Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Below

Laurel Hightower is a master of two things –
1. making traumatized characters dealing with PTSD from abuse that I relate to more than I want to analyze and
2. writing about the world of weird that I obsess over in my other job as a paranormal investigator. I’m talking ghosts, cryptids, etc.

Below grabbed me with Addie, the woman who is on a road trip – destination: best friend’s house where they will drink wine and watch horror movies (my kinda women). During this time, she is recovering from 13 years of emotional and mental abuse from her ex-husband. She has anxiety (most of it seems to spawn from said abuse) and is understandably nervous about traveling, at night, in bad weather, alone, as a woman. My nerves were ALREADY on edge for her as the story opens on a near accident with a creepy person.

As the story unravels – mothman reveals itself and causes a kindly trucker to wreck – Addie shows her metel as a Final Girl. In one night, she goes through the dark night of the soul and comes out of the other end new person with not only a new view on life but also on herself and her goals.
I literally cheered at the ending even though the resolution is…shaky enough that I really hope we get a sequel in the future or that Addie shows up as a background character in another story. (Wanting sequels or characters to come back again in future work is another thing I’m noticing in Laurel Hightower’s work because her characters are amazing!)

As a paranormal investigator, I was thrilled by this book. Hightower not only includes mothman, as seen on the cover, but also cave goblins, government conspiracies, and Men in Black (not the Will Smith kind but the OG John Keel scary, uncanny valley not really human kind). Has Hightower seen Hellier or does her love for the weird go back further than that? Either way, I was STOKED to read this book.

My only complaint is wanting more. A good problem to have.

Highly recommend Below for fans of paranormal stories around cryptids and conspiracies, fans of the weird, and fans of troubled characters that are ordinary people finding themselves in extraordinary experiences and coming out changed for better or worse.

Content Warnings

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Read in one sitting in the middle of the night made for a great experience.

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stephanieluxton's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

This book is about a woman travelling alone at night who has to make the decision whether or not to help a truckdriver who had helped her earlier after he has an accident the causes him to drive off a bridge. Also there's some supernatural shit going down.

I heard about this book on instagram reels and I picked it up because it was a short. My expectations were that it'd be a mothman type creature feature but it was so different from what I expected. It's not a traditional creature feature in which our characters are plainly stalked by a cryptid - it's more complex than that.

The ambience in this book is excellent. It reminded me a lot of the movie Barbarian in the sense that our protagonist is travelling alone and doesn't know whether or not to trust this man who is being kind and accomodating to her obvious skepticism.

What this book delivers is a wild ride. For sucha short book, it delivered some excellent little twists. Totally subverted my expectations.

Something this book does well is creating characters you care about in a short period of time.

The writing and dialogue was good. There were times where I felt a little confused regarding the characters surroundings but its a dark night so I suppose it's meant to feel disorienting.

It is a scary book. I almost finished it in one sitting just because I was nervous to go to sleep part way through. It's also fast paced and exciting and I was investing it what the hell was going on.

The first three quarters of the book are the best. The ending isn't bad. I think in horror it's often best to be left not understanding what happened rather than getting a big exposition dump but also I HAVE QUESTIONS. I WANT TO KNOW MORE.

Did she enter a portal to hell? Was Mads dead on impact? Wtf was up with the bodies in the truck?!!! Was Parker a real person or was that just the winged creature playing games? What was with the cryptic warning in the end by the smiling man and why didn't his warning have any bearing? Was this all a trial by a god to make her take control over her life more?

I want to know the answers to the questions but I also love speculating. The fact that we don't get all the answers ensures that the reasonings for the events of the book aren't stupid, I guess.

I would definitely recommend this book.

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mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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twinkle_flavored's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I went in with the misunderstanding this was a creature feature of sorts, centered around the mothman. While the mothman is around periodically, I feel the rich lore that could have been pulled from was largely left untapped. So if you’re a mothman fan kid- this novella may not be for you.

It was an atmospheric, and fast paced read. Though I certainly don’t need my stories polished, neatly wrapped up, and presented with a bow… I found several (what seemed, fairly important) loose ends were left hanging. The ending was an odd direction to go, which I think was a stab at showing the MC growth. It just didn’t land for me.

While I was not the target audience for this novella, there certainly is one. If you are looking for a quick read, enjoy well written body horror, a fever dream like winter atmosphere, cryptid critters, all with a feminist slant- check this out. It may just be a new favorite!

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