Dark & Merciless Things (A Collection of 10 Short Stories)

Other stories take place in the present day, the aftermath of World War II, sixteenth century Liverpool, and so on. What I love about them are the twists and turns each one takes to its conclusion. Reading them is like trying to cross a Lego-strewn floor barefoot in the dark. Just as you think you know where the story is heading-- ouch-- you're thrown off balance and have to get your bearings once again.

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Each one is a brightly polished little gem of plotting, and reading them is an absolute pleasure. Haven't read Kate Ellis? I wouldn't be at all surprised if you move on to her other two series, one featuring the aforementioned Wesley Peterson, and the other, another fine police detective, Joe Plantagenet.

I enjoy them both! This collection of short stories spanning decades of time and characters was very enjoyable. Being able to pick up and put down as time was available made this an enjoyable book. Some really good stories most with unexpected endings. This is a collection of short stories and if you want an introduction to Kate Ellis's work it would be a good place to start. For fans of Wesley Peterson or Joe Plantagenet this is a must read. The stories are all atmospheric and well written and they are set against a variety of backgrounds and historical eras.

York features is several stories as does Liverpool both ancient and modern. All the stories have a satisfying twist to them and all surprised me with their endings. I particularly enjoyed The Dark Reunion about a school reunion which leads to some frightening events for a crime writer which make him realise that reality is far more frightening than anything he could possibly imagine.

The Wonders of Technology shows a serial killer at work. I also liked Funeral Weather about the wealthy ladies in Liverpool who were dying unexpectedly. I've always thought crime or mystery short stories must be some of the most difficult stories to write because of the lack of space to develop characters and circumstances but Kate Ellis has overcome the difficulties extremely well in this selection.

It's not that I don't believe teen girls can be fucking crazy The ending was easy to predict too. Maybe this is more suited to fans of traditional horror, because I admit that I can see this making a wonderful slasher film that could be shown every Halloween. But if you're looking for a psychological thriller starring teen girls, then I would recommend shifting your sights towards the works of Abigail Haas instead of this.

View all 35 comments. Aug 22, Lola rated it it was ok Recommended to Lola by: Sofia… I just realized that this is actually a series. Good thing I guess because that cliffhanger might have just killed me. I mean, finishing a story that way? So WILL read the sequel.

Exactly like the movie Mean Girls. I guess some thought she was I can understand that this book is shelved as ''horror'' but I thought it was more disgusting than scary. Riley most popular girl in school wants to do an exorcism on Brooklyn which she accuses from stealing her boyfriend and it takes so so long. Of course, there are consequences to that and that's when it gets bloody. The story is not whole bad. The pacing is fast, so it did capture my interest for a good time. Like crucifying someone with nails. Told you, nail obsession.

Were they all bad? Did I hate them because of what they did, each one of them?

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Could it be that I have pity for Riley or her two other friends? I was pretty much conflicted. Along with the pacing and curiosity to know what was going to happen next even though I did get tired of the plot brought me to the conclusion that this is an ''okay'' story. I don't actually recommend it wholeheartedly, but I won't suggest you to stay as away as you can from this book either.

Maybe some of you will like the creepy but not scary and disgusting elements. And let's not forget the twist. Maybe you'll love that wicked twist. View all 54 comments. Bryson Wait, did you say there is going to be a sequel? When is it coming out? I can't find anything about it. Sep 21, Too many unanswered questions and nonsensical things in this book. The ending was ridiculous and now I am about to hate read he second Totally agree! The ending was ridiculous and now I am about to hate read he second book just to get some closure.

I enjoyed the suspense of the first half, but then it became tedious and repetitive. And I kept wanting to scream at Sofia for being so stupid in all of her decisions! Instagram Twitter Facebook Amazon Pinterest Riley turns the knife so its blade catches the candlelight. It never occurred to me that Mean Girls meets American Psycho: The Book could be a thing or that it needed to be made, but apparently Danielle Vega thought so - much to my detriment.

The first sign that something fishy was afoot is a "warning" in Instagram Twitter Facebook Amazon Pinterest Riley turns the knife so its blade catches the candlelight. The first sign that something fishy was afoot is a "warning" in the inside cover of this book that says "For mature audiences only" which I sneered at, because the only other books I've seen with such a disclaimer are yaoi manga and Maya Banks's Sweet series.

But then, that same day, she also ends up befriending the popular girls, sort of, including Queen Bee. The difference is that the "Plastics" in this book should be called the "Fanatics. I hope this is going somewhere. Graphic descriptions of torture. Graphic descriptions of torture that are really not appropriate for teenagers. I know, I know, there's a warning in the front cover, but I thought it was some sort of weird shtick, like the pentacle and the inverted cross on the cover. I mean, isn't Razorbill Penguin's young adult and middle grade imprint?

How graphic could this book possibly be? Someone gets a finger chopped off by a knife, somebody gets crucified, somebody gets flesh literally chewed off , somebody gets burned alive, not to mention the stabbings, attempted drownings, and various other things that happen in here. Things I totally did not sign up for. Oh, and that ending - that ending made me so mad. Because it turns out Brooklyn was possessed by a demon after all, so the torture was totally justified.

The sociopathic squad was doing the right thing. At that point I was wringing my hands and being like, "Am I being too puritanical? Is this actually a good book, despite the graphic content? View all 21 comments. May 10, Kassidy rated it really liked it Shelves: This is a crazy, weird, insanely messed up book, but kinda awesome.

I am a big fan of all things scary and the horror genre and I think this book lives up to that title. The characters weren't great, it was predictable at times, but the plot overall was insane. The girls in this book are completely deranged and delusional, almost unbelie This is a crazy, weird, insanely messed up book, but kinda awesome.

The girls in this book are completely deranged and delusional, almost unbelievably so. If you can put aside rational thought and let this book suck you into its demented story, then you will be in for a memorable journey. I would NOT recommend this to people who get scared easily. I think people who like scary stuff will enjoy this book for its entertainment, drama, and crazy plot. If you are looking for a YA book that will send shivers down your spine and make you literally say "wtf.. It also deals with exorcisms and spiritual stuff, so if you aren't comfortable with that, then I wouldn't recommend this.

I believe this is going to be a series, which I am on the fence about. I think it would be cool if this was a stand alone, but I am interested to read the sequels! This story is fuckin amazing! I really didn't think I would like this book because I thought it would be to creepy for me.

But it's super creepy and I loved it! View all 9 comments. Jan 23, Natalie Monroe rated it liked it Shelves: I don't think she's seen you with us yet. You can find out why she's such a bitch now. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Mean Girls! Now with an extra dash of exorcism! I'd added it long before it had a cover because the blur 3. I'd added it long before it had a cover because the blurb promised me a teenage version of Carrie 's mom.

How can anyone not be into that? Unfortunately, as I was reading, it became evidently clear that the author had bitten off more than she could chew. She had a fantastic concept of a bunch of religious psychos torturing a girl, whom they believe is a demon, but decided to screw it and go in the far easier and cheaper direction of supernatural horror. There's nothing wrong with supernatural horror, of course. The Shining features a haunted house after all. But it is the corrosion of Jack's humanity, his turning onto his wife, his beloved son and hunting them down with a rouque mallet off with their heads!

People are the true monsters, and Vega tossed that away for a cheap "Boo! I am dead serious. That gif above is one of the sins they confess. The first half of the book equals the first half of Mean Girls. Sofia is the new girl in school and meets Janis Brooklyn and Damien Charlie. The Plastics, Riley, Alexis, and Grace adopt her into their group, but instead of wearing pink, they pray. Riley, aka Regina, was even friends with Brooklyn in middle school. That part I did enjoy.

Some people said that it catered to the gore factor instead of horror and while I agree psychological horror trumps clowns , it didn't bug me. Reading about people tearing their own hair out and stabbing themselves in the leg with a pen effectively made me cringe and put me right off the barbequed pork I was eating that night. Not bad for YA horror. Character development is lacking though. With such a simple premise, you really need to rely on the characters to tide the readers through.

While Sofia and the girls weren't cardboard cutoffs, they felt underdeveloped alongside plot points that could've upped the scare factor. Stephen King suffers from overwriting and Vega suffers from underwriting. So many things could have been built on more, like Sofia's grandma's religious tendencies, Alexis's codependent friendship with Riley, or Sofia's mom being an atheist. Despite all those irks, I was going to give The Merciless 4 stars. Until the cheesy horror-movie ending. What was the point of painting Riley as a manipulative hypocrite if not to show her as the ultimate bad guy?

And how on earth is Sofia one of them? It makes no sense. Has Sofia always been a demon? Or did she turn into one because she killed her friend? If so, shouldn't Riley be spared because I'm certain she killed Alexis. You can argue that Riley tormented Brooklyn and she killed her for revenge, but what about Alexis, Riley's pawn?

Alexis put her own sister in a coma, so by the logic of this universe, Alexis is a demon, like one of them. Or do the victims have to die to count? But wait, how does attempted murder factor into this? See, now I'm getting muddled up. That guy does not screw around. View all 6 comments. Feb 05, Giselle rated it liked it Shelves: This was my reaction to much of this novel's… happenings.

It's a horror through and through, and definitely not for the wussies or faint of hearts. After a quick introduction to our protagonist and the setting, we're thrust into a house-of-torture kind of read where these girls have it in their head that one is a demon that must be exorcised. These girls opt for pulling hairs out of scalps and taking fingernails out. Excuse me while I go barf! The book itself is more for the horror and shock value than substance. Character development is not especially strong, for instance.

Dark and Merciless Things

And I found myself frustrated by the number of times the protagonist "almost" got the upper hand in this story - 20 pages spent on her plan to get the girls drugged so she can escape, just to fail in 10 seconds, and so on. But it does offer a pretty decent horror story, nonetheless. And like I said, it's also not for the faint of heart, let me tell you right now. You'll be reading detailed accounts of torture including someone's nail getting ripped out without anything left out of its description.

I even had to skip a few pages during a part that involved cockroaches and a dead body. No details spared there either! Where there's a lack in character development, there's also lacks emotion and depth.

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While I was horrified by what these girls were doing, I was not crying over any death that occurred in this story. I was just mostly grossed out and traumatized by the lengths they were going to remove this supposed "evil" from this girl.



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Though, even with the extremes, it's not exactly unbelievable, especially in light of stories in the news at the moment about girls stabbing each other to prove something to a fictional character created by the internet. This made it all the more shocking to read, to be honest. Throughout the book, we get flashbacks from our protagonist that quickly tells us she has dark secrets of her own. We also learn a bit of the other girls' secrets as well, but the main characters' story ends up being the one with the most meaning.

It lent purpose to the story's twist. Personally, I actually really liked the ending, but I can also see it being a hit or miss for most.

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I found it to be a good and unique angle the author decided to adopt. Overall, is pretty much the whole of the book: A one-night stay in a torture-filled house with no escape and a bunch of psychopathic teenagers. There's not much more I can say about it, really. It's plain and simply a cheap-thrill kind of read that I would recommend to true horror fans.

For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads Apr 09, Raeleen Lemay rated it really liked it Shelves: View all 17 comments. Mar 12, bran brandonthebookaddict rated it did not like it Shelves: The freaking HELL was this???!! This is probably one of the dumbest books I have ever read. Are you kidding me right now? I'm so flabbergasted how this book even ended It had such an incredible and awesome premise But the book itself?? The main character - fucking stupid AF. Like, literally how is she so clueless and - Fuck this.

I can't go on. View all 4 comments. This will be me if Netgalley doesn't approve me for this! View all 20 comments. Sofia just wants to fit in, like any new girl would. High school is a big, scary world - especially when you're a military brat, moving every six months. When she makes new friends with the popular girls, she's over the moon. When they ask her to spy on the weird kid, Brooklyn, she's wary.

When they ask her to help them perform an exorcism on Brooklyn, Sofia begins to realize that something is very wrong here. After all, everyone has their own sins to confess. Mean Girls meets The Exorcist? I wante Sofia just wants to fit in, like any new girl would. I wanted to love this book. The book itself was unique: YA horror isn't something I find good examples of frequently, though, so when I saw this on sale on BookOutlet, I naturally had to grab it!

This book was so. The narrator felt very shallow as a character; she knew what was happening was wrong, but kept going along with it because she wanted to be "accepted", blah blah blah, typical teenager bullshit. None of the characters ever received any real fleshing out; to be frank, there was probably more backstory around the narrator's stroke-affected grandmother than anyone else. The violence throughout the second half varied between really cringe-y in a good way, to cringe-y in a bad way, and by the end of it, I just felt like I'd wasted a couple of hours of my life. I won't be picking up the sequel and would not recommend this title.

View all 15 comments. See this review and more like it on www. You name a horror movie, I've probably seen it twice, but for some reason I don't gravitate towards scary books as much as I probably should. Clocking in at pages, I blew through this baby in an afternoon. While it's not the most original horror ever, and there were a few stumbling blocks - particularly at the beginning and very end - the middle section of the story was is a wild ride that was difficult to put down. Buyer be warned though, this is horror that I think is best suited for fans of the genre. To be quite frank about it, a layperson who doesn't particularly enjoy scares or being grossed out by gore should probably find another book to read as this book has both in spades.

While I think that Vega nails the horrific aspects of this book, it's the other stuff that I've come to look for in the novels I read that I found lacking - particularly complex characters with true blue development from page one until the end. Aside from Sofia and to a lesser extent, Brooklyn, we know absolutely nothing about any of the characters. What are their home lives like?

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What do other students in the school think of them? Why does Riley think she knows how to exorcise a demon from anybody? Because we don't know these imperative facts about the characters, we cannot know what motivates their actions, making the majority of their decisions feel like they were generated from the stock horror movie dumb decision playbook. For a novel that was published under the Razorbill - the Young Adult imprint of Penguin Random House - this story went heavy on adult horror content.

I didn't have a problem with it, but those looking for spooky and atmospheric horror alone should probably look elsewhere as this is filled to the brim with blood, torture and gore, as well as other adult oriented content such as drug abuse and mild sexual content. Vega took the time to incorporate twists and turns into this to elevate it out of just being a by-the-numbers slasher, though the way that supernatural horror elements are incorporated sort of comes at a detriment to some character's arcs.

Some of the human characters in this story are deranged enough on their own that the entirety of the horror could have come from their behavior. The inclusion of supernatural horror alongside the human horror left me wondering how we were meant to feel about these characters when all was said and done. All in all, this wasn't a bad read.

It's extremely fast paced and full of enough horror to please any fan of the genre. Though I probably wouldn't pay full price to watch a movie version of this in theaters, I'd gladly sit at home in the dark with a big bowl of popcorn and let this indulge the old scare center of my brain for a couple of hours. Feb 16, Carol rated it liked it Shelves: View all 3 comments. Jun 02, Laura rated it it was amazing Shelves: I immediately said yes, please! The beginning felt more like mean girls, but then the book turns into something else entirely and I loved every second of it.

Not for the weak, but definitely for fans of horror. I enjoyed every second in that torture house.

The Merciless (The Merciless, #1) by Danielle Vega

This was the ultimate page-turner. I just could not get enough of these crazy girls! The Merciless is completely unlike anything I've ever read. Danielle Vega created a life long fan out of me in just her debut novel. This will certainly be one great author for the horror genre. I am so in. Sep 14, Cyna rated it did not like it Shelves: So basically, a novel centered around a trope that I hate, played completely straight, taken to an infuriating extreme, for no meaningful reason and no appreciable payoff.

Girls are awful sociopathic monsters that all secretly hate one another, and cut each other into ribbons over boys! The only thing the twist does is undermine any weight the novel might have had with some fucking ambiguity, and retroactively justify the cruel antics of the, again, literally torturous Alpha Bitches. It goes out of its way to make its characters caricatures of human beings, piling on their cruelty, their pettiness, their selfishness, their genuine murderousness, without doing a lick to humanize them in the opposite direction.



I get wanting to have friends and fit in, but Sofia is dense and ineffectual in a way that I have no patience for. A Mexican girl and a black girl having to live in a town with a version of the Confederate flag lining every street? I could easily imagine Grace and Sofia being weary of going against Riley and Alexis, two pretty, wealthy white girls from influential families, because they know that they could easily cry their white girl tears and point the finger at the them, quite possibly the only two brown girls in this unapologetically white-supremacist town.

The foundation is there for it, and I find that whole Mississippi flag scene — along with the discussion that follows, about how Grace and Sofia feel so much safer in the land of stars and bars than in either of the cities they came from — too fucking oblivious to be anything but intentional. Yet the book never explicitly addresses it. Oh shit, did I not mention the intense homoeroticism? They get up in her space constantly, and there are long, drawn-out moments of close-enough-to-kiss tension that I thought were intentional. But only sometimes and she feels bad about it, maybe?

Christ, this book is a clusterfuck of awful. So yeah, fuck this noise. There was nothing redeeming about The Merciless for me except its brevity. Oct 15, Michael Araujo rated it it was amazing Shelves: Warning, there will be some mild cursing in this review. Second warning, the review has graphic parts. Third warning, shit got crazy. One minute you're spying on someone you barely know for people you've just met and the next thing you know, you're locked in a house with crazy people who love to physically torture others.

I went into this novel thinking it was one thing. As I read I began to notice it's not what I thought but was something else, but by the end I found out I was right all along. Wi Warning, there will be some mild cursing in this review.