This book was a did not finish for me. I found it hard to get into the plot - the beginning was very descriptive and drawn out, which made me bored a little bit. The plot was interesting, but the writing style was just not for me. If you prefer very descriptive and imaginative writing styles, this book may appease to you.

Wicked Jenny by Matt Hilton is a creepy and haunting story that grabbed me and kept me hooked till the last page.
From the beginning, I was hooked on this story and these characters that I was so obsessed with.
The characters are well drawn, and the story is well structured.
The plot has such amazing details that come through at just the right moment.

Thank You NetGalley and Severn House for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

1988 - a group of 5 young teenage boys (Andy, Carl, Brian, Johnny. & Gavin) are down at the local frog ponds when they become witnesses to the vicious attack on two girls. Poppy is left fighting for her life & her sister Melanie is killed - both felled by brutal blows from an object. The boys tell the police that they saw an older boy, Ian, hanging out there at the same time & he was carrying a hammer. Ian is arrested but before he can be tried, he commits suicide, & his guilt is never proven.

Now: almost 40 years later, the friend group have mainly drifted apart, but they are brought back together when Carl is murdered whilst walking home from the pub. His body is found in the same area as the girls were found. After his death, the other 4 start to experience strange occurrences. Is it local legend Ginny Greenteeth or is it a grown-up Poppy hellbent on revenge for not coming to their rescue? Whatever or whoever it is, they know that the friends have all got secrets & that they have been "very, very bad."

The storyline alternates between the past & the present so we start to see what happened back in 1988 bit by bit, & the narrative also cycles between several of the characters but the reader mainly hears from Andy. The boys were not particularly nice teens, especially to frogs. As the story progresses you get the feeling that there's something not quite right with what you are being told. No spoilers so I won't say more than that. There's a paranormal element to the story as well which works quite well, although the ending was a little strange. Overall I thought it was a solid horror tale with a creepy undertone.

TWs: (major) violence, murder, injury detail. (moderate).suicide, sexual content, animal cruelty.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Severn House, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

Thanks to NetGalley and Severn house for the eARC.

This book has true potential for me, but just fell short. The characters were not easy to like and that did take away from the novel for me. I was interested in resolving the mystery, but really felt the story kind of dragged along.

An atmospheric and sometimes creepy story about a group of 40 something chaps who are reunited after one of their childhood friends is murdered. Something terrible happened in 1988 and now it seems that something from that time is back to haunt and torment the friends. Silly but very entertaining with definite 'Losers' from Stephen King's IT vibes.

This books was difficult for me to get through. The potential was there, and I did enjoy some plot points and plot twists, but it took a while for me to get into the story, and I was not a fan of the writing of the characters.

Not a single character was likable, and not in an intriguing way which is common in the genre. Not all of them were horrible, but many were. Every single one, however, felt so flat. There was just no depth to the characters, so moments that should have been emotional, simply were not. Then with all the women in the book, the way they were described and the way they were written was just full of misogynistic tropes.

I’m sure there’s an audience for this. I am just not part of that intended audience it seems.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the ARC in return for this review.

Five school friends spend the summer of 1988 running around the marshy ponds of their hometown, getting up to everything you imagine thirteen-year-old boys getting up to.

Life is uneventful until the unimaginable occurs. For that summer, there's a violent attack that leaves one girl from their school murdered and another horrifically injured.

In the present day, one of the five has been found murdered in the same manner. As the other four get together for his funeral, their thoughts turn to the past. Is it all just a coincidence?

While they brush off their initial thoughts, strange occurrences start to take place around the four: whispered warnings, strange shadows, marshy water, or mud randomly appearing.

Is this the same murderer? Or is this Ginny Greenteeth, the fabled entity that supposedly haunts the ponds to drag people into their depths and never let them go?

Told in dual timelines and multiple points of view, the mystery storyline is gradually revealed as growing violence follows them.

It is a page-turning read with a twist at the end, which was still fulfilling to read even though I'd already worked it out.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves their murder mysteries with a side of horror.


*I received an advance reader copy for free, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review*

Wow, where do I even start? *Wicked Jenny* had me completely hooked from the first page. I loved how fresh and original the story felt-it’s unlike anything I’ve read before. The writing was sharp and engaging and I felt like it was so easy to get lost in the story.

The characters were very well done. They felt real, with distinct personalities that made me care about what happened to them. The plot was perfectly paced... easy to follow but packed with enough twists to keep me on my toes.

What really stood out to me was the overall concept. It felt so unique and different from the usual thrillers I read, which made it even harder to put down. Every chapter left me wanting more, and I ended up devouring it in just a couple of sittings.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, gripping read with characters you’ll root for and a story that keeps surprising you, I can’t recommend *Wicked Jenny* enough. It’s a fantastic book, and Matt Hilton absolutely nailed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the advanced reader copy of this book!

Wicked Jenny is about a group of young lads involved in the attack and murder of two young girls, accusing an innocent vulnerable man of the crime who in shame commits suicide, and how all this comes back later to haunt these same lads as adults.
The plot is structured as a then-and-now dual narrative, a plot device increasingly common in mystery-thrillers and often overdone in my opinion, though in this instance the author Matt Hilton handles it well.
There's some convincing depictions of growing up in northern England in the late 1980s, and effective use of local folklore in the form of Jinny Greenteeth, a spectral figure which lurks in water to frighten naughty boys (and which may be seeking revenge on the grown-up boys).
It's a well-plotted narrative, with plenty of effective tension as the grown-up boys try to work out who or what has returned to terrorise (and even kill) them. The denouement is a bit weak, and stretches credibility a bit too much.
All in all, an enjoyable read.
Three and a half stars.

This was such a spooky read, I loved the paranormal elements mixed into the story, it kept it very intense for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I went into this book pretty blind, except knowing there was a timeline in the 80s and it was a horror-type novel. This is also a quicker read, coming in at about 250 pages according to Goodreads. I found the last 20% to be fast-paced and engaging, with a whodunnit that I didn’t guess ahead of time. However, the first part of the book fell flat to me and was at times boring. I did appreciate the whodunnit and paranormal aspects that the author was going for, but there was what seemed to be a large investment for that payout.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy reading this as much as I hoped. Personally,I felt that it was more YA horror than a good old horror story.I could see that science was being used to try to explain what was happening but I think it would have been better with more horror fiction than science fact.
The book was easy to read however at times the storyline did come across a ittle slow and boring . I also felt that the development of the characters was lacking in some areas .
Normaly, I do not like the switching of decades within a story but this seemed to work in this instance.
I feel that I may have been quite critical of the book but that was my take on it, I can understand that others may feel differently about it. therefore I will not publish this review on social media

2.5⭐️s

My childhood friends and I did a whole lot less chucking of things at one another and blowing into frog’s asses than this group. That much I know. Maybe we were doing it wrong. Who knows?

I love a good “throw a mystic evil into a group of childhood friends, watch hell break loose, and then bring them back together as adults to battle the same mystic evil” tale, but this one just wasn’t for me. This boys will be boys story felt adolescent and fatuous, and I couldn’t connect with the writing style or the characters. They all felt very two dimensional to me, and I didn’t care what happened to any of them.

Thank you NetGalley and to Severn House for the ARC, and for allowing me the opportunity to provide an honest review, but this author and I don’t move on the same wavelength.

Thank you to NetGalley & Severn House for the advanced copy of Wicked Jenny to read & review.

Wowzers, this book was not what I expected at all and far surpassed my expectations based on previous experiences of this author.

The blend of supernatural vibes, with a thrilling and wild ride throughout left me wondering where this story would end.

Each character was expanded upon enough to make us root for them and feel an attachment to them during the story, which definitely helped with the plot.

Having the chapters from different character perspectives was a nice touch. It allowed the book to move forward quicker, but without missing key parts of the story.

I was really pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this one, and I only deducted a star because I did guess the ending so it didn't have that much shock value to me!

On the whole though Wicked Jenny was a really good book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a thrilling, supernatural vibe.

This is my second book by this, most prolific, author. He usually writes in series and although I still haven't managed to sneak in any of his series books onto my "read" shelf, I do now have a few languishing on my tblt (to be listened to) waiting their turn.
So... back in 1988 we first meet 13 year old Andy Miller and his four friends - Brian, Johnny, Gavin and Carl - as they are mucking around playing in a place locally knows as the frog ponds (you'll see why in nasty (imo unnecessarily graphic detail). There they come across classmate Melanie and her sister Poppy, exchange some banter, and then the two groups go their separate ways. Shortly after that meeting, Melanie is dead and Poppy severely injured. There is also, in the vicinity another older boy who is related to one of Andy's friends and the boys decide that, despite this, they need to tell the Police about his presence. Long story short, he is arrested but sadly kills himself whilst on remand. The case, however, is closed.
Meanwhile, back in the present and Carl's body is found at the Frog Pond, close to where Melanie died. This has a devastating effect on the four remaining friends and their lives start to unravel, beginning with them seeing things. It appears they are all being targeted. They come together to mourn their friend and all realise that they are going through similar things. Coming to the conclusion that it must be either Poppy taking revenge for her sister, Melanie back from the dead, or Ginny Greenteeth, a local legend...
Where I did enjoy this book, and at no point ever contemplated putting it down, it wasn't really anything new that hasn't been done before. I can't really go into much detail without spoiling things but if you read prolifically in this genre you will recognise much of what happens. Not this it wasn't well plotted and entertaining, it just didn't leave me with the satisfied feeling that I prefer when I turn the last page. The story was well plotted and executed, acted out by credible characters, with little waffle or padding so it got on with itself very well. All things I love about a book. It wasn't however scary or tense for me which I think would have added to the spark it was lacking.
All that said, it did give me respite from life which is a big deal to me and was well written enough not to put me off the author in the future. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Wicked Jenny is quite the ride! At first, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this book, but as all the pieces began to come together, I understood what the author was aiming for. By the end, I found myself on the edge of my seat. I appreciated the urban legend and paranormal elements, and Matt Hilton has a real talent for vividly describing scenes!
3.5⭐
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

Okay book peeps!!! This one had a twist I did not see coming!! One of those pure “whoa…” moments!! I feel like I should have seen it coming, but I definitely didn’t! 🙌

Definitely some witchy-like vibes with this one!! Check it out or Wicked Jenny will get ya!! 👀

Thank you to NetGalley, Severn House, and Matt Hilton for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for my honest review! ❤️

This was a pretty good supernatural horror. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it in the beginning. The story starts off when these boys are young and acting like a bunch of punks. They use some British slang and I didn’t know what the heck they were talking about sometimes. Eventually, the story got more interesting and parts of it really creeped me out. I loved the supernatural elements and the unsettling atmosphere. It was so interesting to read about the lore of Wicked Jenny, who I later realized is a real figure in English folklore.

The story is told in the past and present timelines. I thought the events that take place in the present were more interesting than what happens in the past. The parts that took place in the past kind of made the story drag for me.

I liked the mystery, and there’s a twist that I didn’t really see coming, so that was cool. I liked the ending.

I would recommend this book to fans of supernatural horror.

3.5⭐️

My thanks to NetGalley and Severn House Publishers for the ARC of "Wicked Jenny" in exchange for an honest review.
Grim, dark and horrific, hardly anyone escapes this book unscathed. And tragically more than few don't escape at all.
Four men, now grown into middle age become haunted and tormented by a terrible, guilty secret dating back to their childhood in 1988. It's possible they wrongfully accused another boy as the killer of a young girl and permanent maiming of her stepsister,, leading to the boy's suicide in jail. And the 'haunted' part of it these woeful events might have turned literal - is it a legendary tall tale wraith of their young nightmares that's making frightening appearances to them? Or is it actually that surviving stepsister who's come back to stalk them? To add to their increasing anxiety, one of their original group has been found brutally murdered.....by someone all too real.
Author Matt Hilton skillfully turns up the mounting dread as the two parallel threats, (both supernatural and corporeal) head for a surprising, blood soaked collision. But don't expect to find anyone (other than the original victims) to sympathize with......the steady pile up of horror and death stays undiluted. to the very end., with a final moment that's both satisfying and grotesquely sad at the same time.
Here's one that you'd want to keep more than the reading light on while it sucks you in.

I tried with this one because it seemed like something I would love. And in theory, yes. It had some of my fave elements - dual timeline, the 80s, potential unreliable narrators, or at least memories. But none of it ended up working for me because it was so painfully slow and boring. I love a slow burn, but this was not that. The characters were all so similar that it was hard to keep them straight at times.