Jon O'Bergh

This was a fun read with a diverse cast of characters that at first glance I would not have expected to fit together as well as they did.
Best friends and co-podcasters Kendall and Jenn live in an old apartment building with quirky neighbors and possibly a ghost.
When closet doors begin opening by themselves and strange noises in the walls start scaring one of their neighbors the two friends decide to investigate.
Soon after, they learn that a serial murderer who killed people that he deemed "undesirables" had once been a resident of their building and had killed himself in apartment six.
Although there were some spooky moments, and a bit of humor thrown in, what I most enjoyed was the friendship between the two main characters. It felt so genuine, the way they could always count on the other to be there for them even if they were angry over a disagreement. I also love the creativity of having an actual album by one of the book characters that you can stream on Sound Cloud.

I received an advance copy for review.… (mehr)

I received an e-Galley ARC of Shockadelica, authored by Jon O’Bergh (he also designed the cover!), for review consideration. What follows below is my honest review, freely given.

I rated this novella 5 stars.

This is a perfect read for supporting pride month, the author and one of the MC’s are both part of the LGBTQ+ community. A treat for horror lovers, imo, are the section titles within each chapter; every single one is a title to a horror movie, book or song. I recognized a fair bit but some I had to look up, doing so made me smile each time it brought up a result. I’m not going to list them, because spoilers, but want to mention them so you don’t miss out on the awesomeness. So this is where I sound like a sick puppy by voicing my jealousy over the MC’s apartment experience, the good and the bad. I have a passing knowledge of my neighbors faces, except one, maybe? But not well enough to talk to them, knock on their door in the night because I heard a sound in the walls. How awesome would that be? All of us banding together(ish) to study the history of the building, worrying about each other. Truthfully we are all just more vocal Morvena’s worried about the noise levels ruining our evenings. Of course my partner would move us out at the first whiff of scary happenings so I’d be out of luck anyway…

Many spinning plates in the air but nary a one fell. Fancy speak aside, there were several subplots or side story lines running parallel to the main and I was impressed with how the author handled/incorporated them. I even learned of a folklore baddie that’s new to me, which I am shockad(elica) that I had not been aware of before, but glad to be informed of now. I am going to do more research into the subject in my free time, which is a pleasant side affect of reading, I must say. This has a companion CD, which is free to listen to on Sound Cloud, titled Bag of Bones by the Bone Man. There are 12 songs, each connected to a particular creature of horror. The idea is to listen to the songs in order, a song to a chapter; add the prologue and epilogue to the first and last songs and all will be well.… (mehr)