This was good, not great. I loved the concept, and the writing was good. Honestly, I kept getting distracted and having to rewind, so I think a rerea at a later date might be necessary. ( )

Finished this 4 hours after finding it and I'm reeling.

The feeling you get after riding your favorite rollercoaster that you haven't been on in years? That's how my brain feels right now: all wind-blown and recalibrated.

Insane props to Malerman for being able to for the first time ever in the history of the entire world to write believable (!!!) diary entries!

Kit's frantic, painfully self-aware scribbling reads nearly identical to how my high school journal does. It felt weird, and comforting, and unnerving, and... charming; the empathy I had for Kit's awful situation (not the whole "ghost/demon/legend brutally hunting down my peers" thing, thankfully, but the "panick ataculas" thing lol) added such an unexpected but very welcome surprise. For years I struggled with undiagnosed OCD, and even after all this time still find myself casually stalked by the backseat terror of accidentally "thinking a bad thought into reality", and oh- and her reasons for the panic attacks in the first place!!! there is nothing more terrifying than your own potential- like- hello?? did you steal my file from the therapist??? :D

In my perfect world, John Carpenter & Dean Cundy would adapt this into an all-time horror classic.
I seriously can't stop thinking about it, aagh!! The pacing, the characters, the vivid scenery!! Be still my bleeding heart!

I feel like Daphne was written with a checklist in mind for things that would specifically chill and thrill me. It's my favorite scare of the 2023 so far, and it's going to be hard to dethrone. ( )

Daphne is not anywhere near my normal genre of choice. But seeing that I have loved everything of his that I've read so far I figured I'd give it a shot. It was so good, definitely just in time for the spooky season. Kit was such a great character. She was very thoughtfully developed and you really felt that you got to know her very well.
Daphne of course was extremely creepy and definitely had me on the edge. Highly recommend for horror fans. ( )

I have read Birdbox by Josh Malerman and really enjoyed it. When I saw the cover for his new book Daphne I had to order the book from the library.

The story follows Kit Lamb and her high school friends and also her team mates in the basketball team. Daphne is a ghost of urban legend, a very tall woman who died in her car. You must not think or talk about Daphne as she will come to get you. This reminded me a little of Bloody Mary.

I really wanted to like this book so much more than I did. At the moment I'm enjoying folk horror and books that are a little spooky. I did initially enjoy the book but very quickly became bored with it. I liked the premise of the story, again urban legends and small communities.

The story was told in one long ramble. There are no paragraphs but are some journal entries by Kit. I found the book a bit repetitive at times and there is a lot of basketball references. Kit suffers from anxieties so the story touches on this subject too.

Part ghost story, part murder mystery is a great combination but for me I just didn't get on well with the book. ( )

After a member of the girls' high school basketball team is gruesomely murdered, her surviving teammates fear an avenging ghost of local legend, a 7-foot woman named Daphne is responsible and is coming for the rest of them. It's a ghost story that was shared amongst team members of the high school basketball team. Old terrors are reignited when a name that’s not supposed to be spoken, much less thought, suddenly becomes what everyone can't stop thinking about. Their small Michigan town, which I, as a Michigan resident, can tell you only exists only in the authors mind, has been home to not just one serial killer but two. Decades ago, a seven-foot-tall, denim jacket-wearing, cigarette-smoking human monster abducted and ate children. She was eventually killed, but like so much else surrounding "Daphne", it’s hard to know exactly the who or what or why of her story because the town seems to have collectively forced themselves to forget her. Confused yet? I was on the road to "mind numbing" by the time this part was revealed. As I learned that thinking about Daphne summons Daphne I had to laugh. That of course was like saying don't think about red things...All you can then think about then is EVERY red thing you have ever seen. The character of Daphne is as much a monster as a moniker. She (it) is unavoidable. She (it) is unstoppable. She (it) lives, for lack of a better word, in the deepest, darkest corners of our minds, lingering at the edges of our thoughts, waiting to be remembered. Josh Malerman gives our anxieties and nightmares a shape by transforming them into a terrifying, murdering monster, but he also gives us the key for survival...simply face your fears head-on. The book will stay with you, rather you wish it to or not, long after the last page. Another outstanding one Mr. Malerman. ( )