This is a dark story about grief. It is so raw in places. This book has elements of horror in it and is very creepy. I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. Not for me

Loved it, can’t wait for more. Really liked the plot and characters and is this was a winner for me. Not my usual thing but wow it surprised me, defo look for more from the author.

"There are unspoken rules when I spar with my mother; we can needle each other but only with falsehoods. The truth is always off limits".

Black Mamba is a psychological thriller that reads initially as a horror but as the story unveils, becomes more confusing and deeply entwines the present with the past. The book relies on old favourites, such as twin connections, imaginary friends, a death in the family and estranged family members, and it slaps.

"When I tried to give the eulogy, it drowned beneath the weight of her wails. The church was too small, no one else's grief could fit".

Mixed between the horror and the suspense, are well worded paragraphs breaking down the difficulty of familial conflict, grief and the stages of moving on.

Black Mamba is a creepy one. Imagine you're watching a horror - you can fast forward. With a book, that's not really an option. You have to read it if you don't want to lose context. My advice? Read with the light on.

Thank you NetGalley for the Arc.

This book confused me. But I also think that was partly by design. Throughout the book I questioned the Black Mamba character. Was he real or just the imagination of the girls.
While grief plays a big part in the story. There's something about Julia and her mum that made me question them.
By the end I was still confused if I understood the story correctly. I feel like I missed something.

I loved the sound of this but I don't think I was expecting to be quite so creeped out by it. I mean wow, the tension is ever present, and its not smack you in the face this is going to scare you stuff, it's little things constantly there.
This is set against a back drop of loss, family, jealousy, grief, unrequited love.
At the centre of all this are the twin girls and the Black Mamba. Its a hard book to really review and do it justice, so just read it!

With thanks to netgalley and the author for allowing me to review this book.

Black Mamba is book that is part horror/thriller and part how a family deals with a tragic death of a mother and wife.

It is a very spooky read. The twins like those from the shinning are very very creepy, The book keeps you guessing at what the 'black Mamba' could be.

Quite a few moments of tension in this one, where you’re second guessing what’s to come. A horror that’s ultimately about grief and how people deal with it differently…with added mystery and magic.
An enjoyable read.

I flew through this one. It was creepy, immersive and had me on the edge of my seat in places. The first couple of chapters had me hooked and I was desperate to know what was going on and who or what Black Mamba was. I was coming up with all kinds of theories.

I loved the twins and their characterisation. Being a twin myself, that aspect of the book really appealed to me. We

I had hoped for a clear picture of what happened at the end, but I don’t think I quite got that. Unless I was supposed to feel as I did.. I’ll eventually speak with someone else who has read it and share views! I would have liked a little more explanation, as I said, as I think it was left very much to interpretation but it was a good listen.

All in all, very atmospheric. I enjoyed the differing perspectives and couldn’t wait to find out what happened.

Black Mamba is the name of a supposed imaginary friend for Alfie's twin daughters; as they've lost their mother he doesn't think anything about this but as more sinister events occur and Black Mamba invades his life and the twins minds can they ever be free of him.

This was a gripping and interesting novel, the way the suspense builds is perfect and I was hooked,

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review

I found the atmosphere in Black Mamba really effective, and the story also handles grief really well. However I wish the plot line about the relationship hadn't been part of the book as it drags the rest of it down! Would still recommend to fans of the more traditional type of horror thriller.

For me, this is one of those novels that I don’t know if I absolutely loved or am kidding myself that it was so great. So, spooky twins (check), invisible friend (check), grieving father (check) - a scary triumvirate. But then, the book just kinda trundles along, building up to an ending that left me a little cold. No spoilers though! I guess the blurb telling people this is for fans of The Babadook are well founded, however, I feel like I’ve read something like this before. Anyways, this one’s okay. Just okay.

This was a gothic, haunting and atmospheric story that I couldn’t put down. It was gripping and engaging the whole way through with a level of suspense and unpredictability that added an extra layer to the storytelling. It was a chilling read that has stayed with me since I read it. This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you very much to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

Black Mamba, while tense and suspenseful fell a little flat. It succumbed to a few too many thriller/horror stereotypes and cliches and left me unsatisfied with the ending

Ooh this book was so creepy! It has all the perfect ingredients for a scary horror story. Creepy twins seeing a man in their room at night, a father struggling to cope after losing his wife, a strange old house and a family history of weird accidents oh and a bit of religion thrown in!

Black Mamba put me so on edge. I think it helped that I read it late at night in the dark on my kindle! Everytime my toddler made a noise I jumped out of my skin!

This is a story about grief. About a family struggling to cope with loss and how that can manifest itself in children. But also it is super spooky and weird and the ending leaves you a bit unsure of what actually has happened!

Despite not reading a lot of horror I am always trying to find a book that actually scares me and I've got to say this one hit the spot for me. I felt so uneasy the whole time and there was a few spine chilling moments! Also it's written really well and is so easy to become absorbed into. Some horror books can be really out there and difficult to understand but this wasn't like that at all! Definitely recommend this one if you're looking for something a bit creepy!

Black Mamba has a great premise. Twin girls, recently bereaved by the loss of their mother, suddenly appear to have an imaginary friend called Black Mamba. So far so spooky. The themes of grief and loss are dealt with sensitively and William Friend is an excellent writer but I was expecting a little more in terms of 'said spookiness' and felt a little confused by the ending. Nevertheless, it is a book I would recommend to friends.

Although it was good Black Mamba wasn't quite what I expected.. It tells the story of twins who after the death of their mother Pippa they have an imaginary friend called Black Mamba. They insist he can change his appearance but their dad Alfie is worried and asks his sister in law who was Pippa's twin for help.
I was hoping it would be a really spooky book but sadly for me I didn't find that. I would still recommend it thought and I give it 4 stars

After the death of a loving mother Pippa , her husband Alfie is left to look after their twin girls . One day they appear by Alfie's bed saying that there is a man in their room . As his influence on the girls increases they give him a name "Black Mamba" , and insist on doing paintings of him for on the wall and then setting a place at the table for meals .First thoughts of an imaginary friend go by the board and Alfie has to call in Pippa's sister Julia ( a psychiatrist ) for help . A dark but very interesting read.

The concept of this book is interesting - a single dad, Alfie, dealing with his wife's death, is struggling bringing up his twin daughters, Cassie and Sylvie. Strange things start happening in the house - the girls fixate on a 'visitor', Black Mamba', and how he has come to befriend them, to take the role of Alfie. This is a modern-day horror, set in an unnamed area of London, in Hart House - the family home of Alfie's deceased wife, Pippa, and her sister, Julia.

Throughout the novel, there are elements of the twins 'ganging up' on Alfie, on fabricating stories about Black Mamba - and all the while, Alfie doesn't believe them, whereas the reader does. Aunt Julia and Alfie and Pippa's mothers have roles to play, too, ranging from being devoutly religious, through to suffering with dementia.\

I enjoyed this - it is original and creepy - and shows how a domestic horror can take place in the safe urban confines of a family home. Read it, and see if you agree.

I enjoyed it although got a bit lost in the second half. Not sure I completely understood the ending.

Invisible friends are a very tricky phenomenon to get right in horror fiction and in reality characters from films spring more readily to mind than the printed page. Many of my favourites are from non-horror novels, ranging from Fight Club to the obscure Aussie novel Pobby and Dingan (Ben Rice) and freaky kid’s dark fantasy The Imaginary (AF Harrold). Last year Stephen Chbosky’s 700 pager Imaginary Friend brought the subject to the international bestseller charts, but in a brief 247 pages William Friend’s startling debut totally blows the bloated excesses of Imaginary Friend out of the water. Not a word is wasted in this tight novel which will have you turning the pages at speed whilst you forget to draw breath.

I need to get the weakest feature of this book out of the way straight away: the title. I hate it. Black Mamba sounds like a cross between an eighties action movie and a Quentin Tarantino character (which it is in Kill Bill). It fails to sell itself as the exceptionally clever psychological horror novel it truly is. The blurb name-checks it against The Babadook (which if fair enough) but The Babadook has an ominous ring to it which Black Mamba fails to conjure, probably because it is so strongly connected to a snake. Considering the unsettling presence the Black Mamba creates in the household of Alfie and his family it could have done with a better name, as even though we are crossing mediums it was every bit as good as The Babadook.

This was one of these books which could be equally enjoyed by both thriller and horror fans and does not rely upon cheap thrills, violence of exorcist style head-spinning for its many unsettling moments. The action is all very realistic, subtle and character driven, for example, there was one excruciating scene where the social services appear at the family home after an incident at school which was so painful I was hanging on every word as the tension between the characters heightened. One of the truly outstanding features of Black Mamba was its sneaky use of ambiguity in the relation to the invisible friend, if your book is under 250-pages and the writer is as skilled as William Friend the reader is pulled by the nose before repetition sets in. Often such endings can be disappointing, but this is not the case with Black Mamba, which maintains its level of unease to the final pages. You will probably read the final paragraph more than once (I certainly did).

Imaginary friends aside, at the heart of Black Mamba lies an incredibly convincing cross-generational family drama, which at the outset seems like a normal unit trying to recover from a terrible personal tragedy. However, as the slow burning and deeply shadowed events move on this intricate story goes much deeper as we find out more about Hart House and the startling events which preceded the family living there. The manner in which little tip-bits regarding the family are dropped into the plot are beautifully handled and help creative an unnerving atmosphere and the reader is never quite sure whether they are being fed the truth.

How can two twin little girls messing around with an invisible friend called ‘Black Mamba’ be so unsettling? It’s hard to explain, but once you start reading Black Mamba you will know exactly what I mean. The novel starts nine months after their mother Pippa died in a freak accident and the family is struggling to cope. Grief, undiagnosed trauma and pain oozes from the pages as Alfie cannot cope with losing Pippa, the love of his life. In the opening pages the twins wake Alfie and tell him there is a man standing at the bottom of their bed. ‘Black Mamba’ has made his first appearance and to say much more about the plot in this deeply psychological novel would spoil the surprise.

This stunning literary suburban chiller is seen from two points of view, Alfie and Pippa’s twin sister Julia who is a psychotherapist struggling with her own demons after their devastating loss. Julia also has a tricky relationship with her mother who plays a key role in the plot, especially in her slightly off-kilter religious beliefs which lurk in the background. Much of the success of the novel revolves around the relationship between Alfie and Julia and how they handle the appearance of Black Mamba, especially since they are both suffering from a combination of grief and trauma. Although the novel is not seen from the point of view of the girls, the story does not throw any cheap shots by portraying them as evil devil children and is all the better for it because they are so believable.

It would have been easy to deliver a loud bombastic ending, instead a beautifully observed family drama, where all the participants are frazzled, plays out with revelations being dropped here and there. Both Alfie and Julia were sympathetic characters and the dream sequences were particularly striking with even the sudden movement of a shadow being played out with great skill. I loved Black Mamba and recommend it very highly, interestingly one of the genuine gold standards of novels with invisible friends was Thomas Tryon’s The Other, which also had twins. Coincidence? I wonder….