Knock Knock Open Wide by Neil Sharpson

Source: NetGalley, thank you to the publisher!
TL;DR: A really entertaining and creepy take on some classic Irish folklore. I really think it’s worth a read!

Plot: Alternating timelines and PoVs built a very interesting and spooky story.
Characters: The interactions and characters were one of my favorite parts, I genuinely enjoyed them.
Setting: The setting was very secondary to the emotions and feelings of the characters but it felt fairly accurate and added to the tension of the story.
Horror: The creepy factor in this was the strongest part. I wouldn’t say any of this scared me but it sure was creepy.

Thoughts:

As far as horror books go this one was further into the creepy territory than horrific. The slow dread of somethin coming was strong, and the ‘oh god really?’ was a solid factor in the later portion. As far as staying power though? I’m not so sure on it.

Knock, Knock, Open Wide has at it’s core the disappearance of a young girl and the kidnapping (years earlier) of a young woman. These two events are closely connected, horrifyingly so, and over the course of the book we find out why and how. It’s a story told over alternating time lines and view points and it moves quickly. Each section is broken into smaller sections which makes the whole thing fly by, so pacing in this is fantastic.

The characters themselves have a fantastic voice, and I genuinely liked the humor and the interaction between our characters. Truly the only failing in this novel for me is that I’m simply not sure on the staying power. Because the horror wasn’t as intense as I anticipated this one sits more solidly in the creepy area and those books eventually fade for me.

I do recommend this one, especially for fans of Irish Folklore and those books that have a slow creeping factor to the. The kids show that repeats through the story genuinely freaked me out – that part will stick with me.

4 out of 5 Black Boxes – I ain’t going in there.