Early Review – Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Horror
Length: 296 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release Date: September 12, 2023
ASIN : B0BQGFT1M1
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley through NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Laney Kilpatrick has been renting her vacation home to strangers. The invasion of privacy gives her panic attacks, but it’s the only way she can keep her beloved Hemlock Island, the only thing she owns after a pandemic-fueled divorce. But broken belongings and campfires that nearly burn down the house have escalated to bloody bones, hex circles, and now, terrified renters who’ve fled after finding blood and nail marks all over the guest room closet, as though someone tried to claw their way out…and failed.
When Laney shows up to investigate with her teenaged niece in tow, she discovers that her ex, Kit, has also been informed and is there with Jayla, his sister and her former best friend. Then Sadie, another old high school friend, charters over with her brother, who’s now a cop.
There are tensions and secrets, whispers in the woods, and before long, the discovery of a hand poking up from the earth. Then the body that goes with it… But by that time, someone has taken off with their one and only means off the island, and they’re trapped with someone—or something—that doesn’t want them leaving the island alive.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this as an eGalley through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: I enjoyed this. It started out terrifying in a slasher type of way but then moved to more of a creepy supernatural type of vibe. I found the first part of the book to be overly scary (I hate slasher type of horror). I enjoyed the story a lot more as it went on. This is pretty gory and violent, so if that sort of thing bothers you, I would skip it.
The story follows Laney. Laney has had a rough time of it lately; her marriage fell apart during the pandemic and her sister passed away from cancer shortly after. She is now the guardian for her niece and trying to eke out a living on a teacher’s salary. Her ex-husband and her parted amiably and he left her a vacation house on the isolated Hemlock Island; a house she’s been having to rent out to make ends meet. Strange things have been happening at the house and Laney and her niece end up going out to investigate. To Laney’s surprise, her ex-husband Kit and his sister, Jayla, show up to help. Then a couple other old high school friends show up as well. Things start to fall apart as more and more creepy things start to happen.
As mentioned above, this starts out as a kind of creepy serial killer/slasher type of mystery and then turns into something else completely. Remnants of strange rites and dead things are being found on the island and Laney and her friends are trying to figure out what’s going on but cannot trust each other because of their sorted pasts. As things progress you find that there are more secrets that this group of people have than you initial expect, and that things are happening on this island that none of them could predict.
I ended up enjoying this quite a bit. I liked the strange supernatural-like twists at the end. This elevated the story from a basic serial killer mystery to some with a lot of fantastical paranormal/supernatural vibes. I enjoyed the way things wrapped up as well.
Armstrong is an excellent writer. This story was super easy to read and hard to put down. It was very engaging. I liked the main characters (and disliked the ones I was supposed to dislike) and enjoyed the twists and turns as the story got stranger and stranger.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this stand alone paranormal/supernatural thriller/mystery. I would recommend if you enjoy creepy/scary stories that have a supernatural twist to them. I enjoyed this and look forward to Armstrong’s future books.
