Tag: Horror

Horror

Keep it in the Family

A chilling spiral into generational trauma, Keep it in the Family dares you to look away—and guarantees you won’t.

Keep it in the Family

by John Marrs

Some secrets stay buried. Others rot quietly in the attic.

Keep it in the Family

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Keep it in the Family

John Marrs

Horror / Psychological Thriller

381

October 18, 2022

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The Quick Look

Keep it in the Family is a dark, unflinching dive into generational trauma and the horrors we inherit—whether we mean to or not. It’s tense, twisted, and impossible to put down. You won’t know who to trust… or what darkness lies just beneath the surface.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Child abuse, graphic violence, murder, psychological trauma, family dysfunction, gaslighting

 

  • Themes: Generational Trauma, Family Loyalty, The Cycle of Abuse, Trust, Guilt, Survival
  • Read If You Like
    • The Housemaid by Freida McFadden
    • The Push by Ashley Audrain
    • Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
    • Stories where family is both the anchor… and the weapon
  • Best For: Thriller readers who like their stories dark, deeply psychological, and devastatingly real.
  • Skip If: You’re looking for a light mystery, a tidy ending, or something that won’t make you question your childhood.

The Full Review

PLOT & PACING
This is a masterclass in slow-building dread. Marrs doles out the twists with precision, keeping you constantly unsure of where it’s going or who you can trust. The pacing is relentless—just when you think you can breathe, it yanks the rug out again.

CHARACTERS & VOICE
The characters are disturbingly real, with motivations shaped by generational pain and buried secrets. No one is quite who they seem, and that’s exactly the point. This is a story about masks—who wears them, and who learns to live without one.

WRITING STYLE & ATMOSPHERE
Crisp, chilling, and cinematic. Marrs knows exactly how to create tension without tipping his hand, and the atmosphere? Claustrophobic in the best (worst) way.

THEMES & DEPTH
Beneath the twists and shocks lies a brutal truth: the lessons we inherit don’t just stay with us—they haunt the next generation too. This book forces you to ask: When does the cycle stop? And what does it take to break it?

PERSONAL TAKE
I’ve never read something so horrifying… and yet so magnetic. I had to know how it all unraveled. Keep it in the Family burrowed under my skin and stayed there. It’s the kind of story that lingers—long after the final page.

The Final Verdict

Gripping, grotesque, and deeply unsettling, Keep it in the Family is a twisted love letter to the idea that family shapes us—
for better or, more often, for worse.

💀💀💀💀 out of 5 suitcases you should’ve left closed.

Incidents Around the House

Properly terrifying, emotionally raw, and eerily believable—Incidents Around the House is the kind of horror that lingers in the corner of your eye long after the final page.

Incidents Around the House

by Josh Malerman

Some secrets won’t stay buried—they wait... and they watch.

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman

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Incidents Around the House

Josh Malerman

Horror

384

June 5, 2024

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The Quick Look

Told entirely through the eyes of 8-year-old Bela, Incidents Around the House is a masterclass in creeping dread. It’s the kind of horror that doesn’t rely on gore or jump scares—it burrows under your skin and stays there. With a terrifying entity known only as “Other Mommy,” and a family unraveling under the weight of secrets, Josh Malerman delivers one of the most unsettling reads of the year.

  • Themes: Family secrets, childhood fear, inherited trauma, the danger of what’s left unsaid.
  • Read if you like: The Babadook, Hereditary, creepy dolls and creepier parents, or horror with an emotional core.
  • Best for: Readers who enjoy psychological horror, child narrators done well, or anyone looking to be properly unnerved.
  • Skip if: You prefer clear-cut explanations, hate unreliable narration, or can’t handle child-in-peril stories.

HEADS UP: This one doesn’t use quotation marks. Personally, I recommend listening to this one. The reader does a phenomenal job.

The Full Review

PLOT & PACING
Bela is a young girl haunted by “Other Mommy”—a sinister figure who whispers terrifying things and wants to “go into her heart.” Told exclusively from Bela’s point of view, the story unfolds with limited understanding, making every moment more chilling. Layered on top of the supernatural is the slow unspooling of family secrets, some of which are revealed in nighttime confessions whispered at the foot of Bela’s bed. The pacing is deliberately slow, feeding the dread drip by drip until you’re begging for release.

CHARACTER & VOICE
Bela is one of the most believable child narrators I’ve read in horror. Her confusion, her innocence, her attempts to make sense of a world filled with shadows—it’s heartbreaking and chilling. The audiobook’s voice actress nails this balance, grounding Bela in reality while letting the terror leak through. The adults around her—especially her parents—are painted with growing unease. Their inability to protect, explain, or even behave like grown-ups makes the horror feel even more helpless.

STYLE & ATMOSPHERE
Malerman’s prose is simple but effective, perfectly suited to a child’s narration. The atmosphere is thick with tension and claustrophobia. There’s something off in every scene—an uncanny wrongness that builds with each page. If The Babadook got under your skin, this one will burrow even deeper.

THEMES & DEPTH
This is more than a haunted house story. It’s a quiet, aching look at how children inherit fear and trauma from sources they often don’t understand. The horrors here aren’t just supernatural—they’re rooted in what parents hide, what they refuse to say aloud, and what they think their children can’t hear. Incidents Around the House is about the dangers of secrets and the devastating ways they echo through a family.

PERSONAL TAKE
I listened to this one on audio, and the narrator brought Bela fully to life. It was unnerving, intimate, and—at times—devastating. “Other Mommy” is easily one of the creepiest horror creations I’ve encountered in a while. I don’t think I’ll ever forget her voice. This isn’t flashy horror. It’s slow, strange, and so deeply unsettling. I was uncomfortable the entire time… and I mean that as a compliment.

The Final Verdict

Properly terrifying, emotionally raw, and eerily believable—Incidents Around the House is the kind of horror that lingers in the corner of your eye long after the final page.

“If you think about it, every time you’ve ever been scared in your life so far, you’ve also survived whatever you were scared of. Right? You’ve literally gotten through everything you thought you might not. Everything you thought you weren’t strong enough to get through…you got through it. Or else you wouldn’t be here to know you got through it. Right?”
Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
Incidents Around the House
by Josh Malerman

How to Sell a Haunted House

Work through the stages of grief with Louise and her estranged brother Mark as they mourn their recently deceased parents and prepare to sell their house—which is hiding more than just secrets… Darkly funny and genuinely creepy, How to Sell a Haunted House delivers equal parts haunted horror and heartfelt family drama.

How to Sell a Haunted House

by Grady Hendrix

When your childhood puppet becomes the main villain, you know therapy’s not gonna cut it.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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How to Sell a Haunted House

Grady Hendrix

Horror

413

January 17, 2023

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The Quick Look

Work through the stages of grief with Louise and her estranged brother Mark as they mourn their recently deceased parents and prepare to sell their house—which is hiding more than just secrets… Darkly funny and genuinely creepy, How to Sell a Haunted House delivers equal parts haunted horror and heartfelt family drama.

  • Themes: Grief, death, familial secrets, childhood trauma, mental illness
  • Read if you like: The House in the Pines, Hereditary, creepy dolls, or sibling relationships that hit way too close to home.
  • Best for: Readers who love horror that makes them feel things, fans of family drama with supernatural flair, or anyone who likes their creepy with a side of dark humor.
  • Skip if: Puppets freak you out (seriously), you need highly literary prose, or you’re looking for a fast-paced scare-fest over a character-driven story.

The Full Review

PLOT & PACING
The story begins after the death of Louise’s parents. She and her brother Mark have inherited their childhood home and they plan to sell it… but the house—and its unsettling collection of puppets and memories—has other plans. As she and Mark attempt to clean out the family home and prepare it for sale, the past comes quite literally to life. The plot is structured around the five stages of grief, which adds an unexpected depth to a story that could’ve been just another haunted house tale. The pacing builds steadily toward a jaw-dropping, unsettling climax.

CHARACTER & VOICE
Louise is a fully formed, believable protagonist—flawed, grieving, and sarcastic. Her dynamic with her brother Mark feels authentic in all the worst ways: unresolved fights, painful memories, and that weird mix of love and resentment. Even the villain (yes, Pupkin the puppet) somehow manages to feel like a character with terrifying emotional weight. Hendrix excels at making everyone feel human… even the not-so-human.

STYLE & ATMOSPHERE
The prose isn’t overly literary, but it’s incredibly effective. The blend of horror and humor is one of the book’s greatest strengths. There’s a Southern gothic flavor to the setting—dusty attics, childhood bedrooms full of secrets, and memories that rot like forgotten boxes in a closet. It’s chilling, but never joyless.

THEMES & DEPTH
At its core, this book is about grief—how it manifests, how we avoid it, and how it warps us if left unspoken. The haunted house is a metaphor for everything unprocessed: regret, sibling tension, unresolved trauma. And the puppets? Maybe the best (and creepiest) metaphor for the things we inherit but never really want.

PERSONAL TAKE
I’ve been craving a horror novel that could scare me and make me think, and this delivered. The creep factor is real, but it’s the emotional depth that caught me off guard. There were moments I laughed out loud—and moments I wanted to sleep with the lights on. It’s the kind of book that will stick with you… probably with Pupkin whispering in your ear.

The Final Verdict

A chilling, charming, and cathartic look at how families fall apart—and maybe come back together—with the help of (or maybe in spite of?) some possessed puppets.

The Shadows

Discover whether ghosts can kill and the nightmares you disturb when you unearth secrets of a past you’ve desperately tried to forget.

The Shadows by Alex North

Haunting Truths and the Ghosts of Home

The Shadows

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The Shadows

Alex North

Horror; Psychological Thriller

323

July 7, 2020

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The Quick Look

Sometimes the scariest ghosts aren’t the ones haunting your house—they’re the ones buried in your past. The Shadows tiptoes between horror and heartbreak, delivering a story that’s more chilling for how human it feels. 

  • Themes: Returning home, lucid dreaming, unburied secrets, memory, letting go
  • Read If You Like: The Whisper Man, Stephen King’s IT, or eerie stories that straddle the line between supernatural and psychological horror.
  • Best for: Horror fans who want a side of emotional depth with their nightmares.
  • Skip if: You’re looking for gore or a fast-paced scarefest. Or actual ghosts.

The Full Review

PLOT & PACING:
At its core, The Shadows is a murder mystery steeped in urban legend, unsettling dreams, and buried trauma. The dual timelines—present-day Paul and his teenage years—keep the tension humming, and the book unravels with just enough shadowy ambiguity to keep you guessing.

CHARACTERS & VOICE:
Paul Adams is a wonderfully flawed protagonist—introverted, hesitant, and scarred by the past. His return to his childhood home doesn’t just reopen old wounds—it tears them wide open. The supporting cast may not be as deeply fleshed out, but they serve the eerie atmosphere well.

STYLE & ATMOSPHERE:
Alex North’s prose is efficient and evocative, even if not overly lyrical. Where he truly excels is in mood—there’s a damp, decaying nostalgia that permeates the story, a creeping dread that builds as Paul digs deeper into his haunted past. It’s not gory or in-your-face horror, but rather the kind that lingers in the corners.

THEMES & DEPTH:
Beneath the horror is a meditation on memory, guilt, and the danger of unresolved trauma. The novel asks what happens when we return to the places that shaped us—and what we find when we peel back the years. It also plays cleverly with the idea of lucid dreams and shared hallucination, adding another layer of uncertainty to the narrative.

PERSONAL TAKE:
I expected creepy. I didn’t expect it to feel so personal. The horror is unsettling, but what hit hardest was the emotional honesty—especially the way Paul’s childhood home reflects his internal unraveling. The more I think about this one, the more I appreciate its quiet power.

The Final Verdict

A slow-burning, psychological ghost story that manages to haunt both emotionally and atmospherically. The Shadows is less about jump scares and more about the secrets that haunt us long after we leave home.