Title: The Magpies
Pages: 406
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Date published: September 19, 2013
Format: Whispersync
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Synopsis:
Fear lives next door...
When Jamie and Kirsty move into their first home together they are full of optimism. The future, in which they plan to get married and start a family, is bright. The other residents of their building seem friendly too: the horror writer and the middle-aged herbalist who live upstairs, and the Newtons, a married couple who welcome them to the building with open arms.
At first, the two couples get on well. But then strange things start to happen. Dead rats are left on their doorstep. They hear disturbing noises, and much worse, in the night. After Jamie's best friend is injured in a horrific accident, Jamie and Kirsty find themselves targeted by a campaign of terror.
As Jamie and Kirsty are driven to the edge of despair, Jamie vows to fight back – but he has no idea what he is really up against…
THE MAGPIES is a terrifying psychological thriller in which the monsters are not vampires or demons but the people we live next door to. It is a nightmare that could happen to anyone.
Review
When I'm about 5% in, I'm curious enough to know what I've gotten myself into. I'm not regretting it, and I'm actually enjoying it thus far, and I read the synopsis... followed by the genre. And I facepalmed. I'm a very emotional reader. I react similar to the characters, if they're written well enough, and I had just started a thriller. I was doomed.
Promising myself I would stop it if I needed to, I continued reading/listening. (By the way, Elliot Hill was pretty great as a narrator for this. I'll have to check out more of his work.) And I couldn't stop. I got about halfway into it and was forced to go to bed that night. I had a weird dream, I'd like to point out. (You'll understand if you read this) In which a witch showed up and killed my cat, Bruce Wayne.
Anyway, the next day I started it up on my way to work. There was one part that highly amused me, and that was when the musical version of War of the Worlds was brought up. My sister and I, to this day, still like to freak each other out with the music from it. Just last week, she was discussing names for her little girl (due in December), and I sent her a clip of the Martian's call, "Ulla".
After that bit, things just kept escalating. I was, quite shamelessly, reading during the wee one's swim lesson instead of watching. And I continued being unable to put it down until there was about a quarter left. Something happened that made me close the app and say some expletives. I couldn't bring myself to open it for the rest of the day.
I debated just stopping it entirely as I had promised myself I could. But curiosity got the better of me. As I write this review, I am literally shaking. Remember what I said about being an emotional reader? It's totally a thing.
For a book I had no idea what I was reading, I was quite pleased with it. In which I mean, it totally freaked me out. I'm also glad I live on the first floor of my apartment complex, and my neighbors are too old to to do most things on their own, so I don't have to be afraid of them.
There's a letter at the end, after the epilogue. Don't skip that bit, if you decide to read it.