HORROR

Malice House

Hyperion Avenue. Oct. 2022. 384p. ISBN 9781368089289. $26.99. HORROR
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DEBUT In her adult debut, Shepherd (Midnight Beauties) conjures up a twisted tale—made up of even more twisted tales—perfect for adults nostalgic for Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark. When Haven returns home to settle the estate of her late father, a Pulitzer Prize–winning author, she stumbles upon his unpublished manuscript Bedtime Stories for Monsters. Hoping to finally kick-start her career as an artist, Haven begins to illustrate the creatures from the secret manuscript and negotiate book deals. Then she witnesses things she can’t explain: real-life manifestations of the imaginary creatures from her father’s stories, which perfectly resemble her renditions. But who manifested them? Haven, her father, or something much darker? When bodies begin to pile up, and Haven and the manuscript are the only things that all the deaths have in common, she begins to question her father’s dementia and her own sanity.
VERDICT Readers will love the mystery, mayhem, and terrifying look at make-believe, and the monsters that are dreamed into existence in the process. Recommend to fans of Darcy Coates’s The Haunting of Leigh Harker and EV Knight’s Children of Demeter.
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