This was such a fun read. It is a unique take on the usual possession story, and its entertaining from the first page to the very last. 10/10 would recommend

This is the most fun I’ve had reading a book in a long time. A fabulous mix of Desperate Housewives and My Best Friends Exorcism. Also, the Bravo snippets made my whole year (I see you, veiled mention of Herman Munster Shoes!!!).

The book starts off very Desperate Housewives-esque. The suburban neighbourhood with the annoying neighbours, and the close-knit group of friends who take no shit and have wine nights where they can be themselves in a neighbourhood of homeowners association witches. I already found this great fun, but then there was a twist. A spooky demonic twist.

FUN.

I raced through this and I’m genuinely sad it's all over. This would make the most perfect TV show, and if someone doesn’t do this immediately I am losing all faith in humanity.

5 big fat table-flipping stars!

✩✩✩✩✩

Thank you to @netgalley and Headline for the eArc.

This was such a cool storyline and I highly recommend if you love creepy vibes and comedy. The writing style was unique and fun to read.

Kilmer debut novel is a fun ride about suburban housewives and mothers who decide to build a she-shed opening an evil that spills out throughout the neighbourhood. Mixing elements from Desperate Housewives and Night of the Demon gives a nice cosy mix.

The plot keeps the reader involved as it unfolds starting out as the importance of female sisterhood and continuing this thread whilst the horror becomes eminent. Kilmer successfully explores the different themes.

The characters are well drawn and very likable. The reader keeps invested in each of their plights to the very end. The story is told mainly through the eyes of Amy which is a reliable narrator. As the story is told from a first-person narrative, it is very difficult to not find the character annoying and Kilmer is able to avoid this by making Amy relatable and likeable.

This is a fun novel with aspects of horror but a testament of the importance of friendship. Excellent.

I really enjoyed this read, it was exactly what I expected going into it and exactly as described. Following a group of 'mom friends' in a well-to-do neighborhood as they navigate the summer holidays and PTA meetings until one becomes possessed.
It was a good entertaining read, it could be somewhat repetitive and I do wish the book leaned even more heavily into the social and cultural aspects of motherhood.

This is the love child of a Grady Hendrix's novel and The Witches of Eastwick. A lot of horror and fun, bored suburban housewives and how life can be changed by using power you don't know how to handle.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Amy, Liz, Jess and Melissa are suburban moms and best friends. They live in a calm, idyllic and safe neighborhood on the outskirts of Chicago where nothing out of the ordinary ever happens.
That is until Liz decides that she and her friends need a place for themselves where they can get together without being interrupted by their children and husbands. They need a She Shed and it’s supposed to be build in her backyard. When ground is broken for the construction, a demon is unleashed. When strange things start happening in the neighborhood and Liz starts not acting like herself, Amy is determined to help her friend...but has no idea what she's getting herself into.

This was a fun, entertaining and very easy to read book. The story doesn’t take itself too seriously, although it does touch upon some more serious topics. There were a few slightly creepy moments but I wouldn’t really categorize it as horror. It‘s more of a (fun) story about motherhood, friendships and love & forgiveness with light demonic vibes.

I definitely loved that the story took place in a suburban neighborhood (forever loving small town vibes) and I also really enjoyed the snarky humor and the back and forth between the friends.

I would definitely recommend this book if you‘re not really into horror but do like light supernatural vibes.

Trigger Warning: Death of an animal

Horror that doesn't take itself too seriously. Think Zombieland but with soccer mons and a HOA. This was a really quick read, and although there's obviously some gore in never made me feel anxious or grossed out. I did think this needed a tighter plot and pacing at times, as the story sometimes went off on a tangent exploring side stories that didn't really go anywhere or add to the main plot. However overall I had a fun time.

𝐒𝐮𝐛𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐊𝐢𝐥𝐦𝐞𝐫
𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝟒.𝟓 ⭐️
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫
𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫: 6𝘵𝘩 𝘑𝘶𝘭𝘺 2023 𝘣𝘺 𝘏𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦
𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞: 𝘈 𝘊𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘨𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘭-𝘥𝘦-𝘴𝘢𝘤 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘯𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘳...𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘤 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥.

I loved this! I was only approved this on Thursday and the release day was July 6th, if only I had time to read in one day but I finished this last night.

Amy, Melissa, Jess & Liz are suburban mum friends they are having an evening of ‘Toasting’ Liz’s new project ‘She-Shed’ in the garden a place for friends, no kids or husbands. But what they don’t realise they unleashed some demonic forces.

This was such a fun read, it had lots of comedic moments but also creepy horrific ones too. The chapters were nice and short. It was told in first person from Amy.

Amy was such a relatable mum, she said things that I would say to myself and I laughed out loud a few times at how similar her antics are, but most of all she was the main friend who was concerned for Liz, when Liz started changing. She was so determined to help!

This book gave me Grady Hendrix’s vibes from ‘my best friends exorcism’ and ‘the southern book clubs guide to slaying vampires’, I would say ‘Surburban Hell’ was more or a friendship book than a horror but I devoured it.

I think this book is a rerelease as I remember seeing it last year as the cover is very memorable.

100% recommend if you want to dip a toe into the horror genre with comedic moments.

One of my favourite quotes by Amy ‘‘𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦, 𝘪 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘥𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘴. 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘤𝘩, 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥, 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯’𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧𝘧’

I can’t wait to read more of Maureen Kilmer’s books!

Thanks to @netgalley and @headlinebooks for this ARC!

#bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookworm #books #bookish #bibliophile #netgalley #netgalleyreviewer #netgalleyuk #SurburbanHell #maureenkilmer #horror #possession

This is a wonderful, horror-lite story about four women neighbours who live in a well-to-do Chicago suburb. It is kind of a blend of Desperate Housewives and The Exorcist, with a bit of My Best Friend's Exorcism thrown in too, and it is an incredibly fun read. A fantastic story about the power of friendship with a few frights along the way. Highly recommended.

Suburban Hell is a novel about what happens to a group of friends from the suburbs when one of them seems to have been possessed. Amy moved from Chicago to the suburbs and found it hard to handle until she met Jess, Melissa, and Liz, all women not impressed with the top dog PTA crowd. They get to together to drink, talk about their families, and watch movies, but when plans for creating their own clubhouse, the 'She Shed', begin, that's when Liz starts acting strangely. As the neighbourhood gets weirder and more dangerous, the other three realise they need to fight to get their friend back and save the suburbs.

This is a fairly horror-by-numbers novel that goes as you'd expect it too, and the suburban setting and characters make it feel more focused on people interested in that element than the horror part necessarily. It is a fun concept and the setting is vividly drawn, plus the main characters are all distinctive and different, but the narrative itself isn't all that exciting, with a very predictable ending and not actually that much peril for a horror book. It feels a bit like a cross between Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism and The Southern Book Club's Guide To Slaying Vampires, with elements like the kid who knows something bad is happening feeling like staples of this kind of book.

It's a light read that is probably more for people who aren't really into horror books or films, but would like to dip their toe into the water. Personally, I prefer horror that is a bit darker or weirder, but this book is fun and people who know more about American suburban life might get more of a kick out of that aspect.

When I first saw the cover to this I was immediately interested. It is so eye catching (hats off to the designer!) then I read the blurb and I was even more interested.
I loved the concept and this quickly became one of my most anticipated reads and I am pleased to say that it didn't let me down.
I enjoyed this right from the start and I was hooked throughout.
This is meant to be a horror story but to me it was much more a story about female friendships and motherhood with a bit of light horror mixed in. It definitely had some cosy horror vibes.
I really liked the characters friendship, it came across as very real, they were all likeable and they were all well defined. They were the reason I wanted to keep reading this.
For me this was a very enjoyable, fun read that I found entertaining.
Those of you looking for something a bit different that isn't too dark would enjoy this.
I would read from this author again.

This was a really fun and entertaining suburban set horror with some surprisingly creepy imagery in places. I thought the relationship between our core group of female friends was really well done and that Maureen Kilmer had an excellent grasp on the 'hell' that is suburbia, with PTA meetings and HOA representatives and keeping up with the Jones's. I found the way in which some of the supernatural elements of the horror focused on Amy's daughter, Emily to be particularly creepy and a great addition to the narrative. This is definitely a light horror, but there are enough scary moments to pacify more hardcore readers of the genre and it strikes me as a great gateway for those looking to dip their toe in the horror pool. My only criticism is that I felt the closing action was a bit rushed, but otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed this.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

"Suburban Hell" by Maureen Kilmer takes readers on a thrilling journey into the depths of a seemingly idyllic Chicago cul-de-sac. Amy Foster and her friends Liz, Jess, and Melissa form a tight-knit group, finding solace in their shared disdain for the PTA moms. When they create their sanctuary, a 'She Shed,' little do they know that their innocent act will unleash a demonic force from Liz's home improvement project. As haunting activities and Liz's transformation escalate, the friends must rally together to battle the evil that has invaded their suburban haven. With demonic exorcism on the agenda, they must save their friend and their neighbourhood from descending into utter hell.