Review: House of Furies

House of Furies

Rating: 4/5

Buy or Borrow: Buy

Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

After escaping a harsh school where punishment was the lesson of the day, seventeen-year-old Louisa Ditton is thrilled to find employment as a maid at a boarding house. But soon after her arrival at Coldthistle House, Louisa begins to realize that the house’s mysterious owner, Mr. Morningside, is providing much more than lodging for his guests. Far from a place of rest, the house is a place of judgment, and Mr. Morningside and his unusual staff are meant to execute their own justice on those who are past being saved.

Louisa begins to fear for a young man named Lee who is not like the other guests. He is charismatic and kind, and Louisa knows that it may be up to her to save him from an untimely judgment. But in this house of distortions and lies, how can Louisa be sure whom to trust?

Featuring stunning interior illustrations from artist Iris Compiet, plus photo-collages that bring Coldthistle House to chilling life, House of Furies invites readers to a world where the line between monsters and men is ghostly thin.

So, you guys might remember I featured this on my blog back in January as one of my new releases that I was looking forward to! I don't usually do horror, but there was something about this book that intrigued me, the cover and the synopsis both piqued my interest and it sounded like something a bit different to the usual! Even so...it still wasn't what I was expecting, and I found myself completely loving it! 

House of Furies is dark and atmospheric and it's that atmosphere along with how vivid it is that draws you in straight away and keeps you hooked to the page. I was hooked nearly immediately, and couldn't put it down, I read it in one go and the atmosphere to the book is one of the things that really makes this book memorable, and adds just something a little extra to it. I feel like a good horror book should be atmospheric but this is just perfect. I don't know how to explain it exactly, it just fit so well and I had such a good mental image as I was reading! 

You get these really cool extracts from Morningsides book that have these brilliant illustrations with them, and I felt like that was a nice extra touch that added a few hints here and there! I really enjoyed the mythology and lore surrounding the monsters/mythical beings/creatures that went in to this book, it fascinated me and definitely left me wanting to know more! Speaking of Morningside...I actually really loved him. He was smooth and intelligent and a little bit mischievous at one point, and I loved his interactions with Louisa. He cracked me up more than once as did their banter. I ship them a fair bit, I'm not going to lie! 

For me, Louisa was a great main character, she was believable and had the same kind of reaction that I imagined most of us would have when confronted with her situation. My thoughts about Lee and certain things often mirrored hers with her doubts and so on. Her situation with Lee particularly was very well done, I was pretty much with Louisa the whole time, first trusting him and not seeing how he could be bad and then the doubt seeping in. So well done. 

I found all of the characters to be a memorable bunch, they where interesting and I wanted to know more about them and what they could do and what brought them there and their pasts and just everything basically! Mary, Chijioke and Poppy in particular, I'm not going to lie! Plus you know...Morningside. 

I loved the way the author blended together the historical and the supernatural with the gothic touches. The storytelling was brilliant and like I said..atmospheric and vivid! It was just plain creepy at times, but it was always intriguing. And I'm so excited to see what happens in the next book and to get to know the characters even better! I need way more Morningside, I'm not going to lie! 

All in all House of Furies was a brilliantly written, atmospheric and vivid read that intrigues you from the start and keeps you hooked until the last page. The characters are an interesting and memorable bunch and the book leaves you wanting more! 

Slade House

Sade House
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy 
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

Walk down narrow, clammy Slade Alley. Open the black iron door in the right-hand wall.

Enter the sunlit garden of an old house that doesn't exactly make sense.

A stranger greets you by name and invites you inside.

At first, you won't want to leave. Too late, you find you can't . . .

A taut, intricately woven, reality-warping tale that begins in 1979 and comes to its turbulent conclusion at the wintry end of October, 2015. Born out of the short story David Mitchell published on Twitter in 2014 and inhabiting the same universe as his latest bestselling novel The Bone Clocks, this is the perfect book to curl up with on a dark and stormy night.

As the synopsis says, this story was all thanks to a short story published on Twitter, and it's a perfect Halloween read, I have to say! I had assumed this was a standalone, so I read it without having read The Bone Clocks and the benefit of whatever knowledge came from it. It is on my TBR, I just haven't gotten around to it yet! 

That said, it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book at all, I was glued to the page from the go. For such a short book, it tells the story without ever feeling rushed. There's no points where the story is rushed, the ending isn't rushed, it's got a fast pace, and it keeps it up through to the end. 

There's four parts to the story, starting in 1979 and ending in 2015. Each is linked. Why? Because each person from each part, Nathan and his Mum, Gordon etc etc, all disappear in to the house never to be seen again. And so it continues every 9 years, until 2015. You can read the book in one sitting, and enjoy the creeped out feeling it will inspire. There's not many things that creep me out, but this book managed to! 

There's a blend of different genres and different "oh that reminds me of so and so" moments, Mitchell keeps all of his signatures and uses then to delightful effect. I must say I wasn't sure what to expect from such a short book from the author, but like I keep saying....I couldn't be more pleased! I'm just sad I didn't get to read Bone Clocks first! All in all it's a cracking read! 

The Wicked Awakening Of Anne Merchant

The Wicked Awakening Of Anne Merchant
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher!
Check out my review of the first book.....here.

Kicking off right where the first book ended, Teddy has brought Anne back to the island where there's a new Headmaster, one who's got plans with Mephisto to create a college, a college that's tuition is going to cost a hefty price. Ben has the joy of having his ex Garnet as a Guardian, and he doesn't want to fight at all in the Big V. Anne has to change that, even if it means changing things between them, and changing herself to make sure he wins, she has to become what she really is, and embrace her inner...well...you'll see.

Oh my God. I can't even. I got sent this by the publisher all the way from the US and I honestly can't thank them enough! The email about it brightened my day and when I received the book the other day? Day made. I even got a cool Cania Christy patch! So, I literally got the book yesterday, and I read it today, which is probably a few weeks past whenever you guys actually read this, because blog schedule and everything! But still. I finished this in a matter of hours and I have never been more tense reading a book in my life!

Much like with the first book, I was kept guessing until the end, and while I usually love that, I hate that in these books because I'm so on edge when I'm reading and I'm almost afraid to turn the page and see what happens next! The revelations in this book? Didn't see them coming, and boy are they shocking!

There is literally so much revealed, and just thrown out there that makes you go ".....oh...okay" and then you freak out. Anne's....heritage? Not what I had been expecting or assuming or anything. Anne in this book fully embraces the darkness of her soul to save Ben, because everything she does is about Ben, and we see an entirely different side to Anne what with the darkness and everything, it was kinda cool and kinda like "Noooo Anne!"

Anne in this book was so awesome, despite the darkness and everything, her plan is crazy and complicated and you're drawn right in to it with her, you can feel the weight Anne must have on her shoulders like it's a real thing because she has so many people relying on her after she makes all these promises and the book is a roller coaster. I loved Anne and I loved watching her kind of step up to try and save everyone, I feel like she's grown as a character!

Pilot was back, he's kind of awesome in this book, I felt a tad sorry for him, what with knowing the truth, but being outranked and not allowed to tell Anne but even then at the end he was trying to let her know something was wrong and she'd been played. I mean I was right there with Anne, I thought she'd been betrayed and I was like "Shit, how can I be so wrong about a character?!" and so when it was revealed who was Dorian? Not expecting it. So sad. I loved that character!

Molly is also back, and I pure loved her in the first book, as anyone who read the review knows, and then she popped back up, and she was her usual awesome self, and then she turned out to be even more awesome because of what she'd been...uuuhh...doing? I can't say much, you'll know what I mean when you read the book and find out what's reallllyy going on!

Ben and Anne's relationship I continue to enjoy, even when he supposedly hates her he's still lurking about and dreaming about her and it's kind of cute! There where a few new characters, and I loved how the entire time, you're not sure who to trust, who's on the right side, what these characters are up to. You totally make a call about a character and then you're wrong and it's a true whirlwind of emotion.

I found it so easy to slip back in to the world, like I said about the first book, the world building is fantastic, that's why it's so easy to slip  back in to the world, picturing everything as if you never left it, and the atmosphere is pretty much a real thing, you can feel the tension, the distrust, the danger and the creepiness oozing off the page. I literally picked the book up and fell straight back in to the story as if I had never been away from it!

Some things where dealt with and everything, but there's still more to be got out of this story to end it properly, so it's just as well this is a trilogy and there's another book! I love the mystery, I love how you're in the same boat as Anne trying to work other characters out, I love how the plot twists and turns keeping you guessing and I love how I totally called this as being a popular series, I mean, it's unique, it's different, and it leaves you wanting more! Roll on book three!

And again, thank you so much to the publisher for sending me this and the patch, and I would really love to hug you for that!

The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant

The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant
Rating: 4/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: ARC Courtesy of NetGalley
File Under: Gothic Mystery

Anne Merchant has always been the weird outsider, hard not to be when you're the daughter of the local mortician, and the poorest family in their very rich ZIP code. After her mother commits suicide and Anne finds the body, her father wants her to have a better chance at life, which means being sent to a boarding school for the rich and spoilt on Wormwood Island.

Cania Christy and the island it's on is cut off from the rest of the world, no electronics and only one 15 minute phone call a week. No fraternizing with the villagers, there's even a red line painted on the ground to seperate them from the school. But Cania Christy is shrouded in mystery. Everyone at the school is obsessed with becoming Valedictorian. Everyone has a PT, something they have to live and breathe such as seduction, to become Valedictorian, and the students are graded on everything as part of the competition. Anne is mysteriously drawn to Ben, the son of Dr. Zin, the school's recruiter, who keeps dropping hints about the school.

It soon becomes clear the school isn't what it appears. Anne hears screams and gunshots in the night, students mysteriously disappear, and it turns out that the students parents paid their tuition, not in money...but in favours.  Everyone seems to be in on a secret Anne doesn't know about, and as she parts the shroud of cloak and dagger surrounding the school...she quickly wishes she hasn't.

Okay, so I was kept guessing right up until the end of the book. When the big reveal came I was sat smacking my forehead like "of course!", there's so much mystery and twists and turns, you can't guess what's going to happen next.

There's a minor love triangle that really doesn't merit being a distraction, romance isn't the main point of this book. It's a little add on, if anything. I did love the relationship between Anne and Ben especially when you find out their past. Pilot's part in the story was very intriguing. I loved the character of Molly, Ann's own Fairy Godmother to her Cinderella, and I loved the character of Anne. She's determined to find out the truth and not just accept her situation and what she's told.

The world building and the prose was fantastic. As soon as you start reading, you dive straight in to a grim and dreary world, I pictured the island as very dark and grey. This is probably one of the best mystery books I've ever written. It was creepy at points, there where splashes of romance, but there was so much mystery that was impossible to work out, and when you're told the big secret, there's still more to be uncovered.

As you read the mystery unravels, but there's more and more threads woven in to it, and more secrets and questions. It's the only Supernatural high school story with not a vampire, werewolf or fairy in sight.

The ground work has been set for what looks to be like a very popular series. The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant was fantastically written, the atmosphere oozes off the page, and the world sucks you in and traps you right until you finish reading. Not even Sherlock Holmes himself could predict what's going to happen next. A fantastically unique book that refreshes the Supernatural genre. I for one cannot wait to see what comes next!