Hard Rain Falling by Don Carpenter
This was to be my first foray into the heist thriller, a subgenre of mystery that I have never delved into before. But the novel itself had too much of a literary fiction bend and the pace was just too slow for me so I DNF’ed it.
Withered Hill by David Barnett
The plan was originally to read the Little Stranger by Sarah Waters but then laziness took over and I couldn’t be bothered ordering a physical book from my local library that I then had to go in to borrow. So instead, I stumbled upon this particular novel, self advertised as “A dark and unsettling British folk horror novel”.
To be honest, this book rather fell short for me in terms of being a horror novel. It felt more like a thriller to me, with folk horror elements. I agree that it can be dark and unsettling for some people, just not for me. Having said that, this is not a bad novel. Why I likened it to a thriller is because it’s a sense of tension and curiosity over what bad things are going to happen to the main character that kept me reading. So that’s good. It just probably wouldn’t stay with me that much compared to the case where I am truly unsettled by the ending.
Moonlake's Fiction Space 