Review: Dive Bar at the End of the Road

Dive Bar at the End of the Road by Kelley Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's for the pre-release copy of Dive Bar at the End of the Road by Kelley Armstrong. Below is my honest review.

I am not sure if you know this about me or not, but you should if you've kept up with my reviews for a while - I adore Kelley Armstrong. She's pretty much instant-buy/must-read for me. I still have some of her back catalog to work through, but I'm trying not to race through them so I don't catch up completely and have long waits for more. Luckily she puts out multiple books a year!

I'm really glad she's taken her recent steps into horror. Hemlock Island? Great. The Haunting of Payne's Hollow? SO GOOD. I'll Be Waiting? More please!

So when Dive Bar hit Netgalley, I immediately hit request.

I love the show From, and this book has some similar story set up items as that, so if that show is your jam, you might enjoy this one. Other than the set up similarities, it's wildly different.

The atmosphere is spot on for horror - mysterious backroad, surrounded by the creepiest of forests, random dive bar in the middle of nowhere.

The characters are diverse and deep - you probably know most of these people in different forms in your own life.

The feelings are relatable - loneliness, fear, depression, feeling insignificant or invisible... Armstrong has really driven some points home about how people feel unimportant and the truth surrounding that feeling with the backdrop of a horror novel.

And the terror? It's real. The fear, the monsters in the woods, the different forms they take, the realization that it's not just some shadow in the woods that is out to get you, but that people can be evil as hell as well, all coagulate into this brutal nightmarish night on a backroad in the middle of nowhere.

Did I mention that I love Henry? What a gem.

Five stars, highly recommend for horror and thriller fans.

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