She lives in their dreams. They die in hers.
Nothing good can grow in the forgotten town of Bedford. After the closure of the paper mill, the town has become a wasteland. A decade of layoffs has caused a collective bitterness, leading many inhabitants to alcoholism, crime and abuse. The worst symptom, however, is the nightmare they all share every single night.
Susan Marley haunts their dreams. The object of derision, lust and fear, she wanders the town barefoot, never saying a word. But when she dies, betrayed by life one final time, Bedford begins to suffer horrors far more terrifying than any vision.
What dark secrets has Susan Marley been keeping?
And why has she come back?
Dark bleatings, my lovelies! This review is going to sound a little weird to those of you who’ve been in our tribe for a while and are in the know, because I’m going to be very positive despite the use of dreams. A lot of you already know that the use of dreams in horror fiction is one of my biggest pet peeves. Buuuuuuut….
A town is haunted by a woman called Susan Marley, and that’s even before she leaves the land of the living. They judge her and they fear her. She’s estranged from her family, though her younger sister does love her. Much of the book is from the sister’s perspective, and the fall out of being related to Susan is monumental. She has no friends and has so little self-esteem that when a boy from school shows interest, she really believes that it’s a trick to humiliate her. Even so, she’s so short of company that she goes along with him anyway, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.
There’s the wider horror story hinted at in the synopsis but what I really connected to was the characters and their relationships to each other, particularly the very difficult and trouble family dynamics. Susan herself is one of the more fascinating antagonists I’ve ever read because there was a part of me that was just furious for her. People are cruel, and those cruel people are often the ones who look lovely. I really enjoyed the messaging in this novel, though I’ll spare you specifics because that’s something you uncover as a reader.
If I have any criticism, it’s just that I felt the story could have been wrapped up a little faster, but take that with a pinch of salt because I’m someone who is currently trying to get through 100 books that I own before I’m allowed to buy any more. It’s top tier character work and very effective horror, and I absolutely recommend it to horror fans.
If you’d like to check out the book or the author, I’ve popped some links below for you:
Bleeeat!
Happy Goat Horror 
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