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Review: The Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer

~ megs14malloy ~ Leave a comment

The CaretakerThe Caretaker by Marcus Kliewer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

**4.5-stars**

Follow the rites…

The Caretaker is one of those books that I’m blessed enough to get a chance to read early, and then I can’t wait for everyone else to read because I need to talk about it!

This story captured my full attention and did not let up the entire way through. I read it in a day and it left me with A LOT to think about. I was doing mental gymnastics trying to keep up with everything Kliewer was throwing at me, and honestly, it was exhilarating.

Macy Mullins, our MC, is a young woman a bit down on her luck, who needs to scramble to support not only herself, but her little sister, Jemma. After a string of failed job interviews, Macy is still on the hunt when an enticing ad on Craig’s List catches her eye:

EXCITING OPPORTUNITY:
Caretaker urgently needed. Three days of work. Competitive pay. Serious applicants ONLY.

Macy applies and ends up securing an interview. She meets with the woman who she would be working for, and although it’s an unusual meeting, to say the least, Macy can’t afford to be picky.

As an outside observer, I may have been screaming at Macy to not agree to take the job, but I also can’t pay Macy’s bills, so she does what she has to do and she accepts.

It’s only 3-days work, where she’ll have to stay at the woman’s house in the wilderness of Oregon and take care of her house. How bad could it possibly get?

Y’all, it can get bad. I think we all know this. Even Macy probably knew this, but like I said, she really didn’t have much of a choice. The first thing that really captured me about this book was how realistic and well-developed Macy was as a protagonist.

While I’ve never experienced some of the things that Macy had been through, I couldn’t help by feel connected to her struggles. I had such empathy for her while she was just working through her own thoughts.

I also felt like I was going on this journey with her. The house, the property, the weirdness of the whole circumstance was seeping off the page and into my brain. It felt tactile to me. I was feeling it all; transported.

The synopsis describes this as a waking nightmare, and I can’t think of a better way to put it. There were scenes that played into some of my own fears and left me absolutely chilled to the bone and my blood pumping.

I need to get a physical copy, because I’ll be reading it again. It’s twisted, layered and I would love to take more time with it. Now that I know the end, I feel I could pick up more of the smaller pieces I may have missed on this first go.

Upon completion, I sat and just stared at the wall for a good 4-to-5 minutes. Yes, that’s a good thing. If this doesn’t leave you with an existential crisis, I’m not sure what will.

At this end of the day, I found this wildly-entertaining. It’s highly-consummable, gripping and disturbing. It’s going to stick in my mind for a long, long time.

Thank you to the publisher, Atria, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This is the first I’ve read from this author, but you better believe I’ll be picking up more.

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Review: You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom by Vincent Tirado

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You Should Have Been Nicer to My MomYou Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom by Vincent Tirado
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You Should Have Been Nicer to My Mom follows Xiomara as she returns to her Papi Ramon’s house following his death. The entire family is gathering for the reading of Papi’s Will and though Xiomara is somewhat estranged from her family, she’s compelled to be there.

She does have good memories of Papi, and his stories, but for the most part she’s feeling a lot of apprehension about this event. It’s sure to be tense and emotionally-charged.

The wealthy Abreau family gathers at Papi’s estate, but nothing could have prepared them for the following words being read: “One of you is el bacà, the demon that I made a deal with. Get rid of them or you will be damned.”

I mean words like that will stop any family gathering in its tracks; at least for a moment. Xiomara is shocked, but she feels the truth in the statement. The rest of the family is outraged. They demand the attorney return to his office to retrieve the previous version of the Will.

As the attorney departs, a vicious storm breaks out forcing the rest of the family to remain trapped together within the house. Suspicions and tensions run high, and over the course of the night numerous family secrets and scandals are revealed, violence erupts, but who is el bacà?

This was so fun! I recognize this won’t work for every Reader, but luckily for me, it 100% worked. It’s an interesting take on an inheritance story, and I appreciated all the effort Tirado put into the messy family dynamics.

For me, the story felt fast-paced and engaging the whole way through. This is a big family and there’s a lot of shite going on amongst them. I was so here for it, just sitting in the corner, eating my popcorn.

Seriously, this is the type of story where you just feel like a fly on the wall, watching everything unfold. I really enjoyed Xiomara as a main character. I could feel all of her emotions as she was forced into such close proximity with a family she had grown distant from.

In certain ways, this reminded me of Rachel Harrison’s Black Sheep. It’s that sort of play on a toxic family and I enjoyed it in both stories.

This is the 3rd-novel that I’ve read from Vincent Tirado, though the other two were YA. I’ve really enjoyed them all. I feel like Tirado’s writing is just a great fit for my tastes. I appreciate how they take risks with their stories, and they aren’t afraid of examining some dark themes.

I also really enjoy their character work, particularly the main characters. I’ve felt connected with them in each of the novels I’ve read from Tirado. I’m rooting for them and wishing for their safety as, of course, they all find themselves in various sticky situations.

Admittedly, there’s a lot of arguing and battling in the family in this one. It’s constant, and while normally I’m not crazy about stories that feature people fighting all the time, for some reason it worked fine here.

I think maybe because usually when I hate it, it’s a group of friends, and I think to myself, why are these people even friends? Because we choose our friends, right? But we can’t choose the family we’re born into, which is why I think here it just sort of made sense.

The final bits were so satisfying as well. I thought it concluded seamlessly and it left me with a little evil grin on my face that I love. Again though, definitely not going to be for everyone, but I think for the Readers it hits with, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Thank you to the publisher, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I am looking forward to whatever Tirado writes next!

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Review: Greedy by Callie Kazumi

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GreedyGreedy by Callie Kazumi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Greedy follows Edward Cook, a British-expat, living in Japan with his wife and young daughter. Ed is in serious debt due to his secret gambling addiction and finds himself without a job, leaving him with no way to pay back the dangerous individuals he owes.

It doesn’t take long for desperation to set in. Ed needs to make a move to increase his cash flow, and quickly. His life, and the lives of his family, depend on it.

It’s when he is at rock bottom that he stumbles upon an unusual help wanted ad: Chef wanted! Private chef needed for a high-profile businesswoman. One million yen per day.

What desperate man wouldn’t apply for this job? Sure, Ed’s no Michelin star chef, but he did spend time as a line cook once. That’s pretty much the same thing, right?

To his surprise and delight, after his interview, Ed is offered the job, which he of course accepts. Leaving his wife and daughter behind in Tokyo, he travels to the mountains to the lavish estate of his new employer, Hazeline Yamamoto, an eccentric and reclusive ex-socialite, where he will be staying during his work weeks.

Ed finds himself thrust into Hazeline’s mysterious world; secretive, extravagant and lush. As chef, Ed has a lot of interactions with Hazeline’s other household staff, and learns a lot of what is expected of him in his new role through them.

As I know you’re all guessing, something isn’t quite right at Hazeline’s estate. Ed hears strange noises and is plagued by unsettling dreams. He also sees Hazeline and others behaving oddly, as well as her frequent guests, whose behavior leaves a lot to be desired.

We follow along with Ed as he tries to navigate this new world. He just wants to pay off his debt. He just wants to do right by his wife and daughter, but will he succeed, or has he gotten in over his head?

Heck yeah, this was good. Intriguing and slightly-gruesome, I was pulled into the story very quickly. I think Kazumi did a great job of setting it up. It doesn’t take too long to get to the heart of the story, but she provided enough groundwork to make you feel settled and invested.

Ed’s story was captivating, the secrets he had been keeping from his family that propelled him into this ominous new career path, it was so well-imagined.

I also loved the way the tension increased as the story progressed, as more and more is revealed to Ed; his revelations were my revelations. I truly felt like I was on this journey with him. The atmosphere as well, I could feel it, it got under my skin. The mysterious benefactor, her odd and exuberant guests, it kept me intrigued throughout.

I do think some aspects were predictable, but just because they were to me, doesn’t mean they were to Ed. To watch Ed as reality slowly dawned on him, the horror and revulsion he felt, it was compelling.

And the ending, ohhhh my. I won’t forget this one.

Thank you to the publisher, Bantam, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I would recommend this to Horror Readers, or fans of Dark Fiction in general. I can’t wait for more from this author!!

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Review: Adrift by Will Dean

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AdriftAdrift by Will Dean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Adrift follows the tumultuous lives of a family living aboard a cramped houseboat in a desolate canal. Drew and Peggy, husband and wife, were both aspiring writers. Drew even had a glimpse of some early success, but since has struggled, working blue collar jobs and barely making ends meet.

Peggy is the glue that holds the family together. She’s a loving mother to their 14-year old son, Sam, and she spends some time, when she’s not cooking and cleaning for her family, volunteering at a local library. Secretly, she’s also been continuing to write.

The story follows the family through their day-to-day and it is bleak, my friends. I’m talking non-stop hardship, dissension and isolation. Though it initially reads like a straight Literary Fiction/Family Drama, it does take a sharp turn in the second half.

Admittedly, this is a very difficult read. The drama is powerful and painful. In fact, I had to put it down for a couple of days just to get a break from it more than once. Around 30%, I wondered, why am I reading this, it’s depressing AF, but I couldn’t give it up.

Something was holding me there with these characters.

But as challenging as it was to get through, I also think it’s an important read. Dean did an incredible job with these characters and their toxic dynamic. It felt incredibly realistic, which is sad to say due to the content.

I was fully immersed and it was pretty painful, not gonna lie, but I walk away so impressed with the quality of this storytelling and what Dean was able to achieve here.

I think if you’re in the right headspace going into this, and you are aware that it’s going to be a challenge, that you could walk away appreciating it as I did. It gets intense, almost claustrophobic feeling and I started to feel as desperate as the characters, but the payoff was worth it.

Thank you to the publisher, Atria, for providing me with a copy to read and review. This novel felt like a gut-punch. Dean should be proud.

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Review: Warning Signs by Tracy Sierra

~ megs14malloy

Warning SignsWarning Signs by Tracy Sierra
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Tracy Sierra impressed me with her debut novel, Nightwatching, when I read it back in 2024. It was disturbing in such a realistic way, and played off one of my own personal fears, which is being in my house as an intruder breaks in to cause harm.

That horrifying scenario is something I think about a lot actually, I write whilst being home alone for the weekend.

Warning Signs is Sierra’s Sophmore novel and follows 12-year old Zach as he joins his Dad, somewhat reluctantly, on a father-son ski weekend. Before you jump to conclusions and think, how nice, a Dad who wants to spend time with his son, I’ll just let you know, that’s not the case here.

Bram, Zach’s Dad, has his own strong motives for this trip and it has nothing to do with father-son bonding time. Bram’s business is currently in financial distress, and the weekend was planned as a way to woo potential investors.

Bram and Zach are being joined by some rich men, and their sons, in the hopes that Bram will be able to make some deals on the mountain. Because nothing says, let’s spend some money like apres ski drinks.

As you would expect in a Winter Thriller, things begin to go wrong with the group pretty quickly. There’s tensions among the adults and Zach feels like something scary is watching their cabin from the woods.

As the dangers escalate Zach’s unsure who to trust, but he’s sure thankful that he was trained in outdoor survival by his Mom. He might need to utilize all of that valuable knowledge in order to make it off this mountain alive.

While this may have started out feeling like a standard Winter Thriller, a ski weekend gone bad, it took a sharp turn in a direction I wasn’t expecting. Sierra knows how to get a Reader’s pulse racing and I was gripped until the end.

The initial sections of this doesn’t have the same intensity as Nightwatching, which got cooking right from the start, but this story definitely gets there as the story progresses. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a slow build, but it does take some time to really get humming.

I wasn’t sure either how I would feel about following the perspective of a 12-year old boy in this type of story, but it really worked. I feel like his perspective was the best way to convey the level of danger and I did grow attached to him. I was on the edge of my seat on his behalf.

At times it felt hopeless, and it definitely made me anxious, but in a good way. I flew through the second half and ended up enjoying the heck out of it. I would recommend this to anyone who loves an intense Winter Thriller, or anyone who had fun with Sierra’s previous book.

Thank you to Pamela Dorman Books for providing me with a copy to read and review. There’s no denying that Tracy Sierra is such a talented writer. I’m really looking forward to whatever she releases next!

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Review: The Darkness Greeted Her by Christina Ferko

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The Darkness Greeted HerThe Darkness Greeted Her by Christina Ferko
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Darkness Greeted her is a YA Horror novel tackling themes such as sapphic relationships, mental health struggles, overcoming trauma, and features a dark atmosphere.

In this story, our MC is Penny, who has a traumatic past, mostly surrounding her abusive father, that she’s trying to overcome. She also struggles with Harm OCD, so she enlists in a therapy camp to try to face her issues head on, and get control of her life back.

Camp Whitewood is very small, I think there were maybe 8 girls total. I don’t remember specifically, but it was a smaller group, which gave it a more intimate feel.

Even though we follow Penny mainly, Ferko did provide different sections for the other girls, where we are shown the parts of their pasts that may have contributed to them entering Camp Whitewood. And though everyone had very different experiences, you could tell that their trauma was something that they could relate and bond over.

The interesting and horrible part of the camp is that their traumas seem to suddenly take form in the shape of a Shadow Man, a monster who brings their deepest fears to life. The visions involved in this are truly horrific for the girls, and also confusing.

As their hallucinations escalate and girls begin to turn up dead, Penny must team up with whoever is left to get to the truth behind the Shadow Man, and try to defeat him before he’s able to conquer the rest of them.

I liked this. It’s a heavy story and does involve a lot of depictions of traumatic situations happening on page; check for trigger warnings if that concerns you. I enjoyed the idea of this Shadow Man entity bringing their darkest nightmares to life for these recovering girls to try to defeat.

The action bits, particularly towards the end, were quite chaotic and I did find it slightly difficult to visualize and track. Additionally, I didn’t necessarily find any of the characters, besides Penny, that memorable. They were pretty much interchangeable to me, but I did appreciate the difficult topics the author was addressing.

I think in the YA space this would be a good introduction to this style of Horror for a lot of younger readers. For me, this really didn’t do anything new or exciting, therefore I’m not sure how memorable it will be long term.

However, I do appreciate the author’s efforts and vision. I know so many Readers are going to be able to connect to the girls’ experiences in this book, and that’s super important as well. I’m glad I checked it out.

Thank you to the publisher, Sourcebooks Fire, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’d be happy to pick up more from this author in the future.

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Review: 25 Days by Per Jacobsen

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25 Days25 Days by Per Jacobsen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

25 Days is a Winter Horror Thriller set in the month of December. The author has cleverly structured it so that it can be read like an advent calendar, as each chapter is one day leading up to Christmas.

Hence the name, 25 Days.

The story follows Adam Gray and his family. Adam and his wife have been at odds recently, and in an effort to draw everyone closer together, he rents a holiday home for them for the days leading up to Christmas.

The vacation rental is a remote cabin tucked away on a snowy mountain. Far from the outside world, the family should have zero distractions, allowing more time for good ole’ fashioned family fun.

Things quickly take a dark turn though, when someone begins leaving grotesque gifts in a Christmas stocking tacked to the barn door. Each more brings something new, and the gifts progressively escalate in threat level.

It’s clear someone is stalking their cabin, toying with them like a cat with a mouse. How will Adam be able to protect his family? He needs to get them off this mountain, but the odds are definitely stacked against them.

I don’t have a ton to say about this one. This wasn’t bad by any means, it just felt very standard to me. Glancing at other reviews, it definitely seems that other Readers enjoyed this one a lot more than me.

It does have a particular intensity to it that I can see why it would pull people in, but for me, it just never truly captured me. I was reading it and it was fine, but nothing drew me in, or made me feel invested for this family.

It was mildly entertaining in the moment, but overall I’d say fairly forgettable. It’s giving standard Winter Thriller, vacation gone bad, vibes, but maybe amping it up a bit.

I do think it could be fun to read while on your own Winter vacation. It might keep you up at night, particularly if you’re in a remote location.

In only took me a day to read, quick and easy, so that was a plus, but I probably won’t think about it again now that the review is done. If you’re looking for a Wintery Horror Thriller though, give it shot. So many Readers are having fun with it, and you may too.

Thank you to the publisher, Atria, for providing me a copy to read and review. While I appreciate the thought the author put into the structure of the story, it just wasn’t for me.

On to the next!

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Review: She Didn’t Stand a Chance by Stacie Grey

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She Didn't Stand a ChanceShe Didn’t Stand a Chance by Stacie Grey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When Gertie gets notification that she’s being summoned to her recently-deceased, estranged father’s luxurious desert property for the reading of his Will, she’s not exactly elated.

She hasn’t seen her four half-siblings since she was just a toddler, and has absolutely nothing in common with them. Nevertheless, she’s curious and decides to go, in spite of how awkward it’s bound to get.

Once at the property, her assumptions are confirmed. Her half-siblings treat her like gutter trash blown in off the streets. They stick her in the cluttered and neglected pool house, with no air con, or any other conveniences.

Gertie receives more warmth from the property’s staff than her own family, made worse when it’s revealed she’s set to inherit a large portion of the estate. A larger portion than anyone would have expected; especially Gertie.

Gertie has so many questions, including how did their father die? The more she asks about that, the clearer it becomes that he might not have died of natural causes.

When a member of the household staff is killed a few days later, Gertie’s confident that something nefarious is going on inside this house of glass. Will she be able to get to the bottom of it, or will she fall prey to the killer in their midst?

She Didn’t Stand a Chance pulled me in very quickly. I love an inheritance story, and this one gets to the nitty-gritty of the inheritance pretty early on.

I also really enjoyed Gertie as a main character. She’s plucky, resourceful and was very active in digging into the events surrounding her father’s death. It would have been very easy for her to just go there, sit quietly, take what was hers and move on, but she didn’t.

Though Gertie’s perspective is the only one we get in the present timeline, Grey did include some very fun mixed media aspects that helped to move the plot along. Additionally, we get little snippets of what was going on within the family just prior to their Dad’s death.

The siblings, Maryann, Brian, Liam and Jennifer, were all absolutely terrible. It was fun watching their ridiculously-petty antics. They were working hard to intimidate Gertie, but she’s made of stronger stuff than that.

There were some interesting side characters as well. My favorites being Mrs. Phan, the long-time property manager, and Eddie, the chef. The staff def had strong feelings about the family and I enjoyed getting their thoughts.

I did feel this dragged out a little towards the end, but overall, I found it to be an intriguing mystery. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out what had happened to the Dad and I definitely had moments where I was scared for our MC.

I would recommend this for anyone who enjoys a tense and dramatic inheritance story. The mystery was engaging and many of the characters were a lot of fun to hate.

I also truly enjoyed the desert setting, which added so much to the general feel of the story.

Thank you to the publisher, Poisoned Pen Press, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m looking forward to more from Stacie Grey!

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