Book Review: Channel Fear by Lisa Richardson

Channel Fear by Lisa Richardson

Published: September 14th 2023 by Chicken House
Rating: ★★★★ (4)
Genre: Young Adult // Horror, Mystery, Thriller
Quick Thoughts: Twisty, compelling and full of cliffhanger horrors to make your heart race.

I was gifted this book by the Publisher and will give it a fair and unbiased review. There was no obligation to post/give this book a certain rating. I remain entirely impartial.

About The Book:

YouTube ghost hunting stars, Zach and Lucas, disappeared at an undisclosed location several months ago. Iris – who heads up her own unsuccessful channel with co-hosts Byron and his girlfriend Molly – is obsessed with the duo, and has been searching for the location ever since. Then, she stumbles across long-abandoned Thornhanger House.
The trio set aside their toxic love triangle when they find Zach and Lucas’s abandoned equipment inside… complete with their last day of filming. As they watch the footage, a horrifying truth emerges: whatever came for Zach and Lucas is coming for them too…
A horror/thriller with a fresh angle by Lisa Richardson, a mesmerizing new voice for YA readers.

First Thoughts

It’s under two weeks to Halloween, and the season for thrillers and horror is here! I was so excited to be offered the chance to read Channel Fear because I’m a huge lover of YA Thrillers that have a modern, Gen-Z twist of incorporating things like YouTube and TikTok into them, which makes it a lot more current. Lisa is a new author for me, so I was so really intrigued to see if I found a new favourite.

My Review

Iris has been enthralled by Zach and Lucas’s YouTube channel about ghost hunting for ages. But when they disappeared at an undisclosed site months ago, the trail went cold. But Iris, who also has her own channel—although, not nearly as successful—has been looking for them ever since with her channel partners, Byron and Molly, who are dating. Although, things are awkward between the trio as there’s some mixed romantic feelings that test their stability to remain friends.

After homing in on a location called Thornhanger House, Iris, Byron and Molly set out to find Zach and Lucas. Only, what they find is their abandoned equipment that shows their last day of filming before they vanished. What starts as a harmless mission to uncover the truth turns dark, with an unsettling reality of what really happened to Zach and Lucas, and what might never have left, coming for the trio, too. But what lurks in Thornhanger House? And once they’ve stepped foot inside, will they ever make it out unscathed?

Overall, Channel Fear was twisty, compelling and full of cliffhanger horrors to make your heart race. I loved the way unreliable narrators and narratives turned the mystery unpredictable, and how it was reminiscent of a modern day Blair Witch. Although it took me a few chapters to get settled into the story, by the end I was thoroughly engrossed in how it would end, and what really happened. Lisa has this epic way of leaving the reader wanting more by the end of chapters, and it definitely kept me reading well into the night. This was such an amazing story, perfect for getting in the Halloween mood. I highly recommend!

About The Author

Lisa Richardson has a first-class honours degree in Creative and Professional Writing and works as a production editor. When not writing, Lisa can be found reading, binge-watching Netflix with her sons, or running and taking photographs along the Kent coast.

Have you read Channel Fear?

If you haven’t, don’t forget to add it to your TBR!

Let me know in the comments or on twitter @LittleMemoirs!

happy reading!