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We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix – Review

A new novel of supernatural horror (and pop culture) from the author of Horrorstor, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, and Paperbacks from Hell.

In the 1990s, heavy metal band Dürt Würk was poised for breakout success — but then lead singer Terry Hunt embarked on a solo career and rocketed to stardom as Koffin, leaving his fellow bandmates to rot in rural Pennsylvania.

Two decades later, former guitarist Kris Pulaski works as the night manager of a Best Western – she’s tired, broke, and unhappy. Everything changes when she discovers a shocking secret from her heavy metal past: Turns out that Terry’s meteoric rise to success may have come at the price of Kris’s very soul.

This revelation prompts Kris to hit the road, reunite with the rest of her bandmates, and confront the man who ruined her life. It’s a journey that will take her from the Pennsylvania rust belt to a Satanic rehab center and finally to a Las Vegas music festival that’s darker than any Mordor Tolkien could imagine. A furious power ballad about never giving up, even in the face of overwhelming odds, We Sold Our Souls is an epic journey into the heart of a conspiracy-crazed, paranoid country that seems to have lost its very soul…where only a girl with a guitar can save us all.

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Thank you so much to Netgalley for the copy of this book in exchange for a review! I was immediately interested in the novel because of the author and the cover of the paperback that looks just like a cover of Rolling Stone. I grew up on a mix of 80s hair bands, metal, and grunge that turned me into the little weirdo that I am today. So, of course I would be instantly attracted to the story of Kris and Dürt Würk. Women in music have always been so inspiring to me, because they are stronger than any man in their situation. They have to face things that the opposite sex could never dream of. You can look at a woman in a band and know that she fought tooth and nail to rock, and Kris is no exception.

We start out the novel as the band has already fizzled out, and Kris is living in the aftermath. She’s working a dead end job and is content to live in her dead mother’s house, wasting away, until she sees a billboard for her former frontman, Terry, and finds out that his new band, Koffin, is coming back for one last hurrah. This lights a fire under her ass, and she sets about finding the other members of the band to unite them once and for all against the man who broke them apart. This endeavor turns sideways quicker than anticipated. Kris finds their bassist and discovers that he is coming apart at the seams. He tells her something happened the night that they signed the rights to the band away, and lays a conspiracy in front of Kris. She walks away to interrogate the other members of the band, only to fall deeper and deeper into what she thought was a made up mythology to their lost album, Troglodyte.

She shows her mettle and then some, escaping dire straights and keeping her faith in only herself and her music. The words that poured from her soul a lifetime ago points her way forward, and shows her how to make her way out of this complacency she has been lulled into. She realizes that her soul has been taken from her, but she isn’t the only one. Everyone around her is slowly being sucked dry by beings who are never satiated, and they are all slaves to the wheel of Black Iron Mountain. Some want fame, some want a new iPhone, and some just want out. It’s a narrative not too far from the truth of reality as so many of us pack up our hopes and dreams to be lead into the daily grind for a dollar and never come up for air again.

I like that this is a story of hope. Kris lost her soul, her dreams, her friends, and the life she wanted, but she managed to pull herself out of the depths and find a new path to tread. The story calls on you to believe in yourself and your own strength. It was creepy in its own way, but definitely not the devil worshiping horror story I was expecting from the curious title. It was also full of delightful musical references that any metal fan will love, and the original lyrics cooked up for Troglodyte’s track list are so vivid I could almost hear them in my head. At any rate, this was a fun, imaginative read. Grady has done it again!

4/5 stars

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After The Fire by Will Hill – Review

Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences.

But there are lies behind Father John’s words. Outside, there are different truths.

Then came the fire.

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Thank you so much to Edelweiss for this ARC! I, much like Will Hill, have been interested in cult phenomena from a young age. I’m not sure if any have really been prominent in media or in my area since I’ve been born, but there are enough references in pop culture, like ‘don’t drink the Kool-Aid’, that has inflamed my imagination. Just the thought that one person could control so many others who had their own free will and were of sound mind is almost unfathomable. In the past couple of years I’ve dived into books and movies that explore this; most on Jonestown. I learned from the acknowledgements in the back of the book that this tale was born from the Waco siege, which I am making a point to look up after I post this review. I was excited to let myself fall into a new narrative, and it did not let me down.

The way this book was set up felt very effective for me. It is told in moments After the fire and Before the fire, and the majority of the Before moments are actually our protagonist telling her therapist and an FBI agent about the compound, her life there, and most importantly, its final days. These transitions flow seamlessly, and by the end there is no stone left unturned. We are given glimpses of the base and the Legion of the Lord by Moonbeam, one of the survivors from the fire. She was presumably taken to an asylum after her ordeal with some of the other children who survived to help her process what had happened to her and to make sure that she was ready for life on the outside. She is assigned to Doctor Hernandez, a kind man who makes it known in ever session how safe and brave she is.

Moonbeam, which is her real name, is at first reluctant to share anything with this outsider. The voice of the Legion’s leader, Father John, still rings in her head and tells her that she is a Heretic and False for even thinking of letting her guard down for this man. This only grows worse when Agent Carlyle steps in, reminding Moonbeam of every bit of poison she had been filled with to believe about the government. Little by little, Moonbeam begins to trust the two men and what starts out as a small trickle of information becomes a raging waterfall as her heart breaks in two from guilt. She is relieved to find out that some of her Brothers and Sisters survived, and is overjoyed to see them again in group therapy.

These children all exhibit different signs of grief and trauma. Luke, a boy with perhaps the deepest faith, begs for them all to stay on the True Path and not give anything up to these outsiders. Honey, of a similar mind like Moonbeam’s, wants the younger children to know that they were lied to and try to prepare them for growing up outside of the base. The smaller kids still spout the lines they were fed by Father John, but as time passes, become more like children again. Watching all of these kids in their recovery is amazing to see as we are regaled with the trials they have been faced with; from starvation to being locked in a metal box in the Texas sun for punishment.

Moonbeam is such an amazing character and I loved reading her story. There were so many moments that she had to go through that I know would have made me sink to my knees and just completely give up. Her connection to her mom made me feel incredibly close to her, and the conclusion of the book had me in tears. I think that this was a stunning undertaking, and you can clearly see all the research that Will Hill did to make this narrative as true as possible for cults everywhere and the victims who escape. I could not have asked for a better read.

5/5 stars

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Following by Jeffry W. Johnston – Review

Alden thinks he witnessed a murder, but when the dead girl turns up alive, he must figure out the truth in this chilling novel 

Alden likes to follow people. He’s not trying to be a creep, he just wants to be an investigator some day, and it’s good practice.

But spying on people comes with risks…like seeing popular Greg Matthews seemingly murder his girlfriend, Amy, behind the school.

But the facts aren’t adding up, especially because Amy turns up a few days later…alive. Now Alden has to figure what he could have seen… and what secrets Greg is hiding.

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Thank you so much to Edelweiss for my copy of this book! I love a good mystery, and the synopsis for this one had me super intrigued before I even read the first sentence. We are thrown into Alden’s world, and it is an unstable one. He had to watch his parents be gunned down as a child, and now is dedicated to following people around to try and prevent future tragedies from happening. His best friend, Charlie, asks him to stop, but when he sees the glimmering epitome of perfection that is Greg Matthes acting strangely, he decides to follow his gut and puts his amateur detective skills to the test once again.

Alden watches a scene unfold that he could never have imagined. Greg fights with his girlfriend, Amy, and the last visual that Alden can see of her is her body laying on the ground. Greg leaves with a backpack stained with blood, and Amy’s final cry still rings in Alden’s ears. He brings Charlie onto the case, and the two of them work diligently to scrounge up more evidence. When Amy comes back to school on Monday alive and well, the duo are forced to call it quits. Alden can’t stop the nagging voice in his head, and so he continues the fight and uncovers a plethora of secrets as the disguise that people he has known for years starts to slip off.

There are so many twists and turns in this that I honestly could not put it down. Once I thought I had figured out what was going on, the book did a 180 and suddenly I was being led down a different path. I also loved Alden so much. He was honest, brave, and dedicated. He had so much guilt for the death of his parents, and was trying to make amends for their blood on his hands. Protagonist aside, there were so many compelling characters with fantastic personalities; especially our potential villain, Greg, and the uber-religious Amy. I thought the ending was sublime, and I honestly never expected it and audibly gasped when the mystery was solved. This is such a quick, engrossing read, and would be perfect to binge on a summer’s day!

5/5 stars

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In The Hall With The Knife by Diana Peterfreund – Review

A murderer could be around every corner in this thrilling YA trilogy based on the board game CLUE! 

When a storm strikes at Blackbrook Academy, an elite prep school nestled in the woods of Maine, a motley crew of students—including Beth “Peacock” Picach, Orchid McKee, Vaughn Green, Sam “Mustard” Maestor, Finn Plum, and Scarlet Mistry—are left stranded on campus with their headmaster. Hours later, his body is found in the conservatory and it’s very clear his death was no accident. With this group of students who are all hiding something, nothing is as it seems, and everyone has a motive for murder. Fans of the CLUE board game and cult classic film will delight in Diana Peterfreund’s modern reimagining of the brand, its characters, and the dark, magnificent old mansion with secrets hidden within its walls.

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Thank you to Edelweiss for the ARC of this novel! Having grown up on not only 80s movies but also an avid lover of murder mysteries, my interest in Clue is really a no-brainer. The fact that the game has made its way through various fandoms and remakes to now become a YA series is just amazing to me. I was so excited to be accepted for it and to test my mettle as I attempted to sniff out the culprit of the crime. This task was no easy one; as we are introduced to a cast of characters who all have something to hide, and something to lose.

We see the names we know and love, but in such a creative and fun way. Some are last names like Green, others are nicknames like Mustard. They are all going to a boarding school of sorts in the frigid Maine winter. They vary in social status from a local boy on scholarship to a celebrity in hiding, and that rift causes even more distrust. There is an ice storm approaching, and most of the school’s inhabitants have been evacuated, but the few that stay are moved into the Tudor House; the oldest building on the grounds that is on a hill and less likely to get flooded. Once there, our color-coded friends divvy up rooms and buckle down for an undetermined stay.

In the morning, damage is discovered, and in the effort to clean up the mess before the matron of the house, Mrs. White, finds out and is even more distraught than she already is, a body is found. More specifically, the body of Mr. Boddy, the headmaster. Theories fly rampant: anything from suicide to a looter in the night. Signs quickly begin to point to a murder, and fingers start pointing from all sides. We learn more and more about these characters through this process, and I can honestly say I did not suspect the true culprit until I was about 75% done with the novel. I loved the open ending, and I can’t wait to see where these mysteries go from here. It’s going to be such a fun series if this one is any indication!

5/5 stars

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The Undoing of Thistle Tate by Katelyn Detweiler – Review

Famous teen author Thistle Tate struggles to keep her biggest secret: the real identity of the author of her bestselling books. 

Thistle Tate is a glittering wunderkind–only seventeen, and a bestselling author of the wildly successful Lemonade Skies series, with the highly anticipated final book due to publish next year. She has diehard fans across the globe, flashy tours, and steep advances. And now she’s finally started to date her best friend and next-door-neighbor, Liam, the only one who knows her deep dark secret: she’s not the real author of the Lemonade Skies books.

Thistle’s guilt about lying intensifies after she meets the surprisingly charming Oliver, who introduces her to his super-fan little sister–but how can she have friendships based on deception? All she wants is for this last book to be written so she can be done with the ruse for good.

Then with just two weeks left to deliver the manuscript to her agent and editor, a dramatic turn of events puts everything in jeopardy, and Thistle must grapple with her own identity. Is she a victim, a fraudster, or both? On top of that, Liam is increasingly jealous of Thistle’s budding friendship with Oliver–a friendship that leaves Thistle more than a little confused about her own heart.

As the book deadline looms closer, the stakes ever higher, a startling family truth comes to light, and it’s only a matter of time before something gives–and Thistle’s world becomes undone.

For fans of Rainbow Rowell and E. Lockhart, this YA is the perfect summer read for teen bookworms everywhere, with a love triangle, an insider’s depiction of the publishing world, and nonstop, page-turning action.

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Thank you so much to Edelweiss for this ARC! I saw this book being compared to Rainbow Rowell’s work, and I did not waste time to immerse myself in this intricate and honest world. It was a roller coaster from start to finish, with tension mounting from the very first page.

We are introduced to Thistle as she has just released the second book of her Lemonade Skies trilogy. She is a passionate, nerdy, and selfless girl with a huge secret: she is not the true author of her best-sellers. Her mother died when she was young and in a desperate attempt to make ends meet, her father grows tired of being rejected for his own world and submits his newest creation under Thistle’s name.

The idea itself came from Thistle, and she wanted nothing more than to make her dad happy, so she went along with it. She had no idea how the lie would strip so many childhood experiences and well-being away from her. She shared this secret with one other; her confidant and best friend, Liam. It seems like her dreams are coming true as the trilogy is coming to an end and her friendship with Liam is evolving into something more, but her hopes are dashed in one fell swoop after disaster strikes.

She turns to a sickly girl and her brother for solace and help as her world crashes down around her, but she finds out that she has what it takes inside of herself. It’s an uplifting coming of age story that urges you to remember that your worst moments are exactly that: moments. You can learn, grow, and change. And just like Thistle, your story is just beginning.

5/5 stars

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Resurrection Girls by Ava Morgyn – Review

Olivia Foster hasn’t felt alive since her little brother drowned in the backyard pool three years ago. Then Kara Hallas moves in across the street with her mother and grandmother, and Olivia is immediately drawn to these three generations of women. Kara is particularly intoxicating, so much so that Olivia not only comes to accept Kara’s morbid habit of writing to men on death row, she helps her do it. They sign their letters as the Resurrection Girls.

But as Kara’s friendship pulls Olivia out of the dark fog she’s been living in, Olivia realizes that a different kind of darkness taints the otherwise lively Hallas women—an impulse that is strange, magical, and possibly deadly. 

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Thanks so much to Edelweiss for the eARC of this book! I had expected a spooky read, but instead found a supernatural dissection of grief. It deals with very heavy subject matter in a respectful and real way; after reading the book I did some research on the author and found that she had lost one of her children, and she states in the afterword that she did not start this book as a victim of such loss, but she unfortunately found herself in its midst by the end. This is evident in the heart-wrenching truth you can feel from these characters. All shades of grief are represented here, and the journey to a place of well-being is not rushed or candy coated.

We are introduced to Olivia, who had lost her brother some three months prior. Despite the time that has passed, she and her family are prisoners to their sadness: she barely leaves her home, her father is always at work, and her mother is drugged out of her mind. Through the fog of her pain, Olivia sees a group of women moving in to the vacant house across from hers. She is automatically drawn to this grandmother, mother, and daughter, and does not waste time getting a closer look. She is greeted by first Sybil, the blind grandmother who claims to see her better than anyone else ever could, then Rhea, the charming and bright mother. The family feels off, but in an intriguing way. So when Kara, the daughter, seeks Olivia out for a walk together, she does not refuse.

Thus begins a friendship that changes something in Olivia. The more time she spends with Kara, the more alive she feels. She starts to talk about her brother, Robby, again and stands up to their parents as they continue to try and live in their stupor. She assists Kara as she writes letters to inmates at prisons far and wide, dubbing themselves the Resurrection Girls because they aspire to be a beacon of hope for these men with the promise of death looming in the distance. Kara ends up going too far, and Olivia breaks, causing her family to take a step back and remember that they did not die with Robby. A piece of them did, but they can let that piece go like a rotten appendage and grapple their way out of the darkness.

I love that Ava takes us by the hand and leads us through these stages of grief that are showcased by different characters. We see depression, we see rage, we even see the bliss of rebirth. These people are all touched by death, and they have to each find their way out of it. We have some that ask for help, others that have a scare of their own that wakes them up, and by the end of the novel you can begin to see the sun as it begins to rise after a nighttime that has lasted for ages. The families were all so compelling in their own way, but I have a special place in my heart for the Hallas. I hope we meet them again someday.

5/5 stars

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All The Things We Do In The Dark by Saundra Mitchell – Review

There’s no such thing as a secret.

SOMETHING happened to Ava. The curving scar on her face is proof. But Ava would rather keep that something hidden—buried deep in her heart and her soul.

She has her best friend Syd, and she has her tattoos—a colorful quilt, like a security blanket, over her whole body—and now, suddenly, she has Hailey. Beautiful, sweet Hailey, who seems to like Ava as much as she likes her. And Ava isn’t letting anything get in the way of finally, finally seeking peace. But in the woods on the outskirts of town, the traces of someone else’s secrets lie frozen, awaiting Ava’s discovery—and what Ava finds threatens to topple the carefully-constructed wall of normalcy that she’s spent years building. Secrets leave scars. But when the secret in question is not your own—do you ignore the truth and walk away? Or do you uncover it from its shallow grave, and let it reopen old wounds—wounds that have finally begun to heal?

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Thank you so much to Edelweiss for the ARC of this novel! I honestly did not know what to expect from this book when I requested it. I knew the cover was beautiful and that the premise felt like a YA horror novel that I could not miss out on. It was so much more than that, and I was left with an overwhelming sadness but also a kind of peace. It was so genuine and felt like the protagonist was telling her story to just me and soon she became less of a fictional character and more of a living, breathing person. Little did I know until I reached the afterword from the author that it was probably because Saundra opened up her heart and poured her life onto these pages. 

We meet Ava, and she wastes no time in telling us her story. There are people and places that have shaped the Ava that she presents to the world, and her story intertwines with that of a girl just as broken as she is that leads her to find who she really is. She starts at the very beginning, even though she states first off that she knows we want to get to the meat of the story, but to tell that story is to begin with hers. She recounts her encounter with The Summer Man, a stranger who took her childhood, safety, and peace of mind, and left her with a scar trailing down her face at nine years old. She could never hide what happened to her, and it made her cautious. She sought out a routine and never broke it. She hid behind celebrities when she was able to escape in the tattooist’s chair; taking their art for her own. She stayed inside her house, and her mom let her. 

Tiny things started adding up to crack the shell of her resolve. She meets Hailey, who is sweet and funny, and makes her feel things she didn’t know that she could anymore. Her best friend, Syd, is unexpectedly rude and callous towards her, and won’t tell her why. The biggest thing, however, is that one night as she attempts to walk home from the city via the woods, Ava finds Jane. She is hidden in a tree stump, mutilated and with the life drained from her. In Jane, Ava sees a kindred spirit. Her first thought is to call the police, but her own experience after The Summer Man stops her cold. She doesn’t want Jane to be put through the things she had to endure, and so she covers her back up but takes her essence with her.

Ava sees and hears Jane everywhere. She starts to do things she never dreamed she would; sneaking out of her house late at night, stealing her mother’s car, making a move on Hailey, and standing up to Syd. She starts to break open, and it is terrifying and beautiful all at the same time. When she finds someone else at Jane’s impromptu grave site, she realizes there is so much more to this story than she could have ever deduced alone. We see Ava find out Jane’s true identity and bring her killer to justice. This completely changes Ava. She is a completely new person, and she is able to ask for help to deal with her trauma.

Background art by Ana Djurkovic

This is a story about life. Lives interrupted, lives changed, lives reborn. I love the open and inviting way it was written, and I cannot thank the author enough for her courage in sharing her life with us. She writes in the afterword that she tells her story so others out there don’t have to. She didn’t want to make up something to damage this character that would just be another fictional happenstance that we would read about and then close the book and set it all aside. She put her truth in these pages, and though it is surrounded by fiction, you can feel the heartbeat of sincerity. It was a truly compelling read, and I think it’s going to help so many people.

5/5 stars

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Here There Are Monsters by Amelinda Berube – Review

The Blair Witch Project meets Imaginary Girls in this story of codependent sisterhood, the struggle to claim one’s own space, and the power of secrets.

Sixteen-year-old Skye is done playing the knight in shining armor for her insufferable younger sister, Deirdre. Moving across the country seems like the perfect chance to start over.

In their isolated new neighborhood, Skye manages to fit in, but Deirdre withdraws from everyone, becoming fixated on the swampy woods behind their house and building monstrous sculptures out of sticks and bones.

Then Deirdre disappears.

And when something awful comes scratching at Skye’s window in the middle of the night, claiming she’s the only one who can save Deirdre, Skye knows she will stop at nothing to bring her sister home.

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Thank you so much to Edelweiss for the ARC of this mesmerizing and suspenseful masterpiece! I am no stranger to things that go bump in the night as I have grown up on R.L. Stine and Stephen King, but this premise was a new and exciting one. Skye’s sister, Deidre, goes missing, and the police’s search is fruitless. Skye doesn’t feel like things are adding up: she fell asleep unexpectedly the night Deidre disappeared though she can’t remember being tired, she recognizes that her sister was growing more and more distant and strange, and there are signs that the woods itself may be calling her to them to find Deirdre herself.

Against her better judgement, she takes up the mantle of the role that she had played in games long ago with Deidre; The Queen of Swords. She was always her sister’s protector, and she needed her now more than ever. She discovers much more than she had bargained for as their childhood game comes to life around her. She has to risk her own life and the lives of her newfound friends to get to the bottom of what really happened to her sister.

I myself don’t have any siblings, so Skye and Deirdre’s relationship was very eye-opening for me. From how close they were as children to how time and the difference in their personalities tore them apart, it felt like a broken bone that wasn’t set right. They still lived in the same house and of course still loved each other, but there was a limp in their stride that betrayed the trauma they had both experienced. Skye’s desperation to start over in their new town leaves her with unimaginable guilt as Deirdre felt abandoned and spent more time in the woods and her made-up worlds than with her family, and Deirdre’s perpetual fantastical imagination led to her classmates shying away from her and gave Skye a cause to fight for.

The beautiful and broken characters in this novel were so captivating, and I felt myself pulled toward both Skye and Deirdre. I have a little bit of both in me as a kid who has sort of darker interests and also a fierce protector’s instinct for those I love. The ending left me questioning how far I would go to save someone close to me, and if I could go as far as Skye. The bravery she has is inspiring. She has to make so many hard choices, and she runs headfirst into danger. Though the threat here is supernatural, but the people surrounded by it and the way that it effects them is as real as you or me.

All in all, I was blown away by this novel and the care put in to creating such a haunting atmosphere. It will invade your mind with the towering and imposing forms of trees and surround you in a suffocating darkness. If you look close enough, you may even see the forest floor rise and fall with a shudder of breath. Move carefully, because here there are monsters.

5/5 stars

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Verify by Joelle Charbonneau – Review

Meri Beckley lives in a world without lies. When she turns on the news, she hears only the facts. When she swipes the pages of her online textbooks, she reads only the truth. When she looks at the peaceful Chicago streets, she feels the pride everyone in the country feels about the era of unprecedented hope and prosperity over which the government presides.

But when Meri’s mother is killed, Meri suddenly has questions that no one else seems to be asking. And when she tries to uncover her mother’s state of mind in her last weeks, she finds herself drawn into a secret world full of facts she’s never heard and a history she didn’t know existed.

Suddenly, Meri is faced with a choice between accepting the “truth” she has been taught or embracing a world the government doesn’t want anyone to see—a world where words have the power to change the course of a country, and the wrong word can get Meri killed.

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Thanks so much to Edelweiss for this ARC! When I was looking through their selection of eARCs, this cover stood out to me. I clicked it, and the first thing my eyes laid upon was the comparison between it to Scythe, which is my favorite dystopian novel. I instantly clicked Request, knowing that I would love it. I’m happy to say that I was able to verify that fact as I finished it today!

We are shown a world much different from our own via Chicago some decades from now. Crime has been obliterated. Homelessness is not an issue. Paper has become obsolete as there was a fight to recycle and keep the planet clean. This is the world that Merriel has grown up in. She has recently lost her mother and is struggling to keep her father from drinking himself to death, but otherwise her existence has been a fairly happy one. Unfortunately, things are not as they seem. While trying to solve the puzzle of the painting that her mom left unfinished after she had her accident, Meri stumbles upon a mystery.

A piece of paper is handed to her with a word she has never heard before on it. When she tries to look it up, there are no articles, but weirder still– an alarm sounds and people start acting strangely. She decides to get to the bottom of the word out of curiosity, but finds something she never expected. She meets people who knew her mother, and slowly uncovers their true goals. Her mind spins as she starts to question everything she never knew to question before; history books, government, even her own friends and family. These are things that seem like common sense to us, but as the book shows how this trust was fraudulently gained and people reigned in like derby horses, it was more and more clear to me that this was a future that could horribly but realistically happen.

The state that we are in now as a country is a terrifying one. We are divided, and there are forces on both sides trying to make a change for ‘the common good’. It’s scary to think of the lengths that the people we put in charge might go to continue to keep that place of power. I think this series is going to be exceptionally eye-opening, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.

Meri’s courage and loyalty is something I aspire to, and I hope that I can make her proud by remembering that my words have power, and that I need to use them wisely, and to always keep asking questions, because we can’t become complacent. We just can’t.

5/5 stars

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The Babysitters Coven by Kate Williams – Review

Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this funny, action-packed novel about a coven of witchy babysitters who realize their calling to protect the innocent and save the world from an onslaught of evil. 

Seventeen-year-old Esme Pearl has a babysitters club. She knows it’s kinda lame, but what else is she supposed to do? Get a job? Gross. Besides, Esme likes babysitting, and she’s good at it.

And lately Esme needs all the cash she can get, because it seems like destruction follows her wherever she goes. Let’s just say she owes some people a new tree.

Enter Cassandra Heaven. She’s Instagram-model hot, dresses like she found her clothes in a dumpster, and has a rebellious streak as gnarly as the cafeteria food. So why is Cassandra willing to do anything, even take on a potty-training two-year-old, to join Esme’s babysitters club?

The answer lies in a mysterious note Cassandra’s mother left her: “Find the babysitters. Love, Mom.”

Turns out, Esme and Cassandra have more in common than they think, and they’re about to discover what being a babysitter really means: a heroic lineage of superpowers, magic rituals, and saving the innocent from seriously terrifying evil. And all before the parents get home.

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Thank you so much to NetGalley for this ARC! I am always down for a novel with a Chosen One, witches, or anything set around Halloween, and this book gave me all three! It had heavy Buffy the Vampire Slayer Vibes with The Craft undertones, yet made a lore all its own that was so original and fun!

We follow Kate, a babysitter. She and her friend Janis comprise the Babysitter’s Club, so named after the popular book series. There were more to the group, but as the other girls grew up and found high school interests, they drifted apart. Kate and Janis are the only two left, until Cassandra Heaven moves to their school. She pushes her way into the club and into Kate’s life, and we soon learn that the two have supernatural powers that neither one can explain.

They set out on a mission to find the reason for their powers and to solve the mystery of their parents: Kate’s mom is in an asylum, and both Cassandra’s mom and dad are dead. It doesn’t take too much snooping for them to trace Cassandra’s mom’s spells and odd occurrences back to an unlikely ally who reveals themselves to be the Giles to their Buffy. They show the two their responsibilities as Sitters, and just in time. There is an evil force at work that they must stop, and before innocents are lost.

I loved the magic usage in this, and how spells were easily cast with items you might have around the house! It felt so much more accessible rather than tracking down a Black Market seller of toad’s livers or the back tooth from a mastodon. The lore was also so inviting, with the inclusion of why the Babysitter trope is so important in horror movies. The Halloween setting gave it that spooky and unpredictable vibe, and left me wanting the smell of fake blood in the air! I can’t wait to see what awaits us in the sequel!

5/5 stars