Blog Tour: Harrow Lake – Kat Ellis [First impressions]

Welcome back!

Hello? Is this thing on? I’m finally back to my blog with a post for Kat Ellis’ forthcoming novel, Harrow Lake. Huge thanks to the folks at Penguin UK and The Write Reads for inviting me to take part.

Blurb

Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker – she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she’s swiftly packed off to live with a grandmother she’s never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father’s most iconic horror movie was shot.

The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map – and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away.

And there’s someone – or something – stalking Lola’s every move.

The more she discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola’s got secrets of her own. And if she can’t find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her…

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Early impressions

I’ve read the first third of Harrow Lake (work commitments and too much Animal Crossing…) and so far I’m really enjoying it. I went in knowing very little about the book and didn’t re-read the blurb before I started, so I had no expectations whatsoever.

There is one thing about this book that made me feel oddly nostalgic. For those of you who were pre-teen or teenagers in the mid to late 90s, you’ll know that there was a huge surge in teen horror films around this time. I clearly remember the hype around these films – and this was before social media, not that many people had internet at home, and if you did, it was a 56.6k dial-up modem.

Everyone was talking about films such as Scream, The Blair Witch Project, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Faculty, and so forth. There is an atmosphere and a feeling to Ellis’ book that takes me back to those films as they were originally experienced – horror without the technology.

There are many dimensions to Harrow Lake that everyone will be able to enjoy, and not just my specific trip down memory lane, but if you do know what I mean about 90s teen horror then I particularly recommend this book to you!

I’m looking forward to continuing my journey with Harrow Lake and will provide an update soon.

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Order now

Support your local bookshop by buying this book through them or through Hive.co.uk.

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Comment below!

Will you be reading Harrow Lake? Let me know in the comments below.

Wishing you a bookish week,