Deadfall Mall

This book is definitely full of suspense and tension, the mystery and creepiness kept me hooked throughout.

This book has really creepy premise with a setting in an empty mall, a group of people who are there for their evening walks, and a couple of ghost hunters who believe the place is supernaturally deadly. Plus it takes place on Halloween.

When all of these people find themselves unable to leave, they quickly begin to realise that something is keeping them there for a reason and the bodies will start piling up.

Whatever is in there with them uses their greatest fears against them in order to pick them off one by one. Characters will see or hear things that only they can see or hear, leading them to their deaths.

This novel has a lot of great things going for it. The atmospheric setting and intentions of the things lurking there are all crafted really well and makes for a fun, tension filled narrative.

I thought the characters were a bit bland though. They would say or do things that didn't seem to be in character and sometimes they'd have arguments only to let them go with no seeming reason behind it. They didn't feel authentic to me and the conversations seemed stilted at times.

However there's a lot of scares to be had here and there's a lot more good than negatives. And even though there are many deaths, none of them are too bloody or extreme in their descriptions so this book would appeal to both adults and teenage readers. I would definitely recommend it.

3.5 stars

This was a super fun horror. I loved the setting of an abandoned mall. It reminds me of a creepy local mall in my town. The atmosphere was creepy, and I enjoyed most of the characters. The writing was done well and kept me fully engaged. I hope to see more by Nohe in the future.

Thirteen People find themselves locked in the Deadfall Mall on October 31, 2024, when strange things start to happen. When murders start to happen, they struggle to survive hoping that they will get to be the ones that the mall won’t take. But is it the mall that evil or the people stuck inside?

“Deadfall Mall” by Michael Nohe is a fun spooky haunted mall story. I really liked that it wasn’t over complicated; people in the mall, these people have a history of bad deeds, strange supernatural stuff happen, etc. it reminds me of clue but supernatural and spooky… and in a mall. I really liked the book, 4 out of 5 stars.

WOAH!! Excuse me while my adrenaline is pumping as I am writing this review. This book was a wild ride, the perfect mix of Stephen King’s 1408 meets Zombieland meets Creepshow. If you’re a fan of any of those please read Deadfall Mall!!
This started out as a slow burn, really gets into detail with the character development. There are a ton of main characters, I had to write the names down and refer to it as a cheat sheet as I read a long. The author goes into extreme delicate details of describing the creepy atmosphere of the mall. He really wanted the reader to feel as if you are actually there and was successful at doing so! This one truly freaked me out and I loved every minute of it!
I really appreciated the chapter titles too! Each chapter had a title which is rare now a days and rather fun to read the title before diving into the chapter. Chapters were pretty short and straight to the point. I seriously cannot wait to share this book with others.
This would’ve been a 5 star review however, I am disappointed in the cover! I was telling my husband who is a horror artist, and he came up with some amazing ideas…possible fan art in the near future! If I was browsing a table of horror/thrillers at a bookshop and saw this book SADLY I would not buy it. It is very cheesy and does not give the book the justice it truly deserves! It’s true people do judge books by its cover.
THANK YOU NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and a special thanks to author Michael Nohe for this brilliant book!

This was a good suspenseful book, although there were times when it reminded me of a certain George Romero movie classic that takes place in an abandoned mall and another Stephen King book that also happens to have a mall... The ending was awesome. I thought the plot was well organized and some of the characters were unlikeable, as they were supposed to be. A good suspense story, I don't know if I'd call it horror. I read it in one sitting.

My thanks to BooksGoSocial and Netgalley for this book.

A quick, fun and suspenseful Halloween read. Over a dozen of the small town Minnesota locals are trapped in the rundown, to-be razed mall when weird stuff starts happening; someone, or something, seems to be messing with them. Starting with a slow burn to get introductions out of the way, you’re then propelled into the chaos of what’s wrong with the mall. The characters are great and a good mix of lovable, likable, and love to hate. This was very well written and organized considering how many main characters there are. I enjoyed experiencing the character development they went through in such a short timespan and I understand characters may not always be as fleshed out in shorter novels. Felt like a mix of Stephen King and George A Romero.

Strangers in an abandoned mall, most trying to get in their daily exercise out of the cold weather and two ghost hunters. Soon they discover they are not the only ones in the mall and a deadly game of cat and mouse plays out.
I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day. I kept turning page after page desperate to find out what happens next. It’s creepy and thrilling and will keep you addicted. The ending was a good one and I liked how it all came together.

Deadfall Mall was an unusual read. It takes place in the town of Deadfall, Minnesota in an empty mall that is due to be demolished and is open for walkers. The story opens with Detective Lincoln and Detective Anders interviewing two teenagers, Ron Pately and Seneca Robbins who were ghost hunters and Delbert and Doris Ray, seniors who always walk the mall. The four had an unusual story to tell of nine people who killed themselves and the strange things that happened while there.

The first person to die was Barney Phifer, a security guard. Carter Mountford, a wealthy developer who was in a wheelchair and his nurse aide, Kelvin Waters were the second and third persons to die. Ford, a successful retail broker and his wife, Jeanette, sold residential real estate, Humphrey. Stephan, a retired structural engineer, and wife Stephanie a retired nurse, Hawkins. Brett, who is buying out his partner at a low cost, and his wife Kandi Tamila who is found barely alive. Johnny Knudsen, Brett's partner who died in the parking lot.

The story has so many twists and turns and unusual happenings that I will leave it to the reader to enjoy to the surprising and interesting ending and solution.

Once into the book it was hard to put down. I enjoyed it very much.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher (didn't find it) for this ARC.

I love everything haunted and this also had that hint of like saw/ final destination/ 2000s horror film vibe! The chapters are really short so of course I kept convincing myself I'd stop after "one more" which didn't happen and I read the book in an afternoon. It's a really easy read, it holds your attention fron the start and has you wondering the whole way through. I also loved it was set in modern times, after covid and touched on the after effects and changes caused by covid which enabled this whole story to take place. The characters were individual and memorable, the twists...... ooft!! Yeah, awesome fun, lite ghost story (if that makes sense)

As a fellow Minnesotan, I picked the book up for that reason, and I couldn't put it back down because I fell in love with it! Equally creepy, dread-inducing, horrific and fun, it was definitely a fantastic book! Going to be searching for more from this author soon!

I enjoyed this book. It’s funny how it was able to stick with me. I started reading this book Back in Oct, got away from reading for quite some time yet I still had this book with me when I picked it back up to finish it.

Thank you to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for a digital review copy of "Deadfall Mall" in exchange for my honest and voluntary review.

It's Halloween and a group of mall walkers and two spirit hunters end up trapped in a dying and decaying mall in Deadfall, Minnesota. What follows is a wild ride of spooky goings on tapping into common fears leading ultimately to plenty of deaths.

This story started out as a slow burn with plenty of descriptions of the mall especially and introduces us to our core group of characters. Nohe takes the time to build the atmosphere with a creeping dread that you know something bad is going to happen but what shape will it take?!

What we then get is a mix of 'Creepshow', Point Horror and a little 'And Then There Were None'. Despite being set in the very near future (2024) this book read like a classic 90s new adult/YA horror but with older/elderly adults instead of clueless teens. Don't get me wrong, the adults are entirely clueless in this as well but it's great to see a classic horror setting of a mall being utilised with an older character age set.

As a teen in the 90s I felt right at home in the setting, identifying with the glory days of mall culture and understanding the feelings being evoked seeing it at the end of its life. I would say the mall here is as much a character as our human contingent and in many ways had more life given to it than the rest of the group. In fact I would say that's the only real downside for this book. Aside of a couple of them (mainly Del and Doris) we don't really get enough to feel connected to many of the group, however, it also didn't feel like too much of a detraction because of the nature of the story and the constant action that we get from around the 40% mark.

I had picked this book up on a whim after reading the description which made it seem like it might read like a more adult Point Horror and when I finished I immediately said to myself "well I really enjoyed that". To me, what more can you ask for really?! It's a thoroughly entertaining, easy reading paranormal horror that will appeal to teens and adults alike and I highly recommend it, especially for next year's spooky season reading.

This book isn't deep. It doesn't develop the characters appreciably. But it's fun.
There are several people at the mall, right before it's supposed to close, who get trapped when the doors won't open. Then we find out there are a couple of ghost hunters walking around because they believe that, following its pattern, the mall is going to kill people tonight.
What follows is fairly predictable but interesting enough that I put aside everything else I was doing to find out what happened. If you want a fun ghost story/slasher, you will probably enjoy this.
Thanks to NetGalley

November 1, 2024, Deadfall MN. Ron and Seneca, as well as Del and Doris are being interviewed by the police. They were all at a deserted mall the night before (Del and Doris, seniors going to a walk out of the elements, and Ron and Seneca attempting to complete a paranormal investigation before the mall is demolished). They weren't alone at the mall that fateful night, though, but these 4 are the only survivors; nine bodies were found and all had appeared to commit suicide. Doris and Del tell the police they were unable to leave due to the doors locking as they entered the mall. Ron tells the police that it was the mall that killed all those people. What actually happened in Deadfall Mall on Halloween?

I loved this read. It kept me hooked from the first chapter. When the action picks up, it picks up quick. The chapters are shorter, which I like in a book like this. You learn just enough about the characters and the setting description gives off a creepy vibe from the get-go. It's creepy, it's haunting, it's not terrifying to the point where I couldn't sleep but it's enough to make it so I never walk an abandon mall haha!

I would definitely recommend this book for a quick read with a lot of creep-factor. I enjoyed the writing style. I would love to read more by this author.

***** I have received and read an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for giving my honest feedback. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.*****

An empty mall is always a great setting, so I was immediately drawn to this book.
Add to the empty mall a locked room scenario and I was hooked.

Just the right amount of tension and creepiness to really enjoy this gem of a book.

My only complaint is that the characters could have been written to have a little bit more depth to them.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to both teenagers and adults who like mysteries and horror.

I love the use of people going to a haunted location and things going wrong. This story worked with everything that I was looking for and had a great concept overall. I really felt for the characters and thought it worked in this world. Michael Nohe has a great writing style and I’m glad I got to read this.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Michael Nohe for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Deadfall Mall. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

On the evening of October 31, 2024, thirteen people were in the Deadfall Mall, a soon-to-be-razed mall near the town of Deadfall, Minnesota.

Ten were out for an early evening walk in the warm and secure but rundown mall. Two were self-proclaimed ghost hunters on a mission. The last was the mall’s security guard. Most would never leave the mall—alive. The following morning, answering a 911 call, the police recovered nine bodies. What happened in the mall that evening?

Evil isn’t always what or where you expect it to be.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I love spooky books, so I was excited to check it out. I really loved it! I thought the plot was really interesting. A few malls have closed over the years, so it’s sad to see the downfall of malls. I loved the suspense and closed in atmosphere of the mall. I definitely want to check out other books by this author.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys spooky books!

"And please, dear God, I hope whoever wrote Supernatural turns out to be right for once."

3.5 rounded up to a 4.

While it's not exactly the pinnacle of literature, Deadfall Mall is just plain fun horror. What it lacks in complexity it makes up for in conceptual creativity, this book is a well-paced read that is unputdownable from one chapter to the next. This is one of those 'I'll just squeeze in one more chapter before bed, okay maybe one more, okay may one more' types of books.

Deadfall Mall is practically made for anyone who loves urban exploration videos of dead malls. When we think of haunted spaces, it's always old houses, or abandoned castles, or spooky islands. We never consider that newer innovations can have their own form of hauntings, or how those hauntings can be used against us. Nohe is incredibly creative with how this mall comes to life, and it'll make you a little nervous the next time you step foot in your own local mall - let me tell you, you'll never look at those storefront security gates again.

What I loved most about this book was that for so long, it looked to be an eye-rolling, cliche 'we built a mall on top of an Indigenous burial ground' story, but that's not what it winds up being. Really, Deadfall Mall is less of a ghost story than it is a creature feature, and the ending of this book has so many echoes of The Fall of the House of Usher, which was an absolute treat. While the epilogue wasn't terribly engrossing, I would absolutely read more from Nohe about this particular horror.

Where this book fell short for me however was, unfortunately, largely in the writing itself. Nohe's has a very overly descriptive writing style, but less in a visually imaginative way, and more in a 'here are the exact dimensions of every single room the characters ever stand in.' That, combined with clunky and inauthentic dialogue made some parts of Deadfall Mall just plain hard to read. Hip, young teens who speak entirely in slang but also love to use the word 'inauspicious' multiple times per monologue? It was disjointed and weird.

On top of that, I think there were one, too many characters in this book, and two, not a single one of them is memorable. I kept getting Brett and Ford confused because they're both just terrible old white men who have screwed people over, and it doesn't really matter anyways, because we go into Deadfall Mall knowing exactly what happens to them. There needed to be far fewer lead characters, and of those lead characters, there needed to be more positive attributes or anything at all that would make us care about them. Sure, every horror movie knocks off two or three assholes who deserve it, but by the time you get to the ninth asshole who deserves it, you get a little bored.

I will say, though, that it was a nice surprise to have so many of the Deadfall Mall being older adults. The oldest horror movie characters you ever see are usually couples or parents in their 40s, so having multiple main characters being over 60 was a nice change of pace!

All in all, I think Deadfall Mall could easily be 5 stars, if it was made as movie. Nohe's writing style reads more like a script treatment than as a solid book, and with a really compelling plot, there's a ton of potential for the future of Deadfall Mall. Really fun read, if you're a 'classic formula' horror fan!

**Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book!

This had a compelling premise with interesting characters and a good bit of horror. If you're interested in reading something that breaks the standard tropes, this is going to be the perfect fit for you