S.J.Budd

  The problem with the end of the world is that it's a gradual process. It keeps getting worse. It tests you until you break, just to see if you can put yourself back together. Caz and her father do what they must to survive the fall of humanity. Hunting when they can, and scavenging supplies from the derelict shells of a deserted city they rely on each other to make it to the end of each day. The end of each day. A time when darkness falls and the monsters responsible for the collapse of society emerge to hunt. Wow I was not prepared for this book! Aphotic Realm are launching a series of novellas and this is the first one I have read so far and it really blew me away. I cannot wait to see what else they will be publishing. Nightcrawler is a really intense read. Survival hangs in the balance each day and the odds are really stacked against Caz and her father. This is horror but it's also a frantic action packed story which creates a thrilling ride.  Considering the covid pandem

  Rage. Bea has it - more than ever, since her husband left her. Lou has it - has it in spades, since she lost her job and her flat and had to move back in with her parents. And whoever’s been murdering and mutilating the men whose bodies keep mounting up in Bea and Lou’s city - they’ve got it, too. But when Bea moves to The Gates, an exclusive new estate with a strange and troubled history, and Lou’s interest in the murders leads her right to Bea’s door, the two women find the lines between nightmare and reality, history and myth and sanity and madness blurring around them - and a primeval entity born from the chaos of creation with her own appetite for rage rising up to meet them from the ground below. She sees them. And she’s hungry.   A Press of Feathers was a joy to read. Think murder mystery complete with a determined sleuth battling not just a serial killer but also evil crows, ancient deities and rich people! Told through the tale of two women Bea and Lou who have both recently

  Something is waiting for its time to rise. Beth and Stu Davenport moved to the sleepy English village of Meadowford Bridge to give their young son, Gabriel, an idyllic childhood. But one night a hidden, ancient darkness shatters their dream and changes their lives forever. Years later, Gabriel searches for answers about his mysterious past. His life unravels as he discovers that the people he loves and trusts harbour sinister secrets of their own. As the line blurs between shadow and light; and he becomes the prize in a deadly nocturnal game, Gabriel must confront the unrelenting, malevolent force that destroyed his family all those years ago. His choice: place his trust in a master vampire, or give himself to the malignant darkness. Is there a lesser of two evils—and how do you choose? I really loved this book! I'd recently read a short story by Beverley Lee from the Diabolica Britannica anthology released last year and was eager to read more of her work. The story delves straig

  A remote island. A group of prisoners. And an evil as old as time. Robin didn’t mean to break the law. Didn’t know at first what law she’d broken. And now she’s on her way to Salt Rock — a new-model prison for a new kind of criminal, way out in the remote Northern Isles of Scotland. On Salt Rock, she'll meet other prisoners like her — men and women from all over the world, spirited away from the lives they knew for crimes they didn’t know they were committing. She'll uncover the complex web of conspiracy that connects them all, confronting some of the darkness of her own past in the process. And she'll come face to face, finally, with an evil as old as the land itself. It’s hell in those waters. I'm not sure how to start with this review, other than I loved reading this book. There is a lot  of different genres packed in along with suspense and intrigue, which took my breath away. This is horror but nothing like I have ever read before.  There's some real 1984 Orw

  A woman, returning to her roots. A town, built on sacred land. A secret, cloaked in tradition and lore. Welcome to White Pines. Don't get too comfortable. When Megan is brutally dumped by her husband she decides to pack her van and drive up to Scotland, the home of her ancestors where she moves into her late Gran's seaside cottage. But dreams of an idyllic rural life are shattered when she meets the locals. Her heartbreak and broken marriage will soon be the least of her problems... I really loved this book and devoured it in two days, I probably could have read it in one day if it weren't for having to homeschool my kids during lockdown ;)   I don't want to say too much about the plot so as not to spoil it but it moves in unexpected ways which kept me as the reader guessing. I loved how there were so many different literary elements, it had crime, mystery, adventure, heartbreak, folklore and of course horror.  There's a lot of horror, a lot of moments that made m