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What an appropriate day to share Let Him In by William Friend, Friday October 13, 2023.

I want to thank NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the opportunity to read and review Let Him in by William Friend.

MY REVIEW

Yeah, I was stopped in my tracks by the cover for Let Me In by William Friend. I have been looking for horror books for the month of October. The cover sold me and I thought, I’m up for a good haunted house story. Let Him In by William Friend is so much more than that. I guess you can even call it a psychological thriller, because I couldn’t sort out whether it was all in him mind, if his twin daughters were sociopaths, or if there was an evil presence in the house.

Alfie’s wife had died in a freak accident and he was left to take care of the girls on his own. His mother is, well, a helicopter parent and his sister in law, who turns out to be his wife’s twin, cannot bear to be around them. It amplifies his feelings of inadequacy.

He pours some tea into my favorite mug, black and speckled with stars, and we sit at the table. The stars appear only when the mug is hot. By the time around half have been snuffed out, it’s safe to drink.

It’s writing like this that adds that something extra in the details that I love so much. Funny how something so inconsequential sticks out for me.

I was all over the place with Let Him In. I couldn’t figure out WTF was going on and the creep factor was operating at a high level.. My head was spinning…and…when I reached the end…well…if you are a horror lover, you might just want to find out for yourself. I would love to know if you end up as surprised as I was.

I did have a problem with some of the children’s dialogue, seeing they are so young, seven years old. Also, Let Him In seemed slow at times, but maybe these two elements were meant to lure me in, keeping me curious, making me HAVE to know how it will end.

For a debut novel, William Friend has done an excellent job with his first endeavor into writing. I feel he will have an amazing career and I can hardly wait to see what he comes up with next.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos — 4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

William Friend’s haunting debut Let Him In is a creeping, gothic psychological suspense about a young, newly widowed father struggling to raise twin daughters obsessed with an imaginary friend.

“Daddy, there’s a man in our room…”

Alfie wakes one night to find his twin daughters at the foot of his bed, claiming there’s a shadowy figure in their bedroom. When no such thing can be found, he assumes the girls had a nightmare.

He isn’t surprised that they’re troubled. Grief has made its home at Hart House: nine months ago, the twins’ mother Pippa died unexpectedly, leaving Alfie to raise them alone. And now, when the girls mention a new imaginary friend, it seems like a harmless coping mechanism. But the situation quickly develops into something more insidious. The girls set an extra place for him at the table. They whisper to him. They say he’s going to take them away…

Alfie calls upon Julia—Pippa’s sister and a psychiatrist—to oust the malignant tenant from their lives. But as Alfie himself is haunted by visions and someone watches him at night, he begins to question the true character of the force that has poisoned his daughters’ minds, with dark and violent consequences.

Whatever this “friend” is, he doesn’t want to leave. Alfie will have to confront his own shameful secrets, the dark past of Hart House, and even the bounds of reality—or risk taking part in an unspeakable tragedy.

Genre: Fiction, Gothic, Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Psychological, Supernatural, Suspense
Format: 240 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication: October 3, 2023 by Poisoned Pen Press
ISBN: 9781728275192 (ISBN10: 1728275199)
Language: English

ABOUT WILLIAM FRIEND

William Friend is a fiction writer based in Hertfordshire. His debut novel, BLACK MAMBA, was published in the UK in June 2022, and will be published in America in October 2023 under the title LET HIM IN. He is currently working on his second novel.

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