The Ghost Woods by C. J. Cooke

Started: 12.6.26

Finished: 14.6.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Gothic vibes

It took me a while to get into this book, there were a couple of times when I almost DNF'd it. It follows the timelines of two women, Mabel and Pearl, both pregnant but unmarried, which means they are sent to Lichen Hall, a mother and baby home. Here, the expectation is that they will give birth and then their babies will be adopted. Their timelines are only about 6 years apart though, and some of the other characters appeared in both, so I was often very confused about whose story I was reading.

The book demonstrates the social constraints and degrading treatment faced by unmarried pregnant women at the time, and touches on the fear and discrimination felt by the LGBTQIA+ community too. Apparently it's the third book in a trio dealing with nature and motherhood, the first two instalments being The Nesting and The Lighthouse Witches, but I believe they're standalone novels.

I didn't find the creepy elements of the story to be particularly scary at all, but I think that's because I'm a bit over the whole 'botanical horror' trope.

Let Me Lie by Clare Mackintosh

Started: 6.6.26

DNF: 7.6.26

Paperback

TBR prompt: Added to list in 2025

I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book. It's about Anna, whose parents committed suicide within a few months of each other, except she's not convinced that it was suicide. I can't say that this particular subject matter appealed to me, so I've decided not to continue.

Abandon by Blake Crouch

Started: 24.5.26

Finished: 25.5.26

Paperback

We've just had a really hot (for the UK) late May Bank Holiday (around 30 degrees celsius), and I've just read two books back to back set in freezing cold locations - I think that may have been a subconscious reaction, as I'm not a big fan of the hot weather.

Abandon was a remote mining town in the American West, where all the inhabitants vanished without a trace on Christmas Day in 1893. In the present day, a group including a historian and two paranormal investigators set out to try to uncover the mystery of what happened. Miles from civilization, and in the middle of a harsh blizzard, the group realise that they are not alone in the town.

I couldn't imagine what had happened to the residents of Abandon back in 1893; I was hoping for some kind of supernatural occurrence, but the reality was actually far scarier than I'd thought. I enjoyed the dual timelines, especially when they began to kind of mirror each other towards the end. Although I don't think this is based on a true story, it's certainly inspired by the history of ghost towns in the American West, and I would definitely recommend this to fans of The Hunger by Alma Katsu, and The Terror by Dan Simmons. 

The White Road by Sarah Lotz

Started: 23.5.26

Finished: 24.5.26

Paperback

I've tried to keep my star ratings* simple by not using half and quarter stars, but if I did, this would definitely be either a 4.5 or 4.75. It was almost a 5, until it just dragged a little bit in part three. To be honest, I could forgive that and still round it up to a five. This is all to say that I loved this book! 

It follows Simon who, along with flatmate and colleague Thierry, runs a website where they capture footage of dead bodies. Simon is the adrenaline junkie of the two, with some climbing experience from his youth, so he's the one 'out in the field'. After a caving trip goes badly wrong, Thierry convinces him to join an Everest climbing party, so that he can record some of the deceased climbers who remain on the mountain. Again, this does not end well.

Although Simon is a bit of a jerk, he's a jerk with something of a conscience, haunted by his mistakes. Realising that what he's doing is morally and ethically wrong, he tries to make amends, but is it all too late?

The beginning of the book, with the spelunking trip, brought to mind the real life horrors of Nutty Putty (IYKYK). The Everest part reminded me of Thin Air by Michelle Paver, and even, in parts, of Dark Matter, my favourite ghost story, so that's high praise from me!

*I don't use them on this blog, but I do on Pagebound, Storygraph and Goodreads.

We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

Started: 22.5.26

Finished: 23.5.26

Paperback

At last, a finished book! I really enjoyed this, the story was gripping, and I loved the little 'reader participation' bits, with working out the Morse Code and the capitalised letters. The psychological thriller aspect was so creepy, a (mostly) normal family coming into your house and then just not leaving. Towards the end it started to get very weird, almost a bit 'cosmic horror' (or cosmic thriller, if that's a genre), and is it too much of a spoiler to say I got a few Shutter Island vibes? Definitely left me with more questions than answers, but it was a good read, nonetheless. 

In The Woods by Tana French

Started: 18.5.26

DNF: 18.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Grey book

Another DNF, another one that could've been the last prompt because I'd been putting this off too. Not for me.

Box 88 by Charles Cumming

Started: 17.5.26

DNF: 18.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Book I've been putting off

Well, with a TBR prompt of "book I've been putting off" there was always a chance that I wasn't going to get far with this, and I'm afraid I DNF'd it just a couple of chapters in. Not my cup of tea.

All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris Whitaker

Started: 10.5.26

Finished: 15.5.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: A book from the bottom shelf

Whew, this was epic, in the original sense of that word! The story follows two childhood best friends, Patch and Saint, whose lives are changed forever after a tragedy. Through the years that follow, their search for truth and justice takes them on very different, and incompatible, journeys, at times stretching their friendship almost to breaking point. This was not a happy story, though there were some happy moments. There was a kind of bleak inevitability running through it, knowing that what happened to them as children changed the whole trajectory of their lives. 261 mostly very short chapters, sometimes less than a page, kept the pace going in what might otherwise have been quite a slog. Characters were well fleshed out and likeable (except the ones we're not meant to like), descriptions of setting and location were, well, very descriptive. The last few chapters were kind of 'chase scene' exciting, and the very end of the book reminded me a lot of The Shawshank Redemption. 

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Started: 23.4.26

Finished: 25.4.26

Paperback

Book club choice

I've had this book since September 2025 (which is a long time for me, because I have a high book turnover!), but I've been hanging on to it for a while since I found out it was a book club choice for this month.

A woman murders her husband, and then refuses to speak for the next six years. A psychotherapist wants to help her tell her story. I didn't really warm to the characters; both the doctor and patient (via her own journal) were quite unreliable narrators and it was clear that we weren't going to get the full details until the end. When it came, it was quite a twist!

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Started: 2.4.26

DNF: 2.4.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Oldest book on my list

I got to page 104 but I wasn't enjoying it. A story about an author whose wife disappears without a trace, I found the MMC to be quite whiny and helpless. I get that he was grieving, but after the story jumped to a year later, it felt like every other sentence mentioned how much he loved his wife and couldn't write or do anything, really, without her. It was very repetitive. So I'm afraid I read some spoilers, then skipped to the end and read the last couple of chapters. There was definitely a big twist or two, but I'm not sorry that I DNF'd this. I do like books that are set in Scotland, so I presume this is why I had this book on my TBR, but even the Scottish island location wasn't enough to save it. I used to read a lot of thrillers but I definitely think my tastes are changing and these kinds of stories don't appeal to me as much as they once did.

The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman

Started: 29.3.26

Finished: 31.3.26

Hardcover

TBR Prompt: Orange book

Oops, I did it again! I finished one of next month's books, this month! But this was such a fun, easy read, I didn't want to slow down or wait. Great to be back with the Thursday Murder Club, and a few new characters too. I know there are some people who don't like these books, but... well, you're wrong. What's not to like? 

For what it's worth, I've always pictured Ron looking more like the ex-England footballer Jimmy Greaves:

And I can see why they chose Helen Mirren to play Elizabeth in the Netflix film, because she absolutely looks like she could be an ex-spy ("there's no such thing as an ex-spy"). But I thought it would've been a lot funnier to have someone like Anne Reid (though maybe when she was a few years younger, and sounding a bit more like her Dinnerladies character) saying things like "...I suspect my assistance was greatly appreciated when you were being throttled half to death in Odessa in 1974..."

Didn't really have any objections to Celia Imrie and Ben Kingsley though.

Penpal by Dathan Auerbach

Started: 27.2.26

Finished: 28.2.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Free pick from bookshelves

I've been wanting to read this book for a long time as I've heard such good things about it. It was meant to be one of my March reads, but I started it yesterday and finished it today, oops!

The narrator is an un-named person, recounting a series of random occurrences from his childhood; at the start of the novel he talks about memories and how they become distorted over time. The chapters do flit forwards and backwards in a non-linear way, which makes it a bit hard to follow. As he reconstructs his past, he realises with hindsight that all the odd things that happened to him were linked, and that they all culminated in a horrific event. 

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. I don't think it lived up to the hype for me. One of the things I struggled with is that a lot of the actions and dialogue felt too mature for the age that he claimed to be in that particular memory - running around in the woods with his friend when they were five and six years old, for example. And although the ending, and the way he finds out about everything that happened, was certainly horrific, I would put this book in the thriller genre rather than horror. 

The Other People by C.B. Everett

Started: 18.2.26

Finished: 20.2.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: House on the cover

Ten people awaken in a locked house, unaware of how they arrived there. A woman named Amanda tells them that they have 12 hours to solve the disappearance of a young woman. As they begin to come to terms with this unusual situation, they very quickly realise that a killer is stalking them and picking them off one by one. But who? And why? And who is the Beast In The Cellar? 

I wasn't too sure if I was going to like this book when I started it, but I persevered and it did hook me in eventually (although I found the beast chapters really annoying). I didn't guess the twist at the end at all, and to be honest, I didn't really like it, it just felt a bit 'bolted on' somehow.

Night Watching by Tracy Sierra

Started: 15.2.26

DNF: 18.2.26

Paperback

TBR Prompt: Pink book

I read the first two or three chapters but then ended up just flicking through the rest, trying to get the gist of what happened. Sometimes I can't read books where children are involved and in danger, and this was one of them.

Disappearance At Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay

Started: 26.1.26

Finished: 30.1.26

Paperback

Every parents nightmare - a 13 year old boy vanishes without trace in a local park, plunging his family into a desperate search for the shocking truth about his disappearance. I don't think I like books involving kids, when some kind of crime or terrible event has occurred, because it drives me mad that they lie to adults, or keep things to themselves because they think they know best. But I suppose if they told the police everything, right at the start, it'd be a pretty short book, wouldn't it?

Deity by Matt Wesolowski

Started: 28.1.26

Finished: 30.1.26

Kindle

This is the fifth in the Six Stories series. It's been on my Kindle since 2022. Again, I enjoyed the podcast format. This time Scott King was investigating the life and death of Zach Crystal, a popular but enigmatic global pop superstar who was the only victim of a devastating fire which roared through his remote Scottish home. Rumour and suspicion surrounded Crystal due to his unusual and possibly unhealthy interest in young girls, especially those from difficult backgrounds. He claimed to be just helping them; his staunchest supporters believed his every word, his critics doubted him. This book was written in 2020 - there were mentions of the #metoo movement, and I'll be honest, aspects of Zach Crystal's personality and lifestyle brought to mind a certain disgraced and denounced British eccentric known for his charity work (whose victims were only believed after his death), and also another global US popstar who allegedly had dubious relationships with children at his sprawling, very private home. Whilst there was a supernatural / folklore element to the story, it played a relatively small part compared to the more 'human' horrors that were discovered.

Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough

Started: 26.12.25

Finished: 28.12.25

Paperback

Louise meets a man in a bar, they kiss, and then she finds out that he's her new boss. Later, she bumps into his beautiful wife Adele, who convinces her to keep their new friendship a secret from David. Louise and David have an affair. Adele and David don't have a happy marriage. Is David a controlling, abusive husband? Does Adele have mental health issues? Should Louise break off all contact with them both? Why does everyone drink so much wine?

On the cover of my book it says "the most shocking ending you'll read all year". This had the desired effect of keeping me reading right to the end. There was certainly an unexpected twist, but it was extremely far-fetched, to the point of impossible, which was a bit of an anti-climax, if I'm honest.

The Night House by Jo Nesbo

Started: 24.12.25

Finished: 26.12.25

Paperback

Part One is about a boy called Richard, who witnesses his friend Tom get eaten by a payphone. Then another friend, Jack, metamorphoses into a cicada. Richard believes that a man called Imu Jonasson is behind all this.

Part Two occurs 15 years later, when Richard attends a class reunion. It turns out that he writes children's books, and the events that happened to Tom and Jack were just part of a story. They were real people from school though, and they are at the reunion, along with several other classmates who also featured in his novel. When the reunion party moves back to the house of Oscar, Richard finds himself being hunted down by all his former classmates who want to kill him because of how much he bullied them at school.

In Part Three, Richard has actually been living in a psychiatric asylum for the past 15 years, after his father killed his mother in an arson attack on their ninth floor apartment. His father fell from the window and also died. Richard is receiving ECT to try and erase the memories of the fire. Once again, the various people that he encounters in the asylum have the same names as the people who featured as classmates in his novel The Night House, which his therapist encourages him to start writing. So it kind of all comes full circle. 

The plot reminded me very much of the film Ghost Stories, where a man with locked-in syndrome imagines an entirely different life for himself based on the people and objects in his hospital room.

Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney

Started: 18.10.25

Finished: 21.10.25

Hardback - library book

Pretty good page turner with a twist I didn't see coming.

The Burning Girls by C. J. Tudor

Started: 4.10.25

Finished: 5.10.25

Paperback - Library book

A good story, kept my interest throughout.