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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
This was the perfect spooky read. It was so creepy and had my heart racing during multiple scenes! Another element that lended to the horror is the author’s vivid descriptions. I really felt like I could picture everything and was almost watching it as much as reading. We love a read that transports us into the story!
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is the first horror book I’ve read where I had to keep the lights on while I read it. While not nightmare-inducing, this book had me on edge and anxious.
Incredible tension built through the environment and the setting, with a main character I was rooting for the whole time.
•Smart protagonist
•Cute dog
•Made me not want to turn the lights off
I’m excited to read Darcy Coates’ other books.
Incredible tension built through the environment and the setting, with a main character I was rooting for the whole time.
•Smart protagonist
•Cute dog
•Made me not want to turn the lights off
I’m excited to read Darcy Coates’ other books.
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
First- my book had 404 pages not 377 as the app suggests so im not sure what happened there but it made my tracking a bit off.
Actual review:
Finally a book that doesn't let you know what's going on and wrap up the story in the last two chapters!
I very much enjoyed this book, it had a good spook factor with great imagery and I like that you get to learn about the characters pasts and untangle the mysteries there.
Actual review:
Finally a book that doesn't let you know what's going on and wrap up the story in the last two chapters!
I very much enjoyed this book, it had a good spook factor with great imagery and I like that you get to learn about the characters pasts and untangle the mysteries there.
I wish I could give this story more than a 5 star rating...it deserves it!
Wow! What a creepy and wonderful story this was...it had me looking behind me as I read. A great book if you like edge of your seat creepiness! Which I do love a good scary book once in a while but this one really got to me. I had to stop reading so I could go to sleep....it was that scary.
Margot inherits her family business after her parents die under unusual circumstances...Gallows Hill Winery. She hasn't seen her parents since they sent her away to live with an Aunt when she ws little...Margot felt her parents didn't love her...but once she is back on Gallows Hill Margot begins to understand some of why they sent her away.
The writing was amazing and the story really creeped me out at times but I had a hard time putting it down. It pulled me into the story and I was enthralled with it but I have warned you quite a bit that it is creepy and scary at times. And the ending....wow didn't see that coming!
The characters are amazing and they really pulled you in....each one had a job to do in the Winery and helped Margot when things got really bad....but in the end Margot prevailed. I would really like to see a second book about Gallows Hill just to see what happens next. Darcy Coates finished the book but I can see so much potential in a second story about Gallows Hill....
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read an advanced digital copy of Gallows Hill for an honest review. These are my words and my words only!
I LOVED IT!! Highly recommend if you like scary, creepy books!
Wow! What a creepy and wonderful story this was...it had me looking behind me as I read. A great book if you like edge of your seat creepiness! Which I do love a good scary book once in a while but this one really got to me. I had to stop reading so I could go to sleep....it was that scary.
Margot inherits her family business after her parents die under unusual circumstances...Gallows Hill Winery. She hasn't seen her parents since they sent her away to live with an Aunt when she ws little...Margot felt her parents didn't love her...but once she is back on Gallows Hill Margot begins to understand some of why they sent her away.
The writing was amazing and the story really creeped me out at times but I had a hard time putting it down. It pulled me into the story and I was enthralled with it but I have warned you quite a bit that it is creepy and scary at times. And the ending....wow didn't see that coming!
The characters are amazing and they really pulled you in....each one had a job to do in the Winery and helped Margot when things got really bad....but in the end Margot prevailed. I would really like to see a second book about Gallows Hill just to see what happens next. Darcy Coates finished the book but I can see so much potential in a second story about Gallows Hill....
Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for allowing me to read an advanced digital copy of Gallows Hill for an honest review. These are my words and my words only!
I LOVED IT!! Highly recommend if you like scary, creepy books!
Margot's parents have just died. She doesn't quite know how to feel about that, as they sent her away when she was a little girl, and she doesn't remember much of them. Nevertheless, she attends their joint funeral, and hesitantly inherits their home and business, the Gallows Hill Winery. When she returns to this home she cannot remember, she does begin to have little flashes of memory, and as she explores, she makes some unsettling discoveries. Perhaps the locals are right, when they whisper about the curse of Gallows Hill.
Gallows Hill was a fun read, though, as someone who has read most of Darcy Coates's novels, I will say that I didn't think this was her strongest story. Her writing was excellent as always, there was some good atmosphere, I enjoyed the characters, but aspects of the ending just seemed a little too convenient, which was the main drawback for me.
Margot was a cool character to follow. She was distant from Gallows Hill, not remembering her time there as a child. So we got to discover things along side her as she explored, but also got some unique insight from her occasional flashes of memory. I thought that this was clever, and added a certain charm to her searching. She was also quite strong willed, curious, and kind to others. Her abandonment as a child has left her with deep-seated anxiety that affords her another layer of vulnerability that works well for the tale.
As much as I liked Margot, it was Kant who really stole the show for me, so to speak. He was the manager of the winery, who had worked alongside Margot's parents to keep the place running. He was quite close to the family, even when Margot was there as a child. So again, we gain a new perspective from him as Margot asks him questions and interacts with him. We come to see a different side to her parents through Kant, as well as a level head when the wine hits the fan. Kant was also extremely dedicated and caring, and I really appreciated the almost father figure that he became for Margot.
As for the setting, Gallows Hill had a lot of potential. Atop Gallows Hill, we have the winery, of course, but also a crumbling, labyrinthine house, evidence of the former success and liveliness of the Hull family. I always like books where we get to see the decay of something once great, and this certainly ticked that box for me. The winery was fun to explore, as were the old tunnels that were once a part of it. However, at the end of the day, this book could probably have been set anywhere else, and it would still have worked. So little focus was put on the winery that Margot could have lived half way across the town in a spooky house and we likely would have gotten the same story, just playing out a little differently. I may be alone in this, but I did come away wondering why the winery itself hadn't been featured more.
As I said above, it was the climax that was the biggest let down for me here. I will obviously not spoil anything, but I did feel as if Margot came to her solutions much too easily, considering the struggle up until that point. So, while the bulk of the book was tense, it all sort of unraveled by the end. Perhaps I am being a little harsher than I would normally be, but I read this right off the back of From Below, which was one of Coates's more masterful stories.
Still, all in all I enjoyed Gallows Hill. It may not be her best work, but it is still a comfortingly Darcy Coates story, with a spooky atmosphere, interesting happenings, and very human characters to root for, along with the evocative writing style I have come to love. I wouldn't recommend it as highly as her previous books, but I would certainly say that I was happy to have read it. If I hadn't, I would never have been able to meet Kant, and that would have been a damn shame.
Gallows Hill was a fun read, though, as someone who has read most of Darcy Coates's novels, I will say that I didn't think this was her strongest story. Her writing was excellent as always, there was some good atmosphere, I enjoyed the characters, but aspects of the ending just seemed a little too convenient, which was the main drawback for me.
Margot was a cool character to follow. She was distant from Gallows Hill, not remembering her time there as a child. So we got to discover things along side her as she explored, but also got some unique insight from her occasional flashes of memory. I thought that this was clever, and added a certain charm to her searching. She was also quite strong willed, curious, and kind to others. Her abandonment as a child has left her with deep-seated anxiety that affords her another layer of vulnerability that works well for the tale.
As much as I liked Margot, it was Kant who really stole the show for me, so to speak. He was the manager of the winery, who had worked alongside Margot's parents to keep the place running. He was quite close to the family, even when Margot was there as a child. So again, we gain a new perspective from him as Margot asks him questions and interacts with him. We come to see a different side to her parents through Kant, as well as a level head when the wine hits the fan. Kant was also extremely dedicated and caring, and I really appreciated the almost father figure that he became for Margot.
As for the setting, Gallows Hill had a lot of potential. Atop Gallows Hill, we have the winery, of course, but also a crumbling, labyrinthine house, evidence of the former success and liveliness of the Hull family. I always like books where we get to see the decay of something once great, and this certainly ticked that box for me. The winery was fun to explore, as were the old tunnels that were once a part of it. However, at the end of the day, this book could probably have been set anywhere else, and it would still have worked. So little focus was put on the winery that Margot could have lived half way across the town in a spooky house and we likely would have gotten the same story, just playing out a little differently. I may be alone in this, but I did come away wondering why the winery itself hadn't been featured more.
As I said above, it was the climax that was the biggest let down for me here. I will obviously not spoil anything, but I did feel as if Margot came to her solutions much too easily, considering the struggle up until that point. So, while the bulk of the book was tense, it all sort of unraveled by the end. Perhaps I am being a little harsher than I would normally be, but I read this right off the back of From Below, which was one of Coates's more masterful stories.
Still, all in all I enjoyed Gallows Hill. It may not be her best work, but it is still a comfortingly Darcy Coates story, with a spooky atmosphere, interesting happenings, and very human characters to root for, along with the evocative writing style I have come to love. I wouldn't recommend it as highly as her previous books, but I would certainly say that I was happy to have read it. If I hadn't, I would never have been able to meet Kant, and that would have been a damn shame.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
not scary, there was a couple scenes where the idea of that personally happening to me made me uneasy, but i didn't have any attachment to the main character. slow in my opinion, and was weirded out that the threat couldn't pick between ghosts or zombies.
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
medium-paced