Horror Aficionados discussion

Sea, Kasia, Sally, Jeffrey, and I will be buddy reading the book "A Suburban Haunting" by Matt Shaw on Sunday, January 9th. Everyone is welcome to join in the read with us. Please use spoiler tags when necessary. Thank you. :)

I'm a huge Shaw fan. Excited about this one

I have a bunch of his books that I own on kindle but haven't stepped into all of them yet. This is one I have been wanting to read for awhile, so I am happy that I have buddies to read it with. :)

Looking forward to this one!

Sally wrote: "Looking forward to this one!"

Me too, Sally! :)

Tomorrow is the day! Everyone ready to go? lol

Ready!

I'll wait for reactions from everyone here, to decide if I should give this a go. Haven't read any Matt Shaw before, but I see this book is free on kindle unlimited, so that's nice :)

Ahana wrote: "I'll wait for reactions from everyone here, to decide if I should give this a go. Haven't read any Matt Shaw before, but I see this book is free on kindle unlimited, so that's nice :)"

Matt Shaw is kind of different as he has some extreme stuff out there, but then some of his horror books are way mild.

You are welcome to chime in and/or follow along with reactions. :)

Hi Marie thanks! Which one of his other books would you recommend, for a Shaw beginner like me?

Ready to start tomorrow :) well today since it's 1am here haha, in the actual morning tho.

Getting started, short chapters! I love short chapters!

OK I lied I'm 7% in, very intrigued!

@Ahana - try his book Voyage to Hell and then follow it up with the sequel of Hell's Reveal. My first introduction to his work was the book The Farm but it is extreme and might be too rough for you straight on as there is lots of torture stuff in that book. Voyage to Hell is kind of mild and would be a good introduction to his books and his writing style. :)

I started too on the book and it is good so far. Probably a little ahead of you two. I am at 15%. lol. Sorry - I got excited! lol

@Marie thanks a lot will check them out!

Haven't started yet, but it doesn't sound like it will be hard for me t catch up

Ahana wrote: "@Marie thanks a lot will check them out!"

You are welcome! :) Enjoy and happy reading! :)

Sea wrote: "Haven't started yet, but it doesn't sound like it will be hard for me t catch up"


No worries - you will catch up in no time.

I am actually at 32% now, but have stopped temporarily as I got caught up reading one of my other spooky books I am entangled with at the moment and I didn't want to get too far ahead of everyone with this book. lol

What I thought was kind of funny was (view spoiler)[the shock that Craig went through when he learned he was the owner of his uncle's house - that would be something like what we would go through probably if we got left a house -lol (hide spoiler)]

I'm liking it so far, about 30% in. The writing style for this one seems a bit different than the other 2 Shaw books we read. I can't put my finger on why but I'm enjoying this one more.

Sally wrote: "Getting started, short chapters! I love short chapters!"

I love short chapters too. Especially with novellas

Yikes! So chapter 19, that conversation went downhill quickly!

I stopped at 7% last night because I wanted to read it with fresh eyes, so about to continue right now :)

On chapter 22. Struggling to move on because I can't figure out what color magnolia is. Visual reader problems.

Magnolia is cream/white. Google Magnolia plant and you will see what the flowers look like. They are prominent in the South. We have the plants down here in Florida too.

Food for thought... I'm only 12 percent in, so I don't know much about the story yet. But I have a feeling, per the title, the house may be haunted. If someone gave you a free house, how much haunting could you deal with? I mean, for a free house, I could put up with a lot. If it got too bad, I'd probably just sell it

Thanks Marie, I have a white and pink magnolia in my yard so I was going back and forth.

@Sea, for a free house with no mortgage I could deal with quite a bit. Stock up on salt, sage and iron and I would definitely give it a go. Unless it was a haunted spider, we all know I'd have to bail if that were the case.

Well I am up to 55% and so far the haunting is mild. Maybe it will gear up the closer we get to the end. lol

Haha! Sally, you are hilarious... But yeah, I'm with you on that. I'd for sure prefer ghosts over those eight-legged buggers.
I'm up to 29%, nothing scary is happening. The first possibly scary thing was just now mentioned

I'm not sure if it's just the Kindle version I have but every now and again the main character's name changes from Craig to Pete.

Omg Sally!!! You're right. Ch 19 was an unusual conversation.. Also, Craig must be Pete, right? That confused me too

Sally wrote: "I'm not sure if it's just the Kindle version I have but every now and again the main character's name changes from Craig to Pete."

You must have a different version as I haven't come across the name change and when I typed the name Pete in the search on the book - I came up with nothing. Though I have owned my copy since 2019 or thereabouts so who knows with anything after that time. It is interesting though with different versions.

Yeah, I was almost disappointed in myself for forgetting a whole ass character. But there is no Pete.

@marie, in my version it didn't switch to Pete until ch32, when his wife was referring to him

Sea wrote: "@marie, in my version it didn't switch to Pete until ch32, when his wife was referring to him"

Interesting....I will have to see when I get there as I am on chapter 29. But I did do a search within the book itself on my kindle for the name Pete and nothing came up so not sure what is up with that. I will keep my eyes peeled though when I get there. lol

I don't even know what to say, it got twisty and I couldn't stop. The last 20% or so is something! Not sure what but SOMETHING! I liked it, very much.

Right. It was really slow. If it hadn't been a buddy read I would have DNF Ed it. But that end!?!?!? Yes. So worth the read. I should have known that Shaw wouldn't let us down

I really enjoyed this one with you guys. I'll check in and out to see what everyone thinks.

I am done with it too. Really liked it even with the twisted ending. That was fun and had some spook moments.

I'm still trying to figure something out. It's near the end. I'll mark it a spoiler unless you finished the book
(view spoiler)[. Why did the Uncle accuse Pete/ Craig of such horrendous acts with his wife? I get it. He had brain cancer, but was a spirit also controlling him? Was it the same spirit inside Mavis? (hide spoiler)]

Sea wrote: "I'm still trying to figure something out. It's near the end. I'll mark it a spoiler unless you finished the book
[spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[My thoughts on it are this: the house was haunted because of the doors slamming on their own and all the stuff that was happening but the spirit of the serial killer Daniel Green was inhabiting Bill and the mother of Green was inhabiting Mavis. Because at the end of the book, Mavis looked at the kids and told them to call her "Mother". The serial killer that had killed himself on the property was killing girls for his mother as that is what I gleaned from the letters that were found by Craig.

So there was actually two spirits but I think the "mother" spirit was already in Mavis and when she moved out of the house that spirit of the mother just stayed attached to her whereas the serial killer spirit stayed in the house and that is what was causing Bill and then Craig to have personality changes. (hide spoiler)]

Sorry I'm lagging today, 25% in but really enjoying it! Cant wait to read all the spoilers. I mean if the title isn't a spoiler lol.

Kasia wrote: "Sorry I'm lagging today, 25% in but really enjoying it! Cant wait to read all the spoilers. I mean if the title isn't a spoiler lol."

I was wondering what happened to you - lol! I am thinking "where did Kasia get off to?" and then I thought "maybe she is invisible as we are in a horror group" - lol - well you know anything is possible in here, right?! 😂 🤣 😂 🤣

@marie
Spoiler for end of book
(view spoiler)[ that just isn't adding up with me. I get it. There were 2 spirits. But then what was the point of the Uncle telling the lawyer about Mavis being weird? He didn't need an excuse to change his will. It's his will and he could do what he wanted.
Also, what was the point of Mavis running to Craig when Bill was possessed? Mother and son wanted to rat each other out even in the afterlife?
Also, why did Mavis try to keep them out of the house? If she wanted to get the kids, it would had been easier than looking crazy talking about haunted houses. If she had somewhere to take the kids, she could've played nice and just taken the kids and disappeared (hide spoiler)]

At the 55% mark now, very impressed how well Shaw described the workweek for those doing M-F jobs. Brutal lol.

Just finished, sorry to be odd man out but I didn't like it, the logic behind everything was just so weak, but I love being able to read the spoilers tags, always fun to read with you guys :)

Kasia wrote: "Just finished, sorry to be odd man out but I didn't like it, the logic behind everything was just so weak, but I love being able to read the spoilers tags, always fun to read with you guys :)"

It is okay, Kas. We understand. This book really wasn't Matt's normal stories as you will know he leans toward the extreme and this book didn't have that. We love reading with you too. :)

Going to do a change up next month - going back to an Amy Cross book - we will just rotate back and forth between the two authors - I need to hunt up a Cross book though and then will let you all know but the next Shaw book I hunt down will be more extreme as he has tons out there. lol

I'll be excited to see which Amy Cross book you pick! I loved reading her with you guys. Whatever it is I'm in!

Yeah same, I'll read anything you guys pick :)