RATING: ★★★★☆
TITLE: Harrow Lake
AUTHOR: Kat Ellis
RELEASE DATE: August 25, 2020
PUBLISHER: Dial Books, Penguin Teen
GENRE(S): YA, Horror, Mystery/Thriller, Supernatural/Paranormal
Thank you to Penguin Teen, Dial Books, NetGalley and the author for my advanced digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
TAGLINE/BLURB:
A can’t-put-down, creepy thriller about the daughter of a horror film director who’s not afraid of anything–until she gets to Harrow Lake.
Things I know about Harrow Lake:
1.It’s where my father shot his most disturbing slasher film.
2.There’s something not right about this town.
Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker–she thinks nothing can scare her.
But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s quickly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map–and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.
And there’s someone–or something–stalking her every move.
The more Lola discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her.
This book was really something!
This was a frightening jaunt through the streets of a cursed town, haunted by tales of a monster, and told through the eyes of a young girl just trying to get out.
When Lola has to stay with the grandmother she has never met, in the town of Harrow Lake where her estranged mother grew up; the very same town where Lola’s famous father directed the cult classic horror film Nightjar, starring her mother, putting the town on the map, she encounters many a strange resident. To keep rabid fans from bombarding the town on a regular basis, the town hold an annual events and a parade for the fanbase, bringing in money for the ailing town. It just so happens that Lola shows up in Harrow Lake just before this big day. Living with a grandmother who seems to flip flop back and forth between not liking her and mistaking her for her mother, all Lola wants to do is get out!
But, the town is haunted by Mister Jitters, a cautionary tale told to misbehaving children by their parents. And the longer Lola stays, the more intertwined she finds herself in the creepy idea that maybe… just maybe Mister Jitters is real. It doesn’t help that apparently Lola’s mom was obsessed with this creature.
This was intense! This was dark! This was so much more than I was expecting. This book does a great job of incorporating terrifying myth with real life issues. The end will leave your head spinning. There were definitely things that I didn’t see coming. This book left me with a super eerie feeling and actual nightmares. What more do you want in a horror themed book?
feather bound books 