What do you think?
Rate this book
Nikki's Secret
All Kimberly wanted was a fresh start, one that would allow her to finish college and move on with her life. Unfortunately, fate seems to have a different plan for her. Within days of moving into her new ground floor apartment, she starts to get mail for a girl named Nikki, and not just any mail, but items of a sexual nature. Not long after that men start to show up, all of whom seem to think they will be having sex with Nikki. Pictures of her follow, along with threats.
Someone is not happy with Nikki and believes Kimberly to be her. Hoping to put a stop to this, Kimberly enlists the aid of the writer living above. Working together, they will attempt to uncover who this Nikki person is and end whatever game she is playing. Will their actions succeed and allow Kimberly to get that fresh start she desires? Only time will tell.
Someone is not happy with Nikki and believes Kimberly to be her. Hoping to put a stop to this, Kimberly enlists the aid of the writer living above. Working together, they will attempt to uncover who this Nikki person is and end whatever game she is playing. Will their actions succeed and allow Kimberly to get that fresh start she desires? Only time will tell.
Unknown Binding
First published October 29, 2012
205 people are currently reading
278 people want to read
About the author
William Malmborg
22 books220 followersWilliam Malmborg is the author of the novels Jimmy, Text Message, Nikki's Secret, Dark Harvest, Blind Eye, Santa Took Them, Crystal Creek, Daddy’s Little Girl, The Girl Who Played with the Ouija Board, Josiah, He Sees You When You're Sleeping and the novellas Billy's Blade, Till Death Do Us Part and Don’t Go in the Cellar. Future works will include A Taste of Pain, The Murders at Bootleggers Burrow, and Gobble, Gobble.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 10, 2018
Well, I think I still prefer Vickie's Secret to Nikki's Secret, but all in all this was a rather enjoyable & twisted little urban revenge thriller. I honestly can't remember how I heard about this one, especially since I tend to lean more towards supernatural thrills over the antics of mental instability. I had also never heard of this author before. Regardless, I was actually rather impressed with this twisty tale.
Nikki's Secret is a pretty small and self-contained story; only involving four people and just a handful of locations. But that really doesn't diminish the tale in any way, as it's actually pretty well plotted. There are a few plot holes that don't really get answered (or if they did I missed it), but typically everything lines up. I'd hesitate to lump this in with traditional horror, as it only skirts the edge of that genre. It's definitely more a straight up tale of mystery and good old-fashioned revenge, with a heavy focus on cyberstalking and sexual perversions and a bit of slasher horror thrown in for good measure.
As with all of my reviews, I will attempt to keep spoilers to a minimum. As a thriller/whodunit, the mystery and the "why" are part of the appeal of Nikki's Secret, so I feel they should be left for other readers to discover organically. So if it's not mentioned in the official book synopsis, I'll do my level best to avoid mentioning it here.
Since I don't read a whole lot of thrillers, I can't really definitively compare Nikki's Secret to anything else...but I'll do my best anyways. It has a bit of the unreliable narrator approach a la Gone Girl, more than a fair share of allusions to cybersex and the folks who seek it out, much like The Girl in Apartment 6E, and a shade of jealousy turned violent (to which the closest comparison I can come up with at the moment is the first season of American Horror Story with Kate Mara's character). And maybe it's my lack of exposure in the thriller genre, but even with so slight similarities to some other stories out there, everything in this book felt pretty fresh and original.
In fact, I don't know that I've read a book where the characters have so much internal dialogue (other than Dune of course), with so much of that dialogue being really on the nose. William Malmborg really delves into the headspace of the protagonists AND the antagonists, constantly giving us their day-to-day and situation specific thoughts. From the "what should I eat today?" generic musings to the deeper & crazier "what's the best way to kill someone without getting caught?", we ride along as the characters think things through. That's not to say that there's not plenty of actual character interaction taking place, as there is, but we get just as much insight into what the characters are thinking as we do with what they are saying. From relationship insecurities to work woes, and from little self-deceptions to huge justifications, their thoughts are on full display. Some of it is imminently relatable, like when one of the characters is starting to fall for someone, and all the excitement and fear that that brings. Some of it entirely batshit crazy, like when a body needs to be dismembered without the usual heavy duty tools.
I'm gonna be honest; this book has some pretty twisted events going on in it. From graphic language to graphic sex to graphic violence, Nikki's Secret is not for the faint-hearted. And while none of it is particularly new, it's laid out in such a matter-of-fact manner that it might be off-putting to some. Personally, I really enjoyed that William Malmborg didn't pull any punches and just laid it all out there. Murder and stalking isn't a clean or easy business, and he definitely doesn't hide that fact.
Any good thriller needs a good cast of characters, and this the area where Nikki's Secret gets a little wobbly. For while we have three main protagonists, only one of them is really likeable for most of the book. And honestly I get it. Books can absolutely have protagonists who aren't necessarily "good" people, since there's plenty of those in the world. For a realism approach, it works well. It just makes it hard to root for someone when they don't give you a lot of reasons to see past their flaws. And some books can manage to have a character grow and start to develop a few redeeming qualities (one character in this book starts to go that way), but sometimes the opposite occurs and you start to like the person less and less.
Our main protagonist, Kimberly, is definitely the stand out of the bunch. While she has a bit of a tragic backstory, she's ultimately just a normal college-aged gal trying to get through school and get on with her life. And I like the approach to her character, keeping her 100% normal. She has a job that she doesn't really love and occasionally screws up at, and sometimes tries to find a reason not to go to. She's in a relationship that she knows isn't really going anywhere, but she keeps giving herself little justifications for staying in it. She has issues with her internet service and gets tired of explaining it to the customer service rep. She's just a normal girl who involuntarily gets involved in some crazy revenge shenanigans. I think she handles the initial insanity just like anyone else would; a mix of disbelief, fear, anger, and resolve to not let it get the best of them. She's also the only character that I had a consistent appreciation for throughout the story.
The other main protagonist is Kimberly's upstairs neighbor, Bill. As an aspiring horror author who is just now to the point where he is making money off of his works, Bill is initially a cool character who I instantly liked. I like books, ergo I like authors. And he has a cat! But it's Bill who inadvertently sets the book's events in motion, and while mistakes happen and his intentions were never malicious, he has caused some grief in his past. But while he owns up to the fact, he really feels no remorse for it, and would do the same thoughtless things again if he had to start all over again. This ultimately made me start to dislike his character, especially given some of his motivations. And while I didn't overtly HATE him, I definitely liked Bill less and less as the story goes on.
Our third character, who gets much less page time than Kimberly and Bill, is Mark. Now, I have some seriously mixed feelings about this guy. When we first meet him, he's actively trying to hook up with the titular Nikki, just on the promise of no-strings-attached dirty sex. Are there plenty of young men out there looking for exactly the same thing? Yep. And as a virgin, he's even more motivated, as it's basically a contest within himself. But while sometimes a story involving a guy trying to lose his virginity without all the messy complications of a relationship can be mildly amusing (like in a sex comedy like American Pie), here it just comes across creepy and pathetic. Which, ultimately, is how it is in real life. But while he starts out as little more than a walking hard-on, he actually kind of develops into someone sorta decent. He actually changes his view on relationships (a little bit), and becomes more than just a penis with legs. I still never really clicked with his character, but I went from actively disliking him to more of a "meh" stance.
And the final character of the bunch is Nikki herself. Now, who she is and what her story is should definitely be left alone, as really any discussion of it would be heading into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say that she's definitely got a secret, and she definitely could benefit from some therapy. But ultimately she's a cool character, and while her justifications don't always line up, this girl gets results! As for what Nikki's secret is, that's best left for the reader to discover.
And that's really it for the characters of the book. There are a couple of ancillary folks that come in and out of the tale, but only as dressing.
One of the coolest aspects of the book, for me anyways, is the simple realism of it. People have jobs, people have classes, people have money woes. I get really frustrated at times when I'm reading a book and it seems that protagonists, especially the younger ones, seem to have unlimited funds and endless amounts of free time. But these characters, especially since they are barely into adulthood, really can't just spend all their time trying to solve the mistaken identity mystery in this book. To eat at home and save money, or to go the convenience route and eat out? To drive or walk? To pay for internet or to freeload off of free wi-fi? To skip out on work and potentially be on the rocks with the employer? These are the little questions that our characters are asking themselves, and lends bit of everyday reality to the proceedings. It helps give the tale a grounded feel, as these are things that many of us, especially our younger selves, can relate to.
The cyberstalking part seemed pretty well thought out, with all the I's dotted and the T's crossed. This book definitely highlights the dangers of being too free with personal information on the web, and made me want to recheck my Facebook privacy settings!
And like I mentioned, while there's not a whole lot of instances with gore or sex, what is here is pretty explicit. There are plenty of references to cybersex and adult sites, and allusions to rape fantasies and naughty bedroom escapades. As for the gore, it only crops up a few times, but it's pretty "in your face". It's also, at one point in the book, completely hilarious, though I am sure that wasn't intentional. I mean, a tub full of body parts getting in the way of taking a shower to get clean is, on the surface, just horrifying, but the way it is written just had me laughing. Can't really help it though, I'm kind of twisted. Sorry, not sorry.
There were a few problems that I had with the book. Primarily, I really struggled with the motivations of the men. Every male character in the book only does something for the female characters with the hope/promise of some kind of sexual favor. Are there guys like that out there? Definitely. But did the tale need every guy to be like this? No, it didn't. Guys like sex, it's 100% true. But are all guys only motivated by sex, or will only help a girl with the hope of sex? No. So that was a little frustrating. Please give men more dimension! It's like the Bechdel test, only maybe the Sexdel test? Whatever it is, the men in this book fail it. Every. Damn. Time.
There were also a couple of typos and a plot point about the stalker knowing Kimberly's work schedule that (to my knowledge) never got resolved.
Also, while there are some devious plots going on, the vast majority of the events in the book are actually fallouts from things not going the way they were planned. Honestly, this book could be the definition of “unintended consequences”. There were times when it worked, and times when it didn’t. But what initially seemed like a super-villain level plot just ended up being reactions to reactions to other reactions.
My final gripe is that, while there was no holding back on the blood and the perversions and the danger to our characters, there was never really a sense of dread hanging over the proceedings. Yeah, we get a little bit of the fear that Kimberly faces knowing she's being stalked, but honestly the relationship fears were more fleshed out than the actual "I might die" fears. There's a lot of frustration felt by our characters for sure, but I really thought there should have been more of a sense of paralyzing fear gripping the whole proceedings. And, given the potential danger, Kimberly just comes across as kinda dumb since she just sticks around, knowing full well she might be in danger. But such are the actions of any of the young people in horror/thriller books I guess.
But, all of those little nitpicks kind of fall by the wayside when the last chapter hits. I can't even call it a twist per se, but it's something that definitely reminds the reader that, regardless of how the actual mystery got resolved, one of the characters still isn't free & clear of the craziness. It was a delicious little jab right at the end of the tale, and finally gave the book the sense of ominousness it was missing.
So, I had some issues with the book for sure, but I really did enjoy it regardless. The twisted part of me enjoyed the mystery and the stalking, but I still was off-put by several other parts of it. I wanted a little more terror/horror, but what was here wasn't bad. Check it out if you are in the mood for something a little naughty, a little dirty, and a little bloody.
Nikki's Secret is a pretty small and self-contained story; only involving four people and just a handful of locations. But that really doesn't diminish the tale in any way, as it's actually pretty well plotted. There are a few plot holes that don't really get answered (or if they did I missed it), but typically everything lines up. I'd hesitate to lump this in with traditional horror, as it only skirts the edge of that genre. It's definitely more a straight up tale of mystery and good old-fashioned revenge, with a heavy focus on cyberstalking and sexual perversions and a bit of slasher horror thrown in for good measure.
As with all of my reviews, I will attempt to keep spoilers to a minimum. As a thriller/whodunit, the mystery and the "why" are part of the appeal of Nikki's Secret, so I feel they should be left for other readers to discover organically. So if it's not mentioned in the official book synopsis, I'll do my level best to avoid mentioning it here.
Since I don't read a whole lot of thrillers, I can't really definitively compare Nikki's Secret to anything else...but I'll do my best anyways. It has a bit of the unreliable narrator approach a la Gone Girl, more than a fair share of allusions to cybersex and the folks who seek it out, much like The Girl in Apartment 6E, and a shade of jealousy turned violent (to which the closest comparison I can come up with at the moment is the first season of American Horror Story with Kate Mara's character). And maybe it's my lack of exposure in the thriller genre, but even with so slight similarities to some other stories out there, everything in this book felt pretty fresh and original.
In fact, I don't know that I've read a book where the characters have so much internal dialogue (other than Dune of course), with so much of that dialogue being really on the nose. William Malmborg really delves into the headspace of the protagonists AND the antagonists, constantly giving us their day-to-day and situation specific thoughts. From the "what should I eat today?" generic musings to the deeper & crazier "what's the best way to kill someone without getting caught?", we ride along as the characters think things through. That's not to say that there's not plenty of actual character interaction taking place, as there is, but we get just as much insight into what the characters are thinking as we do with what they are saying. From relationship insecurities to work woes, and from little self-deceptions to huge justifications, their thoughts are on full display. Some of it is imminently relatable, like when one of the characters is starting to fall for someone, and all the excitement and fear that that brings. Some of it entirely batshit crazy, like when a body needs to be dismembered without the usual heavy duty tools.
I'm gonna be honest; this book has some pretty twisted events going on in it. From graphic language to graphic sex to graphic violence, Nikki's Secret is not for the faint-hearted. And while none of it is particularly new, it's laid out in such a matter-of-fact manner that it might be off-putting to some. Personally, I really enjoyed that William Malmborg didn't pull any punches and just laid it all out there. Murder and stalking isn't a clean or easy business, and he definitely doesn't hide that fact.
Any good thriller needs a good cast of characters, and this the area where Nikki's Secret gets a little wobbly. For while we have three main protagonists, only one of them is really likeable for most of the book. And honestly I get it. Books can absolutely have protagonists who aren't necessarily "good" people, since there's plenty of those in the world. For a realism approach, it works well. It just makes it hard to root for someone when they don't give you a lot of reasons to see past their flaws. And some books can manage to have a character grow and start to develop a few redeeming qualities (one character in this book starts to go that way), but sometimes the opposite occurs and you start to like the person less and less.
Our main protagonist, Kimberly, is definitely the stand out of the bunch. While she has a bit of a tragic backstory, she's ultimately just a normal college-aged gal trying to get through school and get on with her life. And I like the approach to her character, keeping her 100% normal. She has a job that she doesn't really love and occasionally screws up at, and sometimes tries to find a reason not to go to. She's in a relationship that she knows isn't really going anywhere, but she keeps giving herself little justifications for staying in it. She has issues with her internet service and gets tired of explaining it to the customer service rep. She's just a normal girl who involuntarily gets involved in some crazy revenge shenanigans. I think she handles the initial insanity just like anyone else would; a mix of disbelief, fear, anger, and resolve to not let it get the best of them. She's also the only character that I had a consistent appreciation for throughout the story.
The other main protagonist is Kimberly's upstairs neighbor, Bill. As an aspiring horror author who is just now to the point where he is making money off of his works, Bill is initially a cool character who I instantly liked. I like books, ergo I like authors. And he has a cat! But it's Bill who inadvertently sets the book's events in motion, and while mistakes happen and his intentions were never malicious, he has caused some grief in his past. But while he owns up to the fact, he really feels no remorse for it, and would do the same thoughtless things again if he had to start all over again. This ultimately made me start to dislike his character, especially given some of his motivations. And while I didn't overtly HATE him, I definitely liked Bill less and less as the story goes on.
Our third character, who gets much less page time than Kimberly and Bill, is Mark. Now, I have some seriously mixed feelings about this guy. When we first meet him, he's actively trying to hook up with the titular Nikki, just on the promise of no-strings-attached dirty sex. Are there plenty of young men out there looking for exactly the same thing? Yep. And as a virgin, he's even more motivated, as it's basically a contest within himself. But while sometimes a story involving a guy trying to lose his virginity without all the messy complications of a relationship can be mildly amusing (like in a sex comedy like American Pie), here it just comes across creepy and pathetic. Which, ultimately, is how it is in real life. But while he starts out as little more than a walking hard-on, he actually kind of develops into someone sorta decent. He actually changes his view on relationships (a little bit), and becomes more than just a penis with legs. I still never really clicked with his character, but I went from actively disliking him to more of a "meh" stance.
And the final character of the bunch is Nikki herself. Now, who she is and what her story is should definitely be left alone, as really any discussion of it would be heading into spoiler territory. Suffice it to say that she's definitely got a secret, and she definitely could benefit from some therapy. But ultimately she's a cool character, and while her justifications don't always line up, this girl gets results! As for what Nikki's secret is, that's best left for the reader to discover.
And that's really it for the characters of the book. There are a couple of ancillary folks that come in and out of the tale, but only as dressing.
One of the coolest aspects of the book, for me anyways, is the simple realism of it. People have jobs, people have classes, people have money woes. I get really frustrated at times when I'm reading a book and it seems that protagonists, especially the younger ones, seem to have unlimited funds and endless amounts of free time. But these characters, especially since they are barely into adulthood, really can't just spend all their time trying to solve the mistaken identity mystery in this book. To eat at home and save money, or to go the convenience route and eat out? To drive or walk? To pay for internet or to freeload off of free wi-fi? To skip out on work and potentially be on the rocks with the employer? These are the little questions that our characters are asking themselves, and lends bit of everyday reality to the proceedings. It helps give the tale a grounded feel, as these are things that many of us, especially our younger selves, can relate to.
The cyberstalking part seemed pretty well thought out, with all the I's dotted and the T's crossed. This book definitely highlights the dangers of being too free with personal information on the web, and made me want to recheck my Facebook privacy settings!
And like I mentioned, while there's not a whole lot of instances with gore or sex, what is here is pretty explicit. There are plenty of references to cybersex and adult sites, and allusions to rape fantasies and naughty bedroom escapades. As for the gore, it only crops up a few times, but it's pretty "in your face". It's also, at one point in the book, completely hilarious, though I am sure that wasn't intentional. I mean, a tub full of body parts getting in the way of taking a shower to get clean is, on the surface, just horrifying, but the way it is written just had me laughing. Can't really help it though, I'm kind of twisted. Sorry, not sorry.
There were a few problems that I had with the book. Primarily, I really struggled with the motivations of the men. Every male character in the book only does something for the female characters with the hope/promise of some kind of sexual favor. Are there guys like that out there? Definitely. But did the tale need every guy to be like this? No, it didn't. Guys like sex, it's 100% true. But are all guys only motivated by sex, or will only help a girl with the hope of sex? No. So that was a little frustrating. Please give men more dimension! It's like the Bechdel test, only maybe the Sexdel test? Whatever it is, the men in this book fail it. Every. Damn. Time.
There were also a couple of typos and a plot point about the stalker knowing Kimberly's work schedule that (to my knowledge) never got resolved.
Also, while there are some devious plots going on, the vast majority of the events in the book are actually fallouts from things not going the way they were planned. Honestly, this book could be the definition of “unintended consequences”. There were times when it worked, and times when it didn’t. But what initially seemed like a super-villain level plot just ended up being reactions to reactions to other reactions.
My final gripe is that, while there was no holding back on the blood and the perversions and the danger to our characters, there was never really a sense of dread hanging over the proceedings. Yeah, we get a little bit of the fear that Kimberly faces knowing she's being stalked, but honestly the relationship fears were more fleshed out than the actual "I might die" fears. There's a lot of frustration felt by our characters for sure, but I really thought there should have been more of a sense of paralyzing fear gripping the whole proceedings. And, given the potential danger, Kimberly just comes across as kinda dumb since she just sticks around, knowing full well she might be in danger. But such are the actions of any of the young people in horror/thriller books I guess.
But, all of those little nitpicks kind of fall by the wayside when the last chapter hits. I can't even call it a twist per se, but it's something that definitely reminds the reader that, regardless of how the actual mystery got resolved, one of the characters still isn't free & clear of the craziness. It was a delicious little jab right at the end of the tale, and finally gave the book the sense of ominousness it was missing.
So, I had some issues with the book for sure, but I really did enjoy it regardless. The twisted part of me enjoyed the mystery and the stalking, but I still was off-put by several other parts of it. I wanted a little more terror/horror, but what was here wasn't bad. Check it out if you are in the mood for something a little naughty, a little dirty, and a little bloody.
November 9, 2012
What a fantastic ending. I don't even know what else to say. I don't want to give anything away but this was a wonderfully twisted story, perfect for my demented mind.
February 22, 2013
This is a great read full of suspense, I never knew what was going to happen when I turned the page.
Kimberly was so excited about her new apartment and being out on her own again after having to move back home with her parents but her life quickly becomes a nightmare before the dust even has time to settle in her new home. It all starts with a simple package that she figured is from her boyfriend but it quickly escalates from there.
Bill is just the man upstairs who just so happens to be a horror writer. He has done some things to make money before his writing career took off but he had no idea how bad things would turn when his new neighbor moves in. Never in a million years did he think the things that he had done in the past would come back and cause not only problems for him but to put his new neighbor in danger as well.
Even though Bill does not feel that anything that is going on is his fault he also feels the need to protect Kim and make sure she knows that he is there for her at any time.
But can Bill really help?
Can he be the hero to Kim?
Why does he feel he has to be?
All of this is revealed in Nikki's Secret
Kimberly was so excited about her new apartment and being out on her own again after having to move back home with her parents but her life quickly becomes a nightmare before the dust even has time to settle in her new home. It all starts with a simple package that she figured is from her boyfriend but it quickly escalates from there.
Bill is just the man upstairs who just so happens to be a horror writer. He has done some things to make money before his writing career took off but he had no idea how bad things would turn when his new neighbor moves in. Never in a million years did he think the things that he had done in the past would come back and cause not only problems for him but to put his new neighbor in danger as well.
Even though Bill does not feel that anything that is going on is his fault he also feels the need to protect Kim and make sure she knows that he is there for her at any time.
But can Bill really help?
Can he be the hero to Kim?
Why does he feel he has to be?
All of this is revealed in Nikki's Secret
August 28, 2013
I got this e-book for free on Amazon a while ago and I've been slowly chugging through this book day by day, mostly dropping it for weeks because I got bored.
I finished the book a couple of days ago, and I've been sitting on it for a while., trying to figure out what about this book rubbed me the wrong way. Most are just nit picky things that I won't even bother to mention. So I guess I'll just focus on a few things.
So if you're looking for a who-dunnit mystery, then this is not the book for you. You will know who the killer is long before they actually kill somebody. It wasn't a satisfying read, but I was still at least able to finish it.
I finished the book a couple of days ago, and I've been sitting on it for a while., trying to figure out what about this book rubbed me the wrong way. Most are just nit picky things that I won't even bother to mention. So I guess I'll just focus on a few things.
So if you're looking for a who-dunnit mystery, then this is not the book for you. You will know who the killer is long before they actually kill somebody. It wasn't a satisfying read, but I was still at least able to finish it.
October 22, 2014
This author's books kept accumulating on my kindle, so I thought I'd check him out. Underwhelming, at best. Somehow Malmborg's work drew high praise from a writer as good as Krisch including a shocking comparison to Ketchum, although in all fairness it wasn't for this book. Well, this certainly was nothing like Ketchum. If I had to compare to someone, maybe Laymon sans the certain macabre glee. The story is an unoriginal overly long stalker thriller. The characters are bland and don't inspire a lot of emotion, particularly the porn addicted questionably moraled horror author named William (funny or alarming). The writing is serviceable, but again bland. One doesn't expect literary quality from this sort of books, but it's gotta have more to offer. Majority of detecting here is done via social media and texting, which makes it so very modern and so very tedious. This was just profoundly flat and uninspired, with exception of the very end, which actually did exhibit certain macabre glee. Definitely not a great introduction to a new author. Even for a freebie.
July 6, 2013
This is my 2nd book of Mr. Malmborg's. I love the way that he writes. For starters he doesn't write in chapters, he writes in perspectives. Each section delves into a particular characters thoughts and actions. That means anyone pertinent to the story (including antagonist) which makes these thrillers even more interesting. To see all views rationalized.
Onto the story: A woman named Kimberly moves into a new town to start college. She moves into a duplex with a writer named Bill. Right away something is awry in that people are coming to her home in search for a woman named Nikki & sex. What takes place in the next 300 pages is beyond shocking! This book covers ones fears of putting information out on the internet and how dangerous it can be. It's masterfully written. I definitely excused the few grammatical errors found in the Kindle edition. This is a must read for fans of Thrillers, Horror & even some sexual undertones. 5 out of 5!
Onto the story: A woman named Kimberly moves into a new town to start college. She moves into a duplex with a writer named Bill. Right away something is awry in that people are coming to her home in search for a woman named Nikki & sex. What takes place in the next 300 pages is beyond shocking! This book covers ones fears of putting information out on the internet and how dangerous it can be. It's masterfully written. I definitely excused the few grammatical errors found in the Kindle edition. This is a must read for fans of Thrillers, Horror & even some sexual undertones. 5 out of 5!
April 17, 2013
As horror stories go, this was a really good one. I really liked the characters and the setting feels familiar to me, as it's set up the road a piece from me in the vicinity of Northern Illinois University.
Malmborg doesn't shy away from gory stuff in this book, but he also doesn't really use that material gratuitously; it always serves the story, in my view. The set-up is intriguing, and it kept me reading and wanting to find out how things were going to resolve. I was happy with the final resolution, and would like to know what happens next. Well, I have my imagination. That's the mark of a pretty good book!
Malmborg doesn't shy away from gory stuff in this book, but he also doesn't really use that material gratuitously; it always serves the story, in my view. The set-up is intriguing, and it kept me reading and wanting to find out how things were going to resolve. I was happy with the final resolution, and would like to know what happens next. Well, I have my imagination. That's the mark of a pretty good book!
June 17, 2023
Awful.
June 10, 2013
Today's Five Star Author, William Malmborg: To date, I have read Nikki's Secret, Text Message and Scrapping the Bone and I have to tell you, William Malmborg delivers. His stories are not for meek, but they are not so far out there that people will be offended or put off by reading them. What I love about Malmborg's work is that it is a little racey, a little raunchy and a whole lot of fun. The story lines flow. Once you start reading, you cannot stop. It's like opening up a huge bag of Dorito's and saying "I'll just have a few". Can't do it. You dive into one of his books and you will be reading until 4 am just to see what the heck Nikki's Secret is, or how is Mallory going to walk into that men's bathroom and do that thing? You just have to find out. Each book is a decadent pleasure, a pure delight that you can sink your teeth into and get lost in the process. Read this guy; if you like raunchy, sexy, a little crazy and a fabulous story.
February 24, 2020
i'm honestly kinda underwhelmed w this. it wasn't necessarily bad, but just wasn't exceptionally good either. *i'll come back and write a more thought out review eventually while i gather my thoughts
June 27, 2021
It was good enough to keep me reading until the end but I don't think it was William Malmborg's best work. It was quite underwhelming and I think a lot of that had to do with the killer and their motivation being revealed too early.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 3, 2024
Long and drawn out
Story would benefit from better editing g and proofreading. Several inconsistencies and run on sentences. Could have been a very good story if more effort was put Into the editing
Story would benefit from better editing g and proofreading. Several inconsistencies and run on sentences. Could have been a very good story if more effort was put Into the editing
May 4, 2019
Excellent,
Brilliant ending with a little twist,maybe a taster of what is to follow. Fantastic and imaginative writer, can’t wait to read more
Brilliant ending with a little twist,maybe a taster of what is to follow. Fantastic and imaginative writer, can’t wait to read more
November 24, 2019
This book is very well written I enjoyed it completely. The only thing I myself didn’t like was the changing povs with numbers instead of names.
July 19, 2021
Meh. Nothing like his earlier works. Boring, uninspired characters. Not his best piece of fiction.
October 4, 2023
Did not finish.
April 1, 2020
Good read!
It was a really thrilling twister. Very captivating, would recommend to anyone that likes to be kept guessing until the end!
It was a really thrilling twister. Very captivating, would recommend to anyone that likes to be kept guessing until the end!
December 15, 2013
I thought this was going to end up at some point morphing into a vaguely interesting suspense novel (because it's certainly not "horror," as the descriptions implied--unless by "horror" you mean the feeling I got every time I realized I had already devoted a chunk of time to this book, and should go ahead and finish it up or the time sink would have been completely worthless).
Spelling and grammar errors are prolific (pretty much on every page), but I could have forgiven even that had the author given me a story and characters I cared about.
Instead, pretty much every character in this story is slimy, and with some of them, I felt like I needed to take a Karen Silkwood-style scrubdown after each reading session. And I don't mean slimy as "edgy," in that sort of cool, anti-heroic postmodern mode. I mean just slimy and repellant. Most of the characters had no redeeming features whatsoever.
When you create an ostensible heroine that the reader can't even really care that much about (and throw in a vaguely confusing and muddled backstory to try to elicit sympathy), it's just not happening.
Spelling and grammar errors are prolific (pretty much on every page), but I could have forgiven even that had the author given me a story and characters I cared about.
Instead, pretty much every character in this story is slimy, and with some of them, I felt like I needed to take a Karen Silkwood-style scrubdown after each reading session. And I don't mean slimy as "edgy," in that sort of cool, anti-heroic postmodern mode. I mean just slimy and repellant. Most of the characters had no redeeming features whatsoever.
When you create an ostensible heroine that the reader can't even really care that much about (and throw in a vaguely confusing and muddled backstory to try to elicit sympathy), it's just not happening.
January 14, 2016
I really like this author, but I could not get past the first 1/5 of this book because the characters were either very dull or very gross or some combination of the two. I went ahead and skimmed through to the end and the characters did not improve. It's not that I need to like every character to enjoy a book. I mean, this is horror after all. You can expect to not like certain characters. I just felt there was an element of spark and liveliness missing from the characterizations. Also, much of the plot was driven by characters communicating via internet dating sites, which could have been interesting but just really wasn't in this case. Read "Jimmy" or "Santa Took Them" by this same author instead.
March 20, 2014
Malmborg's first two novels, Jimmy and Text Message, were white hot adrenaline in book form. I'm not sure why this one failed to meet my expectations and felt slowed down, but I think a lot of it stemmed from the fact he was writing from the perspective of a self published author. I dunno, felt kind of like cheating. I never really got engaged with the main character as I did the ones from Jimmy and Text Message. Still, all horror authors are allowed a slip here and there, so I hope William rebounds nicely with Dark Harvest and whatever else he publishes.
January 28, 2015
Not as good as "Text Message" but still a good read. I will say that if you are a fan of Richard Laymon and wish there were further novels in his bibliography for you to read after finishing all of them then William Malmborg's work is for you - that, as far as I'm concerned is very high praise from me.
Mr Malmborg's books are about human monsters and the people who go up against them through circumstance. William - damn it all - write some more books!!
Mr Malmborg's books are about human monsters and the people who go up against them through circumstance. William - damn it all - write some more books!!
Read
February 10, 2014Disappointing
read this after Jimmy and text message and was disappointed. I expected more from him after reading those two books. I actually speed read it after I got through a third of it. if you looking for hardcore this one isn't one. now if there a sequel where it left off I probably read it.
read this after Jimmy and text message and was disappointed. I expected more from him after reading those two books. I actually speed read it after I got through a third of it. if you looking for hardcore this one isn't one. now if there a sequel where it left off I probably read it.
April 29, 2014
Nikki's secret is a book that is essentially about four people with secrets, some really big secrets, others not as big. Here is where they all collide. Once again Malmborg proves he can get into the mind of his characters, deep into the psyche, and here is where his work excels. Not my favorite of the author's but well worth reading.
May 27, 2015
I really enjoyed this thriller. Reminded me of the tv show catfish, but the twists and turns multiplied, and made it that much better.
February 22, 2017
Review soon!
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews