Malice House

By: Megan Shepherd

Narrated by: Katie Schorr

Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

From New York Times bestselling author Megan Shepherd comes a complex tale of dark magic, family secrets, and monsters that don't stay on the page.

"A propulsively charming nightmare, pooling like spilled ink across your imagination." — Kiersten White, New York Times bestselling author of Hide

"Haunting and beautifully written . . . an exploration of the mysterious power of stories." —Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author of All the Missing Girls and The Last to Vanish

"One step away from our world lies another: a land of violent fantasies, of sharp-toothed delights. . . ."

Of all the things aspiring artist Haven Marbury expected to find while clearing out her late father's remote seaside house, Bedtime Stories for Monsters was not on the list. This secret handwritten manuscript is disturbingly different from his Pulitzer-winning works: its interweaving short stories crawl with horrific monsters and enigmatic humans that exist somewhere between this world and the next. The stories unsettle but also entice Haven, practically compelling her to illustrate them while she stays in the house that her father warned her was haunted. Clearly just dementia whispering in his ear . . . right?

Reeling from a failed marriage, Haven hopes an illustrated Bedtime Stories can be the lucrative posthumous father-daughter collaboration she desperately needs to jump-start her art career. However, everyone in the nearby vacation town wants a piece of the manuscript: her father's obsessive literary salon members, the Ink Drinkers; her mysterious yet charming neighbor, who has a tendency toward three a.m. bonfires; a young barista with a literary forgery business; and of course, whoever keeps trying to break into her house. But when a monstrous creature appears under Haven's bed right as grisly deaths are reported in the nearby woods, she must race to uncover dark, otherworldly family secrets—completely rewriting everything she ever knew about herself in the process.

©2022 Megan Shepherd (P)2022 Hyperion Avenue

Popcorn Horror Fun!!

"One step away from our world, lies another. A land of violent fantasies, of sharp toothed delights."

If you are a lover of monsters and things that go bump in the night, this book is for you!

Not bad but also not good

I definitely enjoyed the listen, it was fun. I wouldn’t highly recommend. Also, a major plot hole is that if she can make her drawings come to life, all she’d need to do was draw a giant pink unicorn that only killed evil monsters. Then write a sentence. But whatever, her sister was a writer so… is there a sequel? Seemed like the biggest no brainer. You drew your way into the problem so just draw your way out. But I guess then there’d be no book?
Exactly.

Confusing but intriguing none the less

I couldn’t quite understand the story itself at the beginning but I ended up liking how it went. It’s definitely different from other books I have read but I would suggest giving it a listen too.

Not terrible

I found this book to be a cross between mystery and science fiction. Many may find this a very interesting story, but I thought it was so so. Just not my taste.

Where Did the Fun Go?

The last 1/3rd of the book was confusing, erratic, and quite frankly, disappointing. The story fell into a flailing mass of inadequate attempts at horror. Skip it unless you want to read 2/3rds of a solid story and then experience let down at the end.