I was thrilled to get a chance to read this after seeing one of the slickest marketing campaigns for a YA book on social media. And, as a horror film fan, I was really looking forward to it.
It’s a great book. Intelligent, atmospheric and genuinely unnerving in places. As much as I loved the onslaught of horror movie tropes and conceits, I was really pleased that the author took the book and the characters in a much more satisfying direction.

I read this as part of a blog tour.

I was so excited to read this and I was not disappointed. Creepy, compelling and sinister; it draws you in like a moth to a flame, you just can't resist following Lola into the woods and caves of 1920s throwback Harrow Lake.

I grew up in the London suburb of Harrow and we had our fair share of folklore and stories, but nothing as spine tingling as Mr Jitters, cave ins and murder.

Although this is YA, I think plenty of adult readers will enjoy it too, Lola makes for a engaging and very naive protagonist and the residents of Harrow Lake are suitably odd for the setting.

Exactly the spooky, atmospheric read I was looking for. Lola is self obsessed and narcissistic and yet still a relatable main character you can't help rooting for. The daughter of a famous film director, she is sent to Harrow Lake to live with her grandmother. The area is the setting of her fathers most famous film and soon the horror world of her father's imagination seems to be coming to life around her. Really enjoyed this fast paced and eerie read.

Harrow Lake centres around Lola, the daughter of a famous film director. After Lola finds her father stabbed almost to death, she is sent to Harrow Lake to live with her estranged grandmother. Harrow Lake is the place where her father's most famous film is set, and also home to the legend of the creepy Mister Jitters. As Lola explores the town that made her parents famous, she begins to unravel the mystery of her mothers disappearance.

I really dug the themes in this novel, there was an eeriness reminiscent of the cult films of the 80s. The character development is good and there is a steady discovery of twists and turns which will keep you interested in what is happening.

The book can be somewhat vague in places, which reflects Lola's confusion as she narrates the story.

Harrow Lake has a great feel to it, doesn't drag on and will keep you guessing throughout.

Despite my advancing years, I generally get a lot out of young adult fiction but sadly "Harrow Lake" missed the spot. It was a bit too Scooby-Doo for me. I think if you're using a puff quote marketing a book to fans of Stephen King, then you'd better be sure that the content delivers. This one fell too short of the mark for me. I enjoyed the ending but vacuous Lola and her "optimal" patter (plus the nonsensical Mr Jitters ditties) did my head in. As I said, I'm not the target market and I did finish the book - I just didn't love it as I'd expected to.

I don’t usually read YA books but this one spoke to me. Lolas father is injured and she is shipped off to Harrow Lake to stay with her grandmother whom she does not know. Harrow lake is the last place anyone saw Lolas missing mother, and Lola is determined to find information about her. Mr Jitters is the legend which haunts Harrow Lake and confronts Lola at every turn, but is Mr Jitters real, or a symptom of something worse haunting Harrow Lake?

This was a good read, I wouldn’t say I couldn’t put it down but I did enjoy it. It isn’t just for YA readers.

'Harrow Lake' is one of those novels that you can't help but loving! It's 'American Psycho' meets 'The Yellow Wall Paper'!

Lola Nox is narcissistic, obsessive, spoiled and yet somehow entirely relatable. Kat Ellis throws Lola into a world of confusion and the reader, like Lola, is desperately trying to make some kind of sense of the rabbit hole she has fallen down.

Deeply disturbing plot elements force Lola is confront her inner (and outer!) demons, and as the fictional horror world created by her infamous director father seems to be coming to life around her. She is isolated and alone in Harrow Lake, and the psychological terror this brings is electrifying.

Ellis cleverly begins the novel with an interview with Nolan Nox - laying out the mysterious disappearance of one of his film crew, his wife and his only daughter before the narrative flashes back to the previous year, the constant foreboding created by the seemingly inevitable outcome guarantees you can't put the book down until you discover their fates! .

A compelling novel full of twists and turns and a superb ending!

I didn’t even realise that this was YA - it’s genuinely scary as an adult!
Lola is a 17 year old girl whose father is the director of a famous horror film. Following an accident, she ends up returning to the town where it was filmed to stay with her unwelcoming and peculiar Grandmother, right at the time of the yearly carnival celebrating the film.
It turns out that the locals have a lot of secrets and their own movie monster living in the woods....
I read a lot of horror and don’t scare easily but the story of Mr Jitters genuinely creeped me out and I slept with the light on after reading, listening for the sound of jitterbugs (which I won’t view in the same way again!)! Very immersive and descriptive writing, which I could imagine being made into a film itself!

Lola Nox has always found it difficult to live her own life. Daughter of celebrated film director Nolan Nox, she has got used to someone watching her every move and not getting completely free choice over her actions. She knows there are secrets in her family, but when we first meet her it’s evident that Lola has secrets of her own.
The opening was not immediately engaging. Lola appeared to have had some kind of falling out with her father, her behaviour indicates daddy issues and she really was not very likeable. However, when she is taken home and finds her father bleeding in his study we can’t help but feel some sympathy for her.
Suddenly Lola is sent to Harrow Lake, her mother’s hometown and the setting for her father’s seminal movie. It’s a weird place, and the strange behaviour of certain characters does little to make Lola comfortable.
Before we know it there’s a creepy movie festival taking place, weird goings on and Lola is having all manner of odd occurrences. She knows that someone in the town may hold the key to what happened to her mother, but few are willing to divulge their secrets.
During the story, as Lola becomes more and more akin to one of the characters in one of her father’s movies, we begin to piece together fragments of the stories being told. We learn about the darkness of Harrow Lake, the secrets Lola has and the events that have led her to this moment.
There’s a dark undercurrent to this, and though elements were undeveloped it was - on the whole - a creepy tale that will entrance horror fans.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this prior to publication.

Review of this one courtesy of my daughter who is an actual Young Adult, and not a Curmudgeonly Old Git like me:

I really enjoyed this book. It was quite creepy in some parts but in my opinion this was good. The main character Lola is the daughter of a horror film maker Nolan Nox. Lola is sent to the town of Harrow Lake to stay with her grandmother, who she has never met; after her father is attacked. It is her mother (who left when she was 5)'s hometown and the town is also the setting of her father's horror film Nightjar, in which her mother stars as the leading role. As she explores the town and meets new people she realises not everything is as it seems.
Harrow Lake is a really enjoyable book and you have no idea what will happen next.The descriptions of the town are very good as you can picture where the characters are. The book makes you question your first impressions of the characters and story, for example, is the town really as creepy as it seems? The ending of the book was very good and unexpected. It had a lot of twists throughout the book that kept me reading. It had some good creepy moments and it keeps you on your toes. I really recommend this book. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Like many people in recent months, I’ve struggled with a lockdown reading slump, unable to focus on much beyond the incessant doom scrolling on my phone. I’m happy to report though that Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis brought the slump to an end in one long frenetic chittering read. Hooked from page one, I could barely put it down, which seems all the more extraordinary given my lack lustre reading efforts of late.

This title seems to be categorised as YA but I'd recommend it for older readers too- it did not come across as specifically geared to young adults other than having a younger main character.

The story is neatly set up at both ends within the frame of an interview with famed horror film director Nolan Nox. From the very start we learn several things- firstly, that Nolan is rude and abrasive with his interviewer, that he has a long history with the town of Harrow Lake, the setting for his most famous film and lastly that his teenage daughter Lola, went missing a year ago. The narrative then jumps back a year and moves directly into first person POV of Lola, the book’s main protagonist. As a result of a strange and brutal attack on Nolan at their home, Lola is sent to stay with her maternal grandmother in mysterious Harrow Lake. Lola’s mother Lorelei is also missing- and during her stay in Harrow Lake, Lola delves into the circumstances around her disappearance and the local folklore about the gruesome Mister Jitters, a sinister figure who preys on the townspeople.

The strongest aspects of the book were, for me, the overwhelmingly oppressive sense of wrongness and unease. Everything about Lola’s world just seems a little off and her arrival at Harrow Lake simply increases the sense that something is desperately awry. As a character, Lola is pretty weird- and her quirks of behaviour and language may be off putting to some but it definitely works as far as contributing to the eerie atmosphere. As a setting Harrow Lake is conveniently remote- isolated- and full of odd characters. As an urban legend Mister Jitters leaves enough to the imagination to provide the requisite chills without being too overtly gory or bloody. If anything, the story captures how the secrets we keep in the dark become the food for the nightmare itself.

I felt the downside to the story is that as Lola’s world unravels, it all began to feel fractured and a little hard to work out what was real and what is just in Lola’s imagination. That was possibly intentional on Ellis' part but I found it jarring. At the same time the true nature of Mister Jitters was telegraphed fairly early and while there’s a bit of a clever twist at the end, I did not really feel that surprised. I liked the conclusion although it did take the book in a direction that I wasn’t entirely excited about as far as explaining what was really going on. On the whole though, this was a really great, fun, spooky- as- hell story which I very much enjoyed, possibly suited better for a dreary October afternoon than a bright summer beach read.

Thanks to Penguin for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this creepy treat. Great story and progression, doesn't outstay it's welcome and it's full of nice creepy moments that will make many people skin crawl and leave their lamps on overnight ( please don't do that ). One of the best books in it's genre for 2020.

A genuine treat and fans of Koontz, King will not be disappointed.

Harrow Lake is a promising read in that it had its heart in the right place. Suspense, thrill, and eeriness were portrayed with minimal effort and maximum impact. The place, the sound, the people, the setting… all of it made a cohesive effect. Harrow Lake was a superb read. One I thoroughly enjoyed.

This book is a lot of fun!

Lola, raised by her famous film director father Nolan Nox, is a voracious reader and horror movie buff who has a passion for storytelling. After her father is stabbed and hospitalised Lola is packed off to Harrow Lake, her absent mother's hometown and the location of her father's famous film. Living with a grandmother who is a stranger to her and wandering a town whose trade rests on tourism relating to her parents' film credits, Lola starts to question why her mother abandoned her as a child. Locals scarred by landslides and floods believe there is something rotten in the town and tell tales of the bogeyman Mister Jitters.

This is a creepy and atmospheric coming of age tale that follows Lola's growing courage and her search for truth in the face of lies, urban legends, nightmares and muddled memories. Tough themes - sexual and domestic abuse - are handled sensitively. The author resists the urge to deliver a cloying teen romance subplot, the growing bond between Lola and Carter is believable but doesn't overtake the main drive of the plot. I enjoyed Lola's references to horror movies & books.

So good that I read this straight through eager to see how it would pan out.

If you know me, you know that I don’t read many horror novels. I am typically too much of a scaredycat to get to the good parts of the story, and some books/games have been able to really shake me to my core. But when quarantine came around and I found myself still in a book slump, I knew I needed to read something different to shake things up. So I turned off the lights and started this book at around 11 PM. By the time I was 30% of the way through the book, I had to turn the lamp back on, and I knew that I wasn’t going to sleep until I had finished this novel.

Lola was an…interesting character. She is introduced as this antisocial character who steals for the sake of “seeing if she could do it”, but when her father is stabbed, she has to go to Harrow Lake to live with her grandmother. Harrow Lake just happens to be where her father found her mother to star in his hit horror film, so she knows that many secrets lie within this town. As the book goes on her character fleshes out a lot more. She goes from being a character that no one could connect to being a character who has been kept trapped into being told how to feel by everyone around her for years.

Mr. Jitters has to be one of the scariest psychological horror characters that I have seen in a long time. Is it just a childhood scary tale that everyone still somewhat believes in like the Boogeyman? Or is there genuine evil within the city limits of Harrow Lake? The other townspeople of Harrow Lake are also rather eerie. I couldn’t quite put my finger on what was really wrong with the town, and I still couldn’t figure it out once the book was over, but something definitely went wrong in this town after the mining accident in 1928.

The atmosphere that the story has is amazing. I could feel the tension build in certain scenes when Lola couldn’t even trust her own eyes to tell her the truth. I felt at some points like I was watching a horror film rather than simply reading a book, the imagery was so descriptive. In a few scenes, I could even feel my skin crawling as I was reading the pages. There were a few sentences that missed the mark though, such as “Her hands wring together in front of her, two pale moths feeling their way blindly.” I don’t know, I just couldn’t compare hands to being like moths in my mind. But most of the description was perfect for each setting.

The thing that brought my rating down to 3 and a half books for this title was the fact that the ending felt so rushed. There was so much amazing buildup and I was looking forward to how it all tied together. Then, when the climax was reached, Kindle told me that I only had around 11 minutes left in the book. A lot of my questions were left unanswered and disappointed me a lot. I was looking forward to seeing what would happen with a lot of these different stories, but then I felt like the threads connecting the book together were just snipped at the end. I didn’t feel a sense of satisfaction like I thought I would at the end of the story.

Overall, I would still recommend this book to anyone looking for a new psychological horror story to read. The rest of the book is simply too good to let the end deter you from enjoying the journey.

I received a copy of this book and this is my voluntary review.

3.5 stars

I started Harrow Lake with an open mind and hoping I wouldn’t be scared too much, haha. While reading I had to say that I was sucked into the story from the start. The creepy vibe is something I did feel that grew throughout the story. Harrow Lake doesn’t seem like a place I’d want to be sent while my father was recovering.

Kat Ellis’ writing made me fly through this book and added to that creepy feeling. At times this book got slow for me, but it didn’t take long again for it to pick up. While I don’t agree with everything that happened, this author definitely surprised me with some twists in Harrow Lake. I definitely felt like I was in an old horror movie when she described the setting. It was interesting to see how much the town didn’t change to keep tourists coming.

The one thing that made it hard for me to completely get sucked into the story was being able to connect with the characters. It stayed kind of shallow for me at times. I didn’t learn enough to become completely invested, especially in Lola. Her character did interest me, but also left me with a lot of questions. There is clearly a lot that has happened in her past and I felt like that took a bit too much of the backseat in this book. Especially her use of “Optimal” during the book. I really needed more information about this and felt I was missing a big part of her story/history. It’s clear that there is a lot going on with her relationship with her father as well. I think it would’ve grabbed me a lot more if that went deeper in Harrow Lake.

That being said, after reading Harrow Lake I would love to visit a town like Harrow Lake (as long as I can make it out alive), even though I’m a scaredy cat. I loved the element with Mister Jitters. I love the mysterious/scary part of the horror story. Also, it does get ‘horrory’ in the sense that there are elements that made me think “ewww”, but not as much as I expected to get in a book like this. I also really enjoyed the cast of side characters in Harrow Lake. We didn’t learn a lot about all of them, but they really added to the story and atmosphere.

All in all, even though this book left me with some questions, I thought Harrow Lake was an interesting read! It definitely keeps me wanting to explore this genre and pick up the other books Kat Ellis has written. I enjoyed reading outside of my comfort zone and her writing style kept me going!

The actual story was excellent and really kept you gripped all the way through. There were twists and turns and secrets revealed and red herrings and was the best kind of murder mystery/ horror where you weren’t entirely sure what was coming but were definitely enjoying the journey.

Obviously, due to the opening prologue, we are aware that Lola will, eventually, go missing and so we are on tenterhooks, trying to piece together the mystery. But most of the fun was in untangling the skeins of mystery, superstition, lies and diversions.

FEEDBACK
I was so excited for this book. Horror is one of my favorite genres and I still have yet to find a book to give me the creeps. Between the cover and the description I thought this was the one. As I continued reading it seemed like this might actually be the one. Then I got toward the end and my hope dropped. Let’s start at the beginning. This novel was really well written. I loved the atmosphere and everything was described so well every event that happened I could easily imagine. Growing up with a horror film director as a Dad, Lola has a wild imagination and was interested in the town her mother grew up in and the legends. As her time progressed there, she really started to believe the stories of Mister Jitters. I personally wished Ellis would have continued this path. It was so intriguing and held my interest. Was Mister Jitters real? Or was this all in Lola’s imagination? This is what kept me interested throughout. Then the ending hit and I was so disappointed. I get it, I do… but I don’t like it. It was so lackluster to the buildup created and just let me feeling unsatisfied. What I did find very successful was the interview in the beginning and the end tying into the story.

Is it possible to like and dislike a character? If so, that’s how I feel about Lola. In the beginning I really disliked her character. I don’t know what it was but I just couldn’t get into her. I started to like her a little more throughout the novel but she never clicked with me. And I just can’t pinpoint it. I don’t know if it was her attitude or just the way she was presented. I think this is also one of the reasons I didn’t like the ending. I had a hard time connecting with Lola so it just seemed like… Okay? There were moments I enjoyed her character a lot. When she wasn’t holding back and being honest. I understand that a lot of her actions were because of how she was raised so I don’t hold it against her character at all. The townsfolk of Harrow Lake really helped with the creep vibe. They either helped further Lola’s fear of Mister Jitters or helped her personality grow. Thank goodness for the other characters.

“But when you’re alone in the dark, impossible things grow bones and flesh.”

SPOILERS
IF YOU DO NOT WANT THE ENDING SPOILED DO NOT READ THIS SECTION

Okay here it goes. This ending was so lackluster for me. The whole time we are trying to find out if Mister Jitters is real. At one point Mary Anne (Lola’s imaginary friend) comes back into her life. This is where it gets to, is any of this real? At one point, I was thinking this was going to be a Wicker Man sort of deal. Larry stabbed Nolan, tricked Lola into going to Harrow Lake to be sacrificed to Mister Jitters. Personally? I think that would have been a way better ending. First, we find out Lorelei was murdered then dumped there. It was Larry and Nolan who did it. Then the most ambiguous ending for Lola. This honestly sucked. I read this when thing waiting for something supernatural or anything really to find out this. I get it. The real monsters can be the ones we know but this just didn’t work for me for this specific story.

END OF SPOILER

“No, it’s this place, this town where time doesn’t move forward like it’s supposed to. Where stories get stuck in your head like a tooth burrowed deep in your flesh.”

FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis was a not what I was expecting. While the beginning and the environment are creepy, the ending was a huge miss. The entire buildup of the story just dropped into something that was not the least bit satisfying. I really wish there was more. The characters were okay. Lola was not my favorite character but I still enjoyed reading her story. I just found it hard to connect to her and really care. This story wasn’t a failure but it just wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping. I do recommend this book if your looking for a creepy and fast paced story with an ending you might not expect.

Thrillers have become one of my favourite genres recently, even though I've rated very few of them 5 stars. When this tour was announced, I was ecstatic! The blurb, though quite vague, had me hooked. I love small creepy towns, close knit communities shrouded in mysteries, and that kind of vibe.



Harrow Lake definitely delivered in that regard. From the get go, the story and the world building were very mysterious and atmospheric. The first couple of chapters set up the mood of the story brilliantly and hinted at some supernatural aspects, which is not my favourite kind of mystery, but it can work when done well. The mentions of Mister Jitters and unexplained disappearances were just the right amount of spooky for me.



Unfortunately, after a strong start, the story went downhill. For the most part of the middle the plot was nearly non existent. In trying to keep everything creepy and mysterious, and explore the superstition of Mister Jitters and making the reader believe he exists, the plot was pushed to the side and it's when the book slowed down for me and lost the initial excitement.


I feel like the characters were somewhat sacrificed for the sake of the atmosphere, too. I wanted more development for Lola, especially to justify the choice the author made about the ending of the story. I don't want to spoil anything, but the "twist" at the end of the book needed more to be fully believable, in my opinion. I thought she was well done, for most of it, but some parts just didn't make sense because they were revealed too late, to justify the twist. The supporting characters needed to be more fleshed out, too, mostly Lola's grandmother. She had a really big role in the story especially in bridging the supernatural with Lola's mother's disappearance, but she was reduced to the creepy old lady who wasn't always all there.

Some of the most interesting bits of the story were never actually explained, and it's the main reason for my rating. Like I mentioned before, the plot hinted at the supernatural, and revolved around Mister Jitters and the legend of him, just to flip towards the end and change into a psychological thriller - no doubt for the shock value - yet it just left a lot of loose threads, which I wish were addressed more and tied together. Again, not to spoil anything, I filled in the blanks myself which I think was the author's intent, but it didn't satisfy me in the end.


I'm torn on the rating. I think I will settle on 2.75 rounded up to 3 for the sake of Goodreads and this star business.

I don’t know exactly what it was. But I was intrigued from the start. Maybe it was the writing style, the way we meet Lola, with her lists, her secrets and her habit of stealing small things – but she immediately wormed her way into my heart. And that never changed.

She is an unreliable narrator and that worked very well for this story. We meet Lola and immediately you can tell that something isn’t quite right here. The way she talks about her dad Nolan or Larry … her obsession with doing and saying The Optimal thing …

And then she finds her dad in a puddle of his own blood and gets shipped off to her grandmothers. To Harrow Lake. A place she doesn’t know, except for the scenes in her dads most famous movie Nightjar, starring her mother.

When Lola arrives in Harrow Lake, her mother is everywhere. The whole town is stuck in the 1920s mixed in with memorabilia for Nightjar. And full of stories about disappearing girls, Lorelei and Mr Jitters.

Kat Ellis masterfully creates a creepy, mysterious atmosphere, using all the senses in her descriptions which makes the reading experience so rich and wonderfully eerie. The people in that town are all … let’s say a little unusual having lived if this decaying town.

After her suitcase mysteriously disappeared (and her grandmother not being really fussed about that) Lola is forced to wear the clothes Lorelei wore for her role Little Bird, slowly changing her more and more into that character. Lola is determined to find out more about her mother, now that she is in her hometown and gets help from Carter.

I quite liked him. His conversations with Lola were everything. Such small things but with a big impact. Through this, we not only learn more about Lorelei but also about Lola, about Carter and Cora and about the town as a whole. It’s very intriguing to peel back layer after layer.

While Lola is a very well developed character, with multiple layers and buried memories, the other characters pale a bit in comparison. We get to know Nolan quite a bit through Lola, and Cora and Carter, too. But in the end, it’S all about Lola and her trying

The ending was very well done. While I suspected the underlying cause pretty much from the start, the journey was intriguing and there was still a twist at the end I did not predict. I loved how Lola slowly unravelled what happened, secret after secret, reality blurring with stories and tricks of the mind.
I actually really enjoyed the conclusion, how not every tiny little detail got neatly wrapped up. But I got all the answers I needed.