Tag Archives: creepy

The Taking of Annie Thorne by C J Tudor

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4 Stars from me!

What a fabulous, creepy little book!

I was drawn in from the very first page and flew threw this book because I just didn’t want to put it down.

It was creepy, chilling in places, had a good build up of suspense, a few twists and turns and some really likeable characters. In fact, the attention to detail surrounding the characters and the effort taken to flesh them out is what made this book so brilliant for me.

If you have a book lover in your life, who enjoys a bit of unnerving escapism, this is probably the perfect Christmas gift!

 

Synopsis: When Joe Thorne was fifteen, his little sister, Annie, disappeared. At the time, Joe thought it was the worst thing in the world that could ever happen. And then she came back.

Now Joe has returned to the village where he grew up, to work as a teacher at the failing Arnhill Academy. Not an act of altruism, but desperation. Joe has bad debts – and bad people – he needs to escape. He also has an anonymous email: I know what happened to your sister. It’s happening again.

But coming back to the place he grew up, means facing the people he grew up with, and the things they did. Five friends: Joe, Stephen Hurst, Marie Gibson, Nick Fletcher and Chris Manning. They were the five who were there that night. Something they haven’t spoken about in 25 years.
Coming back means opening old wounds, and confronting old enemies and Joe is about to discover that places, like people, have secrets. The deeper you go, the darker they get.
And sometimes, you should never come back.

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Into The Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes

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Into The Darkest Corner5 stars from me!

It’s no real wonder that I’m not sleeping very well at the moment given the last four books that I’ve read! I’ve no one to blame but myself that after finishing Into The Darkest Corner in the wee small hours last night I then found myself jumping at every noise outside and needing to put my bedside light on rather than just switch off the main light and walk to my bed in darkness. And let’s not even discuss the compulsion that I felt to check under then bed at 1.30am…

This is a gripping read with two stories flicking between 2004 and 2008 that you know are going to converge and with every page you read on knowing and dreading what is going to happen next.

The twists are clever and the manner in which suspense, tension (and fear!) are built up is nothing short of genius. A truly creepy book that gives a realistic insight into anxiety, ocd and genuine fear.

I can’t recommend this book enough if you enjoy having the pants scared off you but do be aware that you too might be waking up in the middle of the night paranoid that you’ve not shut the lounge windows properly…

~~~

Synopsis: When young, pretty Catherine Bailey meets Lee Brightman, she can’t believe her luck. Gorgeous, charismatic, and a bit mysterious, Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. 

But what begins as flattering attention and spontaneous, passionate sex transforms into raging jealousy, and Catherine soon discovers that Lee’s dazzling blue eyes and blond good looks hide a dark, violent nature. Disturbed by his increasingly erratic, controlling behavior, she tries to break it off; turning to her friends for support, she’s stunned to find they don’t believe her. Increasingly isolated and driven into the darkest corner of her world, a desperate Catherine plans a meticulous escape. 

Four years later, Lee is behind bars and Catherine—now Cathy—is trying to build a new life in a new city. Though her body has healed, the trauma of the past still haunts her. Then Stuart Richardson, her attractive new neighbor, moves in. Encouraging her to confront her fears, he sparks unexpected hope and the possibility of love and a normal life. 

Until the day the phone rings…

Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott

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Sleep Tight5 Stars from me!

What a creepy, creepy book! Ugh, I felt mostly paranoid while reading Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott as it utterly gets under your skin! Brilliant.

I was completely hooked all the way through this story, all the of characters were spot on and story and back story of Olivia was very well put together and very intriguing.

The police side of things was also great with the main police characters coming to life on the page with plausible and engaging stories of their own. Their conversations flowed naturally and were highly believable.

Overall I had a love/hate relationship with this book and I read the last half in one sitting (making me late for coffee with a friend!) as I simply had to see how it ended. The final, final twist was one step too far for me but it was clever how integral it was to the story.

A very good and very creepy read, loved it and definitely would recommend to others.

Synopsis: How far would you go to hold on to the people you love?
When Olivia Brookes calls the police to report that her husband and children are missing, she believes she will never see them again. She has reason to fear the worst; this isn’t the first tragedy that Olivia has experienced.

Now, two years later, Detective Chief Inspector Tom Douglas is called in to investigate this family again, but this time it’s Olivia who has disappeared. All the evidence suggests that she was here, in the family home, that morning. But her car is in the garage, and her purse is in her handbag – on the kitchen table.

The police want to issue a national appeal, but for some reason every single picture of this family has been removed from albums, from phones, from computers.

And then they find the blood…

Has the past caught up with Olivia?

Sleep Tight – if you can. You never know who’s watching. 

A Cold Season by Alison Littlewood

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A Cold Season3 Stars from me

A Cold Season is a really good, creepy, book!

I’ve given it three stars because I felt that it lost it’s way a bit in places which detracted from my enjoyment of an otherwise excellent book.

The story is enticing, you get an idea of what is going to happen and then it is a case of reading on to see how it unfolds. Some parts of it are really rather scary! I have to confess to leaving the hall light on one night after reading into the wee small hours.

I felt that Ben’s change of character could have been more explicit; there wasn’t enough of his previous personality built up before ‘bad Ben’ appeared. There was a lot hinted at that didn’t really come to fruition and the ending was a little bit of a let down.

I feel like I’ve slated this book now whereas I did actually enjoy most of it. I wouldn’t let this review put you off reading it. For a chilling, black magic, demonic, supernatural read it was pretty good.

Synopsis: Cass is building a new life for herself and her young son Ben after the death of her soldier husband Pete, returning to the village where she lived as a child. But their idyllic new home is not what she expected: the other flats are all empty, there’s strange graffiti on the walls, and the villagers are a bit odd. And when an unexpectedly heavy snowstorm maroons the village, things get even harder. Ben is changing, he’s surly and aggressive and Cass’s only confidant is the smooth, charming Theodore Remick, the stand-in headmaster. Not everyone approves of Cass’s growing closeness to Mr Remick, and it soon becomes obvious he’s not all he appears to be either. If she is to protect her beloved son, Cass is going to have to fight back. Cass realises this is not the first time her family have been targeted by Theodore Remick. But this time, the stakes are immeasurably higher…