Jill is a horror novelist, which made me suspect she’s an author stand-in, and the afterword pretty much confirms it. Her sister Kitty is a social media influencer, so both of them have jobs which are extremely difficult to make a living at.

For about the first fifth of the book, the only horror in Jill’s life, besides her tragic childhood, is PTA meetings, group texts, MLMs and a serious case of writer’s block. I like that the book debunks the razor blades in Halloween candy myth and other hoaxes.

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Regarding The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum said he wanted readers to feel guilty for turning the page. He wanted readers to feel complicit in the crime, to make readers feel like they were one of the people in the neighborhood who knew what was happening, but didn’t do anything to stop it. He definitely succeeded in that.

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A recent transplant from Australia, Elodie has just moved to Virginia with her new husband Bren who is renovating his parent’s old house. As the story opens, they’re in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, madly in love with each other.

Elodie is only 22 and Bren is only 23, although they act older than this due to the weight of the world landing more heavily on them than most. (Bren’s parents died when he was 10 and Elodie’s brother died when she was 8.)

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To the unnamed narrator of Herculine, seeing demons is a normal occurrence. She uses her childhood Christianity to ward off the demons even though she’s no longer a practicing Christian. We’re told demons lay claim to those who’ve been traumatized. A lot of the narrator’s complicated past is given rapid-fire in asides, giving the novel a fast-paced feel.

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Damon Yates is a tech billionaire who created hyperloops for fast travel between cities and is also involved in space travel. He runs an academy to train children to become tech millionaires like him. He’s also made it possible for a paralyzed student to walk again and has cured mental illness in another student. He’s referred to as the Savior for all the good he’s done, however there are some who think he’s up to no good and use his nickname as a curse word.

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“Love can justify just about any action, no matter how horrible.”

This novel takes place in an alternate universe in which America was never colonized by Europeans. (However, the native tribes did assimilate each other.) The world is similar to ours in terms of technological level, but society is organized differently. Different cultures from around the world get along with each other better than in our world. Skyscrapers are designed to incorporate plant growth making for carbon negative cities. There’s nationalized health care and universal basic income, however there are still beggars so the system isn’t perfect.

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After the mysterious death of her fiancé, Hannah goes on a healing retreat with her friends. The retreat is located in a remote spot, so there’s no cell service, but this is a feature since less time with phones helps mental health. All five friends are suffering from trauma of their own, although this isn’t apparent at first. Even the former frat boy Jared ends up having hidden depths.

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Historian Robin Quain is intent on finding an artifact related to witchcraft, which takes her to Hildegard College. The college is located high in the Rocky Mountains on the site of a former monastery complete with secret passages and hidden rooms, which is pretty cool. There are interesting historical facts sprinkled throughout the text, which I also liked.

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