Anyone that enjoys a good creepy thriller would enjoy this book. The book is written through multiple timelines which I found quite confusing to begin with, I found it initially quite slow in building up the story/background surrounding Sadie, Amber and Miles, I had my doubts about it but persisted and was pleasantly surprised that the author managed quite cleverly to bring it altogether to make for a complex creepy thriller.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Headline for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Ahhh! This was worth the wait. I was so creeped out by this story that I had dreams about it last night. What an excellently written, spooky read. The blurb on the website did it justice. I won't be forgetting this one for a while. (Keeps light on while sleeping tonight) :)

The tall man is a chilling, psychological thriller about a family haunted by ‘the tall man’
A legend spanning decades, has devoured the lives of the Banner family. Sadie, haunted by the tall man, abandons her infant daughter and partner and disappears without a trace. Years later she returns and attempts to fit back into their lives, but their lives have taken a dramatic turn.

Utterly gripping story, which will leave you wanting to sleep with the light on.

I love YA a lot but sometimes it's good to dive back into some other of your favourite genres. I'm a sucker for a good thriller, so naturally, this seemed like the book for me.

Unfortunately, I was left disappointed with it.

So let me go into the few reasons why this book just did not work out for me.

I think everyone has heard of 'The Slender Man', originally I was drawn to the story because of this. My mind envisioned the story to not only be thrilling but scary. It did not feel at all scary. If anything I felt that the story dragged out for ages, building up to be truly terrifying only to be disappointed at the punch line. I struggled out times with the three different timelines and found myself constantly lost. I hate having to go back and figure who is who, mainly as I don't feel that I can enjoy the story. It felt like a mess.

The pacing of the story which I have briefly touched upon was not for me at all. It had a strong opening and surrounded the story in mystery which enticed me to pursue the rest of the book. For a majority of the book it didn't feel like it was going anywhere, hence the dragging feeling.


I did not like the characters. Quite simply I found everyone dull or couldn't connect to anyone. Amber, who has been charged with murder, was the only character I found remotely interesting. But I still did not like her.

There were some positives to the book - I liked there were a few twists that I did not see coming. Phoebe Locke definitely hasn't written a book that can be easily guessed - probably why I gave it 3* instead of 2*.

I wouldn't recommend this book because I found it super dull and frustrating to read at times.

All kinds of creepy.

The Tall Man got under my skin
and prickled over my scalp like nothing else I have read to date this year.

Elegantly constructed the narratives shift convincingly - each with its own unique flawed voice. The multiple time shifts are intricately woven and breathe life into an evil that inhabits the shadows - into the horror that only usually lurks in that strange time between night and day.

Overflowing with twists that hit you when you least expect them, the story unfurls in tiny increments all finally drawing together to paint the full chilling picture.

Thank you to the Publisher and to NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. The Tall Man is all kinds of creepy and will have you shivering in the heat of the summer sun - highly recommended.

This made me think of the films they used to show on tv when I was young, collectively titled ‘Don’t watch alone’. You may want company while you read this or at the very least switch on an extra light as it is truly creepy. There is a lot going on here with different timelines and interconnected stories. The author did well in bringing it all together and definitely had my attention until the end.

I was given the chance to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Whilst I enjoyed this story I felt it was a little disjointed in places.
It skips between 3 time settings (all clearly identified )and tells the story of Sadie and her daughter Amber. Along with secondary characters who hold the key to Sadie and Ambers tale.
I would recommend.

Unfortunately I had to DNF this one. I couldn't get into the story at all. I was intrigued by a story incorporating the urban legend of The Tall Man but I didn't find the story engaging. I found it difficult to care about the characters and the sense of suspense was lacking for me.

Big TY to Netgalley and Headline for the ARC in return for an honest review plus (SPOILER ALERT)

This is a reasonable, pacey thriller strewn with evil legends, superstition & a burst of childhood evil. A woman running from her past, a child cursed before she is grown and a husband who is totally out of his depth and even though the narrative is strong and the writing easy on the brain, the idea (which was very good) was poorly executed.

I think it might have ended sooner. I found the last three chapters dissembled rather than driving the story on and because of that the ending wasn't as shocking (for me) as it could have been. Some of the plot lines were a bit over-blown - the husband knowing that the wife had been part of a child murder and abduction when she was herself a girl and deciding to never mention it until the end of the novel. Miles's absolute forgiveness of Sadie after years of absence without any communication. The lack of empathy between Sadie and her daughter.

I could be projecting wildly here being a mother but I just didn't get it and I really didn't warm to Sadie and that is always a problem for me. Her character felt so hollow and half-made. BUT I would definitely recommend it as a gift or a travel read.

The Tall Man is an interesting novel that starts in one direction and totally throws the reader in another with excellent results. The background story of the Tall Man and its place within urban legend and created an equal in the 80’s to match Slender Man for the millennials.

The author has really mastered the style and richness of this mystery but has created a mystery within a mystery that really outshines most work from her contemporaries. We have a novel that jumps back and forth between multiple time frames and this is controlled very well. The author never once loses balance or thought when juggling these multitudes of plots. This shows that she is top of her game.

The characterisations and plotting are excellently portrayed and there is not one misfooting to the proceedings. The characters are rich in detail and you have an understanding for each of them and they are extremely three dimensional with the confines of the novel.

The plotting is quick and packed full of clues to lead you down the road to what exactly happened on the fateful night. The jumping to and fro between the different threads isn’t a plot device but mechanics of a well thought-out narrative that keeps the reader on their toes.

This is an exciting book and one that particularly caught me by surprise. This will definitely be on our required reading list for the year and one of my favourites so far for 2018. My hats are off to this well and truly gifted author. This is a must read for all genres fan and fits tightly within the mystery stable with a dark fiction slant. Fantastic all the way.

There has been a lot of well-deserved hype about Phoebe Locke’s debut novel The Tall Man and because of this it made the top of our list of ‘Books We Can’t Wait to Read in June 2018.’

The Tall Man is told across three differing timelines and from the perspective of several key characters but rather than being confusing I found this only added to the tale.

The Tall Man is about a murder, a legend and a family haunted. In 1990 three girls devote themselves to an ominous figure…in 2000 a mother inexplicably disappears leaving behind her baby and husband…and in 2018 a young girl is charged with murder. Through each of these events the Tall Man is there.

The Tall Man begins with the 2018 timeline and an article written by the director of a documentary on Amber Banner, the young girl charged with murder.

“The Banner family’s story first came to my attention during an extended stay in London. The case was much in the news at that time; in fact, as the impending trial drew closer, it was almost unavoidable. The headlines chilled me: a senseless murder, a family haunted by one member’s demons. An urban legend which had sunk it’s claws into an innocent child and turned their life upside down. I knew immediately that was a story I wanted to tell.”

Phoebe Locke’s writing style creates a sense of tension from the beginning, a creeping sensation that won’t leave the reader until well after the book is finished.

“This story is not one of tabloid gore and shock: it is one of grief and guilt and the terrible secrets which nestled for years at the heart of not one but two families. It is about the legacy of a dreadful legend, a story that begins and ends in the darkest woods.

It has haunted me ever since.”

Initially my favourite timeline in The Tall Man was that sat in the 1990’s, the story that focused specifically on the legends surrounding the Tall Man.

This timeline begins with Sadie and Helen walking their bikes besides the river when they come across Helen’s sister, Marie, and her friends Justine and Ellie.

Justine tells them all about the legend of the Tall Man.

‘Who’s The Tall Man?’ Sadie asked.

‘He lives in the woods,’ Marie said, leaning forward to take the packet of Opal Fruits from Helen’s hand.

‘He sees everything,’ Ellie added, pushing her glasses back up her nose.

‘He’s a murderer.’ Justine leaned back with a grin. ‘He comes in the night and takes you away….’

‘Don’t worry. Now you know about him, you’ll be safe.’

‘Not just safe,’ Justine said, clutching the lolly with her small white teeth. ‘He can make you special too if you ask him.’

In 1999 Sadie and her boyfriend Miles are both in their first year of university and have just told his disapproving parents that Sadie is pregnant.

The young couple are at a festival together when Miles goes off to get a drink for them both and when he returns he sees Sadie listening to someone in the shadows.

“Sadie was saying something to whoever it was but, with a sudden pang of dread, he saw fear on her face. Saw her backing away from a patch of shadow, a hand clamped protectively over her stomach. Her face had drained of colour, her eyes wild like a child’s.”

Miles is disturbed to realise that the although Sadie was clearly terrified it wasn’t a new feeling for her. As a reader this intrigued me and made me wonder who she had been listening to and why she was so scared.

In 2018 a documentary crew are following around 18-year-old Amber Banner during her first visit to LA. Federica is meant to be directing the documentary, but she keeps coming up with excuses not to come to LA and is leaving Greta and the rest of the crew to do all the hard work for her in the meantime.

The British media have portrayed Amber Banner as an ‘ice princess’ and have endlessly vilified her but the American press seem much more taken with her and Amber is enjoying the kind of celebrity status usually reserved for reality tv stars.

Opinions on the crew are divided over Amber, just like I suspect many readers will be. Greta believes that she is someone who needs to be protected to a certain extent, but some of the others feel that she needs to be pushed and that her crime means she has lost all right to play the victim.

“An eighteen-year-old girl who had reportedly signed with a talent agency less than forty-eight hours after being released from police custody. A girl first seen by the world in a blurry photo taken on a phone, her pale top sodden with blood, a smear of it drying on her mouth.”

When I was first introduced to this timeline I suspected this might be the area of the book that would let it down for me. I am not a fan of reality tv in general or celebrity culture and was concerned that this timeline might focus too much on those areas. However, this thankfully wasn’t the case as it worked with the book as a whole.

In 2000 Miles is becoming increasingly concerned with Sadie’s strange behaviour concerning their baby daughter.

“Ten days since Amber had been born. Three since Sadie had told that their daughter was cursed…’They’ll come for her,’ she’d said, though her voice was calm. ‘She’s cursed like me.’

Not only that but she had started checking the windows were shut and deadbolting the doors in the middle of the day and whispering to herself in corners. The one morning he wakes up and Sadie has gone.

In the present the crew are unsure if they are getting to see the real Amber.

“The public and the private. The thoughts twirling beneath the surface of Britain’s newest infamous face. Britain’s most in-demand murderer.”

As The Tall Man progresses we learn that Sadie returned into Amber’s life six months before Amber’s 16th birthday in 2016. Sadie took so long coming back into her daughter’s and husband’s life because she wanted to be sure that there were no unwelcome guests returning with her. Particularly not in the form of the Tall Man.

Each timeline with The Tall Man has something to contribute to the story and my favourite thing about the documentary timeline was learning about the origins of the Tall Man legend.

The legend of the Tall Man can be traced back as early as the 1970’s. An urban legend which began circulating around schools in England, it has several variants – the most popular is that of a man who murdered his disobedient daughter. This version of the Tall Man can be sought out by ‘good’ or ‘special’ girls – the legend goes that girls who offer presents and subservience will be rewarded with gifts of their own. In some versions of the story, these gifts are powers while in others, they are guardians – often said to be ‘sent from the shadows.’

I liked that The Tall Man left unanswered questions like is the Tall Man real? And does it really matter if he was real or not? I think the ambiguity surrounding the Tall Man and his existence adds to the disconcerting nature of the book. I liked that the Tall Man’s appearance isn’t really gone into in any depth because it added to the mystery and left it to my own imagination.

This was a brilliant debut and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

The media into a frenzy when a teenager is tried for a murder that has its foundations in the urban legend of the titular Tall Man. Following her acquittal a small documentary team follow her media tour of America and try to get to the bottom of what is myth and what is reality. Unreliable narrators, childhood memories and tangled emotions help to create a genuine sense of dread and unease as the story flits between past and present, mother and daughter. At times the story does become a little confused, which unfortunately slowed the pace, but the ending was a cracker.

My thanks go to the publishers and net galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

A truly frightening tale of revenge for crimes committed all in the cause of the Tall Man. The curse passed from mothers to their girls and then to their granddaughters. The tale starts off slowly to give us chance to meet the characters and realise what the secret is that they share but as the plot progresses the reading gets quicker and more frenzied. It will leave you feeling afraid, and you realise there will be more to come in legacy of the Tall Man. A great read.

Gripping and creepy, this book will draw you and and keep you guessing right to the last page. It will leave you thinking long after you have finished.

This book had me hooked from the moment I started.i didn’t know what was going to happen until the last couple of chapters unforgettable,would definitely recommend this book

I was quite interested at the beginning but the story went nowhere until the last 20%. The plot tried to be brooding and creepy by building up the suspense but it kept going round in circles and repeating itself. It didn't work for me at all.

This is a tense read full of mystery and supernatural events. Compelling and page turning. Thoroughly enjoyed this read.

Gripping, seamlessly blends past and present to deliver a compelling climax. Would recommend to all mystery fans

Absolutely loved this book and devoured it in a couple of sittings. Loved the documentary style. The ending was perfect. I think it would make a great film.

The book narrative moves between 3 different times; 1990, 2000, & 2018 with the common thread of the possible supernatural existence of the Tall Man who preys on young girls. Does he exist, is this some kind of delusion, or a prank that went too far?

This seems, as other reviewers have said, to have shades of the Slenderman case. I thought that the book worked well as crime fiction, but personally I didn't think it was creepy enough. It had the potential to be a lot more shocking, although the ending was good.

Thanks to Netgalley and publishers, Headline, for the opportunity to review an ARC.