Obsessed! Obsessed, obsessed, obsessed.
I love books about books, bookshops, writing retreats, anything like that. So the premise of this one was right up my street.
The storyline is so much fun, like Cluedo but better! The characters are intentionally big, almost caricature like. This is an excellently written whodunnit and I was genuinely sad to finish it

Thanks to Netgallery and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC.

This was a banger of a book, I heard great things about this book and was not disappointed. This was like if Then There Were None was a horror book. You are curious as to why these seven authors have been chosen by Mortimer in his will which once the game begins you understand it's not a good thing as they have had crossed him in some way, the seeming outlier is Melanie who was not a published author and only had a passing meeting with the late author. As you read the story you find more out and see that maybe the things their are accused of might have some basis. This was so good a such a brilliant, scary ride, definitely will be looking forward to this author's next offering.

This was such a fun and scary read, and I loved every minute of the ride. It's a great addition to the horror story section of any book collection.

In this book we meet a group of characters who have been invited to the home of the recently deceased writer Mortimer Queen. He has a huge fan base amongst his readers, but amongst other writers in the horror genre he is known to be a not very nice person, who can get away with it because of his status as a well loved author.

The reason for the meeting at his home is for the reading of his will. Most attendees don't know why they are there, because, for reasons that will become known throughout the book, all of the characters have had a run-in with Mortimer that would surely make them unworthy of mention in his will.

It turns out, they are to take place in a game. They are to go from room to room within the house and solve a puzzle. If they solve the puzzle before the time runs out they can move onto the next room. If they don't, one of them will pay for this with their lives. Will anyone survive to the end?

This is a fantastic horror story that keeps you turning pages. Each room and each puzzle has mixed results that keeps you reading. There is some gory detail involved,, so if you are not into that then this book may not be for you.

I love that there are two stories in one, in a way. The main story with the characters meeting and moving around the rooms, and then the chapters involving each of the characters back stories and how they came to know Mortimer Queen. It's a thrilling ride, and the end had my chin bouncing on the floor. Highly recommend.

I love locked room tropes in books and this just came through. While we didn't see them die we got to follow what each one did to Mallory before he passed away and the twists and turns was impeccable.

I was addicted to the story needing to know what was going to happen and just struggled to put the book down. Such a great book.

I enjoyed some elements of this, the creepy vibes were spot on but I found it difficult to keep track of who was who and doing what as I didn't read it in one sitting - if I had done maybe I would have had an easier time reading it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Publishers for this ARC.

This book unfortunately wasn;t for me, but thank you for the opportunity to read this

Struggled a bit with this one. I did enjoy the eeriness of the story but I got confused with how many characters there was. Maybe I wasn't in the right mindset for this book

The premise of this was promising but it didn’t live up to the expectations I had of it. I didn’t really feel like any of the characters had any redeeming qualities and I guess that is the whole point of Mortimers hatred of them but I felt like the endgame was pretty much expected and there was no real sense of shock by the end of the book.

I wanted to love it. I feel like it could have been such a neat horror with a few tweaks. It just felt a bit dragged out.

Thank you for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

I saw a horror blogger raving about out this one on social media, so I was keen to read it - thankfully I was granted access to a review copy. Here we follow a group of seemingly unconnected authors, who are invited to the reading of famed horror author, Montgomery Queen’s last will. Cue a creepy house, an unsettling atmosphere, guests with questionable morals and motives, and dodgy staff.

I did struggle to get into this one as the guests arrive at the manor - but at the 20% make, the story started to get going properly, and it had me hooked. There are some gruesome bits in here, and it’s the kind of read where you need to suspend reality and just accept what’s happening in the story as the dwindling guests figure out why they’re all at the house, and what they have in common. Whilst it had a killer of premise, it didn’t really deliver fully for me.

Thanks to NetGalley, the team at Sourcebooks, and the author for the opportunity to read this review copy.

The beginning of this book felt similar to many other books of this type; a group of people called to a will reading with seemingly no reason as to why they would be chosen.

But then this devolved into more of an escape room style thriller with high stakes and riddles to solve with deadly consequences for failure.

The characters are all pretty despicable. Though I did have a bit of a soft spot for Buck and his small town Texan Wiles.

Everyone has a reason for being chosen to face this house of horrors, and I loved that everyone was unreliable in the roles they played, and the book makes you question each and every one of them at every turn.

Overall, I enjoyed this different take on the haunted house genre.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book via Netgalley

A group of writers are invited to the reading of the will of legendary horror author Mortimer Queen. Queen passed away recently & the group find themselves assembling at his eerie manor house. Each of the guests were linked to Queen in some way & are a beneficiary in his will, but first they have to play a game. Each room in the house contains a riddle, & the group must solve the riddle, before progressing onto the next room. If they fail to solve the riddle in time, one of them will pay the price until there is only one left.

This had an intriguing macabre & creepy feel to it with a cast made up of a veritable motley crew of characters hiding terrible secrets. As the 'game' progresses each one starts to wonder just how far they can trust their fellow players. Not just a straightforward horror, it also has a supernatural aspect to it & the ending is very Edgar Allan Poe! Gruesomely entertaining. 3.75 stars (rounded up)

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Sourcebooks UK/Poisoned Pen Press, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

I really enjoyed this book it’s twisty and cool and really keeps you guessing! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

Unfortunately, I came away disappointed from 'How To Survive a Horror Story'. The story felt overwritten and too long for the limited depth of its characters and plot. Despite the intriguing premise, it just didn’t grab me the way I’d hoped.

It’s a classic setup: a locked-room, closed-circle mystery in an isolated setting - essentially And Then There Were None with a horror twist, but it didn’t quite deliver on that promise.

It reminded me of Ande Pliego’s You Are Fatally Invited - a similar premisebut crime mystery rather than horror. Like that book, this one lacked the oomph, character depth, and a compelling narrative voice needed to make it truly shine.

I seem to be in the minority, judging by other reviews, and I genuinely wish I had loved it as much as I hoped, based on the premise.

The premise on this one was so interesting, I went into this one wanting so badly to love it and be thoroughly spooked and creeped out.

However the execution of this left a lot to be desired, I found the ending coming from the first chapter so I wasn’t surprised by the ‘Twist’
Also I found the multiple POVs too much. 7 just got confusing while the author did a okay job of giving them all their own voice I just feel like it was too many to get my head around and was kind of overwhelming.


Book gave Saw meets Pretty Little Liars (especially the season where they were kept in the Dolls House)

thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review! <3

’Monsters deserve to die the way they were born: unredeemable’

How to Survive a Horror Story by Mallory Arnold is a haunted house horror meets Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, following seven horror authors as they visit the manor of esteemed, mysterious, and recently deceased fellow author Mortimer Queen to receive the ‘gifts’ he has left them in his will.

I went into this with such high hopes, as I am a massive fan of whodunnits of any kind, and particularly liked that this one followed horror authors, as I of course adore the genre. Unfortunately, while How to Survive a Horror Story had some good moments, I found the overall story to be very lacklustre, made worse by an incredibly disappointing and nonsensical ending.

While the writing was good, particularly for a debut, I found the characters to be a little too cliche and one-dimensional for my liking, which made it hard to root for them in this escape-room-esque situation. The characters that did standout to me, Buck and Crystal, had the most personality and depth out of all of them, but even they were pretty vapid overall. The multiple POV’s helped keep the plot moving forward, but often times too quickly, meaning the horrors the characters were facing in each room of the house fell flat. There was nothing that really distinguished each rooms theme, and they ended up all blending together in my mind which made for quite boring reading.

I did enjoy the unique character deaths, which were mostly memorable and quite gory, with some really creative moments here and there reminiscent of the Saw franchise.

The biggest let down for me was the ending, which nearly killed my entire experience reading the book. The way in which one of the characters did a completely 180 on their personality and sided with Mortimer, a clearly terrible human being, made no sense whatsoever in terms of the characters personality, nor the story and what they had learnt about Mortimer throughout the plot. I understand having a ‘twist ending’ (and I say this very loosely), but that twist needs to not only make sense, but have had some clear lead-up throughout the book. This was not one of those twists, and left me feeling irritated and frustrated.

Overall, How to Survive a Horror Story gets 3/5 stars. Not a bad debut, but I still felt disappointed after finishing it.

This reminded me of a Knives Out, Saltburn, Ready or Not kind of story and that really intrigued me initially.

Each character was interesting and engaging in their own way.

However...

Melanie was an interesting one though. I felt that each of the other characters had a proper reason to be their and had a thorough character arc that was seen through. Melanie was very much a 'why are you even here' type of character. I understand that this may have been the main draw for her and as a reader we are supposed to be asking that question but I'm still asking it after finishing the book. And then on top of that, she takes a turn and her character and morals change completely, with little to know explanation, and it doesn't feel worth what she gets in the end.

I would have liked this to play out a little differently.

I thought the writing was good enough for me to keep reading but it was the other characters like Scott, Buck, Crystal, and Winnie.

The manor was an intrigued but it would have been nice to understand it better.

BTW, I liked Buck and I wanted them to be together.

This book was a spine-tingling thrill ride, hands down the best “monster house” mystery I’ve ever read. Mortimer Queen doesn’t just haunt the pages, he owns them, right down to the jaw dropping final gotcha that left me reeling.

From the very first page, I was hooked. Seven strangers summoned to a will reading… but this is no inheritance tale, it’s a trap. Each character’s POV offers eerie glimpses into their past, their guilt, their secrets, and the reasons they might’ve been chosen. And let me tell you, Mortimer had his reasons, cold, calculated, and utterly brilliant.

Mallory Arnold masterfully weaves tension, dread, and mystery into every chapter. You feel the fear creeping up your spine, the unease tightening in your chest, and just when you think you’ve figured it out, bam. You're wrong.

This isn’t a one and done read. It's the kind of book you’ll return to again, chasing missed clues and second guessing everything you thought you knew. With multi-POV narration that never feels overwhelming, each thread leads you deeper into Mortimer’s twisted game.

A chilling, clever, and completely addictive read. Highly, highly recommended, especially if you like your mysteries dark, your mansions cursed, and your villains just a little too smart.

Seven authors are invited to the reading of the legendary Mortimer Queen. But when they arrive, they discover that they are actually part of deadly game, full of riddles and a hungry house.

I enjoyed the premise of this book and a change to the usual horror troupe of a haunted house. Initially the characters were all pretty much unlikeable but as time went on I was questioning who was the most unlikeable…the authors or Mortimer Queen. The story was told through multiple POV with the insertion of short stories told by Queen. While reading, it was hard to know who was telling the truth.
I loved the fact that the house was its own character. It led to some eerily tense and sometimes gory scenes. The riddles in each room and how the house might deliver any consequences kept me intrigued.
However, I did feel at times the story was a little drawn out and the ending fell a bit flat because I don’t think it was nearly tied up.

I really tried with this. Honestly I did. But, frankly, it sucked. Horrible characters and some quite terrible writing, mixed with dozens of inconsistencies and sloppy editing. A shame, because the premise was fun, but I just hated it.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the review copy!

I had seen this book floating around on socials and thought I would give it a go. While the idea is great the execution of it is less so which was disappointing. I wanted to love it but it just didn’t do anything for me.