Girl’s Best Friend – RJ Roles

Reviewed By Steve Stred

For many people in the horror world, the name RJ Roles is synonymous with the Facebook group Books of Horror. This is about to change.

Girl’s Best Friend is RJ’s first release, although by the time this comes out he’ll have also featured in the second volume of Kevin J. Kennedy’s 100 Word Horror’s Anthology.

Girl’s Best Friend is a compelling slow burn horror story. The novella opens up with a scene where we are introduced to our main character Janney, a young girl who loves books and enjoys spending time with her best friend Alice.

As the story progresses, Roles moves us forward through time. We are now with Janney as she meets with her Psychologist. From this point on we jump back and forth between an event in Janney’s youth and to her present life. Roles does a good job of making the clinical portions engaging – many times this plot device can become tedious and boring, but I never once tuned out. I found I was trying to see just what both of these character’s game was. Something was up? But what?

Roles throughout did a fantastic job of keeping his cards close to the table, ensuring that only the smallest of “oddness” creeps out and moves the chess pieces forward.

I will say the story isn’t without some issues. In the tight page count, some ideas weren’t expanded upon as thoroughly as I’d have loved, but hey, it’s a novella. That happens. And RJ is a new author. As he grows and develops and gains confidence in his writing we’ll see the change happen. I know I’ve seen it with my own works.

Overall Girl’s Best Friend is a rousing start to a promising literary future. Roles pushes a lot of buttons and did a fabulous job of getting us to buy in and believe in the character of Janney, which can be a tough go with a tale laid out like this. Highly recommend you go grab this and support a great guy in the horror world!

Star Rating (out of 5): 4*

Girl’s Best Friend

Things aren’t always what they seem. . .

Books have always been Janney Fenton’s best friend until she met Alice. Now the two are inserparable. 

Her mother doesn’t approve—though she’s never approved of anything when it comes to her daughter. 

It’s only later in life, with therapy to reconcile the tragedies of her past, that Janney can begin to understand the person she is. 

Twisted with emotions, all will be revealed with each passing session.

You can buy Girl’s Best Friend from Amazon UK & Amazon US

Steve Stred

Steve Stred is an up-an-coming Dark Horror author. Steve is the author of the novel Invisible, the novellas Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick.

Steve also has a number of works on the go and enjoys all this horror, occult, supernatural and paranormal.

Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog Oj.

You can follow Steve on Twitter @stevestred

You can visit Steve’s Official Website here

The Girl Who Hid In The Trees

Something lurks just beyond.

Centuries ago a heinous act created a ripple that still haunts the residents to this very day.

Now the kids who reside near McConnell’s Forest live forever in fear.

Jason lost his brother when he was young. He left with his friends to ‘debunk’ the urban legend and never came back.

Now Jason and his group of friends are fed up and want to discover what is happening, what is the real cause of the terror holding their small town hostage.

But something is waiting for them. She may look sweet and innocent, but the friends are about to find out that pure evil can exist in the smallest of packages.

She’s out there. And while you may not know her name or what she looks like, the local kids will tell you if you ask, that you should fear for your life from the girl who hid in the trees.

From the dark mind of Steve Stred, the author of Wagon Buddy, YURI and Invisible comes this fast-paced, seat of your pants coming-of-age tale.  A quick, violent, bleak read, The Girl Who Hid In The Trees will make you think twice about those sounds you hear far off in the woods.

You can buy The Girl Who Hid In The Trees from Amazon UK & Amazon US