Rosh's Reviews

AUTHOR: Josh Silver GENRE: Contemporary Satirical Thriller PUBLICATION DATE: August 4, 2026 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A satirical psych thriller offering a dark look at an author who is desperate for success. Somewhat meta in approach. Complex flawed characters. A jerky writing style with too many short sentences and too much rambling. Slow pace and much lengthier than needed. Recommended, as long as you have the patience. Plot Preview: Mallory Maddox had a successful debut novel seven years ago. But since then, she has had a writer’s block. She is desperate for inspiration, so when Leo – a homeless drug addict trading sex for survival – stumbles into her life, she doesn’t hesitate before appropriating his life story for her next work. After all, Leo’s story is important and deserves a wider audience. So what if he himself is unaware of her interest in him. But as the number of secrets multiplies, Mallory is forced to ask some tough questions about how far she can go for her c...

AUTHOR: Patrick Horvath SERIES: Beneath the Trees Compilation #2 GENRE: Horror Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: July 21, 2026 RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A sequel to the acclaimed horror graphic comic series. Excellent plot and character development, though both might be difficult to gauge for readers who pick up this book without reading the earlier one. Even darker than the first, but thankfully, not more gory. A great continuation, but not for those looking for justifications or closure. Has potential for a sequel. Must be read in series order. Recommended! Plot Preview: Many years after the horrifying events that plagued the small town of Woodbrook, Samantha Strong, now popular as the local hero who saved the townsfolk from a serial killer, still runs her shop. In the nearby city, Monica Brewer has spent the same period looking for information about her missing brother who vanished eight years ago without a trace. When she receives an anonymous tip with his possible location, sh...

  AUTHOR:  M.K. Hill GENRE: Gothic Paranormal Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: April 21, 2026 RATING:  4 stars.  In a Nutshell: A Gothic psych thriller. Fabulous use of the Gothic house and the woodsy location. Aggravating MMC (as usual), agoraphobic FMC (not so usual). Fast-paced writing. Loads of creepy vibes and twisty turns. A bit too much telling at times and slightly convenient towards the end. But overall, a great entertainer. Definitely recommended. As always, suspend disbelief while reading this genre to enjoy it better. Go in blind. Plot Preview:  England. Since eighteen months, Eleanor Teague has been staying in the remote but beautiful Haddon Hall, confined to the house because of her severe agoraphobia. Her peace of mind is further affected by almost-daily nightmares about the death of her daughter and her role in the same. Haunted by this guilt, she is ever restless, and entirely dependent on her loving but controlling husband Ezra, and on the hous...

AUTHOR: Jennifer McMahon GENRE: Psychological Horror-Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: April 26, 2022 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A psychological horror-thriller loosely inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Slowburn and intense. Good atmospheric writing, complex characters, intriguing plot with some good twists. Leaves many things unsaid. Took me some time to get into it, but it delivered well enough on dark entertainment. Recommended. Go in blind. To be read without overthinking. Plot Preview: This story is way too complicated for a short preview. Just know that it comes over two timelines in multiple first-person and third-person perspectives. You may read the Goodreads blurb for more clarity, but it's too detailed. ( For once, I can't even blame the blurb writers. ) Of all the RFReadsTogether Challenge prompts (the annual reading challenge I run in my Facebook group 'Readers Forever' ), the retelling prompt is always one I am most careful about. While making...

AUTHOR: Melissa F. Miller GENRE: Psychological Suspense Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: September 2, 2025 RATING: 4.5 stars. In a Nutshell: A psychological suspense thriller with an undertone of a feminist fairytale retelling. A clever story with interesting but complex characters. Avoids most of the pitfalls of the genre such as unreliable narration. Had a couple of things been edited, this would have been an easy 5 star for me. Much recommended. Go in blind. Plot Preview: ( This is just a barebones version. The actual story is much more layered. ) Emily has spent many years keeping a secret from her husband Tristan. Now a writer with an anxiety disorder thanks to the past trauma and a looming deadline thanks to a writer’s block, Emily takes up Tristan’s suggestion of going to an isolated location away from networks and distractions in order to complete her retelling of a fairytale. However, a storm awaits Emily during her stay. A physical storm as well as a psychological one. The story ...

AUTHOR: Megan Goldin GENRE: Mystery Thriller. PUBLICATION DATE: August 9, 2022 RATING: 3.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A psychological mystery-thriller about a young woman with limited memory and knows just one thing: she has to stay awake. Think ‘Fifty First Dates’ combined with ‘Memento’ (or ‘Ghajini’ for my Indian friends.) Clever premise, good use of the unreliable narrator trope (Such a rarity!), interesting characters, capable police detectives (Another rarity!), steady pacing. A bit of a convenient ending and too many plotholes on post-read reflection, but on the whole, an entertaining option. As always for this genre, pick up this book after taking off your logical cap. Plot Preview: When Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi cab, she has no recollection of how she got there. She stumbles her way to her building, only to find a stranger answering the door, claiming that it is their house. When Liv fumbles through her pockets to search her phone, she finds a bloodstained knife ins...

AUTHOR: Se-ah Jang TRANSLATOR: S.L. Park GENRE: Psychological Suspense. PUBLICATION DATE: July 29, 2025 RATING: 2.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A Korean suspense thriller about two women whose lives change after one encounter. The first half is good enough, the final quarter goes bonkers. Morally ambiguous characters, regular twists, dysfunctional family, decent pacing, too much repetitive rambling, soap-opera feels. Reads a bit YA. Not sure if the negatives are because of the translation, but they certainly aren’t *only* because of the translation. Better to read after suspending disbelief. Plot Preview: Jae-young is on the run. Not just from her dead-end job and her cramped apartment, but also from a possible murder allegation. While on the train to Seoul trying to decide where to go, she meets a talkative young woman carrying her infant son. The mother seems to also be running from her past, as her husband left her for another woman. She is now on her way to the in-laws she has never met...

AUTHOR: Ashley Audrain GENRE: Domestic Suspense. PUBLICATION DATE: June 6, 2023 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: A contemporary domestic suspense about four families and an event that reveals their truth. Think ‘Desperate Housewives’ meets ‘Big Little Lies’. Contains all the staples of this genre: unlikeable characters, unreliable narrators, OTT proceedings, a multitude of secrets, and an abundance of questionable behaviour. An entertaining ride as long as you know what to expect. Keeping my review somewhat vague as it is best to go in blind. Plot Preview: Four families lives close to each other in the suburbs. The only thing common to them is the street they stay on. Their financial capability, the size of their houses, their professional situations, and their personal/marital state of affairs varies. Now, the ten-year-old son of one of the couples is in coma after a fall from his bedroom window late at night. This event is the trigger for many discoveries and revelations. The story...

AUTHOR: Freida McFadden SERIES: Alibis Collection, #1 GENRE: Psychological thriller, Short story. PUBLICATION DATE: June 1, 2025. RATING: 4 stars. In a Nutshell: A short psychological drama about a woman on death row. Unreliable narrator, but not in the way you would expect. A fast read, but shouldn’t be read too fast lest you miss the clues. A clever story with a slightly confusing ending that makes brilliant sense once you ponder over it. A great start to the Alibis collection. Plot Preview: ( This preview doesn’t do justice to the plot. But I am keeping this vague as this story is best discovered by going in blind. The GR blurb reveals too much as usual .) Talia Kemper is on death row for murdering her husband Noel. Despite proclaiming her innocence vehemently (she has a rock-solid alibi after all!), no one believes her. Her last hope is her final appeal for clemency, because if that is rejected, she has just two weeks for her execution by lethal injection. As she waits for him, s...

AUTHOR: McGarvey Black GENRE: Psychological Thriller PUBLICATION DATE: October 10, 2024 RATING: 1 star. In a Nutshell: No. Plot Preview: When she was fifteen, Abbie killed her mom. She wasn’t caught. Over the past twenty years, she has turned her life around. Now married to an extremely wealthy investor and living in a large home with her two little daughters, Abbie uses her time to be the best wife and mom, and volunteer for various social causes. However, the past has now come to haunt her. Someone knows her secret and is threatening to reveal it. With her husband unaware of her murky past, Abbie has to make sure that her secret stays buried. The story comes to us in Abbie’s first-person perspective. I am very picky with my thriller reads because more often than not, they turn out to be OTT messes. The title of this book eroded my resistance somewhat, and seeing the high ratings of the other books written by the same author, I thought I would be in good hands. As is evident, I w...

AUTHOR: Patrick Horvath SERIES: Beneath the Trees Compilation #1 GENRE: Horror Graphic Novel PUBLICATION DATE: September 17, 2024 RATING: 4.25 stars. In a Nutshell: A horror graphic novel filled with anthropomorphic animals and questionable moral compasses. (More ‘Dexter’ than ‘Zootopia’!) Gripping, chilling, creepy! Definitely not for the faint-hearted. Loved the plot and the character development. Appreciated the complex exploration of ethics. Recommended but not to all. Plot Preview: Samantha Strong is a brown bear who has spent most of her life in the small town of Woodbrook, where everyone knows everyone else and everything about them. At least, that’s what the townsfolk think. But Samantha has a dark secret. Though she is a law-abiding hardware-store owner, she is also a serial killer with one golden rule: Don’t murder the locals. She chooses her target from a big city just beyond the forest. After all, the city is full of potential victims and no one will miss one person in t...

AUTHOR: Steve Cavanagh GENRE: Psychological Thriller PUBLICATION DATE: March 19, 2024 RATING: 3.75 stars. In a Nutshell: An interesting psychological thriller with regular twists along the way. Inspired from the classic murder swap “Strangers on the Train”, which I haven’t read/watched and hence I could enjoy this as a fresh story. The ending might not work for everyone. An entertaining ride if you follow the golden rule of contemporary thriller reading: Do not overthink! Plot Preview: New York City. Ever since Amanda’s daughter and husband died, she has been focussed on avenging their deaths while still struggling to cope with her loneliness and grief. At a counselling session, she bumps into Wendy, who is also intent on a revenge plan against the man who destroyed her family. As they unburden to each other, they come up with a plan: You kill for me, I’ll kill for you. Ruth, who also lives in NYC, had been a confident professional until the day a stranger with piercing blue eyes ent...