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Spook Trail
Six teens head out to the boonies for some Halloween fun at a haunted junkyard attraction called the Spook Trail. The place looks like something out of a bad horror movie, complete with a creepy little person running the ticket booth.
It's all fun until they enter a spinning, circular room, where they are separated into pairs. As they work their way through different mazes, they discover they are being stalked by creatures much darker than anything they could have imagined, and those creatures are craving flesh.
Will any of them survive the Spook Trail?
It's all fun until they enter a spinning, circular room, where they are separated into pairs. As they work their way through different mazes, they discover they are being stalked by creatures much darker than anything they could have imagined, and those creatures are craving flesh.
Will any of them survive the Spook Trail?
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Published January 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 11, 2021
Agradezco a Netgalley por el ejemplar digital que recibí a cambio de una reseña honesta.
Este libro fue una gran sorpresa, pero no de las buenas. Esperaba otra cosa. Si bien siempre se mantiene dentro del marco sobrenatural, no es el tipo de "elemento" que esperaba ver. La escritura es muy regular. A pesar de que la sinopsis prometía una idea súper interesante, se me hizo bastante plomo. Me costó terminarlo, y lo lamento mucho.
Este libro fue una gran sorpresa, pero no de las buenas. Esperaba otra cosa. Si bien siempre se mantiene dentro del marco sobrenatural, no es el tipo de "elemento" que esperaba ver. La escritura es muy regular. A pesar de que la sinopsis prometía una idea súper interesante, se me hizo bastante plomo. Me costó terminarlo, y lo lamento mucho.
December 17, 2021
Six teens head out to the boonies for some Halloween fun at a haunted junkyard attraction called the Spook Trail. The place looks like something out of a bad horror movie, complete with a creepy little person running the ticket booth.
It's all fun until they enter a spinning, circular room, where they are separated into pairs. As they work their way through different mazes, they discover they are being stalked by creatures much darker than anything they could have imagined, and those creatures are craving flesh.
Will any of them survive the Spook Trail?
This was fiendishly fantastic and I just want more more more from Kerry’s messed up mind!
What a concept… who thought a haunted house attraction could be so ‘deadly’ and I will never never look at a junkyard or a ‘little person’ the same again!
Gore, violence, humour, romance, teenage angst, witty literary tropes and supernatural mayhem this book has it all. I honestly felt like I went into that spinning circular room with them and came out to a total mind-bending festival of horrific and violent proportions that genuinely left me thinking wtf did I just read …. But I LOVED IT! Writing and characterisation could do with a little polishing but otherwise a delicious wee read for diehard gory horror fans that don’t take themselves too seriously!
It's all fun until they enter a spinning, circular room, where they are separated into pairs. As they work their way through different mazes, they discover they are being stalked by creatures much darker than anything they could have imagined, and those creatures are craving flesh.
Will any of them survive the Spook Trail?
This was fiendishly fantastic and I just want more more more from Kerry’s messed up mind!
What a concept… who thought a haunted house attraction could be so ‘deadly’ and I will never never look at a junkyard or a ‘little person’ the same again!
Gore, violence, humour, romance, teenage angst, witty literary tropes and supernatural mayhem this book has it all. I honestly felt like I went into that spinning circular room with them and came out to a total mind-bending festival of horrific and violent proportions that genuinely left me thinking wtf did I just read …. But I LOVED IT! Writing and characterisation could do with a little polishing but otherwise a delicious wee read for diehard gory horror fans that don’t take themselves too seriously!
October 14, 2021
I’m the first to rate and review this book. I even had to create a listing for it, which should really be the sort of thing an author or the publisher ought to take care of. You’d think there’d be more readership, considering the time of the season. Come on, people, time to get spooky.
This was originally going to be my October 31s read, but I ended up getting to it sooner. It was acquired for the purposes of trying to get in the proper October mood and served its purpose to an extent.
To be fair, teen slashers aren’t exactly my favorite, and so it stands to be mentioned first and foremost that for a teen slasher this was actually quite good. The teens were nowhere near as annoying as they tend to be and the slashing was creative enough…but then it got to be too much, the slashing not the teens.
The basic idea here is a crazy spooky maze created based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, the man who was all about crazy and spooky, though it’s difficult to imagine him traipsing through mazes in abandoned junkyards.
But for a bunch of teens, three couples to be precise, it’s a wildly appealing idea. Until it isn’t…which is pretty much almost immediately upon arriving there. The entire thing, as it turns out, is operated by murderous midgets (I know that isn’t the currently PC mandated designation, but can’t resist the alliteration, sorry) with a strong penchant for cannibalism.
Throw is some Native American mythology and some Saw-like Poe inspired chambers of death and it’s all kinds of gory bloody fun.
The only thing is I’m not a huge gore and guts fan, preferring the more psychological scares, and so eventually the book for me just got to be too much. And yes, it's all cliches, but that's just genre formulas. And yes, the ending of it was so oddly abrupt, it makes you triple check to make sure nothing was skipped.
But other than that, it was a pretty decent scary read, very October themed and fun, especially if you’re into that sort of thing. Very low brow sort of fun, B movie style, but quite decently written and read very quickly, and so I’m doing that once in a blue moon thing where I uprate the title. There you go, world, book reviewed. Now you know. Enjoy accordingly. Thanks Netgalley.
This was originally going to be my October 31s read, but I ended up getting to it sooner. It was acquired for the purposes of trying to get in the proper October mood and served its purpose to an extent.
To be fair, teen slashers aren’t exactly my favorite, and so it stands to be mentioned first and foremost that for a teen slasher this was actually quite good. The teens were nowhere near as annoying as they tend to be and the slashing was creative enough…but then it got to be too much, the slashing not the teens.
The basic idea here is a crazy spooky maze created based on the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, the man who was all about crazy and spooky, though it’s difficult to imagine him traipsing through mazes in abandoned junkyards.
But for a bunch of teens, three couples to be precise, it’s a wildly appealing idea. Until it isn’t…which is pretty much almost immediately upon arriving there. The entire thing, as it turns out, is operated by murderous midgets (I know that isn’t the currently PC mandated designation, but can’t resist the alliteration, sorry) with a strong penchant for cannibalism.
Throw is some Native American mythology and some Saw-like Poe inspired chambers of death and it’s all kinds of gory bloody fun.
The only thing is I’m not a huge gore and guts fan, preferring the more psychological scares, and so eventually the book for me just got to be too much. And yes, it's all cliches, but that's just genre formulas. And yes, the ending of it was so oddly abrupt, it makes you triple check to make sure nothing was skipped.
But other than that, it was a pretty decent scary read, very October themed and fun, especially if you’re into that sort of thing. Very low brow sort of fun, B movie style, but quite decently written and read very quickly, and so I’m doing that once in a blue moon thing where I uprate the title. There you go, world, book reviewed. Now you know. Enjoy accordingly. Thanks Netgalley.
October 18, 2021
This review is for an ARC copy received from the publisher from NetGalley.
I requested this book because the premise sounded interesting. Unfortunately for me, the story didn't live up to the description. Half the characters were unlikable and/or evoked no feelings of sympathy towards them. The writing was inconsistent, as at times the characters ranged from sounded scholarly and above their age to sounding downright juvenile, like a teenager wrote the story. And the "crazy" element behind the villains too often ventured into just silliness. I hate to give a low rating to a book I received for free, but I just didn't like it.
I requested this book because the premise sounded interesting. Unfortunately for me, the story didn't live up to the description. Half the characters were unlikable and/or evoked no feelings of sympathy towards them. The writing was inconsistent, as at times the characters ranged from sounded scholarly and above their age to sounding downright juvenile, like a teenager wrote the story. And the "crazy" element behind the villains too often ventured into just silliness. I hate to give a low rating to a book I received for free, but I just didn't like it.
October 14, 2021
Hmmm....this was not what I expected. I expected more of a "teens trapped in an evil escape room surrounded by creatures" kind of thing. What I got was the written form of a B movie teen slasher film from back in the days when people thought would pay 5 cents to go to a "freak show" at the local fair. I got turned off by the overuse of stereotypes (pick 6 teen slasher stereotypes, 3 boys and 3 girls and insert here). I think that the author has a good concept, but lacked the imagination to pull it off so instead of writing in creepiness, foreboding, ambience for a psychological horror piece he went the slasher route. The use of "murderous midgets" (not my terminology) was offensive to me. I do thank #netgalley for the opportunity to read #SpookTrail though. It just wasn't for me.
October 16, 2021
First of all, I’d like to thank Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion. A quick overview of the novel as a whole: A quick-pace slasher that seems like a rip-off of the movie Haunt (2019), except it was badly executed with one-dimensional characters, stiff dialogue, constant word repetition and desperately needing a rewrite. None of the characters are likable and the group dynamic doesn’t work because they have no reason to be friends.
ATTENTION - CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON
The best way to showcase how poorly written the novel is and how permeated it is with racism, sexism, and cultural appropriation, is by giving a rundown of the characters and their archetypes.
The Angry Black Girl: Keneitra is always in confrontation mode, has a short fuse, and is the most aggressive out of the group. She was also the only one to refer to the little people as midgets. Keneitra was Harrison’s blind date to the Spook Trail, meaning the author couldn’t even be bothered to put the only black character in the core friend group, which also resulted in her having the least amount of backstory.
The Asshole Boyfriend: Dwight is Mirian’s boyfriend and his favorite pastime is cheating on her with as many girls as he possibly can. He is a major douchebag, sexist, and bullies all of his friends (who, for some unknown reason continue to hang out with him, even though they all hate Dwight). He’s the one that “drags” the group to the Spook Trail maze, having bought all of their tickets without checking with his friends first.
The Good Girl: Mirian is Dwight’s girlfriend, even though she is aware that he is constantly cheating on her and treats her like garbage. It made no sense for her to tag along to Spook Trail, seeing as she doesn’t like anything horror and dumped him during dinner before they arrived at the attraction. She is described as being positive and loving, always worried about other people, but also determined and emotionally strong, as if she wasn’t enough of a cliche already.
The Condescending Nerd: Harrison is, surprise surprise, another misogynistic asshole. He has been set up on several blind dates, and he hated all of them because the girls were “shallow” and only talked about their “petty dramas.” According to him, the problem was that Lydia kept setting him up with pretty girls when what he wanted was someone with “substance” that could “maintain an interesting enough conversation.”
The Whore: Lydia is constructed to be Dwight’s female version, supposedly not good enough for Jake, due to being too shallow and a whore that gets bored of boys easily. Mind you, this girl is never mentioned to have cheated on him and what made her superficial was buying a new outfit to go into the maze and planning on getting rid of those clothes after.
The Nice Guy: Jake is supposed to be Mirian’s ideal romantic partner, they are both in relationships that they don’t want to be in with people that are not nice and “worthy” of their companionship. However, Jake has no respect for Lydia and is stringing her along even though he no longer wants to be with her, clearly interested in Miran.
The Monsters: a family of little people that took over the Spook Trail maze and used it as a hunting ground, killing the teenagers in order to eat them. Near the end of the book, the reader finds out that they’re actually Hecesiiteihii. The Hecesiiteihii come from an Arapaho legend and are, essentially (as described by Google) “cannibal dwarfs”. So culturally appropriating Native American legends, and completely butchering it, to the list of awful things contained in a single novel.
ATTENTION - CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON
The best way to showcase how poorly written the novel is and how permeated it is with racism, sexism, and cultural appropriation, is by giving a rundown of the characters and their archetypes.
The Angry Black Girl: Keneitra is always in confrontation mode, has a short fuse, and is the most aggressive out of the group. She was also the only one to refer to the little people as midgets. Keneitra was Harrison’s blind date to the Spook Trail, meaning the author couldn’t even be bothered to put the only black character in the core friend group, which also resulted in her having the least amount of backstory.
The Asshole Boyfriend: Dwight is Mirian’s boyfriend and his favorite pastime is cheating on her with as many girls as he possibly can. He is a major douchebag, sexist, and bullies all of his friends (who, for some unknown reason continue to hang out with him, even though they all hate Dwight). He’s the one that “drags” the group to the Spook Trail maze, having bought all of their tickets without checking with his friends first.
The Good Girl: Mirian is Dwight’s girlfriend, even though she is aware that he is constantly cheating on her and treats her like garbage. It made no sense for her to tag along to Spook Trail, seeing as she doesn’t like anything horror and dumped him during dinner before they arrived at the attraction. She is described as being positive and loving, always worried about other people, but also determined and emotionally strong, as if she wasn’t enough of a cliche already.
The Condescending Nerd: Harrison is, surprise surprise, another misogynistic asshole. He has been set up on several blind dates, and he hated all of them because the girls were “shallow” and only talked about their “petty dramas.” According to him, the problem was that Lydia kept setting him up with pretty girls when what he wanted was someone with “substance” that could “maintain an interesting enough conversation.”
The Whore: Lydia is constructed to be Dwight’s female version, supposedly not good enough for Jake, due to being too shallow and a whore that gets bored of boys easily. Mind you, this girl is never mentioned to have cheated on him and what made her superficial was buying a new outfit to go into the maze and planning on getting rid of those clothes after.
The Nice Guy: Jake is supposed to be Mirian’s ideal romantic partner, they are both in relationships that they don’t want to be in with people that are not nice and “worthy” of their companionship. However, Jake has no respect for Lydia and is stringing her along even though he no longer wants to be with her, clearly interested in Miran.
The Monsters: a family of little people that took over the Spook Trail maze and used it as a hunting ground, killing the teenagers in order to eat them. Near the end of the book, the reader finds out that they’re actually Hecesiiteihii. The Hecesiiteihii come from an Arapaho legend and are, essentially (as described by Google) “cannibal dwarfs”. So culturally appropriating Native American legends, and completely butchering it, to the list of awful things contained in a single novel.
October 18, 2021
Would you go into a maze called spook trail on Halloween? This is all we know when going into Vick Kerry's horror book. It was enough to get my attention.
Set on Halloween, a rather unlikely group of friends go to the spook trail and get way more than they bargained for.
I really liked this idea and enjoyed the references to classic horror movies and haunted attractions at the start of the book. Our characters start off unfazed by them so we know their opinion on horror.
I did wonder how all these characters were friends. Dwight was a dick and a bully, nothing else to him. Lydia seemed nice but went with the flow to easily. Harrison I really liked, he seemed the only one I would've got along with. He's slightly nerdy and mature. Jake, I didn't like until the end. His character really comes through as you get to know him. Miriam frustrated me. Keneitra I thought was cool, she was realistic and nice.
These characters seem so unlikely to be friends and I'm not sure how they all got dragged into this, nome of them were strong enough to say no. However, we wouldn't have a story otherwise would we?
As they go through the maze we quickly realize this is not an ordinary maze. Things get hostile, bleak and deadly. Broken down into multiple points of views the story sets a nice pace.
As we go deeper into the story there is a twist. I did enjoy this twist and thought it terrifying. As our characters struggle to stay alive, the writing drags you in and your trying to figure out what they could do to survive. I did struggle with how the characters reacted to certain things. I really think they should have reacted different rather than how they did. However, this was not enough to stop me reading.
The ending though! I thought it was really good. This is certainly nothing like I have read before.
Thank you to Net Galley for my review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
Set on Halloween, a rather unlikely group of friends go to the spook trail and get way more than they bargained for.
I really liked this idea and enjoyed the references to classic horror movies and haunted attractions at the start of the book. Our characters start off unfazed by them so we know their opinion on horror.
I did wonder how all these characters were friends. Dwight was a dick and a bully, nothing else to him. Lydia seemed nice but went with the flow to easily. Harrison I really liked, he seemed the only one I would've got along with. He's slightly nerdy and mature. Jake, I didn't like until the end. His character really comes through as you get to know him. Miriam frustrated me. Keneitra I thought was cool, she was realistic and nice.
These characters seem so unlikely to be friends and I'm not sure how they all got dragged into this, nome of them were strong enough to say no. However, we wouldn't have a story otherwise would we?
As they go through the maze we quickly realize this is not an ordinary maze. Things get hostile, bleak and deadly. Broken down into multiple points of views the story sets a nice pace.
As we go deeper into the story there is a twist. I did enjoy this twist and thought it terrifying. As our characters struggle to stay alive, the writing drags you in and your trying to figure out what they could do to survive. I did struggle with how the characters reacted to certain things. I really think they should have reacted different rather than how they did. However, this was not enough to stop me reading.
The ending though! I thought it was really good. This is certainly nothing like I have read before.
Thank you to Net Galley for my review copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
November 16, 2021
I like this book, It is your typical teen slasher type story, a group of teen go to a Halloween theme maze, and things quickly turn deadly.
I always like reading about a new creature or type of villain, the ones in this are based off a Native American legend, I found the writing a bit inconsistent at times, with a few obscure words here and there, making me think the author got one of those ‘word a day’ calendars, lol, but it didn’t affect the flow of the story, the characters were a bit flat and not that likeable and the ending was very abrupt, so much so, I checked that there wasn’t another chapter.
All in all, the book felt a bit rushed and it probably could have used another going over before publishing, but I enjoyed it I give it 3.5 out of 5.
I recommend this to anyone who wants a b-grade slasher type read.
*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.*
I always like reading about a new creature or type of villain, the ones in this are based off a Native American legend, I found the writing a bit inconsistent at times, with a few obscure words here and there, making me think the author got one of those ‘word a day’ calendars, lol, but it didn’t affect the flow of the story, the characters were a bit flat and not that likeable and the ending was very abrupt, so much so, I checked that there wasn’t another chapter.
All in all, the book felt a bit rushed and it probably could have used another going over before publishing, but I enjoyed it I give it 3.5 out of 5.
I recommend this to anyone who wants a b-grade slasher type read.
*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.*
May 21, 2025
3⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spook Trail has a cool, creepy setting and a fun horror vibe, but it didn’t quite hit the mark all the way through. It��s a decent read if you’re in the mood for something spooky without being too intense.
⸻
Pros:
• Creepy setting – The haunted trail and small town feel are well done and atmospheric.
• Fun concept – A spooky attraction hiding real danger is always a great setup.
• Southern vibes – The writing captures that eerie Southern charm nicely.
⸻
Cons:
• Slow start – It takes a while for things to really happen.
• Flat characters – The people in the story aren’t very memorable or deep.
• Not super scary – It’s more eerie than terrifying.
• Confusing moments – Some parts are hard to follow or feel unclear.
⸻
Final Thoughts:
If you like small-town horror with a light scare, Spook Trail might be worth a try. Just don’t expect it to be a full-on thriller. A solid but not standout horror read.
Spook Trail has a cool, creepy setting and a fun horror vibe, but it didn’t quite hit the mark all the way through. It��s a decent read if you’re in the mood for something spooky without being too intense.
⸻
Pros:
• Creepy setting – The haunted trail and small town feel are well done and atmospheric.
• Fun concept – A spooky attraction hiding real danger is always a great setup.
• Southern vibes – The writing captures that eerie Southern charm nicely.
⸻
Cons:
• Slow start – It takes a while for things to really happen.
• Flat characters – The people in the story aren’t very memorable or deep.
• Not super scary – It’s more eerie than terrifying.
• Confusing moments – Some parts are hard to follow or feel unclear.
⸻
Final Thoughts:
If you like small-town horror with a light scare, Spook Trail might be worth a try. Just don’t expect it to be a full-on thriller. A solid but not standout horror read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2023
This book was way better than I expected. Super suspenseful and tons of jump scares. A cross between the movies The Hills Have Eyes (cannibalism), Saw (traps), and teen slasher films from the 80s, but with a supernatural twist. It's scary and extremely gruesome, like stomach turningly so. But so much scary fun.
But what the heck with that ending? I feel like I'm missing a few chapters or something. Left me hanging with no proper conclusion. Did the author even finish the book? Possibly the worst ending of any book I've ever read, which resulted in me removing a star.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crossroad Press for this eARC.
But what the heck with that ending? I feel like I'm missing a few chapters or something. Left me hanging with no proper conclusion. Did the author even finish the book? Possibly the worst ending of any book I've ever read, which resulted in me removing a star.
Thank you to NetGalley and Crossroad Press for this eARC.
October 18, 2021
I tend to request titles without studying reviews, as I don’t want spoilers or any bias affecting my reading. I might not have requested it, had I seen the poor reviews. This was certainly not a terrible book…it just wasn’t particularly good, either. Nice creepy premise that seemed to lose its way quickly…too much back and forth (same innocuous settings), too little promised “haunt” environment, too much gore (repeated descriptions of the same grisly details):
January 9, 2022
Typical teenagers looking for a fun time at Halloween but it doesn't quite go as planned is the premise of this book. The characters were well-written and the plot flowed well up until the ending. The ending for me was very anti-climatic and disappointing because it wasn't a cliff hanger nor was it all tied up with a nice bow so it just kind of was there. I voluntarily reviewed an advance readers copy of this book.
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September 16, 2023The publication of this book was cancelled after ARCs were sent.
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