If you’re prone to nightmares and paranoid habits, you’ll want to read Isabel Crowley’s debut dark romance, Want Me, Take Me, Haunt Me, Make Me, with the lights on. It’s preternaturally scary . . . and that’s a good thing.
Hazel Lewis is no stranger to things that go bump in the night, and she eats paranormal activity for breakfast—two perfect qualifications for an experienced medium and a conduit. She’s cool with the cold that’s always present with the otherside, dead bugs and general manifestations of death and dying.
But when 86-year-old Clarence Chapman asks Hazel to perform a séance for him before he dies, it’s clear from the get-go that this is not a typical encounter. This one comes with party favors, specifically a demon bite that lingers like a bad STD.
In a bid to escape the bite’s effects, Hazel heads to the sticks of rural Pennsylvania to recuperate, but a demon won’t be deterred by geographical distance. She soon finds herself further embattled and encounters a cast of colorful characters, including a sexy lover who is way more than she bargained for.
Crowley’s world building is perfect. She describes the setting so clearly that it feels as if we’re walking alongside Hazel; the unease and terror feel as real as if they were inhabiting the corporeal reader. This is a straight-up terrifying haunting, and it’s the nuances of Crowley’s writing that help make this story so creepy—a pervasive darkness sends out “tendrils like little fingers” into the corners of the room. Here’s a cautionary warning: If you see a pile of dead flies in your room, call for a medium.