Wonderfully eerie book perfect for winter reading. Full of mystery, intrigue and horror for anyone who enjoys a spooky tale.

This is the perfect book for spooky season. Henry expertly plays with your nerves, surprising and enthralling you at every turn. It’s incredibly reminiscent of a spooky tale being told around the fire in the dead of winter, one that’s been passed down through generations. 

Straight away, Henry sets the spooky tone of proceedings, along with an exploration of grief, family and friendship, all coated with an 80s gloss. She sets the scene perfectly, with every detail placed just so to draw you in that much further. Pretty soon you can envision all of . This small town hits that sweet spot between suburbia and that underlying current of horror. This is so well executed and it helps the action feel that more terrifying, as it’s blended with reality. There’s always this sense of doom hanging over proceedings, like it’s just a moment away from horror unfolding. 

Henry continues the foreboding tone throughout, hinting at supernatural events and powers that make you question what you’ve witnessed over and over again. The ominous atmosphere is cranked right up, making that creeping chill down your spine slowly grow more intense. All this makes for a completely immersive and unsettling reading experience, as any good Gothic tale should do. You can’t help but want to unravel the mystery and unmask the monster. Henry also draws on the long Gothic history of including social commentary and making politically relevant points hit home that much more. This gives it that much power, particularly in its discussion of attitudes to those who are considered outsiders and gendered expectations. It toys with the damsel in distress and virgin sacrifice tropes that so often crop up in horror, constantly upending your expectations. The use of multiple perspectives also allows you to access various viewpoints, many of which are quietly monstrous in their own beliefs and that hidden, seething rage that underpins it is so eerily reminiscent of present day attitudes. Of course, we are also reminded just how monstrous humans can be, with small towns breeding some small minds.

The Ghost Tree is a properly spooky tale, tipping its hat to the long and plentiful history of the Gothic, while also ensuring that it provides a fresh batch of horrors for modern day readers.

I’ve been addicted to Christina Henry's horror retellings of classic tales (Alice in Wonderland, Little Red Riding good) and this is my first of hers that isn’t a retelling. Despite being set in the summer, it’s a perfect spooky fall read. It’s tense and chilling and proves once again that the author is a master of tension.⁣

This book feels like The Devouring Gray crossed with Stranger Things, but with witches. Interconnected POVs draw out this small town’s deep dark secrets, and you can’t be sure who’s worth trusting, especially since something dark is messing with the town's memory. It’s just got this amazingly chilling vibe all the way through that digs its claws deep into you. It's got me primed for fall and I’m so ready to get my spook on! ⁣
⁣
So if you like small towns with dark secrets; coming of age; witchcraft; and monsters, this is definitely the book for you! ⁣

I can't say that I enjoyed this book. I don't think that this book was for me.

I like Christina Henry's writing style but I just didn't like the story. Or the main character. I've liked Christina Henry's books in the past but this one I just ended up not enjoying. I think that it was probably my dislike of the main character that made me not enjoy this book. If I hadn't read a ARC copy of this book I would have DNFed it.

“Like a little rabbit in the same clearing as a fox, that’s what you thought before. Do you want to be the little rabbit?”

The Ghost Tree by Christina Henry is about Lauren and Miranda who have been best friends forever. Every day one would say, “Meet me by the old ghost-tree” and they would have adventures together. But now Miranda only likes boys, and Lauren's father was found in the woods with his heart torn out, and no one was ever caught. So when Lauren has a vision of a monster dragging human remains through the woods, she knows she can't just do nothing.

This atmospheric novel kept me gripped from the first chapter. The moment you learn about the horrendous death of Lauren’s father, an unsettling tale begins to weave with unsuspecting events occurring page after page. The characterisation and the unusual story manage to bring the macabre with the lore that binds the history behind “the ghost tree”.

The complex characters with the horror atmosphere relating to the history of the town of Smiths Hollow is what made this book enjoyable to read. There are several creepy moments throughout where the imagery is vivid and becomes quite dark.

This was an enjoyable read and one I’d absolutely recommend.

This is the first book I’ve read by Henry. The small town of Smiths Hollow had me hooked. The Ghost Tree is a coming of age story that touches on loss and racism with a sprinkling of fantasy.

The narrative is from the point of view of various characters. With a mystery in a small town where everyone knows each other (having grownup and now live in that kind of place I really liked that). The mystery unravels slowly and somewhat predictably. The supernatural part made this story much more enjoyable for me.

A easy read, definitely aimed at older teens to adults.

Thank you to the publishers for this proof.

I am a fan of Christina Henry, so it’s no surprise that I loved this book. The story of two girls. Childhood friends, as they grow one discovers boys and the other, Lauren discovers she has visions. Her father and two girls are found dead in the woods, when Lauren had visions of a monster  she know she has to do something. Deliciously dark as always. I love Henry’s writing, deeply unsettling in a way that draws you in. I couldn’t out it down. By far the best author for dark  twisted versions of our beloved fairytales.

I am already a huge Christina Henry fan and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on The Ghost Tree and I wasn’t disappointed. Smith's Hollow is not a place I'd like to visit, as it is filled to the brim with creepy children, grisly murders and some major witchy vibes.  
 
Christina Henry gives us a coming of age story with a young female protagonist in a small town horror setting. In what is meant as a huge compliment this book reminds me of IT by Stephen King once it became clear that people in the town were somehow being forced to ignore or forget, what was happening it was pretty hard not to be reminded of Pennywise and the power he had over the townspeople of Derry. Set in the 1980s, the story revolves around teenage Lauren, this book is an account of monsters, violence, and a curse laid on a provincial town and all its residents.
 
Lauren is a great lead. She's having to deal with a lot following since her father was found brutally murdered and no one wants to talk about his death or how it happened. Lauren has had to grow up fast and has a level of maturity that is sometimes lacking in books focusing on teen heroes but she never feels like a spoilt or angry teen. Lauren seems to be your typical teenager and has hit that age where she’s afraid that she is being left behind by her best friend in favour of boys and makeup. There were some truly relatable moments (maybe it’s a Lauren thing) like her straining relationship with her oldest friend, and worrying about boys.
 
Miranda has become more interested in clothes, make-up and boys, and no longer wants to hang out with Lauren at the old ghost tree. Miranda is a bit of a nightmare, she’s selfish, impulsive, obsessive, but she's still very real, and despite being written as a bit of a bitch, for the most part, you do understand her a little and feel sympathy for her at times.
 
 
The titular "Ghost Tree" in the forest has always been their place to meet but since Miranda has other interests, Lauren goes alone after the remains of two teenage girls are found in pieces in a neighbour’s yard. Lauren has a vision of a monster dragging them through the woods, she knows that she will have to be the one to do something no matter what anyone else believes. what's unravels is a grim narrative of the secret the residents of this small town have been maintaining unknowingly for years.
 
I read this book on my Kindle over a weekend and when I finished, I was shocked to learn that it was over four hundred pages long. There's no denying that Henry has beautiful prose. This book is captivating, exciting page-turner, the chapters are short and sweet, unravelling bits of mystery enticing your attention and you cannot put it down. One of the best things about this book is that the characters are so layered and complex and that no one is really all bad and perhaps everyone is just a victim of the events of Smiths Hollow. 
 
 
I will always champion Christina Henry's writing, in the case of The Ghost Tree I highly recommend it to anyone who's looking for an easy to read, fast paced book that is creepy and gives off the small town secrete vibe.

I have always enjoyed Christina Henry's books, I think she has such an interesting way of writing. The Ghost Tree was a good read and perfect for those that love Stranger Things, 80's culture and unsettling stories. I loved how this incorporated all of the ghost stories we tell as children about curses and witches and monsters in the woods and this story felt very nostalgic to me,

Due to the setting of the book there are some racist characters which help give an idea to what the town is really like. The parrellels of acceptance between the younger and older people of the books was interesting as you could see that certain older characters cared more about image than younger ones and I think that reflected the time really well. 

The book has multiple POV which isn't usually something I enjoy, especially reading from Mrs Schnieder's pov as I didn't like her character but it did show the variety of people living in the town well and how the curse had affected everyone. 

Like most of Henry's books I've found there is a lot of mystery and intrigue at first and then the reveals come in thick and fast. I really liked the magic in the book and felt it was understated and actually quite simple. I liked how the chosen one, in this case Lauren, was a sort of coming of age character and had a lot of her own conflictions to deal with. Everyone was quite well rounded in the book and reading from the different POV you saw the inner turmoil and why they acted the way the did. 

The book is more creepy with scenes of gore than outright page turning horror. I liked the drama behind the horror which added depth. I think this book is for anyone that likes a creepy ghost story or just generally about creepy towns. I think a lot of people can compare this to a creepy town they have heard of or know of and that sense of relatability makes the story feel more sinister.

When a couple of young girls are found murdered in the town of Smith’s Hollow, it sparks a series of events that has far reaching consequences for everyone in the town. 

The story is told from multiple POVs which I really enjoyed. Lauren, a teenager whose father was murdered a year ago, is drawn to the investigation into the girls deaths. After she has a vision of a monster dragging the girls through the woods, she sets out to discover exactly what happened.

This had a great pace. It was eerie and bloody at times which definitely seems to be the authors style and I really enjoyed it. She does it so well. The small town, closed-minded mentality was fleshed out really well in some of the characters. 

There were definitely stand out characters in Lauren, her younger brother, and Officer Lopez. I especially liked Miranda too. I thought the author really nailed Miranda’s insecurities and her journey was perhaps the most compelling to me. 

The jumping around between characters really heightened the tension and kept me guessing. I enjoyed this dark, satisfying monster story! 


Many thanks to Titan Books for the gifted eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was perfect for the spooky season! The descriptions were so vivid that I honestly had to put the book down at some points to remind myself that it wasn't real. The plot definitely carried the book for me, most of the characters feel a little flat and the only relationship that felt real was the one between Lauren and Miranda even as their friendship deteriorated throughout the novel. I wanted more of the witchy element that surrounded Lauren and more of the police officer and his family, but the overall effect of having multiple POVs worked really well. Definitely one I'll recommened to lovers of mystery, magic and horror.

This is the perfect book for spooky season. Henry expertly plays with your nerves, surprising and enthralling you at every turn. It’s incredibly reminiscent of a spooky tale being told around the fire in the dead of winter, one that’s been passed down through generations. 

Straight away, Henry sets the spooky tone of proceedings, along with an exploration of grief, family and friendship, all coated with an 80s gloss. She sets the scene perfectly, with every detail placed just so to draw you in that much further. Pretty soon you can envision all of . This small town hits that sweet spot between suburbia and that underlying current of horror. This is so well executed and it helps the action feel that more terrifying, as it’s blended with reality. There’s always this sense of doom hanging over proceedings, like it’s just a moment away from horror unfolding. 

Henry continues the foreboding tone throughout, hinting at supernatural events and powers that make you question what you’ve witnessed over and over again. The ominous atmosphere is cranked right up, making that creeping chill down your spine slowly grow more intense. All this makes for a completely immersive and unsettling reading experience, as any good Gothic tale should do. You can’t help but want to unravel the mystery and unmask the monster. Henry also draws on the long Gothic history of including social commentary and making politically relevant points hit home that much more. This gives it that much power, particularly in its discussion of attitudes to those who are considered outsiders and gendered expectations. It toys with the damsel in distress and virgin sacrifice tropes that so often crop up in horror, constantly upending your expectations. The use of multiple perspectives also allows you to access various viewpoints, many of which are quietly monstrous in their own beliefs and that hidden, seething rage that underpins it is so eerily reminiscent of present day attitudes. Of course, we are also reminded just how monstrous humans can be, with small towns breeding some small minds.

The Ghost Tree is a properly spooky tale, tipping its hat to the long and plentiful history of the Gothic, while also ensuring that it provides a fresh batch of horrors for modern day readers.

The town of Smith’s Hollow is a quiet, sleepy, but prosperous place. The residents are happy, for the most part, until two girls are killed and left in an old woman’s garden. Lauren has no faith the police will investigate, considering their disinterest in her own father’s murder the year before. But when Lauren starts looking into the murders, she discovers a new power buried inside, while the town begins to splinter. 

I really liked The Ghost Tree. It’s great to see coming-of-age horror written by women, which usually (wrongly) gets tagged as YA. Make no mistake, this book is not YA. The main character is a teenage girl, but there is a mix of POVs here, some adult, and it all works together really well.

At times, the writing was maybe a little too simplistic, but it didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the story. The plot is carried along well, and Henry keeps the reader really wondering how things might unfold. The characters are endearing and realistic, and I appreciated the relationship between the teenager Lauren and her mother. There are many things both get wrong, and because we see from both POVs, we can see how each makes their own decisions and views the other, how Lauren is struggling with everything going on around her and trying to deal with growing up, while her mother dotes on her wise-for-his-age little brother. They really push each other’s buttons, but as readers we know they both still care deeply about one another. 

This portrayal felt very real, and one many can connect to on both sides. Lauren adored her father, and in her mind he could do no wrong, while her mother is trying to deal with bringing up two children on her own, and the idea her husband was sneaking out to have an affair on the night he was killed.

It's the relationships all around that make this is a really strong book, and Henry really captures the sensation of how lonely those crucial teenage years can be for girls, when you don’t yet know yourself and your friends are already boy-obsessed, with the contrasts between Lauren and her best friend, and the way they are drifting apart, portrayed really well.

The book is creepy and atmospheric, a solid coming-of-age horror that’ll have you gripped from the start.  

Thank you to Titan for providing this book via NetGalley.

This 1980's set horror novel is both nostalgic, and yet reflective on the times that we are living in.

The town of Smiths Hollow is cut off from the outside world and to all intents and purposes, is like many , many other small towns which seems disconnected from a world which has moved on without them-as someone who lives in a small Welsh town, there are many points of recognition here.

The local busy body, the racist woman who hates her Mexican neighbours and holds them responsible for all the bad which has blighted the town, yet cannot remember what the nature of that evil is.

The police chief who seems uniformly unconcerned about the girls who go missing every 12th November, and who disappear from the public consciousness.

And yet...there is a tree and a cabin at the center of the woods which guards something evil, something which has teeth and like to tear...

What I loved about this story is the strong sense of justice, the righting of wrongs and how it can take just one person to overthrow decades of tyranny. You have Lauren, a girl who is coming into adulthood with the weight of her father's death, her mother's inexplicable disappointment and her best friend, Miranda's, expectations of being just like her, on her shoulders.

As she navigates the perilous path from childhood to maturity, Christina Henry uses Lauren as the central focus of the novel, showing that power can sometimes come in the most unlikely places. A teenage girl who is defined by her sexuality, availability and proclivity to do the right thing are all reflected in the annual sacrifice made to the best that lives in the wood.

What Christina Henry has done is create a retro fairy tale using all the darkest elements of folklore, combined with the motifs of ancient myths and given them a feminist twist. It shows how just one person standing up and refusing to accept the status quo is enough to break the chains of repetitive, damaging behaviour. It redefines the cultural lanscape when people accept others for who they are and what they can bring into your town rather than branded as outsiders who need to have pitchforks and burning branches raised against them. It's a paean to the power of familial love, acceptance of that love and using it against those who would wish you harm.

Here, the sacrifice of one person becomes the catalyst for decades of death until one brave girl stands up to stop it in its tracks. 'The Ghost Tree' is a very different, stand alone novel from Christina Henry which retains her trademark storytelling ability and is immensely enjoyable. Gory, suspenseful and very,very readable, this doorstep of a book is perfect #Spooktober reading!

I’ve read a few books by the author and am quite a fan. I was looking forward to this as it’s a bit different from her usual work which tends to be fairytale retellings. The Ghost Tree is a straight-up horror story, brilliantly executed. This has all you can ask from a horror story; creepy woods, lots of dead people, a monster that likes human flesh and a small town who know how to keep their secrets and guard them well. I loved the fact the book is set in a small town, the perfect place for the horrific events Lauren encounters to take place and be kept from the wider world. Some of the best horror fiction is set in the proverbial small town. Stephen King is a genius using this device. The book is quite gory at times but not OTT and it adds to the plot. I really loved this.

Christina Henry is one of my favourite fantasy authors and I've enjoyed her dark reworkings of classic children's stories (Alice, Peter Pan) as well as folktales and mythology.

In The Ghost Tree, all of this is fused into a chilling and effective folk horror, with a generations-old act of violence and a curse afflicting the population of midwest American town Smiths Hollow. The results are acted out every year with pain and loss in the collective behaviour of the townsfolk, but it's a party to which outsiders are definitely not invited.

Now, though, things seem to be going wrong...

The book focuses on Lauren diMucci, a young woman whose father Joe was horribly murdered a year before. Lauren misses her dad, to whom she was closer than her mother, now single parent Karen. The book very tenderly draws out the tensions and alienation between mother and daughter, their relationship laced with guilt, general teenager-ishness and something else - a resentment that can't be articulated, a dark poison between them. Smiths Hollow seems to have forgotten Joe's death and the police have done little to identify the killer. Maybe Lauren can do better?

Lauren's relationship with childhood friend Miranda is also key. The girls used to be inseparable, playing fantasy games in the woods outside the town ('Meet me by the old ghost tree!') But Miranda is now changing, spending more time thinking about boys and plotting what she must do to secure a ride to school in Tad's car this year instead of riding her bike or getting on the bus like a loser. This book (set in the mid 80s) does shine a harsh light on patriarchy, showing how the two friends take different routes through a deeply misogynistic society, Miranda avidly collecting sex tips from magazines, unaware how she's being gossiped about and pigeonholed, while Lauren accepts the role of freakish outsider, of tomboy. It's perhaps inevitable that the friendship is under strain - I found the portrayal convincing, non judgemental and eliciting sympathy for both girls (Lauren missing her father, Miranda subject to remote control parenting by chilly, unempathetic parents).

Then there's David, Lauren's brother, only four years old who comes across as something of a savant but also as a very, very vulnerable little boy.  There are visions, a suggestion of dark conspiracies and of secrets in the apparently sweet, prosperous little town. It's all deeply sinister and the reader can be sure that the darker side of town is there, biding its time.

Lauren does, however, have allies in exposing what's wrong. In the way of things, it's an outsider who most clearly sees what's wrong. Alex (Alejandro) Lopez, a newly appointed policeman who's come from Chicago hoping for a more peaceful life, begins to dig into the past, aware, somehow, that this won't be looked on kindly by his peers and superiors (though he can't understand why). Quite apart for that investigation, his very presence, and that of his family, is enough to stir racist hatreds as well as fears that secrets will be exposed. Those, two, will be played out in the town's collective guilt and ritual of forgetting.

This may sound like an awful lot for a horror story to carry, but Henry weaves together her themes deftly, maintaining the tension and the mystery while allowing us - in the form of a fairy story - enough background to have an idea what's going on. There are a couple of characters who I felt could have done more - Lauren's grandmother, and Riley, the journalist who breezes into town - but really, those central relationships - between Lauren and Karen, and Lauren and Miranda - are important enough that there probably isn't much space for anyone else, and they give the story so much heart and so much drive that this really isn't important.

Another thumping, wonderful read from Christina Henry, a book you just have to sit down and finish whatever else is going on. Also a story that's cannily honest about not typing things off neatly: I don't think Smiths Hollow will ever be the comfortable, happy place that Mayor Touhy wants - just too much has happened.

Full review available on my blog on October 12th.

Trigger Warnings: racism, slurs, murder, gore, violence, underage sex (incl. off-page sex between a minor and an adult presented as consensual), 18 year old dating a 14 year old presented as consensual, fatphobia, slutshaming.

Thanks to Titan Books for the eARC of this book, it has not affected my honest review.

This one started a little slower than other Christina Henry books I've read, but there was a particular chapter that took it from zero to 100 and after that I was hooked. There was something kind of thriller-like about this book, and I really enjoyed the way that I knew more than the characters did and could piece things together from each POV. This was far more thriller-horror than it was scary-horror, which I really enjoyed. I was watching things unfold slowly and with only a little extreme fear that something horrible was going to happen to Lauren, our wonderful fourteen year old protagonist who has a penchant for wandering into the woods to try and solve gory murders.

I really loved Lauren. She wasn't our only POV, there were chapters from several different characters including: Alex, a cop who hasn't been in town very long; Lauren's mother; Miranda; the mayor and other supporting characters. It gave an interesting and fleshed out view of what was happening, which made the plot so much clearer than it would have been from Lauren's limited perspective. I think that worked really well, but Lauren and David were absolutely my favourites. The balance of maturity and childishness was done really well and between her crises on her appearance, her period and her development in comparison to other girls her age, I genuinely felt like she read like a fourteen year old going through trauma. 

How*ever* I refuse to not comment on the romance in this book. It's not much of a romance, because Lauren is a few weeks away from her fifteenth birthday and far too busy trying not to get murdered, but the fact that a fourteen year old girl went on a date with an eighteen year old man in this book and that *wasn't* presented as a problem truly grossed me out. I hated it. She's a child, he's an adult. It didn't play any role in the story that couldn't have been done by him being, for example, sixteen, and it would have been significantly less icky. There is actually a different instance of a grown adult and a child having "consensual" sex in this book (using quotation marks because it's NOT consensual, she is a CHILD), but while that's identified as being a problem, everyone is just fine with Lauren going on a date with a grown man. I really hated it. 

Overall though, this was a great book with a really interesting cast of characters and a plot that genuinely had me guessing on how the hell it was ever going to be resolved. Christina Henry definitely stays on my insta-buy author list.

I reviewed this book on my website, The Bloom Stack. 

Looking for a new piece of horror fiction to keep you up at night? Halloween is only next month and with the way 2020 has been, it’s likely that it may pass by like any other day. However, Christina Henry’s new novel The Ghost Tree* has everything you need and so much more to get into the spooky spirit of the holiday.

I am a huge fan of horror fiction, especially when the horror elements are combined with anything remotely supernatural, so I knew I had to read Christina Henry’s new release as soon as I could get my hands on it. The title of this novel alone was enough to catch my attention, but I could not put it down. I had to stop for work, but I was very reluctant about doing so as it was just that good.

Although Lauren is the main character of the novel, there are so many other side characters and we are lucky enough to have a part of the story narrated by them all (apart from Mrs Schneider as her prejudice and hatred angered me and I felt absolutely nothing for her). All of the characters are not as they may seem, and we learn more about them as the events of the novel take place. It isn’t until you are in the midst of the narrative that you start to understand why specific characters may act or think the way they do, and readers will quickly come to realise that things in Smiths Hollow are not as normal as they may seem.

There is a brilliant mix of supernatural and real, visceral horror. It isn’t the most graphic horror novel that I have read, but it is by no means for the faint of heart. The Ghost Tree is perfect for those who want to feel a little scared but overall want an intense and gripping story to get sucked into.

I will definitely be re-reading this book come Halloween and I will be purchasing Christina Henry’s other works of fiction very soon

There was a lot to like here, but ultimately I thought it was a little too predictable and there were too many floating plot points that never got resolved or went anywhere. It tells the story of a small town called Smiths Hollow in the 1980s. The town is surrounded by a wood and in the wood is the ghost tree, where Lauren and her best friend, Miranda meet. When two out of town girls turn up murdered and eviscerated in the garden of the town bigot, lots of dark secrets about the town's history are slowly revealed. I did really enjoy the small town vibe portrayed here and thought that Christina Henry did a great job at capturing the community. I thought that the familial relationships were well drawn and that of Lauren and her mother particularly excellent. I liked David and although he read far older than 4, I thought that he was a great inclusion. Where things fell down for me were in the pacing and the plotting. We spend an awful lot of time meandering around the town with not a lot happening, which is good in terms of character, but then when action begins in the latter stages, it feels rushed and inconclusive. I also thought that the mystery aspect of the plot was very disappointing, because it was too obvious and as a result, the reveal didn't have any impact. Characters were introduced and then never seen again, which was jarring, and I thought that the central romantic relationship was never truly explored in terms of the age gap. Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but there were too many inconsistencies for it to be a new favourite.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rating: 4/5 stars

With October just around the corner, my TBR currently looks like a mountain of spooky books to get me in that Halloween mood. And I would be pressed to find a book creepier than THE GHOST TREE. With its dark worldbuilding, 80s setting, and rich POVs, this story is the perfect for any fans of horror or small town creepiness in the vein of Stranger Things. 

The book is set in 1980s small town America and is told by several different narrators, varying from the town’s mayor to the racist old lady who lives down the street. The most prominent of these is Lauren, a fifteen-year-old girl dealing with the normal frustrations of puberty while still grappling with the murder of her father one year ago. When she has a vision of two girls being brutally murdered minutes before their bodies are found by the police, she starts to suspect that something is wrong with her—until she learns that her baby brother David shares the visions. Together, the narrators are on the edge of uncovering the darkness lurking in the town as they realise that these murders are commonplace; the townspeople just forget about them each and every time. 

Each narrator had a wildly different tone that was affected by their age, gender, and race, all influenced by the eighties backdrop. We see the perspectives of both the town’s Old Bigot and the Mexican family who she’s determined to drive out of town, both adults in power and children powerless against the town’s gory traditions. And the way in which all of the different POVs slowly came together to paint a full picture of the town’s secrets was so satisfying and addictive to read. It reminded me of another book that uses a similar method to flesh out a very different setting: FOLK by Zoe Gilbert. I am so here for books with lots of narrators! 

I am also a sucker for stories set in the eighties, and this one did not disappoint. Not only did the subtle culture references help to root the story in its context, but the callbacks to eighties horror movies were also a nice, self-aware touch. As such, some people might find the plot to be a little predictable, but that didn’t faze me for a second. I did think that a little more time could have been spent on the climax, especially considering that the novel is fairly long, but that was my only real complaint. As a whole, I found the book to be fast-paced, perfectly built—if a little quick to finish—and a perfect read for the Halloween season.