SLEWFOOT Audiobook by BROM – One of the Best Historical Horror Books I Have Ever Had the Pleasure of Reading – Creepy and Terrifying, SLEWFOOT will stay with you forever. 5+ Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Title: SLEWFOOT

Author:  BROM

Narrator: BARRIE KREINIK

Genre: FICTION, HISTORICAL FICTION, HORROR

Length: 14 HOURS and 15 MINUTES

Publisher: TOR NIGHTFIRE / MACMILLAN AUDIO

Type of Book: AUDIOBOOK

Received From: NETGALLEY

Release Date: SEPTEMBER 14, 2021

Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

DESCRIPTION:

Connecticut, 1666.

An ancient spirit awakens in a dark wood. The wildfolk call him Father, slayer, protector.

The colonists call him Slewfoot, demon, devil.

To Abitha, a recently widowed outcast, alone and vulnerable in her pious village, he is the only one she can turn to for help.

Together, they ignite a battle between pagan and Puritan – one that threatens to destroy the entire village, leaving nothing but ashes and bloodshed in their wake.

“If it is a devil you seek, then it is a devil you shall have!”

A Macmillan Audio production from TOR NIGHTFIRE

MY REVIEW:

World building at its finest. Characters so fully developed that it is impossible to not be invested in their lives. A build up in intensity that quite literally will have readers on the edge of their seats.

I was lucky to receive an ARC (Advance Review Copy) of the SLEWFOOT Audiobook from the Publisher through NetGalley. I am thrilled to say  listening to the story enhanced my experience.

Until I looked her up (yes, Barrie is female) after listening to her fabulous voice for hours on end, I had no idea that she wasn’t British by birth. Her website mentions her proficiency with accents, but actually hearing her performance, I realized she is not merely proficient, she sounds 100% as if she is a native Brit. Barrie is a masterful voice actor with an exquisite sense of timing. The way her voice rises and falls during particularly suspensful moments had me hooked. I will 100% be looking for more audiobooks featuring the skills of Barrie Kreinik in the future.

As for the story itself, the following offers a clue as to what I thought of SLEWFOOT…

From this day forward I will always think of Brom when anyone mentions historical horror fiction with fantasy elements. In fact, I don’t believe that any other author alive today even comes close to his skill level.

Because I do not want to give away any spoilers, I am not going to discuss the plot any further. Suffice it to say that this book is not just a story, it is an experience.

I rate SLEWFOOT as 5+ OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to the Publisher and to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this spectacular audiobook.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

BROM

Born in the deep dark south in the mid-sixties. Brom, an army brat, spent his entire youth on the move and unabashedly blames living in such places as Japan, Hawaii, Germany, and Alabama for all his afflictions. From his earliest memories Brom has been obsessed with the creation of the weird, the monstrous, and the beautiful.

THE ART OF BROM – HARDCOVER

At age twenty, Brom began working full-time as a commercial illustrator in Atlanta, Georgia. Three years later he entered the field of fantastic art he’d loved his whole life, making his mark developing and illustrating for TSR’s best selling role-playing worlds.

He has since gone on to lend his distinctive vision to all facets of the creative industries, from novels and games, to comics and film. Most recently he’s created a series of award winning horror novels that he both writes and illustrates: “The Plucker”, an adult children’s book, “The Devil’s Rose”, a modern western set in Hell, “The Child Thief”, a gritty, nightmarish retelling of the Peter Pan myth, “Krampus, the Yule Lord“, a tale of revenge between Krampus and Santa set in rural West Virginia, and his latest concoction, “Lost Gods” one man’s determined trek through the brutal landscape of purgatory, “Slewfoot” a historical horror novel of witchery and vengeance, set in colonial America.

Brom is currently kept in a dank cellar somewhere in the drizzly Northwest. There he subsists on poison spiders, centipedes, and bad kung-fu flicks. When not eating bugs, he is ever writing, painting, and trying to reach a happy sing-a-long with the many demons dancing about in his head.

To learn more about this author, visit the following links:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE
https://www.bromart.com/

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ABOUT THE NARRATOR:
[headshots by David Perlman]

Barrie Kreinik is an award-winning audiobook narrator with titles produced by

Macmillan, Hachette, Penguin Random House, Harper, Podium, Tantor, Audible, and AudioGO.

She specializes in accents and dialects, particularly those of the British Isles. And she does it perfectly.

To learn more about this Narrator, visit the following links:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE
https://www.barriekreinik.com/

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DROP BY DROP is a fantastic work of Speculative Fiction by Award Winning Author Morgan Llewellyn – A true 5 Star Book

Title: DROP BY DROP

Subtitle: A NOVEL OF TOMORROW

Series: STEP BY STEP – BOOK ONE

Author: MORGAN LLWELYN

Genre: SCIENCE FICTION, SPECULATIVE FICTION

Length: 320 PAGES

Publisher: TOR BOOKS

Received From: NETGALLEY

Release Date: JUNE 26, 2018

ISBN: 978-0-7653-8866-7 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-0-7653-8868-1 (eBook)

Price: $25.99 USD (Hardcover)
Price: $12.99 USD (ebook)

Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

*

DESCRIPTION:

From Morgan Llywelyn, the bestselling author of Lion of Ireland and the Irish Century series, comes Drop By Drop her first near-future science fiction thriller where technology fails and a small town struggles to survive global catastrophe.

In this first book in the Step By Step trilogy, global catastrophe occurs as all plastic mysteriously liquefies. All the small components making many technologies possible—navigation systems, communications, medical equipment—fail.

In Sycamore River, citizens find their lives disrupted as everything they’ve depended on melts around them, with sometimes fatal results. All they can rely upon is themselves.

And this is only the beginning . . .
*
*
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MY REVIEW:

“Drop by drop, the change came to Sycamore River. Slowly and quietly in the beginning, not enough to cause a ripple on the placid surface of the town. Few people noticed at first. Change can be like that.“

This Speculative Fiction novel is a completely unique idea of how change can begin without most people noticing.

This is the first book in the “Step By Step” series which promises to be not only one of a kind, but also one that will challenge the idea that we need technology to survive.

The small town of Sycamore River and its inhabitants will get under your skin and readers will find themselves actually caring about what happens to them.

Set in the not too distant future, Drop By Drop is a unique look at one possible future … And a scary one at that.

Morgan Llywelyn has an amazing ability to create people who are so realistic they could be your next door neighbors. She also describes the many different ways people react in a crisis. Some step up and others fall apart. Her writing will grab your attention and you will be unable to stop reading… literally. I read the entire book in less than twenty four hours and I was wishing the next book in the series was already available. I predict that DROP BY DROP will be on many Bestseller Lists and I rate it as 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.

QUOTES FROM THE BOOK:

“Every life’s a highway with a certain number of doors in it. When you go through one you can either leave it open or close it behind you.”

“To the average American male, whose automobile was emblematic not only of his financial status but also of his manhood, the situation was personal.”

“The threat of personal extinction was enough to make a man grab what happiness he could while there was still time.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Morgan Llywelyn was born in New York City on December 3, 1937 which makes her 80 years old now.

Morgan Llywelyn is an American-born Irish author best known for her historical fantasy, historical fiction, and historical non-fiction. Her fiction has received several awards and has sold more than 40 million copies, and she herself is recipient of the 1999 Exceptional Celtic Woman of the Year Award from Celtic Women International.

To learn more about this author, visit the following links:

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FACEBOOK

AZ QUOTES

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FANTASTIC FICTION (Complete List of All Morgan’s Books)

WIKIPEDIA

ISFDB (INTERNET SPECULATIVE FICTION DATABASE)

INDIEBOUND

BARNES AND NOBLE

POWELL’S

BOOKS-A-MILLION

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THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE by Tade Thompson will be available on October 3rd and will scare the heck out of you.

        🌟🌟🌟🌟 = 4 STARS 

Title: THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE  

Author: TADE THOMPSON

Genre: FICTION, HORROR

Length: 128 PAGES

Publisher: TOR BOOKS              

Received From: NETGALLEY     

Release Date: OCTOBER 3, 2017 

ISBN: 978-0-7653-9713-3 (PAPERBACK)  

ISBN: 978-0-7653-9712-6 (EBOOK)

Price: $1.99 USD – EBOOK

Rating: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

OFFICIAL DESCRIPTION:    

The rule is simple: don’t bleed.

For as long as Molly Southbourne can remember, she’s been watching herself die. Whenever she bleeds, another molly is born, identical to her in every way—and intent on her destruction.

Molly knows every way to kill herself, but she also knows that as long as she survives she’ll be hunted. No matter how well she follows the rules, eventually the mollys will find her. Can Molly find a way to stop the tide of blood, or will she meet her end at the hand of a girl who looks just like her?

MY REVIEW:

Despite only consisting of 128 pages, and officially being considered a “novella” rather than a “novel,” THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE does not lack readability. Yes, it is a quick read, but that is due to the fact that once begun, it is nearly impossible to put down.  

The concept of the “Doppelganger” is not new, even so, author Tade Thompson has taken the concept to places no one ever has before.

This story is all about Molly.

Molly may look normal, but she suffers from a unique genetic quirk, one that makes her the only person alive with her bizarre condition.

It’s all about the blood.

Every time Molly bleeds, another copy of herself grows from that blood and a new molly is created – a perfect physical copy of Molly at the moment in time when her blood was shed.

The problem occurs because the new molly may start out seemingly normal, but inevitably, the new copy turns on the original and attempts to murder her.

Imagine knowing that at least once a month (thanks to her gender,) a new molly will come to life and that you have no choice but to commit murder in order to preserve your own life.

What would that do to your pysche? Could you ever hope to lead a normal life?

You will need to read this novella to find out if Molly ever figures out a way to control her disorder or if she ends up dead at the hands of one of the mollys. 

If you enjoy reading books where the storyline begins with a high degree of suspense which continues to build until it is at a frenzy, then THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE is the perfect book for you.  

The best thing about this book is the totally unexpected and explosive ending which also opens up the potential for a sequel. Personally, I hope Tade Thompson does write an additional book based on this one. I give THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE a rating of 4 out of 5 Stars. 🌟🌟🌟🌟  

An exciting announcement was just made – THE MURDERS  MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE is being made into a full-length feature film. To read more about the upcoming film’s details, click HERE.

** Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

TADE THOMPSON lives and works in the south of England. His background is in medicine, psychiatry and social anthropology.

His first novel Making Wolf won the Golden Tentacle Award at the 2016 Kitschies.

His second novel Rosewater is on the 2016 Locus Recommended Reading List, and his short story “The Apologists” has been shortlisted for a British Science Fiction Association award.

He enjoys jazz, comics, and baking deformed bread.

To learn more about this author visit the following links:

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COMPANY TOWN is one of Best DYSTOPIAN FICTION books published in the past few years. This is a MUST BUY. I give COMPANY TOWN 6 out of 5 Stars. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 Title: COMPANY TOWN   

Author: MADELINE ASHBY     

Genre: SCIENCE FICTION, DYSTOPIAN FICTION, CANADIAN FICTION, SPECULATIVE FICTION

Length: 285 PAGES      

Publisher: TOR BOOKS  

ISBN: 978-0-7653-9887-1 

Price: $14.99 USD / $20.99 CDN

Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 

CBC CANADA READS 2017      

I purchased this book at Chapters from a display of books by Canadian authors. I was (and still am) thrilled to find a Canadian author writing Dystopian Science Fiction.

 I read A LOT of books and there are a ton of dystopian titles on the market. Some are just okay, most are pretty good and then there are the exceptional few that are so well written the author’s world comes to life and you never want the story to end. COMPANY TOWN is one such book.

Not only is it easy to envision the setting – an entire city filled with people just trying to survive on what was once an oil rig and was never meant for long-term habitation, but MADELINE ASHBY has created an entirely new world history.

In my opinion she is a literary genius. I realize that is a HUGE claim, but once you read COMPANY TOWN, I am fairly certain you will agree.

I do not want to give away any parts of the plot or the setting, but I do want to get across to anyone reading this review that YOU NEED TO BUY THIS BOOK and YOU WILL BE HAPPY THAT YOU DID.

With a carefully constructed plot, characters you can’t help but feel for, and incredible world-building, author Madeline Ashby has written a tale that is a warning to us all about caring for our environment and all those who live in it.

The most terrifying aspect of COMPANY TOWN is that it might become  a reality if no changes are made to how we are all currently living. This book should be required reading for every man, woman and child (over the age of 16.) It is quite simply a MUST READ. I rate it as 5 out of 5 Stars. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Photo Credit: Kayleigh McCollum Photography

 

Madeline Ashby is a science fiction writer, futurist, speaker, and immigrant living in Toronto. She writes a column for the Ottawa Citizen. She is represented by Anne McDermid & Associates, and Jason Richman at UTA.       

She has worked with Intel Labs, the Institute for the Future, SciFutures, Nesta, Data & Society, The Atlantic Council, the ASU Center for Science and the Imagination, and others. Her short fiction has appeared in Nature, FLURB, Tesseracts, Imaginarium, and Escape Pod. Her other essays and criticism have appeared at BoingBoing, io9, WorldChanging, Creators Project, Arcfinity, Tor.com, MISC Magazine, FutureNow, and elsewhere.      

To learn more about this amazing Canadian author, visit the following links:

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STARBORN by Lucy Hounsom may just be one of the best YA Fantasy books to be published in the past few years. A 5 Star Read that will appeal to everyone 16 and up.

Title: STARBORN     

Series: THE WORLDMAKER TRILOGY: BOOK ONE    

Author: LUCY HOUNSOM 

Genre: FANTASY FICTION, YOUNG ADULT FICTION, NEW RELEASE /COMING SOON 

Length: 544 PAGES

Publisher: TOR – An Imprint of MACMILLAN PUBLISHERS LTD    
Type of Book: EBOOK

Received From: NETGALLEY   

Release Date: AUGUST 24TH, 2019 

ISBN: 978-1-4472-6845-1 (Hardcover)   

Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟    

MY REVIEW:     

Firstly, I need to address the title of this book. If you are the type of person to judge a book by its cover, (everyone does this at least to some degree) you will miss out on a phenomenal book. The cover and title tend to make potential readers think this book will be about outer space and will be a sci-fi novel, however, this is not the case. Starborn is a perfect example of fantasy fiction at its finest.

I literally devoured this book. The characters are so vividly described that a picture of each of them immediately formed in my mind. Not only that, but each character has a fully imagined history that further fleshes out their believability.

This is the first book in the WorldMaker trilogy and even though this book hasn’t been released in North America yet, I am already wishing that I could get my hands on the next book in the series. I believe not only that this book is destined to become a Bestseller, but that it will also be optioned for it’s film rights.

This story has just the right amount of betrayal and dedication, fantasy, magic, history, romance, frustration,  ingenuity and truly astounding world-building which all combine to create a surefire winning combination.

Not since the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hunger Games trilogy have I encountered an author with the ability to so seamlessly craft a complex epic tale of right and wrong, of good and evil and with the ability to build an entire world from nothing but their own imagination. The name of Lucy Hounsom will soon be on the lips of North American readers and publishers all over the continent, and rightly so. 

I highly recommend this book to both youth and to adults who love epic adventure stories.

This book will grab your attention from the first page and it will not let go. It is because of its ability to entrance the reader and because of the author’s incredible world-building, that I have no choice but to rate this book as 5 out of 5 Stars. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟  

My recommendation is to mark your calendars for August 24th and grab your copy right away since this amazing book is bound to sell out quickly.

* A special Thank You to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book.   

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (In Her Own Words):   

* obtained from her website
* Author Photos by LOU ABERCROMBIE

I live in the hilly, red shores of the Jurassic Coast. It’s a beautiful, mysterious part of the country (U.K.), steeped in myth and folklore. And so unsurprisingly, it’s a perfect place in which to make up stories.

In the vein of most writers, I’ve been making up stories for a long time. I grew up in the tamer neighbourhood of the Thames Valley, where I used to think I’d be an actor. I attended theatre school for six years, worked professionally on stage and screen and took an awful lot of dancing exams. That changed when I hit 15. I was writing a novel (like most normal teenagers), and quite randomly thought: wouldn’t it be cool to do this all the time?  

I’ve always loved books, perhaps because my parents read so much to us as children. Dad favoured classics like The Day of the Triffids andHothouse, which – though possibly a bit advanced for under 10s – exposed us both to a multitude of words. (Yes, my sister’s a writer too). But the books that really stayed with me were J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

I am irrevocably drawn to fantasy. As an unsociable teenage misfit, I read mountains of it. Growing up, some of my favourite writers were Robin Hobb, the three Terrys (Brooks, Goodkind and Pratchett), Robert Jordan, Patricia A. McKillip, Ursula Le Guin, David Eddings and Alan Garner. J. K. Rowling holds a special place in my heart for all those summer evenings I spent re-reading Harry Potter, wishing for adventures at Hogwarts.

That first novel still exists on my hard drive, quietly embarrassing me, but despite its flaws, I’m glad I wrote it. Working on the principle that if you’ve done something once, you can do it again, I studied creative writing at university for four years in the hope that I’d be better prepared the second time around. Creating something as vast and complex as a novel is fun, terrifying, exciting, torturous and pretty much every emotion in between. 

To learn more about this author visit the following links:

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THE RAINS is the first ever YA book written by award-winning author Gregg Hurwitz and it is absolutely brilliant. I give this book 5 Enthusiastic stars. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Title: THE RAINS  

Author: GREGG HURWITZ  

Type of Book: HARDCOVER

Genre: YOUNG ADULT, SCIENCE FICTION, HORROR

Length: 352 PAGES

Publisher: TOR TEEN BOOKS  

Release Date: OCTOBER 18, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-7653-8267-2 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-4668-8851-7 EBOOK

Price: $17.99 USD – HARDCOVER

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

MY REVIEW:

This book actually hooked me with the introduction. It is written as diary entries and the intro warns potential readers, saying:

“If you’re reading this, your life is at risk. Or should I say, your life is at even greater risk than it was already. I’m sorry to burden you with this. I don’t wish you the kind of harm that came to me and the others from Creek’s Cause. This is what I’ve managed to piece together since it all began. I wrote it down knowing that words are more powerful than bullets – and certainly more dangerous. All is probably lost already. But maybe, just maybe, these pages will give you a chance. I hope you’re up to it.”

What a way to begin. Author Gregg Hurwitz certainly knows how to hook an audience. I was immediately intrigued, especially since this is the first Young Adult novel Gregg Hurwitz has ever written. I have read several of his adult fiction titles and have thoroughly enjoyed each one.

This is the tale of two brothers who live in the small town of Creek’s Cause which is located in a valley between mountain ranges. The main industry in Creek’s Cause is farming and the Rain brothers are known to be exceptional students as well as hard workers on their Uncle’s farm. Both brothers believe they have their lives all mapped out and their futures secure.

In a single night all that changes and the sleepy town they live in becomes a war zone where death and destruction  are widespread and no one under the age of eighteen is safe.

After watching adults they have known their entire lives turn into unrecognizable monsters, Patrick and Chance Rain realize that kids are being attacked by adults and taken away somewhere.

Upon reaching the high school where other kids are hiding and discovering that the parasite infecting the adults takes over a person’s body the minute they turn eighteen, the brothers decide they must do something about the situation. Especially since Patrick’s eighteenth birthday is quickly approaching.

Determined to save Patrick’s life and the lives of the rest of the kids, including those who have been abducted, the two brothers embark on a mission to find out the truth about the parasites.

What they uncover is truly horrifying, the scope of which is staggering.

Determined not to roll over and give up, Chance and Patrick realize that they just might the last hope for humanity’s survival, and as such they devise a plan that is daring and maybe even suicidal. But if their plan works,  they just might save our world.

This book starts out action-packed and the pace never lets up. It is a page-turner that will not only have readers on the edge of their seats, but they will also find themselves unable to put this book down.

I read this book in a single sitting and found myself completely immersed in the lives of Patrick and Chance Rain.

The world building is exquisite and the character development is not only excellent, but should be required reading for other YA authors since it is close to perfection.

I rate this book as 6 out of 5 Stars. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 (I know that rating does not officially exist, but this book deserves it nonetheless.)

Since this is only the first book in a series I will be on the lookout for the next installment of this riveting adventure.

I want to say thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Gregg Hurwitz is the New York Timesbestselling author of 15 thrillers, most recently, ORPHAN X. His novels have been shortlisted for numerous literary awards, graced top ten lists, and have been translated into 29 languages.

He is also a New York Times Bestselling comic book writer, having penned stories for Marvel (Wolverine, Punisher) and DC (Batman, Penguin).

Additionally, he’s written screenplays for or sold spec scripts to many of the major studios, and written, developed, and produced television  for various networks.  

Gregg resides in Los Angeles.

To learn more about this author and his books please click on the following links:

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If you live anywhere near North Hollywood you could be a part of a Special Launch Event for THE RAINS at Blast Off Comics. Ckick HERE for more information. 

To learn more about his new book in the adult fiction category go to: 

ORPHAN X LINK