book had me hooked from page one. I have been reading a lot of horror and thrillers lately and this one was very good. I liked the supernatural feel of the book and how it kept me guessing

This book surprised me! I was expecting a run-of-the-mill haunted house/creepy kid story and One by One definitely features a creepy kid, but the haunting is not typical.

The suspense built up slowly and the atmosphere got wicked tense the last 75% of the book. So tense that I stayed up later than I intended because I couldn't stop reading an had to know what would happen to Alice.
Alice is the main character of the book, also a ten-year girl who loves reading and references Pet Sematary in the story--which I loved. I love when characters in books read and talk about books they read because it makes them seem more real. Alice definitely felt real to me and her relationship with her brother also seemed real.

I don't want to give anything away, but there's a CreepyPasta twist to this story that creeped me the heck out! And a certain "dinner" scene near the end had me repulsed and shuddering. Takes a lot to get a physical reaction from me and this book did it. This was my first book by this author and I'm going to keep my eye out for more work by them in the future.
4.5 stars! Another great read from Flame Tree Press

Two and a half stars. This was just a run of the mill read. I thought that it was supposed to be a scary book but it missed the mark. I can't say that I would have any desire to read it again.

Alice who is 10, her brother Dean, 15 and her mom and dad have just moved into a gothic, thrown together, huge house. It's cold and needs a lot of work. Everyone is acting and hoping it will soon be a home and not just a house.
Alice noticed a torn strip of wallpaper that is coming off a wall. Something makes her pull it off of the wall. Underneath is a depiction of a family. The stick figures eerily resemble her family. The only difference is the family pet is a dog not a cat like they have.
Even though the drawing is disconcerting, the family continues moving in.
A cat disappearing is not uncommon. When the picture on the wall has a black "X" marking out the dog, well, that was a little strange. Especially when no one confesses to having changed the drawing. Even more significant is when the drawing of the boy has an "X" through it and Dean can't be found. The police are called. There has been a major snowstorm and there aren't any police available to help locate Dean.
Alice is thrust into a nightmare so profound she will remember it all her life. Perhaps the spirit of Mary, the girl who fell down the stairs and died can help her with the courage she will need to save her family.
Interesting. Entertaining. Good character development and storyline.

This story is my groove! I was completely enraptured with this book. I smoked less, and didn't even log onto Goodreads!
When I first started this book I thought, huh, I know this house! My squat, hairy man and I once looked at a house like this. I wanted to buy, he thought I was nuts. There was even the bedroom with windows that looked out into a laundry room. Of course I was over the moon! Turns out, it was on the flood plains! This story was tense as heck for me. I do love that! I'm giving no clues to how this one goes! I would suggest reading the book flap, and diving in!
My thanks, once again to Flame Tree Press, the author, and Netgalley.
I must say that Flame Tree is putting out some great stuff!

A surprising and frightful read! I haven't had the pleasure of reading one of the authors novels before but wanted something a bit different in terms of the types of books I have been reading lately. Well this one HIT THE SPOT! I thoroughly enjoyed this creepy little tale and could feel the fear almost as soon as I started reading! I am so excited to find more books by the author in the near future!

The Easten family are moving into a new house with a dark history, in the hopes of turning their lives around for the better. However, something dark is lurking inside, and it seems to be linked to a childish drawing on the wall which looks eerily familiar ...

On the face of it, 'One by One' does look and feel like your run-of-the-mill haunted house story. There are strange happenings occurring, and amidst a tangible air of confusion, no one knows who to trust. Nothing is quite what it seems, but what starts out as a typical ghost story turns into a slow descent into madness. The overwhelming paranoia will lure you down an unsure path, in a narrative with a lingering touch of Psycho about it.
I haven't read anything by D.W. Gillespie before, so I didn't have any expectations going in, but I really enjoyed the unnerving narrative he created - building the tension, always keeping you on the edge of your seat. I definitely recommend it if you like all things spooky!

I want to thank D.W. Gillespie, Flame Tree Press, and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Let me start by saying that this was my first time reading D.W. Gillespie.

You know the thrill that comes with reading an author that is new to you:

Will I like the writing style?
Will I DNF it?
Will the author become a new favorite?

Well, I can certainly tell you that I loved Gillespie's writing. And I'm looking forward to reading more of his works.

Now let's get down to business.

Here's the Synopsys:

"The Easton family has just moved into their new fixer-upper, a beautiful old house that they bought at a steal, and Alice, the youngest of the family, is excited to explore the strange, new place. Her excitement turns to growing dread as she discovers a picture hidden under the old wallpaper, a child’s drawing of a family just like hers.

Soon after, members of the family begin to disappear, each victim marked on the child’s drawing with a dark black X. It’s up to her to unlock the grim mystery of the house before she becomes the next victim."

"One by One" is the kind of book that is hard to review without spoiling the fun. For that reason, I won't go into much of the details.

A family moves to an old house and strange things start happening?
Yes, please!

The minute I saw it on NetGalley, I knew I needed to read it.

The story had me hooked from the get-go. And the fact that it reads like a movie helped to keep me furiously turning pages.

We follow Frank, Debra, Dean, and Alice. As they "try" to settle in their new home. But unfortunately—for them, not us—things start to go south after Alice discovers an old painting behind the wallpaper in her room.

The book starts off as your typical haunted house story. The descriptions of the house are very well done. I could feel the atmosphere growing tense as the story progressed.

But not everything is at it seems.

Alice finds herself more and more invested in the mystery that surrounds her family, and the old house.

What happened to the previous owners? Is there a dark past attached to the house?

And this is where I'll stop.

The only thing that prevented a 5-star rating was the lack of character development. We get just enough to make it work. Don't get me wrong, it does work!

Although I was able to maintain a connection with our protagonist, I can't say the same about other characters.

Overall, I feel like "One by One" was a nice read!

I really wanted to love this book - I adore a good haunted house mystery. But the characterization was thin, making it difficult to care about the people who'd landed in this situation, and the pacing really struggled. There was little sense of tension or looming menace. In the end, although I managed to finish it, it just didn't feel very satisfying to me although it tried very hard.

This book is the first novel I've read from this author and having finished it, I'll be going out of my way to read more of Gillespie's work! I cant believe it ended! This author had me hooked right from the beginning and turned into one of those books that eats you up and leaves you with a hunger for more when finished. This was a perfect haunted house story with all the right elements.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Flame Tree Press for an advanced electronic copy in return for an honest review.

A really well done dark fiction/thriller novel! I don't get to read enough of these, but this one was pretty good! It has a very 00s thriller feel to it. Think Amityville, Insidious, or Sinister. Character development is pretty spot on, though there were times where I felt extremely disconnected from our MC. However, I found that the story alone makes up for these few instanced.

Short review, but I really do think this may be one to check out if you were looking to try a new thriller novel.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Before I even get into the review about this book, it needs to be made into a film. Not in 10 years time like RIGHT NOW! I can guarantee you it will sell out cinema auditoriums.

This book is one of the creepiest and eeriest books I have had the pleasure to get my hands on. I literally had chills running down my spine at some of the chapters. The atmosphere created throughout the book is very creepy, suspenseful and just down right horrific.

The book is about a family who move in to a “typical haunted house” and I don’t say typical in a bad way. I say it in a way which means it set the scene for me. The creative writing describing the house is fantastic. Lots of similes used which helps set the scene for the entire book. Soon after the family move in strange things start to happen. The story focuses on a young ten year old girl called Alice. Alice is a very fleshed out character however a slight criticism is that I wished more of the other members of the family had been fleshed out. More about the careers? Life experiences?. However this dosent really take away the storytelling techniques that Gillespie uses.

The story is structured like a horror film, hence my reasoning for wanting this to be made into a movie. You are constantly guessing throughout the story if the sub genre is paranormal or slasher horror. You are guessing and guessing until the latter part of the book when it is revealed.

I loved the fact that Alice had a voice talking to her throughout the book as this helped to show a deeper understanding of her character. I also especially liked the epilogue on how the characters life’s panned out. It is so refreshing to see this especially in a horror book as many just end bluntly.

I highly recommend this book as it is a short and fast paced read. You can expect to find all the horror codes and conventions typical of the genre as well as a good protagonist.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and Flame Tree publishing for their ARC.

I was given a copy of this novel from the publisher, Flame Tree Press, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Flame Tree Press is really making a name for themselves among readers of dark fiction for publishing works that contain an artistry that transcends the genre and One by One is no exception. This is my first novel from D.W. Gillespie but I will be on the lookout for more after reading One by One.

I remember reading an interview with Brian Keene when he described his ground-breaking zombie novel “The Uprising” as a simple story about a man trying to find his son, and it is. That is when horror really works, I think. Sure, I enjoy a good two dimensional monster romp as much as anyone, but the best dark fiction is about so much more. Stephen King’s “IT” is more about the kids dealing with the bad things that happen in their lives than about Pennywise, and "Pet Semetary" is about dealing with loss. The real world connection makes the novel scarier because you understand and recognize the feelings are invested in the characters.

On the surface, One by One is about a family moving into an old house with a dark history. They are thinking that the incredibly low price they paid and the change in circumstances will be that big break that they need to turn things around, which have been going pretty crappy recently. They are not alone in the house.

Ok, so far that sounds like pretty much every haunted house story ever written. Let's keep going. Mom and dad are not on the best terms presently. Dad is more in favor of the move than mom. Brother and sister have sibling rivalry issues. They even bring along a pet cat. They find creepy drawings on the walls. It seems that they didn’t get the complete story on the house’s background and it is much worse than they thought. They find a diary that provides more details. Check all the cliché boxes.

But One by One is a lot more about the family than the house; and while it looks like a traditional haunted house story, it isn’t. To me it turned out to be something completely different than expected and I was fooled by apparent clichés into thinking that I knew what was going to happen when I did not. The novel is more about how a family confronts internal conflict amongst themselves as well as from outside forces. It really grounds the story in reality and makes us feel for and recognize the characters as realistic. The danger is real, also. The story is dark—darker than you think going in. It is disturbing and escalates quickly but resolves itself both realistically and in a way that should satisfy the reader.

4 stars. Check it out—both the writer and Flame Tree Press deserve interest to seek out their other works.

This book absolutely blew me away.
If you could take Scout, from To Kill A Mockingbird, put her in a perfect family, move that family into a strange, older home you just know has got to be haunted, and watch the family unravel into dysfunction slowly but surely then you'd have only part of what makes One by One a great tale.
Almost anything I say about this book will be a spoiler because the characters are so vivid and the setting so perfect that it's honestly all I can do to keep myself from gushing out the story line and spoiling it for everyone. Take my word on this one: read it. You will not be disappointed.
The insanely perfect part about One by One is that it makes you think you know where the book is going--and it never goes there! Instead of taking the easy way out, instead of the same, old, tired, hackneyed haunted house stuff we're all so accustomed to, D.W. Gillespie throws a proverbial monkeywrench into the tale at every juncture. I don't think I've ever said, "Wow... I didn't see that coming," so many times while reading a book.
Something I didn't realize until just now is that my mental picture of the characters was formed without having them described to me... and that is neat. Frank and Debra and Dean and Alice all look the way I want them to look with just minimal details tossed in. But they are all drawn so well, so brilliantly, that I feel I know them.
Horrifyingly original, excellently-paced, and thoroughly satisfying.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2837927578?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

I really, really enjoyed this book. Is it supernatural? Is it criminal? You figure it out. Definitely reading more of this great author. I kept my lights on. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

The tale of a family moving into an old isolated house with dark secrets that will soon become the scene of terrifying events may have been done countless times before but done well it still has the power to send shivers down the proverbial spine. Make no mistake, here D.W. Gillespie takes this well used genre and turns it into a satisfyingly scary story that will leave the reader turning the pages long into the night to find out who or what is behind the strange and seemingly unexplainable events.

The story is told through the perspective of Alice, the youngest of the Easton family and starts with the family moving into their surprisingly inexpensive (always a clue that something is amiss) old and eccentrically built isolated house. It has a strange eerie atmosphere and it is not long before Alice discovers a child drawn picture under the old wallpaper depicting a family similar to our own. This picture will go on to have a central role in the plot and I do not want to give too much away but simply say that the tension and paranoia is built up layer by layer as we try to work out what exactly is going on.

If you like a really scary read where everyone is a suspect and you do not know whether you are confronted with the supernatural or criminal then I think you will enjoy this as much as I did.

Good old haunted house story with an Amityville horror house feel and a twist at the end. Told in the point of view from a ten year old girl. Creepy stuff.