 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to another book review. Today we're talking about yet another off-limits press book and that is In Nightmares We're Alone by Greg Sisko. I was very standoffish about this book. I have a rational fear of dolls stemming from and spiders both stemming from my childhood. So I try to stay away from anything baby doll related because they freak me out. Of course, this cover does not help much. There's even more disturbing stuff on the back. Yeah, I'm trying not to look at it. But yeah, the very first story, well it's not really a story. This is a kind of a mosaic novel. I guess it is mosaic novel. You have three interlocking novellas and each one of them has a different horror element. One is about a baby doll. One is about things growing out of someone. And the last one is about ghosts and some cosmic horror stuff thrown in. I will go ahead right now and tell you I'm a huge huge fan of this book. The very first story messed me up to the point where I had to stop reading. This is of course the one about the doll. I had to stop reading for I think two weeks to clear my head once I was done with it. And I stepped away from it and I came back to it and I'm so glad that I did because I almost I had no idea that the rest of the book had nothing to do with the doll. So that was really really good that I pressed forward. I'm going to put this down. So the next story, growth, the first one is oh what is the first one called? The first one is called Good Little Dolly. The second one is called Growth. This the second novella but all these all these stories they have the same characters just not the same main characters. The first one is about a little girl named Macy. The next one is about a dude named Casey who is a medium. He's a fraud but he's a medium. And the last one is I can't remember the lady's name right now but I remember her husband's name. His name is Arthur. Maybe they'll come to me when I get get into the review some more. But with growth, as soon as I finished growth well first off I highlighted numerous numerous sections of this. There are so many simple truths in this the second story in growth about growth about you know changing your redemption and you know maybe not redemption and just realizing you know you're a horrible person or realizing some truth about you and hopefully growing past that but also it's about this dude who has vegetation growing out of him and that's not a spoiler that's you know on the back of the book. There's so much about this second one that I want to talk about but I don't want to spoil it for anybody but I highlighted numerous passages. It is a very deep story. It's deceptively deceptively deep. It's first off Cisco's not first off but Cisco's writing is amazing. It flows perfectly. The editing is on point. Everything about that side of things is great. The creeping dread throughout the whole thing because you know what's not going to end well. You know growing branches from your fingertips. I mean how can that end well. There's a little bit of a surreal reality. No there's a surreal aspect to it that I really enjoyed saying with the first one you're always questioning whether or not these things are actually happening and in the story even the characters question whether or not these things are happening but it's not so vague and obtuse that you that you don't find out whether or not these things are actually happening. Okay you get your answers. As soon as I finish the second story I automatically this is this is easily easily a contender in the top five books of this year. Off limits press is is gone above and beyond the call of duty with with their stuff. They only pick the most amazing content and I'm really really impressed and the only reason why I didn't fan fanboy over the last one I read with heart strange and it's Tim McGregor's book that I used up on the channel is because I'm not I wasn't a huge fan of like the the the setting I don't like too much historical fiction not at least not that around that time frame in that era but this one is right back to the five stars it's like Haley Piper's The Worm and His Kings and Laurel Hightower's Crossroads. So we're back up to five stars again and that the only reason last one was for is because it's nitpicking anyways what I'm saying is I'm impressed with their output insanely impressed. The last story in here is a little more basic than the first two but no less deep. I really really enjoyed seeing that each and every story has a very unique character point of view it's all they're all written in first person perspective from the the characters whose head you're in. The first one is from Macy's point of view she's a little girl sounds like a little girl acts like a little girl has little girl thoughts amazing. Second one Casey is a douchebag he's conning people because he's a medium you tell him he can speak to the dead so on and so forth and then in the last and he's a douchebag in his head too you know the way he thinks about women though he treats women so on and so forth and then you have the final story I wish I could remember this lady's name it's going to bug the absolute dog mess out of me so um yeah uh it's since it's written in first person there's no telling what the actual anyway but and because it's first person you don't hear the name much but uh it's Arthur's wife I I hate that I can't remember a name I apologize it's not the chief of bad character because I really enjoyed watching Cisco go from little girl the douchebag to nihilistic older woman in their in their fifties uh I I the the the range this dude has is insane uh every single every single character felt unique every single character had their own their own not not their own plot of course they had their own plot every single character felt like they had a purpose um that's very important to me uh even side characters like Martin the little boy uh that that was a whoo that was that was some character uh and the way each and every story ties into the next story was amazing also if you guys can hear those birds I apologize I can do absolutely nothing about nature but um they are distracting me uh this it's easily I want to call this a novel I'm not going to call it a collection a novella collection because everything intertwined um I was impressed by the way they intertwined um but I think the biggest thing other than just saying the the characters the pacing and the the dread all on point that's stuff that I look for in every horror novel amazing book but the writing here Cisco has chops man like I was in awe reading this um the the way the way he turns the phrase especially in the second one I'm I love it when an author can give me a terrible character that I enjoy reading um half but like Joe Goldberg um in the in the you series or Caroline Kepnes's you series uh and the second story Casey was that kind of character and it was I I could just sit here all day talking about how amazing this is I really I want you to go out and read this for yourself I don't want to say any more about this um so go out and check this out from offline press buy it from their store I'm going to link down in the do we do to the amazon affiliate link that helps out the channel if you buy there but I'm much rather you go and pick it up from like offline press their their website so I'm going to link to that down there along with the amazon link because I know some of you you just want quick and fast I get it but if you can help out a uh a publisher that is doing things amazingly amazingly well but if you read in nightmares we're alone by great sisco if you have let me know what you thought of it down there in the do we do whether or not you loved it whether or not you've hated it if you loved it or hated it tell me why you loved it or hated it so that we can have a discussion but until next time I have any you will be new this has been another book review I'll talk to you guys later bye bye