Title: Crone

Author: Keith Rosson

Release date: September 22nd, 2026

*Huge thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a digital ARC!*

I’ll admit I’m late to the Keith Rosson reading game. Somewhere on my Kindle lies his collection ‘Folks Songs for Trauma Surgeons’ but I’ve just not managed to get to it. When people told me I HAD to read ‘Fever House’ I checked it out, but I’d read a lot of rockstar character books over the last few years and needed a break, so I’ve not gotten to it. Then ‘Coffin Moon’ arrived & sadly, I’m vampire-d out as well lol. So much so, that when I was writing my own novel, ‘Churn the Soil,’ I started with vampires as the forest guards but swapped them to ancient-earth entities that resemble dimorphodon’s because I couldn’t bring myself to do vampires. Now, this may all sound negative – and I promise I’m trying not to sound negative – I’m just letting you know why I’ve not read a Rosson book yet.

And then came ‘Crone.’ The synopsis had me hooked, I loved the cover and the title made me intrigued over what Rosson would do with something in the woods. And by now you should know I love all things ‘something in the woods.’

What I liked: The novel, for the most part, follows Eli Lamp. A former detective who lives near Portland, his wife died during childbirth and when his daughter was a teen, Hannah disappeared, taken by someone in a van on the outskirts of town. Since then, his life has fallen apart, but he’s rebuilding. Though no longer an addict, he’s still beholden by the drug gang he grows for, in their debt for keeping him alive after he sought retribution in Portland.

All is ticking along. Until the son of the gang leader turns up dead in a river. And after he’s buried, he returns. And all hell breaks loose.

Rosson sets things up nicely in the first quarter. We get the lay of the land, the constant uncertainty of life under the thumb of a deranged ruler and we see how Eli keeps chasing ghosts while keeping the deals in place between the law and those living on the other side of it. We grow to tolerate Eli, though I found I never was able to fully like the man. Why? I’m not sure. But it made for an interesting experience and kept me riveted as the story progresses.

The other portion of the novel is told through Avery’s POV. Avery was Eli’s daughters friend, with her on the night she was taken. Avery’s returned to town, strung out on drugs after having stolen a bunch of cash from her boyfriend. She’s returned because she saw her friend in a dream and her friend said she needed to come back.

Avery’s storyline works well to not only show us how Hannah’s disappearance created a ripple effect around those who loved her most, but also a way to introduce the crone, the thing that lurks in the trees.

As the story progresses, more and more truths are revealed and its in these moments that Rosson highlights the human element of the story, which really makes this one hum along. In lesser hands, these moments may not be even included, which would’ve kept this novel fairly surface level when it came to emotions and progression.

The final quarter was solid and when the shit hits the fan, it hits the fan solidly. We get answers to questions each reader will definitely have and we learn the history behind the thing in the woods, which was great to learn.

What I didn’t like: While I really enjoyed Eli’s storyline, I personally don’t enjoy the whole backwoods drug gang stuff. It kind of felt a bit like Sons of Anarchy, which I really struggled with watching. So, keeping focused on Eli and Avery, made sure this one hit the right notes. Additionally, (slight spoiler aspect FYI) we do learn about Hannah’s disappearance, and I almost wish we hadn’t, though it did make for a really great section.

Why you should buy this: If you’re already a Rosson fan, then this one’s a no-brainer and you’ll be all over it. If you’ve never read anything from Keith yet, I think this one’s a great jumping in place. Tight, explosive and repulsive in the right amounts, this novel hooks in and keeps you hooked. The pacing was spot on and the atmosphere throughout was really well done. And most importantly, this isn’t your tried and true familiar crone or witch character. This one was fantastically transformed. This book will keep you up long after you should’ve gone to bed. And you won’t even regret it.

Title: I Am the Monster Under the Bed

Author: Emily Zinnikas

Release date: September 15th, 2026

*Huge thanks to the publisher for sending me a digital ARC of this one!*

I gotta be honest – when I saw the email from St. Martin’s Press come through offering this ARC for review, I wasn’t a fan of the title. After having read the book – and loving it by the way! – I’m still not a fan of the title. Reading the title initially, it gave me the sense that this was YA or middle grade horror. Pushing my trepidation aside, I read the synopsis and a light bulb went off. This was going to be my jam.

When I was a kid first getting into horror, there were only two tropes that truly terrified me – monsters under the bed and creatures in the woods. When I read the synopsis, I was immediately snagged by those two details. That as a child, Willa, the MC, had memories of something under her bed. And, that a group of teens went into the woods and only Willa came out. And though, in the description it doesn’t outright say ‘creature in the woods,’ that’s where my mind immediately went!

What I liked: Keeping with my ‘I gotta be honest’ opening line, I honestly had no idea this was Emily’s debut novel. When a publisher reaches out regarding an ARC opportunity, I have one line of thought – is the synopsis something I’d enjoy. If I’ve heard of the author before, great. If not, it doesn’t turn me away if the synopsis is intriguing. The reality of life is that we all have the same twenty-four hours in the day and every day is busy. I only have so much reading time – even less right now during the summer – so, I want to maximize my reading pleasure, and when I read this synopsis, I knew I’d enjoy it.

The novel follows a world renowned author, Willa, who paints under the moniker W. Sloane. Few know that W. Sloane is one and the same as the sole survivor of the Rapture Mystery Slayings, the event where six of Willa’s high school friends were brutally murdered, while she survived. She didn’t do that, she knows it, but back then, the local police and residents doubted her story and that she was the only one to return. She was always considered weird. She had a friend named Elliot who lived under her bed. She stayed clear of her basement, where the shadow people lived and wanted her gone, and she fed the forest to keep it full. On the night of the deaths, she forgot to leave meat out for the forest to feed, so, for all of these years, she’s blamed herself for their deaths, though she didn’t kill them.

She’s stayed away since graduation, but that all changes when a celebrity psychic calls her out and demands the cold case be reopened. Coupled with her beloved high school art teacher passing away, she’s forced to return and confront her past, and how that’s rippled into the present, head on.

Zinnikas does a great job of painting (no pun intended) the reclusive nature of Willa. The why of her shunning publicity, even as her paintings are hung in the most prestigious museums and art galleries around the world. And when a journalist sneaks in under the false pretense of an art interview, her cover is blown and the paparazzi nature of our TMZ world helps send Willa back to Rapture.

Once there, we get to see a familiar storyline. The return of the outcast. How small minds stay small in small towns and how those who remain can’t fathom that people change. Luckily for Willa, she befriends a new cop, even as people from her past show up and she struggles to not spiral. She’s there, doing this for the one woman who believed in her.

There were at least a dozen scenes in here where I felt my feet pull away from the end of my bed. Between trips down memory lane where Willa recounted her friendship with Elliot under her bed, to scenes within the forest and how branches would move and sway as though independently controlled, I was terrified. There’s large sections of this book that read close to the horrific atmosphere shown normally in Indie horror, not in polished, Big Five Press horror, so kudos to Emily and her editor for keeping the book as dark as they did, because that was a significant worry I had when I started.

Additionally, I’d like to point out how much I loved Zinnikas’ internal dialogue aspects of Willa as she struggled with her guilt/experience/survivor mind. Between how Willa was processing being stalked, running into the high school teacher who was inappropriate with her all those years ago, and being the only survivor – while being alluded in public by adults and professionals that she was the one who did it – Willa is a complicated character. Never once did it feel like an overwhelming amount of hurdles for the reader to deal with and the flow of Willa’s mental state was easy to follow and feel for.

The final quarter takes a different turn with the psychic becoming more involved and the secrets of Rapture coming to the surface. Those things that Willa saw that made her weird. It made for a fantastic finale, the forest really coming into detail and the cinematic climax as equally scare as hell and cathartic.

What I didn’t like: The only thing that stuck out for me was that I found a lot of the Rapture random people introduced didn’t get much time to become individual entities. Which meant when Willa would bump into a rando in the grocery store or wherever, I often couldn’t remember if she’d already encountered them or not. It wasn’t a big thing, but outside of a few Rapture residents, most of the characters beyond the main crew were all grey and not materialized.

Why you should buy this: This was fantastic. Every beat felt hypnotic and Willa made for a great MC. I’m still stunned this was a debut novel, because it reads like Zinnikas has been publishing for years. A dark, gripping, engaging read, ‘I Am the Monster Under the Bed’ had me hooked from the beginning. After having finished it, I want to read even more books with people being friends with what goes bump in the night and you already know how much I love my horror set in the woods.

For anyone looking for a fast-paced scarefest, this one will make you keep the lights on and flipping the pages until the sun rises once again. And for anyone wanting a smalltown who-dun-it with creeps and thrills, look no further.

Loved this one.