Tag: psychological horror

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ARC Book Review: DON’T LET IT OUT by N.A. Betts

First, a big thank you to the author for giving me an ARC  copy of DON’T LET IT OUT to review.  

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Don’t Let It Out

Publish Date: October 13th 2026

Publisher: Legend Forge Press 

Genre: psychological thriller, horror, Eldritch horror, Cosmic horror

The assignment was simple: contain the forest. Don’t let anything out.

FBI Agent Daniela Rojas arrives with a secret mission of her own. To uncover the truth behind Project Greenfall, a classified experiment buried by the Canopy Collective. RCMP Corporal Cade Mercer is there for a different reason. Two years ago, his wife vanished inside these woods. No body. No answers. Only the quiet certainty that something took her.

Now they stand watch at the edge of a quarantined wilderness that shouldn’t exist. The forest is changing. Spreading. Breathing. Time slips. Reality bends. And beyond the fence they are ordered never to cross, someone is calling to them. A woman tied to both of their pasts—a woman who should be dead.

As the pull of the forest tightens, so does the infection taking root beneath the trees. What waits inside isn’t just survival horror, it’s something far more intimate.

Because this forest doesn’t just infect the body. It gets inside you. Learns you. Remakes you.

And by the time Daniela and Cade understand what’s happening to them…it may already be too late to escape it.

REVIEW

Now, let me say, if they rebooted Tales from the Crypt for 2026, I think “Don’t Let it Out” would fit right in. It is the kind of story that has a message at the end. Mother Nature always wins.

Don’t Let It Out is an eco-horror thriller in which we meet our MC (Main Character). Dani Rojas, who was a Ranger assigned to guard a quarantine forest with her group. A forest no one should have gone inside, as Dani is the only one to come out alive. Traumatized, she tried to escape it, hide. She is now in an FBI position, but her past comes back to haunt her, and she is assigned to return there. PTSD kicks in big time, or so she thinks, but her nightmares, visions, and voices might just be real as she partners with Cade Mercer, who has ties to what happened in the woods as well. His wife, Sera, also went missing in those woods back then, too. And when they find her, Dani is shocked because she should not be alive… cause she had been the one to kill her.  Dani is now determined to find out the truth. Sadly, she might not survive even if she learns it.

This book is psychologically fast-paced until we get to the final fallout, where Betts lets it simmer in horrifically tense goodness. The outcome I was shocked yet satisfied, as I love it when an author doesn’t leave everything black and white. The ending is grey, oh so grey is all I can say.

Oh! And working the title of the book into the story, chef’s kiss!  My Rating⭐⭐⭐⭐ ½   out of 5 stars.

DON’T LET IT OUT is set to release on October 13th, 2026

AMAZON

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

N.A. (Nick) Betts is a Canadian author of epic fantasy with a love for timeless storytelling. A Veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces, he crafts sweeping tales of good versus evil, drawing inspiration from Tolkien and other classic works of the genre. His stories are filled with tropes such as coming of age, self-discovery, and found family, while exploring themes of physical perseverance and mental resilience. When he’s not busy creating new worlds, Nick can be found diving into stories of the unexplained or relaxing with some good jazz. He lives just outside Edmonton, Alberta, with his wife and their cats, Bandit, Carter, and Addley. 

Follow him and his books on Instagram @authornickbetts   

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BOOK REVIEW: In The House of Root and Rot by Same Weiss

First, I would like to extend a huge thank you to Sam Weiss for providing the gifted ARC copy for review. She graciously gave me a physical copy to review due to my increasing difficulty reading e-books. I am eternally grateful. Now to the book!

In the House Of Root and Rot (Altered Planes Book Two)

Published: Coming October 3rd, 2025

Genre: Psychological horror/Horror/Suspense/ Sci-fi-horror

Features:

Morally grey characters

Cults and Ancient Rituals

Huma diasters

Layer realities

Slow burn

Plot twist

The dead don’t stay silent.

Old Gramps always said the Deadmarsh family was cursed. Will never believed him—until now.

In a last-ditch effort to pay his grandfather’s mounting medical bills, Will signs up for a shady sleep study, ignoring the warning signs. But everything changes the night his grandfather vanishes. In his place, Will’s dead sister returns.

Convinced the sleep study is to blame, Will tracks down Spectre, the enigmatic research firm behind it, only to discover they’ve disappeared. His search leads him to a girl whose father vanished after her own harrowing encounter with Spectre. She also seems to know more about his family’s past than she’s letting on.

Desperate to stop seeing his dead sister and unsure of who to trust, Will forms an uneasy alliance with the girl to find out what Spectre wants with them. Together, they plummet down a rabbit-hole of secrets, discovering Spectre’s true purpose and what it planted in Will’s bloodline centuries ago. Something ancient, something not of this world, has been feeding off his family for generations, growing stronger, hungrier, and desperate to be set free.

The family curse is real. And it’s been waiting for Will to unleash it.

Review

 In the House of Root and Rot, it is the next book in The Altered Planes Trilogy. Along with Atra’s story, as we are introduced to a new character, Will, who starts this book, we learn has an unrelenting connection to Atra, our main lead from the first book.

It’s essential to read the first book (The Afterlife Experiment) before diving into In the House of Root and Rot to get the full emotional effect of this book, though you still might get lost as Weiss loves to send you on a mind trip. Also, everyone is morally gray. Our new character, Will, is no exception; yet, you still love/hate these messed-up people because we are all messed-up people, which is actually refreshing to read.

In The House of Root and Rot, we are first introduced to Will Deadmarsh. Caring for his abusive, stroke-ridden Grandfather. Struggling financially, Will sees an ad for a sleep study that offers a nice payout and decides to join up. Then his Grandfather vanishes, and he starts seeing his dead twin sister Lex. Wanting to stop seeing his dead sister, he goes back to the sleep study to find it abandoned, or so he thinks. When he runs into a strange dark-haired girl who seems to have been held captive, and oddly knows about Will’s family and his dead sister Lex. Will’s life turns upside down. Family secrets are revealed, a curse that ties into life after death, and an ancient evil that must not awaken.

I am thoroughly enjoying this mind-altering series! I LOVE the cast of morally gray characters, and Weiss writes them so well. I am a fan of morally gray characters now, yet I am afraid to read another book with morally gray characters because Weiss has set the bar so high for me.

Weiss has also mastered the art of the slow burn perfectly. Some authors’ slow burn a bit too much, which puts me off, but Weiss simmers us readers beautifully in everything. The whole book is a slow burn with an ending that hints at more to come.

My rating is 4 out of 5 stars.⭐⭐⭐⭐

Don’t forget to check out book 1

Read the review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sam was named after a dog, a fact her mother disputes to this day.

While she’s terrible at writing “About Me”s about her, she’s been told she’s excellent at writing about what fictional people do. The more miserable she can make them, the better.

Her love of horror films from the 80s, sci-fi shows from the 90s, and alternative music from the 00s have inspired her to write what she’s calling “Weird Sci-fi Horror” although she’s kind of making that up as she goes along.

When she’s not ready to pull her hair out after discovering another plot hole she’s created, she goes camping with her husband as far away from society as possible. So far, this tactic has been mostly successful and she’s only had to physically converse with a grand total of nine people this year. Next year, she hopes to get that number down to six.