The Haunting of Beacon Hill: The Beckoning Dead, Book 1

This book has an interesting plot. I don't know of a town, big or small, that doesn't have one of those houses. Really good red-haired, bow-tied sidekick. It's was a page-turner for me. Definitely has the creep factor. Good descriptive details; I felt like I was right there. Creative usage of literary terms. Worth your time to read it. Can't wait to read books 2 and 3, which I am fixing to do right now. I'm sure the author spent a lot of time doing research for this book. The least I can do is to tell him that I think he did a great job!

Gotta sleep 😴. I hope!! 😳 Will do a review later.Ok. I would give this 4.5 🌟. The story was really good, and I liked the characters. They were pretty fleshed out for such a quick read, and I'm sure they will get more rounded in subsequent stories. Ambrose Ibsen has definitely mastered the spooky thriller. I questioned why I was reading it late at night while my husband was at work. 😆 The descriptions were excellent, maybe too much so, as I was able to visualize the scary parts way too easily. 😳My only complaint, which was the 1/2 ⭐️ deduction, was his choice in some of the wording. I've always been an avid reader and have quite a knowledge of vocabulary. I typically don't have to look up words. While I didn't have to look up words in this book, I could see where it would become a turn-off for someone with less knowledge. Words like "therein", 'hitherto", "thence", "thusly", and "loquaciousness" become tedious, even for someone who knows the meaning. It kind of comes across as boastful and snobby. 🤷‍♀️ I don't think it added to the story positively, but it was certainly a distraction. I just found it annoying.Other than that, I loved the story, and I have the next two in this series in my Kindle. It's definitely on my TBR list for the near future.

This is my second book by this author and I loved it! I will read the entire series.. Highly recommend.

I have mixed feelings. I liked the story enough to buy the second book in the series - interesting plot. But I have some quibbles.The first is a personal thing. As a proud ex-librarian, I’m tired of librarians being portrayed as antisocial geeks - Sadie goes home every night and reads, August wears bowties and glasses and goes home to play on his Xbox. OMG.The second quibble is some of the language. Most of it is fairly normal, but then you get phrases like “from every pore there wriggled a commotion of insectival salutation” and “sapped of color and left porous - nigh scoriac.” Really? Are we reading a thriller or an academic thesis?Having said that, I’m still going to read the second installment. But I think the author should work on his writing.

I read this book every night before I went to sleep and it helped to give me scary dreams which is how I know a book is good; it stays with me after I put it down. I thoroughly enjoy all of Ambrose Ibsen's horror stories. I especially like it when he teams up with Joe Hempel as the narrator for the audio books. I refuse to buy any more audio books without Joe narrating them because the ones I did try didn't do the stories justice. So take my advice and just read the ones with other narrators but listen to the ones read by Joe Hempel. Enjoy!

This is a Gothic haunted house story. The protagonist, Sadie, has to admit to herself that she sees ghosts in order to help a teenager afflicted by the spectral Mother Maggot.PROS:The descriptions of Mother Maggot are creepy and scary and awesome. The house is creepy too, and it’s a malevolent character itself. These two things, Mother Maggot and the evil house, are what I enjoyed most about the novel.I also enjoyed the way Ibsen uses weather cues to give a sense of foreboding and to enhance dramatic scenes.CONS:What I didn’t enjoy was the omniscient point of view. It gets confusing, like when there was “a fat maggot” on Ophelia’s palm. Did only Ophelia see an imaginary maggot because she was crazy, or did her mother also see it because it was actually there? The way the passage is written from everybody’s point of view, you can’t tell. I took off half a star for this.Ibsen handles backstory simply by telling it. For example, Sadie tells August her childhood ghostly experiences. I thought Ibsen missed opportunities for some exciting flashback scenes. I took off half a star for this.The story is over-written which I expected in a story with Gothic vibes, but Ibsen goes too far. He over-describes scenes using lots of adjectives and lots of similes. I took off half a star.OVERALL:I wasn’t disappointed by the ending like some other reviewers. It wasn’t so much a cliffhanger as a wrap up of one entertaining story and a hint at another one just beginning. 3.5 stars.

Very creepy and will give you nightmares!!

Another fantastic read from Ambrose Ibsen. Sadie is hiding her true nature from herself and others but when she's called on to help a young girl who entered Beacon Hill, she realises it's time to face herself.The novel is really well written, a gripping page turner that kept me going long into the night (with the light on!) and is brilliantly executed with amazing imagery throughout.

It took me no more than a week to read this book. I was hooked throughout and can’t wait for the next book in the series!