2 Bloggers 1 Book - Night of the Crabs

 

Stormi was hosting a Red, White and Retro Readathon on her YouTube channel this month so we decided to do an older horror buddy read which would work for her and also fulfill my participation in Summer of Horror. Our choice this month is basically a creature-feature novel, and I have to admit I had a lot of fun with it, and it was a pretty quick read.  So read on for my thoughts and then hop over to Storm Reads to see Stormi's.

TITLE: NIght of the Crabs (Crabs #1)

AUTHOR: Guy N. Smith

PUBLISHER: Black Hill Books

PUBLISHING DATE: January 1, 1976

PAGES: 187   

SOURCE: Own

FROM GOODREADS: Professor Cliff Davenport's nephew disappears with his girlfriend while swimming off the Welsh Coast. Davenport discovers that a colony of giant crabs is responsible and resolves to track down and destroy them. Will he succeed before the monstrous crabs devour entire human populations? Full of action, suspense and gore, this is classic 1970s animal attack horror by bestselling British author Guy N. Smith (1939-2020).

MY THOUGHTS: This book was a lot of fun.  Was it perfect? No.  But it was a summer creature feature I thoroughly enjoyed and was a nice change of pace for some of the more slasher/psychological horror I have found on my shelves lately.  

Professor Davenport's nephew and his girlfiend, also Davenport's assistant, go missing while on vacation.  While it is being reported the allegedly drowned, their bodies have not been recovered and he questions what really happened because he knows they were both well-established swimmers.  He decides to travel to the Welsh Coast himself and after a bit of investigation, he finds out what really happened.  Davenport runs across a group of giant crabs, led by King Crab himself who actually seems to be a thinking, intelligent entity out to cause murder and mayhem.  

Davenport uses his connections to engage the military to stop the crabs while a town still exists.  He also ends up meeting a newly divorced woman named Pat who is staying at the same end that wants to help him.  Can they stop the crabs in time to save the town, and how many will die in the process?

As I said, this was a lot of fun.  It was action-packed and on the shorter side.  Davenport was an interesting character and if you've ever read "Rats" which I have, it reminds me of it in a lot of ways.  However, it also had a few flaws.  You will notice one of the questions I didn't ask above is where did these giant crabs come from?  Well, they didn't ask it either and I just couldn't let it go.  They all wanted to kill them and save the world, but no one questioned how they got here in the first place.  Also, I really don't need insta-love and a marriage proposal in a under 200 pages horror book but apparently the author did.

Overall, I am glad I picked this one up.  It's nice to read older books sometimes.  Also, this is apparently an 8-book series and while I might be interested enough to pick up the second one someday, I can't ever see me reading all eight!

MY RATING: 4 PAWS (more like 3.5 but will round up for Goodreads).

Feed Your TBR (Summer of Horror 2026 Edition)

 

Can't Wait Wednesday, which I have adapted to better suit my blog as "Feed Your TBR" is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings to spotlight highly anticipated books.  It is based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme which used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Also, since it is Summer of Horror, each week I will be trying to do one horror and one horror pick - at least through August.  So, enjoy!

August 25, 2026

FROM GOODREADS: Juliette Macintyre has never met a dog she didn’t love. For one thing, dogs don’t judge, unlike the human residents of Labrador Falls. Most locals look at her with suspicion because her father was once a dirty cop, even though Juliette is upbeat, helpful, and the best pet groomer around. She just needs to prove it…starting with new resident Joel Cunningham, an enigma wrapped in a checked shirt and a scowl.

Joel runs the Brewed Awakening café, where the coffee is as smooth as Joel is surly. He doesn’t serve pumpkin spice, he doesn’t chitchat, and he claims he doesn’t like dogs. Yet when Juliette stumbles upon a dead body in the dog park, strangled with one of her custom leashes, Joel becomes an unexpected ally.

He has no intention of opening up, to either his cute neighbor or the foster pup she foists on him. But he can’t let a biased detective frame Juliette for murder. Whoever killed the widely loathed Maurice Allsop may be desperate enough to strike again. If they can just ignore their chemistry and focus on the clues, Juliette and Joel might be able to solve the case—before somebody else bites the dust…

WHY I CAN'T WAIT:  Dogs and a small town called Labrador Falls.  This seems like an auto read for me right?

March 23, 2027

FROM GOODREADS: In a quiet suburb in the mid-1990s, nothing ever seems to happen. Then a teenage boy dies, and the adults are quick to call it suicide.

His friends aren’t so sure.

Drawn together by grief, boredom, and a creeping sense that something is terribly wrong, a group of teens begins to fixate on an abandoned house at the end of a cul-de-sac—a place everyone avoids, although no one can explain why. Once the gang crosses its threshold, they find that, somehow, the house seems to know them—showing them what they long for most, feeding on their fears, their shame, their secret rage.

As the line between nightmare and waking life erodes, the group is forced to confront not only the house’s sinister power, but the violence, cruelty, and despair festering inside their families and their town. What begins as a dare becomes an obsession—and then a reckoning.

The Ravaged Night is a coming-of-age horror novel from one of France’s most brilliant novelists about friendship, desire, and the terrible cost of growing up. An exhilarating celebration of Stephen King and the cult slasher film, this is a story about the places that shape us—and the ones that devour us.

WHY I CAN'T WAIT: I love a good coming of age horror story, and I've seen this one compared to Stephen King.

WHAT BOOK CAN'T YOU WAIT FOR THIS WEEK???

Wow! They Got It Right!

TITLE: Cross My Heart, I Hope You Die

AUTHOR: Mallory Arnold

PUBLISHER: Poisoned Pen Press

PUBLISHING DATE: July 14, 2026

PAGES: 352   

SOURCE: ARC

FROM GOODREADS: One isolated cabin. One cheating boyfriend. One plan to get even. 

When Nora, Ruby, and Cham discover that they've each been dating the same man, what starts as outrage quickly spirals into a plot for revenge. Together they hatch a plan to lure their boyfriend to a romantic getaway in a secluded cabin at the top of a snow-covered mountain. 

Only what was meant to be harmless payback soon takes a chilling turn when their not-so-adoring boyfriend is found dead in the cabin. 

Stranded and snowed in, the women begin to look at each other with increasing suspicion. And as tensions rise, hidden motives come to light. To survive, each woman must confront her own demons as they fight to uncover if one of them is the killer, or if something else lurks in the freezing wilderness, waiting to pick them off one by one.

MY THOUGHTS: After reading several books marketed as horror but which ended up being primarily thrillers, I was a bit nervous to start this one.  However, I can happily say they got this one right!  This definitely has a slasher vibe with a side order of cults and bunches of blood and gore. 

The story is told from three perspectives - Nora, Ruby and Cham.  In the beginning the reader sees that each one is very different, and each have a boyfriend who probably relies on them more than he should.  It doesn't take long to deduct that while the women are very different, the boyfriend is actually the same man, and he is taking them all for a ride. 

By some miracle which I am actually shocked happened at all, the three women end up meeting and are surprised to learn what they actually have in common.  Together, they trauma bond and they devise a plan to get even.  Ruby, who is adopted, recently inherited a remote cabin owned by her actual parents in a small town.  They all know how what a coward Jason is when it comes to scary movies, so they recruit a fourth woman to lure him to the cabin where they plan to scare him into giving him back all he has taken from them. Little do they know Ruby's parents were members of an old cult who once tried to take over the town and when a snowstorm strands them all at the cabin, it may be the three of them that are in for the scare of their lives.

This book really has it all - action, suspense, a snowy isolated setting, creepy town residents and a few twists and turns I never saw coming.  Also, surprisingly, I loved all three women, and it was nice to see them band together for a common cause and even nicer to see their friendship truly grow. The book starts with the three women being interviewed at the local police station so off the bat, the reader knows something happens to Jason, but I had no idea for the ride I was in for.

I have a copy of this author's last book and never got around to it but now I am anxious to pick it up as well.  If you love your thriller more on the horror side, this is one to check out!

MY RATING: 5 PAWS

Don't Trust Anyone!

TITLE: The Wasp Trap

AUTHOR: Mark Edwards

PUBLISHER: Atria Books

PUBLISHING DATE: September 16, 2025

PAGES: 327   

SOURCE: Library

FROM GOODREADS: Six friends reunite in London to celebrate the life of their recently deceased ex-employer, a professor that brought them together in 1999 to help build a dating website based on psychological testing.

But what is meant to be a night of bittersweet nostalgia soon becomes a twisted and deadly game when the old friends find themselves held at gunpoint. They are given an ultimatum: reveal their darkest secrets to the group or pick each other off one-by-one. 

It soon becomes clear that their current predicament is related to their shared past. The love questionnaire they helped develop in 1999 for the dating site was also turned into a tool for weeding out The Wasp Trap. This and the other tragic events of that summer long ago may help reveal the truth behind a killer hiding in plain sight. 

Alternating between the past and present with a colorful ensemble of characters, The Wasp Trap is a fast-paced and twisty thrill ride that is perfect for fans of Lucy Foley and Alice Feeney.

MY THOUGHTS: If you love a good thriller where you have some truly despicable characters you are going to love to hate, this might be the book for you.  It is the first book I've read by the author, but I will definitely be checking out his backlist for more to add to my backlist.

Will and his post-college friends haven't seen each other in 25 years.  Following college, all six of them spent the summer at a reclusive professor's estate working on a dating app called Butterfly.net.  Soon though, the dating app wasn't enough and a side project, a test to see if someone is actually a sociopath, starts taking shape.  One night, during project ending celebration, something tragic happens and the project dissolves and everyone is sent home.  

Fast forward and the professor has passed away. Georgina and Theo, who married after that summer, and who are probably the most successful of the group have invited everyone to their home for a dinner and celebration of Professor Marlowe's life.  When they arrive, everyone soon realizes they have unpacked baggage and secrets from years ago.  In fact, Georgina and Theo have a college aged daughter themselves who has recently disappeared.  As the evening goes on, they gang finds themselves being held hostage by the chef catering the party and his assistant. They are demanding that someone in the group is holding a secret and unless they spill it, no one may make it out alive.  The problem is, there are so many secrets from that summer how will they know which is the right one?

This book was a lot of fun, and I basically read the whole thing one Sunday afternoon.  I found it hard to put down, in part because I love an alternating timeline and in part because this group of individuals was one hot mess.  Edwards managed to surprise me with some reveals as well as more than one twist and turn. The ending might be predictable to some, but it caught me off guard, furthering cementing my belief that I need to read more by this author. 

If you are looking for a solid lock-roomed mystery, then I definitely feel this is one you should grab.

MY RATING: 5 PAWS

I Am Groot! No Sorry, Root, It's Root!

TITLE: Carry Me to My Grave

AUTHOR: Christopher Golden

PUBLISHER: St. Martin's Press

PUBLISHING DATE: July 21, 2026

PAGES: 336   

SOURCE: ARC

FROM GOODREADS: Maggie Wise will take your eyes.

When Malcolm was growing up, the local kids made up that chant about his mother, claiming she was a witch. He and his siblings did their best to ignore it. Now, Maggie is dying, and those same siblings have left Malcolm and his sister-in-law Violet to hold a vigil at her bedside. 

But they’re not as alone as they think they are. A dark figure waits and watches from beneath the willow tree across the street. Hundreds of miles away, an ancient evil stirs in its burrow under a farmer’s cornfield. Across the country, other buried things begin to dream in anticipation of Maggie’s demise. On her deathbed, the old woman elicits a promise from Malcolm, her youngest child―when she dies, he and Violet must return her body to her birthplace in Shediak, Maine. 

From the moment she takes her last breath, before her remains are even loaded aboard the baggage car of the Imperial Limited, there are forces trying to stop Malcolm from fulfilling that promise. Violence erupts on the train, evil preys on its passengers, and once the sun goes down, those long-buried things are coming to make Maggie Wise pay for her past. God help anyone who stands in their way.

MY THOUGHTS: I have always loved Christopher Golden's horror and if you haven't checked him out yet, I highly recommend you do.  I have read at least five of his books, with All Hallow's Eve still remaining my favorite, and have several more on my shelves.  However, I have to say that this newest novel threatened to knock All Hallow's Eve off the top spot once or twice.  

Malcomb's mother is dying.  He and his sister-in-law Violet have been at her bedside for several days and when she finally passes, Maggie explains that Malcomb has a limited amount of days to travel to Sediak, Maine to bury her remains and if they fail, they cannot imagine the repercussions.  

Malcolm's family has never been close.  His brother is basically a gambler who hasn't been home in years and his older sister, even longer.  Violet is the only help he has had and together they have formed a forbidden love.  Maggie has always been rumored to be a witch but Malcolm never believed.  However, as the trip progresses, Malcolm starts to realize there may be some truth to the tall tales and that he has no idea who his mother really is or about the life she has lived.

This book kept me engaged from the first chapter and never let up.  The chapters on the train where Malcolm, Violet and Maggie's body are holed up in the cargo train are some of the most atmospheric and suspenseful ones I've read in a long time.  Also, the evil entities they contend with throughout their journeys are original and terrifying.  I won't clue you in to their supernatural nature (and no, they aren't really Groot) but they have lived underground for hundreds of years and when they finally pop up to introduce themselves, people all around better run.

I cannot recommend this book enough and am so glad I picked it up.  I really need to find time to read some backlist titles from the author because he hasn't disappointed me yet.

MY RATING: 5 PAWS

Feed Your TBR (Summer of Horror 2026 Edition)

 

Can't Wait Wednesday, which I have adapted to better suit my blog as "Feed Your TBR" is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings to spotlight highly anticipated books.  It is based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme which used to be hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine.

Also, since it is Summer of Horror, each week I will be trying to do one horror and one horror pick - at least through August.  So, enjoy!

November 26, 2026

FROM GOODREADS: Layla Fitzpatrick lives a simple life, for a werewolf. And that's just how she likes it. Her childhood was less than ideal. She'd like to spend her adult years flying under the radar of more powerful preternatural creatures. Because she knows from experience what happens when they notice you. Everything changes one early summer night when she attends a ritual bonding ceremony meant to join two werewolves together for life. Midway through, the spell becomes corrupted and she finds herself unexpectedly mated to the stuffiest shifter she's ever laid eyes on.

Michael Kolbeck is more man than wolf. He spends his days in a skyscraper, building his family's empire. At night, he prowls the streets of Boston, a city where shifters, witches, and vampires walk a delicate tightrope of ceasefire masquerading as peace. Little do they know that Layla's arrival will act as the spark that ignites the fire, and that thin veneer of peace is about to vanish.

WHY I CAN'T WAIT:  I know this author has been pretty popular lately and I am curious by the werewolf aspect of this one.

May 18, 2027

FROM GOODREADS: At eight years old, Juliet Godfrey was violently possessed by a demon who had already claimed the lives of her parents. When it proved unexpellable, she was sent to the gothic halls of the Godfrey Home for Demonically Afflicted Children, where she grew up under the mentorship and care of exorcist Luther Godfrey—and formed an uneasy truce with the demon inside of her.

Twenty years after her possession, a steely-eyed Juliet travels the country as an exorcist herself, removing powerful (and often violent) demons from their human hosts, and occasionally referring the rare children like her, who are infected with particularly dangerous demons, to the Godfrey Home.

When Luther Godfrey dies following the unexplained disappearance of Seth, one of his troubled young charges, Juliet returns home for the first time in many years to attend his funeral. But upon her arrival, Juliet discovers that Luther left Godfrey House, and the care of all its students, to her. As the house’s new matron, it’s Juliet’s responsibility to protect Luther’s legacy and find his missing charge, Seth, before the dark forces that stalk him claim his life…and his soul.

WHAT BOOK CAN'T YOU WAIT FOR THIS WEEK???

Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza!

TITLE: If You Would Have Told Me

AUTHOR: John Stamos

PUBLISHER: Henry Hold & Co.

PUBLISHING DATE: October 24, 2023

PAGES: 333   

SOURCE: Own

FROM GOODREADS: If you would have told a young John Stamos flipping burgers at his dad’s fast-food joint that one day he’d be a household name and that, at the height of his success, he’d be living alone, divorced, with no kids, high on a cocktail of forgetting, he might’ve asked, “You want fries with that?” 

John burst onto the scene in General Hospital, propelling him into the teen idol stratosphere, a place that’s often a point of no return. But Stamos beat the odds and over the past four decades has proved himself to be one of his generation’s most successful and beloved actors. Whether showing off his comedic chops on Full House or his dramatic skills on ER, pushing the boundaries on Broadway or living out his youthful dreams as an honorary Beach Boy, John has surprised everyone, most of all himself. 

A universal story about friendship, love, loss, and the courage to embrace love once more, John Stamos’s memoir is filled with some of the most memorable names in Hollywood, both old and new. Funny, deeply poignant, and brutally honest, If You Would Have Told Me is a portrait of a boy who went from believing in Disney magic to a man who learns that we have to create our own magical moments in life.

MY THOUGHTS: During my pre-teen years, I was obsessed with General Hospital.  It started out as a Rick Springfield kick, but I quickly became enamored with the bad-boy, misunderstood character of Blackie Parrish.  Well, fast forward many, many years and I still watch GH several times a week.  Now I can stream it and don't have to sit through the commercials and Mr. Barb, who claims it is stupid and pointless, asks every night if we are gonna watch it.  It's become a kind of tradition.

I've owned this book since it came out and got about 30 pages in and then set it aside.  While on vacation and doing a book unhaul, I ran across it and decided to finally knock it off.  I really enjoyed reading it and am glad to have finally finished.  I don't like to rate memoirs because who am I to put a rating on someone's life?  However, I will share a few things I learned or found interesting while reading this one.

    * As a young adult, John has plastic surgery on his nose - a fact he tried to hide from his parents.

    * John has been an honorary member of the Beach Boys for over 30 years and still pays with them from time to time (I do remember him from the Kokomo video). He is good friends with the members and their families, and Mike Love even officiated John's second marriage.

    * Despite both of them being into music, John and Rick Springfield were never close when working on GH.

    * John initially tried everything to get out of his contract for Full House thinking that since it was a family-centered kid show, it would sink his career.

    * John met his current wife on an episode of Law & Order: SVU.  She was engaged to someone else at the time, but he felt and instant connected and five years later, when she as single, he finally started to pursue her.

I've basically watched John grow up over the years and it was nice to get an inside glimpse into his life.  I really admitted how close he was to his mom and dad and how important they were to him.  The book was really positively written and even though he obviously has some hard feelings about his relationship with Rebecca Romijn, he didn't portray her in an overly negative fashion. My favorite role of his has to be when he was in ER although I caught them later on when they streamed rather than watching ER when it was initially released.

And oh yea, Tony Danza.  When in his early 20's, John's first love was a fellow actress. They dated over a year, and he felt there were getting pretty serious, even though their schedules often conflicted.  He eventually started to feel her pulling away so he came home early one day and drove to her home.  Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" was playing in the radio when he pulled into the driveway.  He ended up finding his girlfriend in bed with Tony Danza, who he didn't officially meet until many years later.

If you enjoy memoirs, this one is worth picking up.  It reads a bit choppy as each chapter is basically a little story about a certain time of his life, but it is definitely entertaining.

***Edited to add I am now aware that John Stamos has expressed some political affiliations that have come into question.  This is not a political blog and this review in no way supports the blow up that happened in 2025.