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albav56's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Death of parent, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Murder, and Drug use
chuskeyreads's review against another edition
4.0
Ooh! This one was really creepy!
Ava Thorn might be cursed. The legend at Burden Falls is that the Thorn family members see Dead-Eyed Sadie - the ghost that haunts Thorn Manor - right before they die. And then she gouges out their eyes.
At least, that's what Ava believes happened to her parents a year ago in that fatal car accident.
The story begins one year after the deaths of her parents as she's forced to move out of her family home - Thorn Manor famous for their Thorn's Blood Apple Sour - to live with her Uncle Ty. The worst part is that the man who bought the place is also the man who killed her parents. The Millers and the Thorns have been enemies for generations.
When a series of teens are brutally murdered, Ava becomes the prime suspect, and she teams up with an unlikely Dominic Miller to find the real (or ghostly) killer and clear her name.
This is a great murder mystery with a strong female lead full of atmospheric spookiness and enough suspense to keep you reading until the end.
Ava Thorn might be cursed. The legend at Burden Falls is that the Thorn family members see Dead-Eyed Sadie - the ghost that haunts Thorn Manor - right before they die. And then she gouges out their eyes.
At least, that's what Ava believes happened to her parents a year ago in that fatal car accident.
The story begins one year after the deaths of her parents as she's forced to move out of her family home - Thorn Manor famous for their Thorn's Blood Apple Sour - to live with her Uncle Ty. The worst part is that the man who bought the place is also the man who killed her parents. The Millers and the Thorns have been enemies for generations.
When a series of teens are brutally murdered, Ava becomes the prime suspect, and she teams up with an unlikely Dominic Miller to find the real (or ghostly) killer and clear her name.
This is a great murder mystery with a strong female lead full of atmospheric spookiness and enough suspense to keep you reading until the end.
mehsi's review
5.0
A very slow start, but when it started to get going… oh BOY things went!
So I have seen this book on many of my fellow bloggers pages and I was delighted when, during my vacation, I managed to find this book for a decent price (which is very rare for English books) at a book store. Of course I had to bring it with me. Sadly, I already had plenty of books with me during my vacation so it wasn’t until after my vacation that I started reading it. And then I had to struggle a bit to get through the book because the start was just so dang slow.
Meet Ava a girl who has lost practically everything in the span of a year. Not just her parents but also her house. While I liked Ava for most, there were parts that I wasn’t too happy with. But for most I was just rooting for this girl, hoping that she would be able to find her way back as I would call it after all that happened in the year. I loved that she was an artist and I definitely would have loved to see her art pop up in the book, maybe as an extra. That would have made things so much creepier. I loved seeing her try to figure things out. Try to find the killer.
There are tons of spooky and creepy things happening in this book. For instance tons of eyes. So many eyes. There is a dead girl walking (but is she really real or not?). There is murder (though I had expected more given the phrase on the cover). There is paranoia and weird things happening. Once the book gets going it goes and it drags the reader with them.
I wasn’t a fan of Ava’s friend, sorry, I already forget your name. While he probably had his reasons, I found him a manipulative dick and I just wanted Ava to say a big fat NO to him and just drop him. He is not healthy.
The vendetta against the Thorns? It felt like Romeo x Julia. Just as much hate and destruction. But also romance. Because Ava is falling for the guy she never thought would fall for. The oldest son of the Thorns (who I instantly liked for some reason, I don’t know why, he just had good vibes). I just loved seeing her at first be hesitant about it and even wary.. .but then slowly she opened up for him and I was just delighted because they had chemistry. Plus, hello, making the plot even more Romeo x Julia is always a win in my book.
The ending and all that was revealed there and all that happened? throws out her suspect list and burns it That is how I felt. Haha, I had several suspects.. but BOY I never had expected THAT. I may have some light suspicions but nothing that felt really big and so it never made the list. I was so pissed off at it, but not because it was a surprise but because of what it meant. To Ava especially. I just wanted to hug the girl real tight because dang she is going to need all the hugs and love. All that happened in those pages. I was just on the edge of my seat. I could feel the heat. I could feel the claustrophobicness of it all! And the ending ending (as in what came after all that) WOW. Loved how it was all tied up. Good job!
All in all, if you are looking for a spooky read and don’t mind a slow start, I would recommend this one! Perfect for the upcoming Halloween season.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
So I have seen this book on many of my fellow bloggers pages and I was delighted when, during my vacation, I managed to find this book for a decent price (which is very rare for English books) at a book store. Of course I had to bring it with me. Sadly, I already had plenty of books with me during my vacation so it wasn’t until after my vacation that I started reading it. And then I had to struggle a bit to get through the book because the start was just so dang slow.
Meet Ava a girl who has lost practically everything in the span of a year. Not just her parents but also her house. While I liked Ava for most, there were parts that I wasn’t too happy with. But for most I was just rooting for this girl, hoping that she would be able to find her way back as I would call it after all that happened in the year. I loved that she was an artist and I definitely would have loved to see her art pop up in the book, maybe as an extra. That would have made things so much creepier. I loved seeing her try to figure things out. Try to find the killer.
There are tons of spooky and creepy things happening in this book. For instance tons of eyes. So many eyes. There is a dead girl walking (but is she really real or not?). There is murder (though I had expected more given the phrase on the cover). There is paranoia and weird things happening. Once the book gets going it goes and it drags the reader with them.
I wasn’t a fan of Ava’s friend, sorry, I already forget your name. While he probably had his reasons, I found him a manipulative dick and I just wanted Ava to say a big fat NO to him and just drop him. He is not healthy.
The vendetta against the Thorns? It felt like Romeo x Julia. Just as much hate and destruction. But also romance. Because Ava is falling for the guy she never thought would fall for. The oldest son of the Thorns (who I instantly liked for some reason, I don’t know why, he just had good vibes). I just loved seeing her at first be hesitant about it and even wary.. .but then slowly she opened up for him and I was just delighted because they had chemistry. Plus, hello, making the plot even more Romeo x Julia is always a win in my book.
The ending and all that was revealed there and all that happened? throws out her suspect list and burns it That is how I felt. Haha, I had several suspects.. but BOY I never had expected THAT. I may have some light suspicions but nothing that felt really big and so it never made the list. I was so pissed off at it, but not because it was a surprise but because of what it meant. To Ava especially. I just wanted to hug the girl real tight because dang she is going to need all the hugs and love. All that happened in those pages. I was just on the edge of my seat. I could feel the heat. I could feel the claustrophobicness of it all! And the ending ending (as in what came after all that) WOW. Loved how it was all tied up. Good job!
All in all, if you are looking for a spooky read and don’t mind a slow start, I would recommend this one! Perfect for the upcoming Halloween season.
Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/
chewbekka1893's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
deminguyen's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
mellove's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
thenextgenlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
Riverdale meets Stephen King in Burden Falls.
kellyvandamme's review
5.0
4.5 rounded up
Hi and welcome to my review of Wicked Little Deeds. Huge thanks to Dave @ TheWriteReads for organising this mahoosive blogtour and inviting me to join, and to Penguin and NetGalley for the eARC.
I had made myself promise not to accept any blogtour invites but when I got a whiff of Wicked Little Deeds it was simply impossible to walk away, I had such a great time with Kat Ellis’ Harrow Lake last year I could not pass up the opportunity to get my hands on her new novel ASAP. My breaking my promise to myself turned out to be a great decision because I ended up having a brilliant time with Wicked Little Deeds!
I knew from the get-go this would be a good fit for me. I love those teenage thriller/ drama / horror shows like Pretty Little Liars and Riverdale and, although it’s been ages, The Vampire Diaries, and what I enjoy most about those shows is the setting in these rather creepy, small towns, rife with superstition and legends of their own. It’s that vibe that Kat Ellis knows how to create, it’s just perfection.
In the town of Burden Falls, named for its waterfall, the Thorn family have been living up in Thorn Manor for generations. They have an apple orchard and a distillery where they manufacture Thorn’s Blood Apple Sour.
Ava is the youngest Thorn and life as she’s always known it is coming to an end: she and what remains of her family are forced to sell the manor and move to a cottage in town. And to add insult to injury, the family buying the manor is the family with whom the Thorns have had a feud for generations. Ava is trying to come to terms with that, while also still recovering from the terrible shock she suffered a year ago, when she ends up somewhere she shouldn’t be and stumbles across a murdered girl. The girl’s eyes have been bashed in and she was made to look like Dead-Eyed Sadie, the town’s resident ghost / mascot and its version of the Black-Eyed Kids legend.
Now if there’s one urban legend that creeps me out completely, it’s Black-Eyed Kids. For me, they’re right up there with spiders and clowns. So if Wicked Little Deeds was meant to unsettle me, Sadie did the trick quite nicely. As the line between reality and the supernatural blurs, Ava doesn’t know which way is up, and frankly neither did I… And I loved it!
Typical of the abovementioned teenage shows is the fact that the police always seem pretty clueless, and sooner or later it’s up to the teenagers to figure out what’s what. Wicked Little Deeds takes that notion and runs with it. Once again: I loved it!
Ava is a great protagonist and I was rooting for her all the way. She’s tough but in a way I found realistic. There’s a bit of a love interest that seemed quite obvious but who even cares if it is, it works.
I may have said goodbye to my own teenage years longer ago then I care to share, but stories like Wicked Little Deeds still work like a wicked little charm on me. Thrills and chills, Wicked Little Deeds has them in spades. A sprinkling of dry humour, check. A shocking twist, consider that box ticked as well: there is a reveal, I was shocked, I had not seen it coming and it pissed me off (in a good way). In hindsight, all the clues were there, I just didn’t know where to look for them.
In short: I had an excellent time with Wicked Little Deeds. It’s entertaining and fun and atmospheric and I could read stories like this one all day long. Whatever Kat Ellis comes up with next, I wanna be on the blogtour! Recommended.
Wicked Little Deeds is out now in digital formats, paperback and audio.
Hi and welcome to my review of Wicked Little Deeds. Huge thanks to Dave @ TheWriteReads for organising this mahoosive blogtour and inviting me to join, and to Penguin and NetGalley for the eARC.
I had made myself promise not to accept any blogtour invites but when I got a whiff of Wicked Little Deeds it was simply impossible to walk away, I had such a great time with Kat Ellis’ Harrow Lake last year I could not pass up the opportunity to get my hands on her new novel ASAP. My breaking my promise to myself turned out to be a great decision because I ended up having a brilliant time with Wicked Little Deeds!
I knew from the get-go this would be a good fit for me. I love those teenage thriller/ drama / horror shows like Pretty Little Liars and Riverdale and, although it’s been ages, The Vampire Diaries, and what I enjoy most about those shows is the setting in these rather creepy, small towns, rife with superstition and legends of their own. It’s that vibe that Kat Ellis knows how to create, it’s just perfection.
In the town of Burden Falls, named for its waterfall, the Thorn family have been living up in Thorn Manor for generations. They have an apple orchard and a distillery where they manufacture Thorn’s Blood Apple Sour.
Ava is the youngest Thorn and life as she’s always known it is coming to an end: she and what remains of her family are forced to sell the manor and move to a cottage in town. And to add insult to injury, the family buying the manor is the family with whom the Thorns have had a feud for generations. Ava is trying to come to terms with that, while also still recovering from the terrible shock she suffered a year ago, when she ends up somewhere she shouldn’t be and stumbles across a murdered girl. The girl’s eyes have been bashed in and she was made to look like Dead-Eyed Sadie, the town’s resident ghost / mascot and its version of the Black-Eyed Kids legend.
Now if there’s one urban legend that creeps me out completely, it’s Black-Eyed Kids. For me, they’re right up there with spiders and clowns. So if Wicked Little Deeds was meant to unsettle me, Sadie did the trick quite nicely. As the line between reality and the supernatural blurs, Ava doesn’t know which way is up, and frankly neither did I… And I loved it!
Typical of the abovementioned teenage shows is the fact that the police always seem pretty clueless, and sooner or later it’s up to the teenagers to figure out what’s what. Wicked Little Deeds takes that notion and runs with it. Once again: I loved it!
Ava is a great protagonist and I was rooting for her all the way. She’s tough but in a way I found realistic. There’s a bit of a love interest that seemed quite obvious but who even cares if it is, it works.
I may have said goodbye to my own teenage years longer ago then I care to share, but stories like Wicked Little Deeds still work like a wicked little charm on me. Thrills and chills, Wicked Little Deeds has them in spades. A sprinkling of dry humour, check. A shocking twist, consider that box ticked as well: there is a reveal, I was shocked, I had not seen it coming and it pissed me off (in a good way). In hindsight, all the clues were there, I just didn’t know where to look for them.
In short: I had an excellent time with Wicked Little Deeds. It’s entertaining and fun and atmospheric and I could read stories like this one all day long. Whatever Kat Ellis comes up with next, I wanna be on the blogtour! Recommended.
Wicked Little Deeds is out now in digital formats, paperback and audio.