Virtual Book Tour + Review + #Giveaway: Arlya by Jack Lowe-Carbell @GoddessFish

ARLYA

Jack Lowe-Carbell

GENRE: Thriller

BLURB:

Arlya, a small town in Southern Ontario, is rocked by a gruesome crime. Four friends must work together with Detective Dylan Grey to find a pattern, a bike, a clue, and a sister before it is repeated.

James and his three best friends, Owen, Tommy, and Mike, have just finished school for the summer. The plan is the same as every other year: they are going to build the biggest fort yet, deep in the Dhoon Woods. After stumbling across a tiny, seemingly unimportant wooden hut, a series of crimes take place and their plans change.

Arlya falls into itself. Doors are locked, curtains drawn, bikes are put away, strangers invade, and kids are off the street. In the first week of summer vacation, a dark and disturbing family history is uncovered; friends turn on each other; a storm rolls through town; and a monster is hiding just out of sight, smiling its toothy grin and crawling through the corn.

PURCHASE ARLYA on AMAZON.COM, AMAZON.CA, RAKUTEN KOBO, BARNES & NOBLE, and ABEBOOKS

Excerpt:

Dhoon River ran alongside Arlya, sweeping in from the north. It was thirty feet across at the point behind Dhoon Glen, close to six feet deep in the centre. The river slowed along Arlya as though it took on the energy from the town. Lazy and quiet, it gurgled along the sun-bleached rocks, sinking and growing with the seasons. At the end of July, it would be the highest it would ever get, and the deepest. At a perfect seventeen degrees, the boys would float and swim as often as they could.

James slowed to a stop next to the baseball diamond, looking at the wall of trees behind the two bony nets. It would be the perfect place for a horror movie, he thought. One where you would see someone standing behind the first layer of trees. One where you would scan the entire wall and notice a fleck of black behind the deep brown of the trunks. Just out of the corner of your eye. One where you’d look back and see a hand behind the branches and leaves. And the hand would wave its broken wave, its fingers creeping up from a fist like knives from a holder.

“Jimmy,” Owen said.

James looked up.

This was one of the places he never wanted to be at night.

For now, the sun hung fat and full above the tree line. The trees’ limbs reached up, begging for more, praying to the only god they had ever known.

James set off past the faded park, wondering how many kids had been here. How many times had they swung on these swings and slid down this slide? How many of them still came here and remembered what it was like, back when everything was sweet?

My Review:

After reading the summary for Arlya I wasn’t quite sure what I would find between its pages but I must say what I found was not it. Arlya grabbed my attention from the very first. I fell in love with Arlya while getting to know James, Owen, Mike, and Tommy on the last day of school when they decided to go shirtless. I was also pulled in by the boys when they were swimming at the beginning of the story. I loved the way they were always picking on each other and the things they would say to each other.

But then things start to become sinister. Yeah, things start to turn dark when bad things start happening in Arlya, a small town in Southern Ontario. Girls are going missing which has everyone in Arlya pretty shaken. There is a monster that lose and it is doing terrible things in the town of Arlya.

Arlya reminds me of one of Stephen King’s books, It (1990). Mike, James, Owen, and Tommy reminded me of the boys in the movie as they were investigating the missing children in Derry, Maine. Arlya has the same feel to it that It does.

I was so enthralled by Arlya that I didn’t want to stop reading. The boys and missing girls kept me on edge wanting to know what was going on. I wanted to know who this monster was.

Arlya brought all sorts of feelings out of me. Number one is shockingly surprised along with a feeling of sadness and rage. Arlya tore my heart up on more than one occasion.

Arlya is filled with many twists and turns that I never saw coming. I kept guessing as to what was happening from the beginning but it didn’t turn out anywhere near what I was thinking.

I loved all the characters and would love to read more about them and their adventures in Arlya in future books.

I definitely recommend Arlya to all horror fans! Grab a copy of Arlya today!

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Jack Lowe-Carbell is a 26-year-old writer living in Vancouver, BC. Arlya is his first novel, and it is based in his hometown, Ayr, ON. Thanks to his dad, who read him horror stories when he was far too young, Jack has always loved the genre. His next novel is a tale of horror based in Garibaldi Provincial Park.

CONNECT WITH JACK LOWE-CARBELL

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Giveaway:

$15 Amazon/BN GC

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