If you remember, I love anything that's spooky and in the woods. This one seems to fit the bill wonderfully. 

The Devil Crept In is a slow starter but it all moves fast. Part one was my least favorite as it didn't feel like too much was actually going on. After part two I was terrified and that feeling followed me the whole way through. The ending left me feeling sick in the way a good spooky story can, though I also hated the ending because of how bleak it is. Sort of like The Mist movie adaptation. It works and it preys on some of my spookiest fears, but it's so bleak I can't call it satisfying. 

I really liked Stevie. He reminded me of some of the kids I worked with. 

Final rating: 4.5 out of 5. Great horror, definitely spine-tingling. Why did the cats have to get involved? 

Part 2 was honestly one of the most unnerving things I've read in a while. 0_o Hopefully I can sleep.

Audience: Adult

Format: Audiobook/Owned

Don slapped the trunks of the trees with his left hand as he ran past them, a small ax held tight in his right.

- first sentence

This book takes place in the mountains of Colorado. Ryan and Jane, along with their friends, are enjoying their last trip to their family's mountain cabin and lots of snowboarding. They don't encounter the creatures until about 70% through the book. We see the creatures attacking other disposable characters, but the main characters have no idea there is any danger. There was a pack of the creatures, maybe more, and yet no one knew about them? Supposedly they were somewhere hidden until their prey ran out and they were starving. I think they were some sort of wolfish/human creature, it was unclear.

When the creatures finally start attacking the main characters, the story moves quickly and the characters have pretty realistic reactions - freezing out of fear, wanting to save themselves while at the same time wanting to help their friends, acting without thinking. There are no selfless heroes in this story. The end is left open-ended and I kind of like that, though I see no need for a sequel.

I read this book for the American Horror Story square because it takes place in the Colorado mountains.

I read If You See Her for the Ladies of Horror Fiction Group discussion at Goodreads. I’ve read several of Ania Ahlborn’s books and enjoyed them all with the exception of The Bird Eater. That one wasn’t meant for me! Anyhow, if you’ve read her work you already know that she writes a slow burn, atmospheric, moody creep-fest whose characters are typically stuck in a bleak situation. Her books have a melancholy feel to them so you need to be ready for that. If You See Her features several suicides and a character that chooses to revisit them over and over again in his head so please tread carefully if this is a trigger for you. Suicide features strongly in many horror novels but it’s not something I choose to purposely dwell upon for personal reasons so I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tempted to drop this book completely numerous times for this reason alone. But I stuck with it for the sake of the group read and I’m not entirely sure I should’ve. The things I do for you people, haha.

The prologue starts out strong. A group of teens head out to the local dilapidated haunted house. Three go in, two come out and you’re left wondering what the heck just happened. I was anxious to keep reading to learn all of the secrets despite and because of the thing that happened. I needed to know all of the answers. Chapter one picks up 19 years later where the memories of what happened in that house still linger with Jesse and Casey. Casey shows up at Jesse’s house one night disheveled and all worked up and convinces Jesse to visit the old house again. I screamed, “Don’t do it you dummies!” but they do it anyway. No one ever listens to me! As I suspected, things go very wrong. Jesse, who is still wracked with guilt over the first episode at the house, now has another horrible thing hanging over his head and spends the rest of the book attempting to hold his family, job and life together but it is difficult to keep it together when you’re possibly being haunted by a young ghost girl. 

This book was well written and had a constant sense of dread and gloom looming over every page. I liked the dread. I love a slow-creep and I love creepy atmosphere and Ania Ahlborn is very good at creating it. With that said, I struggled to finish it because I didn’t connect to any of the characters on an emotional level. I don’t know if it was me, it certainly could be me, but I found them all a little too lifeless for my taste. Jesse was gloomy and obsessed and self-destructive and his wife was such a non-entity to me that I found it too easy to disconnect from the story. 

The story is a slow burn, the "dream" sequences were effective and the ending was very fitting but I had too many questions about the origins of the paranormal aspects than I feel comfortable with and I felt myself slipping into a funk while reading it due to the suicides so I think I’m settling with a 3.