The Scary Reviews

Review copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review

Harrowed gets off to a quick start with a missing teen leading to an unsolved case. Sarah was at the annual harvest festival with her friends and never came home. Fast forward thirty years to the present and we meet Beatrice. An honor roll student at Woodsview High School, and the smartest in her AP psychology class. But Beatrice has a secret and someone thinks it’s worth killing her over. Beatrice is found dead in the girls bathroom at Woodsview High School. This is just the kind of event that Avery thinks will give her journalism career a jumpstart. Avery runs the school blog and has always wanted to be a journalist. This is the biggest and most frightening event at Woodsview High.

If you love a good mystery you’ve opened the right book. Harrowed also gives the reader who loves a good love story plenty to gush over. Plus some cool teen technology, like the use of the app, BlinkNote. An app that lets you send a message that disappears after ten seconds. As I neared the three-quarter mark of Harrowed it occurred to me that the story had the feel of the movie Scream. It has a good set of characters and a mystery that I couldn’t figure out (but thought I should). The story kept me turning pages until the end, which is just the way I like a good mystery to unfold. As the final chapters unfolded and I finally learned who was behind the killings, I realized how cleverly put together this story was. I’ll be interested to see where the story leads in the next book as Avery and Quinn try to put this all behind them.

Book Info

Length: 277 Pages

Publisher: Horror Twin Press

Release date: September 22, 2015

To Purchase Harrowed Click Here

Journalism Rule #1: Always report the story. Never become the story.

Avery Blair has accepted the fact that nothing exciting ever happens in her small town of Woodsview, Massachusetts. As the editor of the high school blog, she prays for something—anything—to come along that would make for a great headline.

When Beatrice Thompson’s body is found in the girls’ bathroom, Avery has her biggest story ever. The rumors circulating the school say that Beatrice took her own life, but Avery doesn’t believe it for a second. Her instincts prove true when the next day brings another body bag.

The tiny community of Woodsview has become the hunting ground for a killer known as the Harvester. The killer targets Avery and her classmates, stalking their every move and terrorizing them with morbid messages.

With the help of her boyfriend Jason, her best friend Quinn, and an aging detective who can’t keep her off the case, Avery dives head-first into her own investigation. She discovers that the secret of the Woodsview Harvester is buried in the town’s history and its annual Harvest Festival celebration. With every clue she uncovers, Avery grows closer to unmasking the killer—and becoming the next victim.

Avery Blair has finally found a story to die for…if she can stay alive long enough to write it.

Jolene Haley, biography

Jolene Haley is the author of the Woodsview Murders series, Harrowed (out 9/22/15) and Haunted, coming fall 2016. She’s also the curator of the best-selling horror anthology The Dark Carnival through Pen & Muse Press.

She runs a YA horror blog The Midnight Society, the author resource site Pen & Muse, and Hocus Pocus & Co., a small horror press. She writes every genre under the sun, but prefers horror.

When she’s not writing she can be found cuddling her two dogs and enjoying the beach, where she lives.

Goodreads author page