Benjamin Appleby-Dean

The Stickman's Legacy is a fantastical, horror novel that will keep you hooked.

This book feels like something my friends and I would come up with when ad lib-ing stories together. It's fantastical, it has some horror elements, and is packed full of mystery! It jumps right into the action (which makes me, a fan of action packed stories, very happy!) and very rarely moves at a slow pace. Sure, the book is mighty long, but every page is worth it. I will say though - it's not a binge worthy book. This book requires a lot of mental effort to read (lots of terminology and story plots you need to follow) so I'd suggest reading this over many nights. If you spend your time with it instead of rushing, you'll find this book way more enjoyable.

Mary Martin/Spindle is the lead character of this story. We follow her journey on solving the mystery of her father - Jeremy Spindle - The Stickman of this story's legacy. We find out lots of interesting story elements along the way - he left her his house in London, her childhood flashbacks involving Uncle Hob, a past car accident, and strangers leaving her cryptic messages along the way. Uncle Hob and Mary's various family members all give us explanations to help push this story along and fill in any blanks we are missing as readers.

I found this book to be quite unique - it didn't fully feel like a pure fantasy, pure horror or pure mystery novel. Benjamin Appleby-Dean does a great job of weaving this story together and slowly introducing us to all the major plot points. Mary (being a slightly unreliable narrator) was also very interesting. Each chapter gave up a little bit more about her back story to make the reader more engaged with the story. Throw in some secret societies that are reminiscent of Scientology (if you want the info, you better join...) and some magical elements, and you've got yourself one wacky ride! Add a dash of swords, falling bookshelves and a name like Nimbleknock and you've got yourself an epic, fantasy, adventure too!

The worst part of the novel was one specific plot point - Mary is asking questions from some special characters within the story... AND THEY DON'T GIVE HER DIRECT ANSWERS. For a plot point, this is awesome! It opens up the story a little more to keep pushing Mary forward. But for me, as an impatient reader... I would never survive in this story. My impatience would lead me to a little temper tantrum if I would have been her. I wanted to throw the papers across my desk in animated frustration because it would have driven me insane as a person.

Overall, I think this book is really cool! It's a unique story that has many different perspectives that could draw in a wide variety of readers. To me, it felt like a New Adult novel instead of a teen (Mary was a teenager, but this book didn't feel like strictly YA) but it would be loved regardless. As long as you've got a mature audience who can focus on the bigger picture of the novel, you're set!

Four out of five stars.

I received this book for free from the author Benjamin Appleby-Dean in exchange for an honest review.… (plus d'informations)

Amy's friends start to disappear one by one. Amy gets anonymous messages and at first does not realise that it is her friends that are missing reaching out to her for help. Amy comes to realise that there is history of a lamplighter in her town and that this could be the reason for her friends disappearances. There are strange scraping noises and markings outside their houses and strange looking footsteps. Can Amy put the puzzle pieces together and work out what has happened to her friends?

I took a little while to get into this book hence the reason for it being given 3/5 stars. Some of it was a bit confusing to follow and there were a number of characters to follow. The story was a bit strange and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first. The characters are not especially likable, but I did warm to Amy. The spookiness of this book really kicks in at about 3/4 the way through and I found myself getting really interested, intrigued and spooked while reading it. (reading this late at night probably added to this). The interesting twist with this story is that usually you would think having the lights on would be the best bet to keep the spooks away. Wrong! Not in this story, keep all the lights off, no matter what you do, stay in the dark.

I got a copy of this book from LibraryThing in an exchange for my honest review.… (plus d'informations)

The Lamplight is about a group of people-Amy, Jessica, Jenny, Steven , Hazel, Tom and Terry who hang around together. They start getting weird anonymous messages and soon they disappear one by one with no trace. The only common links the disappearances have are flickering lights and weird footprints.

The book was very different in terms of the plot and there is something about the book that after a few chapters it doesn't let you stop until you reach the end.

There was too little about the characters and so I personally could not remain connected with any of the characters. So when you finish the book, the plot may stay with you but the characters might not.… (plus d'informations)