The Easton family has just moved into their new fixer-upper, a beautiful old house that they bought at a steal, and Alice, the youngest of the family, is excited to explore the strange, new place. Her excitement turns to growing dread as she discovers a picture hidden under the old wallpaper, a child’s drawing of a family just like hers. Soon after, members of the family begin to disappear, each … family begin to disappear, each victim marked on the child’s drawing with a dark black X. It’s up to her to unlock the grim mystery of the house before she becomes the next victim.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing. Launched in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices.
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I was in the mood for a good spooky book an this one did not disappoint. An old house with a hidden past, a family on the brink of collapse, and odd occurences make for a deliciously creepy tale. The thing I liked best is the protagonist is a 10 year old girl. Wonderful story!
A really fab read. An original storyline and one that really grabbed me. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this and can’t wait to read more from this author.
Story seemed a lil long winded.Story had a good build up ,but I was disappointed in the ending. Fell a bit short . Found myself speed reading just to finish
A splendid haunted house thriller that follows a family trying to make a fresh start in a bargain-priced house with a history. Sharp writing and clever plot twists keep the reader engaged as the horror builds and accelerates to a satisfying ending you will not see coming.
“But what secrets could owls have to tell?”
First off – massive apology to D.W. Gillespie, Flametree and Netgalley. I had this marked down as an October release and when I started to see the release posts and tweets, I realized I’d messed up! So, my sincere apologies for not getting this read and reviewed before the release date! I actually have another book from Netgalley that I’ve done the same with, so need to get through that ASAP as well!
One by One is my first time reading Gillespie’s work and it definitely won’t be the last. I actually have the paperback copy of The Toy Thief already (thanks Flametree Fourth of July Sale!) and I’ll be diving into that once done with my other physical read.
The book follows Alice and her family as they relocate into a new house. Well – new to them. Her dad, Frank, exclaims how they’ve lucked out and found a great deal. Once fixed up they’ll be sitting pretty.
Heard this before in horror stories, am I right?
Things soon unravel when a mysterious drawing is uncovered behind some old wallpaper and it’s then that Gillespie ramps up the massive creep and fears.
I found a number of spots where I was legitimately creeped out and unnerved. Haunted house type tales always do that for me, but this one added the elements of a brutal blizzard, tense family dynamics and a piece of the house’s history inserted to add back story. It hummed along.
This would typically be a book that I’d whip through in one or two sittings, but with a number of books on the go, it ended up taking me waaaaay longer than I wanted. This isn’t a negative about the book at all, it was just the reality of my life at the moment.
I had one negative in the entire book, and truly it’s probably more of me just getting confused.
The house has a lot of odd architectural quirks. One such description was of a small door and a very narrow passageway. I didn’t completely comprehend what this was and where it was going. I know it was going to another room, and the room had stuff in it, but I’m still not sure if it was going up to the attic or across to another room on the same floor. This was just my issue and it wasn’t a big deal overall, but a few times I got a bit confused!
The ending of this book is superb. I felt something similar to what happened was going to happen but without being spoilery – I really dug how Gillespie finished this one off. And the epilogue was a great touch.
This one is a stunning read, Gillespie can write his derriere off and it’s another fantastic release from Flametree. I highly recommend this for all readers of horror as there are elements from numerous sub-genres to really let the reader connect.
***I received a free copy from NetGalley for an honest review***
I loved this suspense novel. The opening line “I never wanted to come here” hooked me right away. The story was about 10 year old Alice moving into a new home with her parents and 15 year old brother Daniel. The prologue showed a snippet of Mary’s diary. Mary, the little girl who had lived there before them.
I thought the first chapter was pretty long. Maybe because I didn’t care about the family’s walkthrough of the new house with a creepy history. The story really picked up for me when Alice thought she saw someone staring at her through her bedroom window. I really liked that Alice and her dad had dark thoughts. It made them interesting as characters.
My favorite scene was when Alice found a black painted X across the picture of a dog on the wall. After that, all hell broke loose. Throughout the story, I kept trying to guess if ghosts were haunting the family or something more sinister. You’ll have to read to find out.
I couldn’t tell if the story was written in 3rd person POV or in omniscient because Alice was only 10 but seemed to have a big vocabulary—not when she talked, but when she was narrating the story. Plus, at times she would say her parents’ first names in narration, instead of just saying Mom and Dad.
I really enjoyed the conflict. The stress of the move had all family members on edge. The author did a good job with the mystery of who/what was actually messing with the family. The twist at the end was epic!
My favorite lines: 1) I think a lot about what a smile is, especially when you don’t mean it. It’s a mask. Something that hides the truth. 2) The family that was painted on the wall was covered up too. Buried. 3) Debra turned and managed a tired smile, the stress of the move, the cat, the snow all visible in her mother’s eyes.
I RECOMMEND this book to read.
This was quite a creepy read and was well written but it did take me a while to get through as It was quite slow going initially and I just wasn’t feeling it.
Then about two thirds in things just exploded and this was what saved this for me the last third of the story without that input I was just not that invested.
So this is told from the daughter ten-year-old Alices POV and she’s a bit of strange duck.
Her inner voices are particularly loud in her head almost like they are completely separate entities.
Alice herself has an almost grown-up persona much older and wiser than her young years.
So the whole family move into this quirky fixer-upper from there previous cookie-cutter home and after the discovery of the wall-pictures, the whole family start to spiral as the panic and sense of unease start’s to set in and spread almost like a virus.
This story rather than relying on shock scares instead sets the scene building an ambience that is both spooky and suspenseful.
Where you’re waiting for something or someone to jump out of the dark and scare you half to death.
As I Said earlier slow-building but got there, in the end, I’m also not exactly sure why I had such trouble connecting with this I just did.
I also wasn’t a fan of the epilogue thought it was a tad long-winded.
This one had both negatives and positives for me but the writing itself was spot on and fine this was more a case of it’s me, not you.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of One by One.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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