You have to love a small spooky, town story with some locals who never truly pulled themselves out of the last century. Especially when there is a creepy story of a monster that will ruin the lives of the residents should they step out of line. But what if, after all that, the real monsters are people? And what if they turn out to be our parents?
This isn't any spoiler territory, I can assure you. This book very quickly reminded me how our parents are themselves to us first and people second. That is one of the hardest things to write about especially from the eyes of a child and Kat Ellis manages it so well here while also managing to maintain some unsettling plot details and a strange town atmosphere.
When we meet Lola, I'm not going to lie that I found her irritating. In the first few pages it is very easy to find her annoying and slightly spoiled. As the story unfolds, her background is expanded to the point of feeling pity for this girl and her constantly shifting loyalties to both Nolan and Lorelei. There is a deep conflict in her that I found very interesting with a sense of resilience that is hard to not admire straight away.
Some moments within the plot are genuinely hard to grasp and figure out but the creep factor is never far away. As the tension rises in the story and Lola becomes more paranoid it is hard to tell what might be the nasty reality of Harrow Lake or what might possibly be a monster lurking around the corner. I would love to see concept art for Mister Jitters as well.
Overall, a definite must read for horror fans while being an impressive take on the horror movie legacy and what damage it can leave behind.

I am a sucker for any good horror novel and this book truly grabbed my attention right away. Sadly it did not always stay that way. Now, keep in mind while reading this that I read an ARC which means there will be changes before the final copy is submitted. This means the issues I saw with the story might not be there when you get a finished copy.

 

That being said, I felt the writing was very choppy. It made it hard to really dive into the story at times. I felt almost a disconnect as if I could not connect to the characters as deeply as I'd hoped to. This was really the only big negative thing I had to say about the entire book. It never made me want to put down the book. The fast pace kept pushing me to turn the next page, find out what happened next. A town, Harrow Lake, trapped by its own dark past...what is there not to love about that? The world-building was well done, I could clearly envision each scene as if it was unfolding in front of me as I read. There are a few Trigger warnings I feel need to be mentioned. As a victim of childhood abuse, some of this hit me hard. I admit I might have skimmed some of those sections of the novel. That is alright though because I know I can handle it but not everyone might be able to. That is why I mention the trigger warning below:

 

Trigger Warning: There are scenes of both childhood abuse and trauma in this novel

 

Despite being targeted at a young adult audience, this book is full of edge of your seat, nail-biting moments. This is not a book for those faint of heart. If you enjoy a good thriller or horror novel though, this might be right up your alley. The book feels similar to the Netflix show Black Mirror. The author is at atmospheric magician! I felt chills while reading and though I did not relate to the characters as I like, I felt drawn to finish the novel.

 

I think my favorite aspect of the entire novel as that it explored the idea of perception and reality. If you believe so deeply in something does that make it real? Will that become a reality? This was a decadent dark, twisted read.

 

Overall, this was a good novel. It has some issues but those are easily fixed with another editing pass. It chilled me to the bone at times, making me shiver though the bright sun shone down on me. It had me looking over my shoulder, waiting for something to scare me on purpose. I sat on the edge of my seat binge-reading this book and could not get enough! If you are looking for something a little creepy to get your mind of the state of affairs today, pick this one up July 9th!

3.5 STARS
I read and reviewed this book for a blog tour, so thank you to the blog tour organiser, the author and the publisher for letting me take part in the tour and for sending me the book, all opinions are my own.

This book is a YA horror novel, set in Harrow Lake in which we follow Lola Nox, the daughter of Nolan Nox who happens to be the director of the famous film Nightjar, filmed in the town of Harrow Lake 19 years prior to the events in the book. After Lola's father is attacked in their New York apartment, Lola is sent to stay with her grandmother in Harrow Lake and strange things start to happen while the annual Nightjar festival is being organised.

I was not expecting what happened in this book when I first read the blurb. I have to say that my first impression of this book was that the "Optimal" thing Lola keeps repeating really got on my nerves, but as the book progressed it stopped a lot and it didn't bother me as much. Right from the start, you can tell that Lola has some quite severe mental health issues and I thought that these were not handled very well by the author. No one ever talks about her problems and it's as if even she isn't aware, no one helps her, and most of the time they just rub it in or make it worse. This is a YA book so I don't think the mental health rep was very well done.

However, around 60% in, I did start to enjoy this book a lot more. The scenes started to get better, but they still weren't great. I scare so easily and I'm a total wimp, but nothing in this book scared me or creeped me out, so that was a bit of a disappointment and not what I was expecting. If you have a thing about teeth, I have to warn you that there are a few instances of teeth being talked about/handled, etc.

I honestly didn't think that we got much of an insight into who Lola was as a person, and the same goes for the other characters. It felt quite impersonal and I honestly don't really have much to say to describe Lola than she kept saying "Optimal" and saying things her father said to her. I was really bugged by her and her father's relationship too.

I figured out the ending with about 40% to go, so I was a bit disappointed, but I do know that other people have loved this book, so I think that it just wasn't for me. I did enjoy the end more and some scenes were really great, but there wasn't anything more about them to make them stronger. I also really liked the writing style. I would recommend to people who aren't used to horror because I personally didn't think it was scary so it would be a good place to start if you want to ease into horror. It's not a bad book and I did like the author's writing style, it just wasn't the book for me.

As her father lies in the hospital, Lola is sent to live with her maternal grandmother to Harrow Lake, a town with creepiness galore.

In all fairness, the beginning was very tepid and Lola’s introduction did not particularly endear the character to me either. As the story moved further, it seemed as if stuff was happening to her rather than her doing anything as the protagonist of the story.

I persevered because I wanted to get to the creepy / horror stuff as the book is tagged as “Horror“.

Post the 20% mark the book started getting interesting and I that put me in a devouring mood as I sat up late to read more and more despite the weak writing style.

Lola’s journey to figuring out once and for all the truth of the town’s secrets ultimately becomes a quest for her to learn more about her mother. The kind of life she had had to endure and the successes she achieved.

In this phase of the book, I was rooting for her – Lola – to go and achieve all that she wanted to figure out. She did a little though.

A side plot of romance was introduced by abandoned altogether as Lola kept obsessing over the creepiness / monster of Harrow Lake and the massive success (her mother) of Harrow Lake. The path Lola took to prove all there was to, set up expectations for how the story would and should end, especially with the revelations that happened.

Maybe because I had those expectations, I was disappointed in the ending. Giving out details here would be unfair to the readers and the author but suffice it to say that the end left me wanting and cast shadow on Lola being even called the protagonist of the story.

Harrow Lake is the only book you’ll have to read during sunlight, because at night it will scare you so much that you’ll have nightmares!
Let’s start saying that the story is based on a town where a famous movie was filmed, Nightjar, after that (1920) the town seem to have stopped; they have a lot of tourism from the old movie, but their core has remained the same.
We will meet Lola, the main character who seems that her family was part in the horror movie; director, main actress… All the story will begin when she will have to move to live with her grandmother at Harrow Lake, where to movie was filmed. Oh yes, you can expect a creepy atmosphere and some really weird characters; even their own boogyman!
Lola is a special character, don’t dismiss her, she seems too simple and pleasant, but without her this book wouldn’t be the same. She will be the one talking to the reader and showing the mysterious and real Harrow Lake.
This is a book to not dismiss, it’s creepy and twisted, like an old movie that you have no idea where the scare will appear but you can’t stop watching it! I don’t normally read horror books, but I loved this one, so believe me, take a chance on it.
Harrow Lake has scared and surprised me at the same time, different and twisted is a book I recommend you to read!
Ready to discover the real Harrow Lake?

Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis is not at all what you think. Marketed as a YA Horror novel, you would think that maybe this might be a campy horror story. Perhaps with a 1980s vibe.

You would be entirely wrong.

Instead, Harrow lake is a story of intense psychological horror. I think in a lot of ways, psychological horror is much scarier than slasher horror. The reader can eternalize much of the plot; we readers all have psychological quirks. Harrow Lake is a good book for that. The lead character, Lola, has broken parts of her psyche. She has suffered her mother abandoning her, a father who smothers her, and deep mental wounds that sound much like PTSD. This leads to a realistic characterization of mental illness and a developing and strong protagonist.

Lola Nox is the daughter of the famous Horror movie directer Nolan Nox. Nolan made his fame with the movie Nightjar, and he also met Lola’s mother on the set of Nightjar because it was filmed in her hometown, and she ended up being her star. Nightjar has an almost cult-like following to it. After an accident with Lola’s father, Lola ends up staying with her estranged grandmother in Harrow Lake while Nolan recuperates. Harrow Lake is dark, and something is off with it. Something is not right. The reader can not tell if the town is off or Lola’s perceptions of things are off. As Lola navigates the village of Harrow Lake and her traumatic memories, things escalate in the story to a fevered pitch.
What is real? What is imagined? The reader won’t know till the very end, and I can’t tell you more because of SPOILERS!

Harrow Lake ended up being one of those books that I appreciate as a reader but has aspects of it that didn’t sit well with me. In a lot of ways, Harrow Lake is perfectly crafted. The narrative moves page to page. The horror is almost palpable. The lead character is one that the reader can empathize with. However, I had a difficult time with the supporting characters in the story. I did not find them wholly believable. That was hard for me because the supporting characters are a huge part of the narrative. In the scheme of things, it is a small thing set against the excellent writing and Lola as a character, but it was a bit hard for me to get over it.

All in all, this is a solid and exciting story. It is terrifying and so much more than you thought it was going to be. The visuals that the author Kat Ellis creates are gripping, and the pacing is frenetic.

This story is a must for YA Horror fans.

It’s been quite some time since I read a book which falls into the YA genre, and as I’m now hurtling through my thirties much quicker than I’d like, I did wonder if I would find as much to like in the genre as I did back in the day.

Harrow Lake tells the story of Lola Nox, daughter of celebrated horror movie director Nolan Nox. Following a brutal attack on her father in their New York apartment , Lola is sent to the small town of Harrow Lake to stay with a grandmother she never knew existed. Set to the backdrop of her absent mother’s hometown, and the location for one of her father’s most famous films ‘NightJar’, Lola begins to uncover long buried secrets from her own past. But the town isn’t just any small town. With a population obsessed with the film that made it famous, and the chilling stories of mysterious disappearances, Lola is soon desperate to return home.

Read within a couple of days, I found Harrow Lake to be an enjoyable read, incredibly easy to dip in and out of during the day. The writing is engaging and the story compelling enough to keep me reading and wanting to know what happens next.

I didn’t personally love Lola, and I felt that the way in which she was conditioned to think of the ‘optimal’ thing to say/do etc was, whilst on one hand an effective technique, it did begin to grate on my nerves quite quickly. That being said, I found myself very quickly invested in the story and I really enjoyed following it through the its conclusion. The fast pacing blended with the mysterious happenings in the town of Harrow Lake made for, very often, addictive reading and kept me turning the pages late into the night.

I’ll not lie, I was concerned about the horror aspect. I’m a notorious scaredy-cat with an often wild imagination, and whilst I found this to be seriously creepy (a tapping noise from the wooded area at the rear of our house whilst alone in the garden at dusk had me running inside double-quick), it wasn’t overdone or gory and I thankfully, didn’t lose any sleep over it! It was perfectly pitched and never fell out of balance with the narrative.

Harrow Lake will have wide appeal for fans of the YA genre, and also for those, who like me, fancy a bit of a change. Strong storytelling and a captivating story are the backbone of this book, and I would certainly seek out the author again in the future.

This was an interesting book for me. The plot is a great one and it was certainly the thing that drew me into wanting to read this. I think that it’s a perfectly fine book, with a lot of super creepy and even scary moments, but it wasn’t exactly what I thought that it was. That is not to say that that is a bad thing, sometimes those twists and unexpected turns are great in a book. Here it felt like the story was a highly original idea and then it turned into something that has been told before.

Lola is an appealing character, she’s more mature than you’d expect for someone her age. Which some could dislike about her but frankly I felt like the author did a good job of explaining why she was the way she was. Her overbearing father that seemed to want to keep a tight grip on her was told very well to me. You don’t get much characterization about Nolan, her father but you get an idea of him through the thoughts and words spoken of him throughout the story.

I don’t know if it was just the formatting of the ARC copy or what but there were a lot of times where I had difficulty knowing who was speaking. The story was choppy in that there wasn’t any clear definition of when one scene changed into another so it felt like things just got cut off in the middle of a scene. It was hard to follow the story like this sometimes but again that could just be the way that the copy was laid now and not a true reflection of the book however I note it because it could have been done on purpose as well.

The townsfolk that we get to meet in Harrow Lake are a mix of nice and creepy. The town itself is creepy and the things that happen there are written well. There were things that didn’t make much sense in that it isn’t quite how those things work in real life. I did enjoy watching Lola’s descent into figuring out what was going on, either with her mother or her grandmother or even her father.

It was interesting to see how a story told to scare children could be transformed into something more sinister and terrifying. The author did a good job of Lola questioning what was real and what was imagined in her own head. I, however, didn’t like the twist at all. It felt cliche and overused. It was disappointing to have it end like that. Overall the book was decent, it was creative and it had a good plot. I wish it had ended differently but I think that some of the best stories are the ones that leave you feeling frustrated by how things end.

Give this one a try, it just might surprise you.

I give 3.5 stars but they won't let me do half stars on here.

Wow. Upon delving into Harrow Lake I’m not ashamed to admit I didn’t fully appreciate what I was getting into. I thought it was going to be a plain sailing horror novel, a similar story but a story that was inevitable none the less. WRONG. I should have dug deeper just by one singular word used in the title – Harrow. This story has the capability to encase your heart in ice, its harrowing and captivating and pushes ice cold water through your veins. Be prepared for the author to give you a remarkably unique journey through your worst fears and leave you rocking in the corner by the closing of the final page.

A daughter of a film director, Nolan Nox. He came to fame with the release of his classic film, Nightjar. It catapulted Nolan, Lola’s mother and the creepy little town it was filmed in into crazy levels of fame. Reading the scenes based in this little town started to set off those blaringly loud red alerts sounding off in my head. Reading it was akin to looking through steamed up glasses – I can see shadows, but they quickly disappear from my peripheral vision. What was I experiencing?

Lola finds herself temporarily staying in this town after her father is injured. It certainly isn’t her first choice but as it is contained within her fathers will (he isn’t dead) and there isn’t anyone else to care for her, she has no choice. She is with her grandmother that she doesn’t know – no friendly faces, nothing familiar around her and things very quickly go awry. In this situation how can a young girl swim through the murky waters of a bone deep terror that will be unleashed on Lola in an unrelenting fashion. I loved this take on a child navigating fear as I usually indulge in adult horror. Harrow Lake consumed me, and I allowed it to swallow me whole. I wasn’t disappointed.

Harrow Lake indulges all your nightmares, thrown into a formula of every other horrific thing you can imagine and mixed together in order to stop your heart immediately. The town had my brain trying to fight against the scrambled feeling. It’s the kind of place you constantly have to look over your shoulder at. It is immersed in gothic legends and none as terrifying as Mr Jitters. I’m not spoiling that one for any potential readers!

Initially I had a bit of a hard time connecting with Lola. After a period of reflection, I came to the conclusion that it was due to how the author wrote her. She wasn’t really allowed to have a multi-faceted personality. Her father had a very domineering presence in her life and for whatever reason he had, it impacted how she presented herself to the world. No make-up, no phone and no laptop, and you can certainly expect her not to have social media. When she escaped that is when she more or less became a butterfly. She shed the chrysalis and became more.

Harrow Lake is a spectacular read. Kat Ellis has done a sublime job of creating an fully immersive imagery and invoking real emotion from her readers.

Harrow Lake throws the reader straight into the action with the brutal attack of Lola's father and her subsequent trip to stay with her estranged maternal grandmother.

I really enjoyed the backstory to the Nox family. As a lover of horror movies it was fascinating to read from the point of view of Lola, the daughter of a famous horror movie mogul.

Harrow Lake is both Lola's estranged mother's hometown and the scene of her fathers first big hit movie The NightJar- one that gained cult status and kept the poverty stricken town on the map.
In Harrow Lake they still live like its the 1920s which gave the novel even creepier vibes. I could envision it as both a regular town and a horror movie set all at once.

Mister Jitters the monster of town folklore didn't entirely make sense to me. I found the setting scarier than the myth itself.
Dark caves, landslides and unnavigable forests in the night made my spine tingle, but Mister Jitters himself left me unfazed. Perhaps it was in the name?
There were some great atmospheric additions such as the Bone Tree and the noises but the folklore felt ungrounded.

I had guessed the origin of Mister Jitters quite early on and it made even less sense to me that an entire town would somehow come to live in that shadow.
But, Harrow Lake is a fun read never the less. The unending reference to bugs made me twitchy and many of the town residents including Lola's grandmother had a strange malevolence about them that I appreciated.

I most enjoyed the intertwining of Lola's story versus her parents movie but felt the addition of Mary Ann unnecessary.
At times Harrow Lake feels like sub plots are hitched together, as if Ellis couldn't choose from several great ideas and settled on pieces of each. In fact one of them is left completely unresolved.

I was also a little disappointed to find the constant use of Lola's nightmares as an avenue to inject fear into the reader. There's nothing more frustrating than building all that tension to snatch it all away when the character wakes up.

Lola herself was an excellent MC, I know a lot of readers found the overuse of the word 'optimal' irritating, but personally I found it added a sort of mania and anxiety to her character and believe the capitalisation of Optimal whenever it was used is designed to enforce that.
I found her sarcasm and quick wit to be laugh out loud funny at times.

Overall it was a great way to pass an afternoon there are some wonderfully unique ideas in Harrow Lake and I would definitely recommend to fans of YA and thriller.
Those who like their horror as I do may be more inclined to find flaws, just don't take this one too seriously.

Firstly, the characters. Well, the main character. I found Lola Nox to be interesting and engaging right from the start. A girl with a rich, famous father trying to keep her out of the spotlight, who seems to crave some sort of attention. She writes out her secrets, and hides them, something she was told to do by her mother.

Lola is clearly still suffering from her mother’s disappearance. Years before, her mother left her and her father, and since then, Nolan Nox has been very controlling over Lola’s life, which she puts down to his fear of losing her, too. I cannot imagine how difficult it is for a character like Lola, who has to deal with her mother abandoning her as a child, then being sent to live with her grandmother – if temporarily – while her father is in hospital.

Lola’s conflicted feelings – about both her parents – come through really well. She wants to be with her dad, wants to be there to see he’s okay, but can’t even get through to him, and she’s dimly aware he’s done a lot to hold her back. She views her visit to Harrow Lake as an opportunity to get to know both her parents better, but she resists wearing her mother’s old clothes, instead picking out the costumes of the character she played in Nolan’s most popular film, filmed at Harrow Lake.

But as Lola explores the town, she starts to uncover something else, something dark and dangerous. From a new friend she learns the story of ‘Mr Jitters’, an entity believed to be haunting the town. She explores the old fairground, where she discovers a mural from the film, her mother’s image destroyed. Lola is determined to find out exactly what is going on, driving her to some places she perhaps shouldn’t go.

Harrow Lake is YA Horror at its finest. There are trappings of YA – growing friendships, a possible love interest, a young woman trying to really find her place in the world – executed really well, alongside some wonderfully creepy horror moments. Mr Jitters is a terrifying entity. Lola’s discoveries deepen the town’s mysteries, and everything about Harrow Lake, including the people, is designed to put – and keep – the reader on edge.

As the mystery deepens, the number of unanswered questions increases, and Ellis really keeps the reader engaged without giving too much away, or making it feel like there is too much going on. It’s easy to see the town through Lola’s eyes, easy to follow her around and really picture the locations Ellis delves into. And it’s easy to connect with Lola, to really identify with her and want to see her emerge from this.

Throughout, Lola is confused and uncertain, trying to make sense of what different people want from her. and what she wants from life. Does her father want her home, or in Harrow Lake? Does her grandmother want her to replace her own missing daughter, and does the cute boy actually want to help Lola, or does he have other motivations?

Basically, I really enjoyed this book. It had some great, creepy horror moments, a fantastic cast of characters, and a thrilling, engaging plot that’ll definitely keep readers on their toes. It’s fast-paced without getting confusing, and I can easily imagine this being a really good gateway book to get teenager readers into horror.

Lola absolutely does not want to go to Harrow Lake. The home place of the mother that abandoned her and the site where 'Nightjar' her fathers most famous film was shot. But after her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment she has nowhere else to go and so she is shipped off to live with a Grandmother she has never met. Not one for superstitions she is sceptical at first after hearing of the towns infamous horror story Mr Jitters, is he real or just a story to explain the strange disappearances of young girls. But then things start happening, things that Lola can't explain. As she delves further into the history of Harrow Lake, desperate for information on her mother, she starts to wonder whether Mr Jitters really does exist, and if he does, who exactly is his next target.

Lola comes across as a bit spoilt at the beginning of the book, but we get a better understanding of her behaviour, and the reasons behind it, the more we read. She acts out because she feels its the only way her father will see her, a father who likes to keep her hidden, away from the spotlight that comes with his career. She is the epitome of an unreliable narrator, past trauma and present setting means that we as the reader find it hard to believe exactly what she is saying/seeing. This really adds to the mystery of the book and as the reader has you questioning everything. She is an easy character to bond with, and I couldn't help but hope she got a good outcome.

Harrow Lake is your stereo-typical small American town, set in days gone past, getting by by promoting the one thing that will bring visitors, Lola's dads film. With its small town feel comes its small town mystery and the horror stories that come with it. We see multiple perspectives on 'Mr Jitters' the town monsters, someone who Lola's mother apparently knew, the town monster that used to eat people and still takes girls from the town to this day. Is is slightly par for the course when reading a mystery/thriller? Yes. But that didn't stop it from creeping the hell out of me. Every time I heard the 'scratches' that announced My Jitters arrival I could feel my heart racing, and this was definitely a book that I stuck to reading in daytime hours.

The story is well paced and easily keeps you guessing. I enjoyed the authors writing and style and thought it gave an easy kind of flow to the story. Her ability to build the tension was impressive, especially considering most of the time nothing actually 'happened' and the few times things did I found it hard to tear myself away from the pages, not quite wanting to read on and yet needing to know the outcome.

My one issue would be I felt there were a whole host of unresolved questions. Did Mr Jitters actually exist? And if so who was he/she? We have an abundance of options throughout the book, people that come across as creepy and have the potential to kill. Yet we are left somewhat hanging.

This is not a genre I would usually pick up, but I enjoyed the story and liked reading from Lola's perspective.

The whole vibe of this novel took me by surprise.  Do you ever request a book/join a tour and you did read the blurb but then you kind of forget the blurb and dive right in without reminding yourself?  That's what happened with this novel and I got such a chilling and macabre surprise when I started to read.  What's difficult about reviewing this novel is that it's hard to go into the plot without giving much away - so I've tried not to.

I think this book is perfectly pitched as a young adult novel.  Without becoming too dark and disturbing, it also doesn't assume the readers need protecting and the tension needs to be played down.  There are plenty of intense moments and scares to go around and despite being a YA novel, it's not for the feint at heart.

From very early on there is a whole 80s film vibe that is sustained throughout the novel.  Kat Ellis creates an atmospheric setting and tone that runs through everything, beyond the setting and   It reminded me of classic horror films that have a cult setting and are based around urban legends.  It has that Black Mirror feel to it.  Like you're stepping into something that  immediately doesn't seem right but there's no way you can look away until you know what it is.  It's eerie, intense and incredibly difficult to put down.

The characters are interesting.  I didn't fall in love with any of them they way I usually do in novels but this made the whole experience more fascinating as it made her real.  On the surface she appears disaffected and uninterested in life but once you find out more about her life and her family you begin to realise why.  It's the way she presents to the outside world but inside she is as vulnerable as any other teen in her position - more so considering her father is a controlling man, her gran is downright strange and she barely knew her movie star mother (one movie wonder).

Overall, this novel reads like a classic horror film.  The use of atmosphere is brilliant and I found this book riveting and chilling but a pleasure to read.  Highly recommended if you fancy giving yourself the goosebumps.

Harrow Lake is a story that centers around horror films and the hold they can create. It focuses on Lola Nox, 17 year old daughter of horror film director Nolan Nox. Having grown up around her father’s films, Lola believes that nothing can frighten her. Those beliefs are put to the test when Lola is sent – rather unwillingly – to her maternal grandmother’s home in Harrow Lake.

Harrow Lake reminds me very much of the older tv series The Twilight Zone. Any one who remembers the original show will recall that the stories they told were built on the premise of suspense and barely hinted at ideas. Where the shadows lurking in a dark corner could be a hideous monster or could simply be a pile of clothes. Where not everything is as it seems and looks are definitely deceiving.

Like some horror movies, the action in Harrow Lake is a bit choppy. Scenes jump from one to the next with almost no indication. It can be a little disconcerting at times. Also, the main character of Lola can be irritating. This can be explained by not only her age but also by her unique upbringing. Any one raised immersed in the horror genre from a young age is likely to be more than a bit jaded as well.

This is the first novel by Kat Ellis that I’ve had the opportunity to read and review. I enjoyed her style of storytelling and have already looked in to what others books she has written.

Readers who enjoy a good suspenseful story will likely enjoy Harrow Lake. It is the perfect creepy read for a dark night. I recommend it and hope others enjoy it as I did.

The World
I include this section in reviews because nine times out of ten, I can chat about some amazing fantastical or futuristic world. Harrow Lake isn’t that. Hawwow Lake is small town America, where everyone knows everyone. It’s not just that though, it’s a town with a dark, superstitious history and a lot of issues hiding amongst the townsfolk. Again, not my usual scene, but I actually enjoyed it.

Harrow Lake – Setting or Character?
The location is such an integral part of the story that Harrow Lake almost felt like a character itself. Certain areas are key to the plot and characters, so much so that it almost becomes it’s own entity. As an example, I distinctly remember The Bone Tree, an area in Harrow Lake, and more than one of the scenes that occur there due to the brilliant and chilling description. As a whole, the world of Harrow Lake is fantastic.

The Characters
Lola
Lola is out main character throughout; a teenager who is sent away to live with her grandmother in Harrow Lake. As a character, I wasn’t a fan of her for the first half of the book. She was… nothing, really. She had little personality to call her own, she was totally dominated by those around her, with only one outlet that demonstrated she was a living, breathing person. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad thing. At first, I thought it was, I thought she was going to be like this throughout, but as the story progresses, so does Lola as a character. You get to follow her character arc as she rediscovers her past, and a lot of herself at the same time.

Miscellaneous Characters
There were other characters, of course. And usually, I’d dedicate a seperate section to some of the other characters. There were Nola, Moira, Carter and Cora. Those are the few that come to mind. Oh, and Mister Jitters, of course. One of the antagonists in Harrow Lake. However, the story is so centred on Lola and focused on her that I feel like the other characters were abandoned, most a side-thought than truly fleshed out.

The Plot
I went into this with certain thoughts in my head on what it was about. I was wrong. Without spoiling the book, it’s hard to say more. The main problem I had is that everything wasn’t tied up at the end, which links back to what I said about Lola being so central that everything else is forgotten. Come the end, more than one character didn’t have a resolution. They had a query left unresolved. There are a few situations like this. In my opinion, things should be tied up in a neat little bow, unless it’s a book in a series, where there’s another book to answer the questions.

The only character with a satisfactory resolution is Lola Nox, and frankly, I’m a little bit sick of her come the end. I want to hear about the others and yet, I don’t

I was all over the place with my thoughts on Harrow Lake. The tension built rapidly in the opening pages. Next, came a slow, steady build of the mystery surrounding Lorelei, Lola, and the residents of Harrow Lake. Lastly, as I expected the crescendo of a finale, it let me down a bit.

I'm not even sure how to explain my disappointment. The build-up was great, as was the epilogue. I couldn't have asked for a better ending. However, the few chapters wrapping up the mystery were off-kilter for me. The pacing changed, and the scenes felt slightly chopped up. It's like the finale was written from scrambled note cards. Perhaps, it was simply all the twists and turns that left my nerves jangled.

As for the overall story, it was good. At no time did I consider not finishing this book. The mystery compelled me to keep turning page after page because I needed to know how the story ended and how the author tied all the subplots together. 

I was leaning toward a solid 4.5-star rating in this review but settled on a four due to the ending. I absolutely recommend Harrow Lake to lovers of psychological thrillers and mysteries.  It's certainly worth your time and money to read it, and the author definitely put great effort into keeping the reader enthralled.

Let me know if you read this book. I would love to discuss it with you. As always, no two people read the same book. What do you think of the conclusions?

3.5

Book source ~ Tour

Meet Lola Nox. She is the daughter of famous filmmaker Nolan Nox. Her mother, Lorelei, played the lead character in Nolan’s most celebrated horror film, Nightjar. Set in Harrow Lake, Indiana, the birthplace of Lorelei, but she took off when Lola was five so she doesn’t really remember her. Nearly as long as she can remember it’s just been her and Nolan. And Larry, Nolan’s right-hand man. When Nolan is near fatally attacked in their New York City apartment, Larry ships Lola off to her grandmother in Harrow Lake. A grandmother she has no knowledge of. The moment Lola gets there strange things begin happening and Lola needs to figure things out before she goes crazy. Or ends up dead.

Okay. This is one weird and disturbing tale of a 17-yr-old girl with a strange family set up. Told entirely from Lola’s POV it’s not always clear what the hell is going on in this creepy town. She’s never been to her mother’s birthplace so she doesn’t know anyone, not even her grandmother. Odd things keep happening, the town is disturbingly obsessed with the slasher movie that put it on the map, and women disappear from it with no explanation. On top of all that, there are signs that the town will once again slide into a sinkhole like it did before but was rebuilt. And the cherry on top? There’s a scary story about a guy named Mr. Jitters who turned cannibal when he was caught in the first sinkhole and he’s still around after nearly 100 years. Creepy much? The story is twisty and turny and has a great ending, but I feel the execution is lacking. At times, the story just stops then jumps ahead without any transition. Maybe that’s just the style of this author, but it feels incomplete to me. However, don’t let that stop you from reading this tale straight out of your nightmares.

Kat Ellis has managed to right a truly scary and unsettling book with just words - no visuals to help and only soundtrack if you're foolish enough to chose the wrong album!

HARROW LAKE is part horror, part psychological thriller that works so well because it's hard to work out what's real and what's happening in Lola's mind. The merge of missing girls and folklore/returning imaginary friends creates a sense of panic, that maybe all the pressure is making Lola lose her grip on reality. The book straddles the boundary between the two genres, but the ending pushes it more one way - I won't say which as that might ruin it! I really liked the ending, and how it explained the mix of horror and thriller.

The eerie atmosphere is conjured up by a village stuck in time, snatches of a song drifting through the air, and so many secrets choking the air. Lola's dad makes horror films, and the author must love old-time-y horror films because it feels like (accidentally, in my case) watching a black-and-white horror. The 1920s aesthetic is strong throughout, mixed with the sort of stories you'd tell when the lights have gone out.

If you like unsettling reads that make you check the lights are still on, you should definitely check this book out!

This review will go live at the link below on 30 April:

Hi and welcome to my review of Harrow Lake! Huge thanks to Dave @ The Write Reads for the invite and to Penguin and NetGalley for the eARC!

Harrow Lake begins with an interview with Nolan Nox. His name makes him seem like a bit of a DC Comics villain but he’s actually a famous filmmaker. From that interview we learn that Nightjar was Nox’s biggest success, an iconic horror movie shot in Harrow Lake, and we also glean that Nolan’s teenage daughter Lola went to Harrow Lake the previous year… and vanished.

No sooner have we digested this information or we’re taken back in time to one year earlier. Lola is out on the town in New York City and when she returns to their apartment, she finds her father stabbed and bleeding to death. While he is taken to hospital, she is packed off to Harrow Lake, to live with a grandmother she hadn’t even realised she had.

Harrow Lake is the perfect setting. Kat Ellis absolutely NAILS the small and creepy town, its weird and secretive inhabitants, its folklore and local legends like Mister Jitters, and infuses it with a vibe that is straight from the horror classics I loved when I was about Lola’s age. Knowing like we do that something is bound to happen to Lola, every little thing seems even more sinister, and although there are no hard horror scenes, there is a definite scary movie feel to Harrow Lake. In fact, I’m hoping so hard that this one will be picked up by the movie industry, done well Harrow Lake could be an excellent scary movie!

Harrow Lake made me think of C.J. Tudor’s books: despite the supernatural angle, there is also human vileness at the heart of things, so if you’re a C.J. Tudor fan I would highly recommend you give this one a whirl.

Harrow Lake is an addictive horroresque thriller that is guaranteed to give you some chills this summer. Recommended!

This book knows how to hit hard. Within one page of my eARC, I knew I was hooked, and Kat Ellis wasn’t afraid to raise the stakes before we’d even met the main character – I loved that I already knew I was pulled in for the long haul. The last chapter was equally potent – though of course I won’t talk about it because spoilers, and I loved the way it came back around to close the circle.

I adored Lola from the start. I have talked, at length, about how much I love unlikeable female characters. Because I do, I love them, and Lola is an excellent example of that. She’s got lots of unappealing, unfeminine traits, and each of them made me adore her more. I also think that it becomes clear the further into the book that a reader gets, that a lot of Lola’s perceived flaws are intentional. Initially, she seems a little bland and flavourless, and it’s only when you get to see Lola interact with Nolan, her famous father, and Moira, the grandmother she never knew, that you see the truth of it. Lola is a blank canvas on purpose, to survive social situations. She alters herself perfectly to fit the expectations of the person she’s speaking to – ensuring she behaves Optimally – and she resents the whole damn world for making her do it. With her father she’s obedient, and shakes off the resemblance of her mother, whereas with her grandmother she crafts herself perfectly in Lorelai’s image. Lola is our view point into Harrow Lake, an outsider as much as the reader is, and the fact that she’s an unreliable narrator only intensifies the atmosphere that the book creates.

The atmosphere throughout the entire book is intense. Amazingly, viscerally intense. I very rarely find a book that genuinely scares me, but about halfway through this book I dragged myself out to sit in the garden in the sunlight where I felt safer. That’s how powerful the effect this book had on me was. Everything in the book pulled together to create this effect. Lola, as the unreliable narrator, was telling us everything from her perspective, and as the reader gets further into the book it’s clear that her perspective is tainted in many ways to assume the worst.

The book is set in Harrow Lake, the town where Lola’s father filmed his greatest horror movie, Nightjar, and the town is frozen in time in the 1920s when the movie was set. Lola is walking in the footsteps of her father and her mother, and of Little Bird, Nightjar’s protagonist. The descriptions were so vivid that honestly? I’d love to watch Nightjar myself. Alongside the echoes of the horror movie, Harrow Lake is haunted by a town legend. Mister Jitters. I laughed the first time I read his name. I did not laugh any of the times after that. Mister Jitters was terrifying. He’s the town’s bogeyman, and the residents of Harrow Lake have developed strange routines and rituals to appease his hunger. These rituals like the bone tree, no burials, and other things I won’t talk about because spoilers, made him feel so powerful because everyone believed in him so fiercely, even when they didn’t say his name. I had to finish this in one sitting, because otherwise I knew I was going to have nightmares about him tap-tap-tapping.

On a completely opposite note, I really liked the little bit of romance in this book. I’m usually the first to criticise mis-placed romance, but this was perfect because it acknowledged that Lola was in no position to be feeling more than a crush. She was learning how to be herself, alone for the first time in her life, and how to discover a personality that wasn’t created by her father or grandmother. I loved that that was respected, and that Lola could have her crush without it being a part of the character arc we needed to see.

The ending of this book is basically completely impossible to talk about in a spoiler free way, which is a shame because I have THOUGHTS. But it tied together threads that were woven throughout the rest of the book, some of which I’d barely even noticed until suddenly they came together, telling a story about what makes a real monster. This book crawled under my skin and made itself a home there, and I can’t wait for people to start reading it so that I can scream about the ending with everyone I know.