Grave Matter

By: Karina Halle

Narrated by: Rachel Leblang

Horror romance meets science fiction in this dark and delicious gothic psychological thriller by New York Times bestseller Karina Halle, perfect for fans of Gothikana, Ninth House, and Mexican Gothic.

Grad Student Sydney Denik is getting a second chance. When a dream opportunity presents itself with a prestigious foundation doing promising Alzheimer's research, Sydney leaves the shambles of her old life to join a dozen other students at an isolated lodge hidden away in a remote, fog-shrouded inlet on Vancouver Island.

But the Madrona Foundation harbors more than brilliant minds. Everyone around her is hiding a terrible secret—including the resident psychologist she's falling in love with. A student disappears, and no one but Sydney seems to care. Ghosts walk the halls. Snow falls in the middle of summer. Dead animals move like the living. The more Sydney uncovers about the foundation, the more she begins to question her own sanity. And if Sydney isn't going mad, then the horrors in the surrounding forest are real, and the Madrona Foundation may be the biggest monster of all.

Contains mature themes.

©2024 Karina Halle (P)2024 Tantor Media

Goosebump Books

Felt like I read an adult Goosebump book. Creepy imagery, Not too scary. A great quick simple read.

Degradation… and mystery?

This book was a bit all over the place. I really enjoyed that the fox had ADHD and went into detail about the struggles. The story starts off fast and confusing. I believe it was trying to be creepy but I just didn’t get that feeling I was more intrigued then spooked.
The story jumps right into a romantic relationship where the spicy scenes have so many degrading lines I was grossed out. If you don’t have a full on degradation kink then this might not be for you. After that the story dives more into the mystery on the island. The pacing was all over the place with the story climax in the last 20 mins.
The narrators male voice was also not the best so it was hard to get into. Overall it wasn’t for me. I think it could have been better with duet narration though.

Keeps you engaged

Gothic, horror, spicy romance, illegal experimenting on animal and humans!
Zombies?!?!
Twisty plots that keeps you guessing until the end! Overall great story!

Plot Twist

The atmosphere is perfectly eerie without feeling overdone; every page feels like fog creeping in around your ankles. The mystery builds slowly and smartly, giving you just enough to theorize before pulling the rug out again.

The main character’s grief and determination are incredibly well written messy in all the right ways and the clues are laid out so cleverly that you actually feel rewarded for paying attention.

Audiobook warning though: skip it. The narrator’s attempt at multiple voices makes every character sound like a half-asleep 80-year-old chain-smoker trying to read bedtime stories. It completely kills the mood. Highly recommend reading it instead of listening.

If you love emotional, character-driven mysteries with a slow burn and supernatural undertones, “Grave Matter” is absolutely worth the read.

Just wow…

this is completely different from my typical read but I am not mad about it. I did an audio read for this one and it was fabulous!

What a journey this was… I was confused trying to figure out what was going on for more than half of this and then things got freaky and THEN started to click together.

This is a good book to start getting into spooky season I’d say. This is 95% plot but it’s a good story! I had a guess at one point but this plot twist and smaller piece to it kind of blows my mind! VERY intriguing!