This is my first book of Malfi's, and it certainly will not be my last. The man has a knack for writing great scenes with believable dialogue and characters. The ending did not leave me wanting. It felt right. It felt natural. I can't wait to read more of his book. Five star read for sure!

I'm still a relative newcomer to Ronald Malfi, and havin loved 'Bone White', was keen to see what he'd come up with next.

What caught me first is the atmosphere in this book - it's just excellent. I'm from a small seaside town (albeit in the UK) and understood the mood right from the off. The town is a character in its own right, and that's as it should be.

The trouble was, I couldn't get on with any of the characters. This was a particularly 'male' book, and the way the women were treated grated hard at times. The protagonists are as well-drawn as I'd expected, but their human failings also made them hard to like.

Plus I'm not a fan of this particular trope - returning to an old town to face childhood sins. I felt myself getting frustrated more than I liked.

Sadly this is a DNF for me. But I'm still here for more Malfi, and already have some of his older titles on the TBR pile, so it'll be interesting to compare them with this.

A great writer; this book just wasn't for me.

This book was phenomenal. The imagery combined with Malfi's master storytelling kept me awake at night.

The trauma this group of friends face is tremendous and the consequences of the past they have tried tirelessly to bury has finally come to light.

If you want a book that will make you feel deeply uncomfortable and wanting more all in one go, this is the book for you.

I will never not read a Ronald Malfi book.

5/5

I have read and enjoyed Ronald Malfi's novels before and really enjoyed them, but unfortunately this one felt a little too slow.

Small Town Horror is the 5th Ronald Malfi book I have read and it did not disappoint! A slow burn read packed with atmospheric horror. If you are into ghost stories, haunted pasts, plot twists, decisions that come back to bite, give this book a read!

"The past is never dead." This phrase is repeated throughout Small Town Horror, a theme that once again lends itself to the story of childhood friends reuniting to fight evil in their hometown years after a horrific event. Despite this being a well-used trope, this novel proves itself a welcome addition to the genre.
"Maybe we were doomed from the start." There is a feeling of inevitability in this story, a constant oppression and claustrophobia for the characters that remind them they have not escaped their fates, merely postponed them.
This was my favourite read of Ronald Malfi's work so far, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a fan of epic, classic horror - despite the characters' insistence that this "isn't a ghost story," it sure feels like one.

Andrew Larimer has managed to escape his small town origins, leaving Kingsport, Maryland for New York City. Happily married and with a baby on the way, he’s living his best life … until he gets a call from Dale Walls, one of his oldest friends, telling him to come home. Since the two share a bad patch of history together, Andrew is interested in learning why this sounds more like an order or threat than a request.

The old homestead hasn’t changed much. And the four best friends he had as a teen who did not manage to escape the town have wound up in a bad way. Sure, Antigone “Tig” Mayronne owns her parents bar, The Wharf Rat, but she’s a single mom trying to provide for her daughter against bad odds. The son of the former sheriff, Eric Kelly is now a deputy sheriff, but he’s seems always on guard to protect his own interests before those of his constituents. Matthew “Meach” Meachum has wound up homeless, drunk, and an addict—three strikes and he’s out. And Dale is married with a real estate career, but he’s also on the slippery slope into despair and self-destruction, which would be a bad thing for all involved since he’s responsible for that bad patch of history that drove a spike between them. It has something to do with Robert Graves, the son of the local witch Ruth Graves, and quite a few of the friends have seen an apparition that could only be him. Dale believes the old friend circle is cursed, and all but Eric seem to agree. Ever the hardheaded skeptic, Eric sees coincidence and superstition where the others find truth.

Andrew’s arrival seems to presage some terrible cosmic alignment. Possible supernatural incidents or simple homicidal ones are on the rise, cycling in to expose the terrible secret crime the group was a part of all those years ago. Sanities are fraying, haunts are walking, and strange situations are mounting. Can Andrew bring some real world perspective on these incidents, or is he also doomed to be a victim of the ramping up hostilities? Ronald Malfi weaves some of the dark magic found in vintage horror paperbacks along with his own personal slant on fright fiction for his latest novel length offering, Small Town Horror.

That title is a little too on the nose to sit easily. It’s an evocation of a style, a mood, a quality of dark storytelling. It’s a promise that we will venture back into the heyday of 1970s and 1980s horror fiction storytelling. Is it meant to be taken seriously, or is it a looser invocation like Pulp Fiction, which gave us a stylish yet contemporary riff on the subject matter it tipped its hat to? Taken all by itself, Small Town Horror could be a smirk or it could be on the level.

Ronald Malfi might not want to be compared with contemporary horror fiction’s old guard—few horror authors do—but the kinds of fright stories he has been spinning throughout his career show no small amount of affection for the kinds of works that those giants made so memorable. The easiest point of comparison for many is the appearance of tight knit communities and the personal terrors found within that populate Stephen King’s works ranging from Carrie on through Needful Things. However, Malfi’s strength is most evident when repurposing the techniques of terror, the characterizations, and the chronicler’s eye for setting and detail for his own purposes. So, books like Black Mouth, Ghostwritten, and now Small Town Horror sing similar songs in slightly unfamiliar and personal ways. Part of the difference is in avoiding King’s literal and figurative stomping grounds: Malfi’s best works invoke the southern gothic school of heavy atmosphere fiction, wisely eschewing Maine, Colorado, and Floridian locales. Malfi’s attention to location and personality is terrific, and the way the author draws us into the psychology of these characters is immersive, allowing us to step into gloomy and moody storylines peopled by troubled folks who are on a collision course with destruction. Here is where we find the biggest deviation from King’s work. The writing style is not quite as chummy, a little more layered, the sentences more meticulous. Malfi’s newest shares a literary style akin to Peter Straub’s, particularly found in works like Ghost Story, Shadowland, or Floating Dragon rather than King’s oeuvre at the time. Then again, Straub moved from the eerie, surreal ghost novels of Julia and If You Could See Me Now and into the realm of bestselling page turners by studying the way King put his works together, so it is no surprise to see a little of both authors’ interests at play in Malfi’s book. However, he nevertheless filters the methods and motifs of both authors through his own personal vision. So, Small Town Horror reads like an evolution and never a simple regurgitation.

Readers looking for a bit of levity will be disappointed. Small Town Horror’s gloomy atmosphere is thicker than a fogbank, and it pervades the narrative almost from page one. There are occasional lighter bits, but humor is not one of the author’s essential components. Malfi’s works read like the end of a day. The sun is just about setting as the book opens, and the night only intensifies as the story moves along. The protagonist might see a sunrise in the final pages, but most of the characters will not. Despite the July period, these characters are October people trapped in a dark country, sometimes of their own making and sometimes provided by the fickle finger of fate or bad luck.

Small Town Horror finds plenty of bad luck, a supernatural level of inevitability, and bad decision making skills at play in the mounting darkness. However, there are also hopes on display as well. These characters are not shambling with slumped shoulders into oblivion. They struggle, they fight for what is important, and they yearn for a way out. They carry guilts and secrets aplenty, their spirits are poisoned, but they are trying to wrest normalcy from the jaws of abnormality. Some will succeed, some will not, but Malfi’s storyline and storytelling make these journeys compulsive reading.

Andrew as a protagonist is not without his flaws. He has secrets of his own, including a reluctance to admit he’s married and expecting his first child. He is not upfront with his wife Rebecca about where he’s going or why. His old friend group is rife with people not telling each other the whole truth, and some readers will find Andrew an intriguing enigma, the one who got away and yet is pulled back in, who starts to spin deceptions almost immediately after the call to come home comes through. Other readers will find the protagonist’s inability to come clean with those he claims are important to him as a turn off. Andrew is a complicated and complex character, but one of his biggest flaws is a Shakespearian level inability to talk with people. The rationales are made clear later on, and they make sense as far as the character goes, but in the beginning, we are asked to follow him blindly. Some readers will have difficulty doing so. However, he is hoisted by his own petard a few times and is never wholly right in how he comports himself.

The supernatural element is lovingly vague, as well. Some of the characters are certain of its existence. Others don’t believe at all. Andrew is on the fence, and by the end of the book, Malfi does not offer a definitive answer. We are left to believe what we wish, and possibly debate the matter with our fellow readers. It’s the kind of conundrum that pretty much demands we press this book upon another just so we can have the “What do you think?” conversation.

Small Town Horror is a wonderful excursion into twilight lands. Although set in the height of summer (much of the action occurs around the July 4th holiday on a couple of different years), it is a book that is nevertheless no stranger to the chills of autumn. Summer heat is no match for fright’s chills in Malfi’s capable storytelling. This author’s books are always enjoyable, and Small Town Horror is one more example of his clever approach to familiar material for horror fiction fans and his enviable storytelling chops.
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A special thank you to Titan Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest appraisal.

DNF at 27%

This one was too much of a slow burn for me that ultimately I just couldn't get into it.

I don’t read horror very often, but when I do, I want it to be like this! Small Town Horror was such a well written horror novel.

This was a wonderfully written slow burn. The past and present intertwine to create the most heavy and terrifying sense of dread for all the characters until things start going more and more sideways until the end. That ending still has me shook.
I got feelings of I Know What You Did Last Summer and It, and there were several scenes where I could see exactly how they would play out if it was a film, which is amazingly well done because I have zero imagination 😂
I did sense something off with one of the characters and my intuition turned out to be spot on, which was disappointing for the other characters.
I liked how the sense of ambiguity around a certain plot point remains at the end.
I could have done without a lot of the gratuitous graphic descriptions but I do understand it comes with the territory with horror and that’s more a me problem than the book itself.

This isn’t an action packed, hardcore horror novel by any means, it’s definitely a read that builds as it goes until things are so tense it seems unbearable, which was great for me. It was my first Ronald Malfi novel and I’m eager to check out more of his work now.

Thank you to NetGalley, Titan Books, and the author for this ARC.
Publication date 6/4/24

I love Ronald Malfi, so I knew I had to read 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 without even reading the synopsis.

It’s a slow burn at first, but the writing is so well done that I would have continued reading it for another 100 pages or more, it didn’t lose my attention at all. This was a bit reminiscent of IT and was everything I love and expect from Malfi. Atmospheric and haunting, I couldn’t pull myself away from the story. And let me tell you the ending had me completely reeling!

If you enjoy small town stories, coming of age horror or Ronald Malfi in general, you need to read this. This is by far my favorite of his yet. Many thanks to Titan Books for my eARC. 𝗦𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗛𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿 will be published 6/4.

Small Town Horror starts out as the classic tale of childhood friends sharing a terrible secret. Andy left his childhood home years ago, but gets sucked back in as his former friends' lives start to fall apart. Of course, this dredges up everything from the past, and secrets beget secrets beget secrets. While the architecture of this story is familiar, Malfi gives it his own unique flare that keeps you glued to the page throughout. Certain aspects of the story I didn't connect until moments before they were revealed, and I had multiple "oh sh*t" moments of audible surprise. All-in-all, this was a wholly enjoyable ghost story/not ghost story about secrets and small towns.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Wow what a book. I am quite new to reading horror and this has so far been the best one for suspense and creepy vibes.
Some parts were a little repetitive but it didn't annoy me because the story and the character development was amazing.
Will definitely be going back to read more from this author.

This was an enjoyable mysterious story about five friends reuniting as adults to confront the dark tragedy in their past. Told in multiple POVs and two timelines, Malfi weaves the pieces together fluidly to a satisfying ending. The characters were unique and captivating. The eerie environmental hauntings were gripping. The ending was very unique. The emotional depth that is instilled throughout fuses with its environment, further pulling you under its spell.

I really enjoyed this chilling tale from Ronald Malfi. I do admit I love the whole “adults return to the town they grew up in, where shady things happened and even shadier things are now going on”. It always gives me Loser Club vibes and I, for one, am here for it.

I love the attention to detail in this book, there is nothing better than when a story envelopes you completely and you feel like you actually live in this cursed spooky small town. Although with everything that has gone down I’m really glad I don’t live there because I would not survive.

The dual timeline worked so well for this one, and there was never a point where I struggled to keep up (I’m a simple being, sometimes dual timelines can drive me crazy). The ending had me though, I did not see it coming. What a clever little book. This is the reason Malfi is an auto-buy author for me. All hail.

Thank you to @titanbooks for sending me an early copy to sink my teeth into!

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I loved the small town aspect. It reminded me of It with the group going back to their small town. It took a bit to fit out what exactly had happened in the past, but it helped to build suspense.

2.5 stars.

How am I rating one of my favorite authors so low on the scale? Because dammit I'm tired of the whole group of tormented kids grow up and have to return to their hometown to deal with some stuff from their childhood stuff.

It's not a bad book. I was wrapped up in seeing how this played out and if it really was a booger chasing them or were they just imagining stuff from their guilt.

Not my favorite Malfi book but I'll still read anything he writes.

Booksource: Netgalley in exchange for review.

"Small Town Horror” by Ronald Malfi was a chilling 5-star read! Andrew Latimer is summoned back to Kingsport by his childhood friend, Dale. Andrew had vowed never to return to his hometown, but his friend sounds desperate, so Andrew agrees to help. Andrew quickly reunites with his other friends from the past—Meach, Tig, and Eric—to try to understand the dark forces that have been haunting them all.

I thought this was a very interesting story that I really enjoyed! The story is mainly told in the present from Andrew’s point of view, with some flashbacks to the past that are crucial to the story. I wouldn’t really call this a scary story; creepy and supernatural is probably a more appropriate description. There are plenty of twists and turns that kept me wanting more until everything was finally revealed. I don’t read a lot of horror, but for hardcore fans of the genre, this type of story may feel played out. I look forward to reading more by Ronald Malfi.

Thanks to Titan Books, Ronald Malfi, and NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read this ARC and share my honest review.

If anyone can write a horror novel about any subject and scare the bejeezus out of the reader just read a Ronald Malfi novel. The reader thinks the story is about a cursed group of kids who commit a terrible accident, fail to report the accident and then have to face the truth many years later and that is how this book begins. The story is told via Andrew, one of the cursed kids, as he tries to decipher what is happening to the group. The action is told through two timelines; one as the group are teens and then as the group reunifies to solve whatever is happening to them. Each person is responsible for a different part of the accident yet each one will have to pay a different price. I have never been more afraid to enter a cellar than after I read all the descriptions by the author of the cellar in Andrew’s home. I could almost smell the dank smell, hear the dripping water and picture the black water. The book is instrumental in planting pictures in my brain that I cannot forget as I am reading. Even when I stopped reading (to give my heart a chance to stop beating out of my chest) the images stuck with me invariably drawing me back to finish the book. There is something in this book that makes your mouth drop open (no spoilers here) and go back to look and see where you may have missed something. Excellent atmospheric book that I cannot recommend enough.

While the childhood friends who have done something terrible in the past reunite in the present is somewhat derivative, Malfi does some really creepy and cool things with it, in a very evocative setting. There are some twists near the end that are absolutely jaw-dropping.

[Snack Size Review] Small Town Horror, by Ronald Malfi

Quick Bite: Y’all, this book is grim and bleak and absolutely delicious.

(*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*)

What It’s About: Raise your hand if you’ve heard this before… Twenty years ago, a group of teenagers in a small town did something terrible. Today, they must reunite in order to fight the terrifying thing they unleashed.

A Word From The Nerd: Sound like a super familiar setup? That’s probably because it is. I’m pretty sure that every big (and small) name in horror has done some version of this exact story, complete with the same cast of characters - the Troubled Addict, the Alluring Tomboyish Girl, the Weak-minded Rich Guy, etc. It can be hard to muster much enthusiasm for yet another version of the story. But Mr. Malfi has a way of making me go “Oh, this again?” and then somehow adding something completely unexpected. And he often does so in ways that hit me deep in the emotions. So I’m left with this confusing jumble of “Pretty sure I’ve already read this book a dozen times” and “oh man, I did not see that coming, and I’m not OK.” It’s a lot for my poor sugared-up brain, but you guys, I can’t get enough of it.

The Nerd’s Rating: FOUR HAPPY NEURONS (and some fireworks - I live in WV, it’s allllll legal.)