This wasn’t great. The idea of a man trying to groom his successor didn’t work out for him. The poor kid was forced to assist. The description of his mom was terrible.

I thought this was a unique concept for a horror novel, I liked the idea of a child looking for help from a bad character. The story was really well done and darkly done. I was invested in what was going on and thought S. Gary Sangha wrote this well.

Karl is a fourteen-year-old boy with a drug addict single mother, who finds out that the man who lives below him is a serial killer. The man, Harris, then tries to recruit Karl as his apprentice.

For a thriller, this book was just incredibly bleak and not really thrilling. A lot of slurs, bullying, drug use, suicidal thoughts, and dead women. I can't honestly say I enjoyed anything about it, except a brief moment when it looked like Karl's mother might recover from her depression, which didn't last.

This book did not convince me at all and the truth is that I had quite high expectations because the plot seemed interesting to me.

Yes, I must admit that the story seemed quite complete to me due to the theme that he is a serial killer who tries to drag a teenager who has nothing to do with that mentality, ethics and sadism into his world. So I think what led to this book not being at all what I expected was that, that I didn't find that psychological, perverse side of a serial killer who seeks to absorb someone into his lifestyle.

I admit that, as I said before, it is a very complex thing to achieve and it was not achieved, but I wonder if anyone could do it. Now I'm curious to find a book with the same line.

Thank you Cameron Publicity & Marketing Ltd for the ARC I read on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Check my blog for review - https://kalaikoodam.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-murderers-apprentice-sgary-sangha.html

There are instances when we tread unfamiliar areas. This was one such book. I selected this book only because I found the title interesting. Net Galley provided me with a soft copy of the book. And I got to read this without any preconceived notions of the story.

Karl is the son of a single mother. His father was killed in action during the war. After that, his mother succumbs to drugs and supplements her habit with money from prostitution. Things are not better in school as well where he gets bullied by Jack Fisher. There has been news of young women being murdered and Karl suspects his elusive neighbour, Harris. Harris who is the killer sees Karl as a potential apprentice whom he can train to kill. He is looking for an opportunity to subdue Karl. Will Karl be able to stay clear of Harris? Are Karl and his mother safe from him? Was Karl able to trap the killer? forms the story.

As I told you earlier, I had no opinions or thoughts before reading this book. It did start slowly and I wondered how the story was going to proceed. But around 10 to 15 pages into the story, I started getting involved in the book. The reading was very fast-paced and exciting. The whole narration proceeds in a first-person fashion which keeps the pace steady. There were only a handful of characters that were given as much depth as required for the story. Even though there was not much suspense in the story, it did keep me biting my nails as to how this was going to turn out. The language was pretty simple and effective. The author talked about a lot of issues like how bullying and drug abuse can harm one's life and the people surrounding them. The first-person narrative was impactful in that aspect. There was no unwanted stretching in the story and the length was apt. But still, there was some lag at places like at the start and towards the middle which did slow me down a bit. Also, there were some unanswered questions in the story which did not make sense.

In short, this was a surprisingly good and quick read. People who like a quick thriller will enjoy this book. I enjoyed the book except for some lags at certain places. Thanks to Net Galley for a copy of the book.

Rating 3/5

This book wasn’t what I was expecting. The action from about 70% on was alright but it took a lot for me to keep reading to get there. I feel like I was left with questions but honestly I don’t think I’m even that invested in the characters to want to know the answer. I will say that the writing was good but the story just wasn’t for me. Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Honestly did not enjoy this book, none of the characters were believable except for the mum and there were a lot of grammar and spelling mistakes which made it difficult to read.

I did like the mums character but that was the only redeeming feature to this book.

I enjoyed this one enough to give it a rating but it wasnt my normal genre and my normal writing style, I havent read anything from this author before and i am unsure if i will pick up anything from them again in the future

Thanks to netgalley for the copy in return for an honest review

2 stars

This is one of those books that starts off great (it has a gritty Ramsey Campbell urban creepy vibe) but doesn’t really go anywhere. The writing is good and the main character is very well drawn and you care about what happens to him, but the story itself is underwhelming. Let’s home next time the author throws a few curveballs our way.

Omg get this on Netflix, it's a creepy, mind twisting thriller. Even though the main character is a young boy this is not a ya novel, it's definitely up there with some of the best books of this year, really enjoyed it 5 stars.