Book Review- The Haunting of Stoke Water

I received a free copy for my honest review.

It is not easy to write horror novels. You need to make the reader feel that chill in their spine. You need to take the reader to that situation and make them feel numb while reading. I am a loyal King fan and his style of horror has been my favorite. However, having said that, I would like to day The Haunting of Stoke water does quite a justice to the theme. Initially a lot of things were happening and I somehow felt It needed to slow down and that happened after some time.

The writing style is nice, shows that the author has researched about the place. The descriptions are vivid and relatable. However, I haven't read the first 2 books of the series, hence I had some issues in relating with the witch sisters- Queenie and Sybil. I knew nothing about the sisters while reading this books and as reader that made me stumble a few times.

You enter the world through Ruth's eyes but after sometime, the story gets told by a third person's point of view. The characters and their reactions are often realistic and it made me feel to dig up little bit more about the real Stoke house.

My only complaints are- Some parts were little bit dragged, which could have been shorter as they didn't really add anything to the story. The other thing is, a bit of back story on the characters would have also been a nice touch. We saw what Ruth saw but we actually never got to know where she came from or anything significant about her life.

The Haunting of Stoke Water is a nice and engaging short read. You can definitely give it a try.