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The Haunting of Hardstone Jail
When the notorious Hardstone Jail is reopened after many years of neglect, nobody cares about the ghost stories. They just want somewhere to put more prisoners.
But a ghost has been waiting patiently at Hardstone. The ghost of a little girl walks the corridors, seeking revenge for something that happened a century ago. And anyone who looks into her eyes will be dead within days.
Sent to Hardstone for a horrific crime she doesn't remember committing, Amanda Weir just wants to be ignored and forgotten. Soon, however, she discovers that the ghost isn't the only horror lurking within the prison's walls. Horrific experiments are being conducted on prisoners, and Amanda is quickly put to work assisting the barbaric Dr. Bell. How are these experiments tied to the ghostly girl, and what evil force is threatening to throw the entire jail into chaos?
But a ghost has been waiting patiently at Hardstone. The ghost of a little girl walks the corridors, seeking revenge for something that happened a century ago. And anyone who looks into her eyes will be dead within days.
Sent to Hardstone for a horrific crime she doesn't remember committing, Amanda Weir just wants to be ignored and forgotten. Soon, however, she discovers that the ghost isn't the only horror lurking within the prison's walls. Horrific experiments are being conducted on prisoners, and Amanda is quickly put to work assisting the barbaric Dr. Bell. How are these experiments tied to the ghostly girl, and what evil force is threatening to throw the entire jail into chaos?
- GenresHorror
514 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 20, 2018
219 people are currently reading
281 people want to read
About the author
Amy Cross
665 books1,693 followersAmy Cross writes novels and short stories in a number of genres, mainly horror, paranormal and fantasy. Books include The Farm, Annie's Room, The Island, Eli's Town and Asylum.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
February 1, 2025
This was SO damn good - I stayed up all night reading it! I love it when a book completely hooks me.
Aaaand .... one more to mark off my "Have The Book - TBR" Goals list.
Aaaand .... one more to mark off my "Have The Book - TBR" Goals list.
July 29, 2018
Rating: 1/5 (did not like it)
tl;dr: Deeply tedious haunt story with perhaps two scares in a book needlessly long for the genre
The Good: Well, this is honestly difficult. I thoroughly disliked this book. I've only read one other by Cross and it was pretty good, so I'm assuming this was just poor selection on my part considering the scope of her oeuvre and size of her fanbase.
I enjoyed the setting. Hardstone as a Victorian jail brought to a shameful degree of readiness in time for use by myopic neoliberal bureaucrats rang true to recent experience. It had a lot of potential.
The Bad: Woof. To begin with, the most obvious problem for a book of this nature is that it isn't scary. It isn't. I can think of two times that really built tension, but they were fleeting and ultimately pointless. The one that got me the most, which I shan't spoil but that seems at the time as if it is pivotal to the story, is wholly incidental. It just doesn't matter after it happens. It's baffling. Cross spends considerable time establishing a frightening if/then scenario and then defangs it when it comes to fruition. Why bother? Who knows?
Beyond the conceptual failure of the genre, the book is bloated with unnecessary detail about the backstory of characters with dubious role to play. The most frustrating thing about this inclusion is that it interrupts the storyline to go back in time to provide backstory on a character you may not have met yet, or if so only in passing. It makes it very hard to care about the intricacies of their lives. I'd say the book is probably between 50-60% longer than necessary in large part due to this provision of needless detail. Now, part of that detail is tied to the eventual explanation, but because the explanation is so mind-numbing, there is no vindication for having waded through all of the superfluous detail. Instead, there is resentment.
The Ugly: The concept that underwrites the entire novel-- the big reveal, the driving force, the explanatory factor, the haunting of Hardstone jail-- is baffling, riddled with holes. The book is predicated on some absolutely astounding power on the part of one character and some equally astounding naivety on the part of another. I was so angered by the stupidity of the reveal that I set the book down, stormed into the kitchen, and ranted madly about it to my wife.
Worse, though, somehow, than the imbecilic irregularity of the conceit is the utter lack of meaningful results for the worst villain in the book. This character is wretched, despicable, and then utterly cured as part of the aforementioned conceit. I found no satisfaction whatsoever in the story or its conclusion.
tl;dr: Deeply tedious haunt story with perhaps two scares in a book needlessly long for the genre
The Good: Well, this is honestly difficult. I thoroughly disliked this book. I've only read one other by Cross and it was pretty good, so I'm assuming this was just poor selection on my part considering the scope of her oeuvre and size of her fanbase.
I enjoyed the setting. Hardstone as a Victorian jail brought to a shameful degree of readiness in time for use by myopic neoliberal bureaucrats rang true to recent experience. It had a lot of potential.
The Bad: Woof. To begin with, the most obvious problem for a book of this nature is that it isn't scary. It isn't. I can think of two times that really built tension, but they were fleeting and ultimately pointless. The one that got me the most, which I shan't spoil but that seems at the time as if it is pivotal to the story, is wholly incidental. It just doesn't matter after it happens. It's baffling. Cross spends considerable time establishing a frightening if/then scenario and then defangs it when it comes to fruition. Why bother? Who knows?
Beyond the conceptual failure of the genre, the book is bloated with unnecessary detail about the backstory of characters with dubious role to play. The most frustrating thing about this inclusion is that it interrupts the storyline to go back in time to provide backstory on a character you may not have met yet, or if so only in passing. It makes it very hard to care about the intricacies of their lives. I'd say the book is probably between 50-60% longer than necessary in large part due to this provision of needless detail. Now, part of that detail is tied to the eventual explanation, but because the explanation is so mind-numbing, there is no vindication for having waded through all of the superfluous detail. Instead, there is resentment.
The Ugly: The concept that underwrites the entire novel-- the big reveal, the driving force, the explanatory factor, the haunting of Hardstone jail-- is baffling, riddled with holes. The book is predicated on some absolutely astounding power on the part of one character and some equally astounding naivety on the part of another. I was so angered by the stupidity of the reveal that I set the book down, stormed into the kitchen, and ranted madly about it to my wife.
Worse, though, somehow, than the imbecilic irregularity of the conceit is the utter lack of meaningful results for the worst villain in the book. This character is wretched, despicable, and then utterly cured as part of the aforementioned conceit. I found no satisfaction whatsoever in the story or its conclusion.
July 15, 2018
I have seen better by Cross
Amy Cross is one of my favourite writers actually. For whatever reason this book fell a bit short. It had many of the facets of her work that I adore, but it seemed not as well edited and kind of jumbled. I still didn't completely "get it" at the end. Several typos and such that I am not used to seeing in her stories. It was like she wrote parts and someone else wrote others. I will still read all of her stuff, this one just wasn't as well done.
Amy Cross is one of my favourite writers actually. For whatever reason this book fell a bit short. It had many of the facets of her work that I adore, but it seemed not as well edited and kind of jumbled. I still didn't completely "get it" at the end. Several typos and such that I am not used to seeing in her stories. It was like she wrote parts and someone else wrote others. I will still read all of her stuff, this one just wasn't as well done.
May 5, 2019
What did I just read??!!
This is one complicated, unbelievable ghost story.
My head literally spun in many situations and only Amy Cross can make it happen.
Did I enjoy reading it ?? I honestly don’t know!
The author has thoroughly thought through it. Overall, this is a well written messed up story 😅
This is one complicated, unbelievable ghost story.
My head literally spun in many situations and only Amy Cross can make it happen.
Did I enjoy reading it ?? I honestly don’t know!
The author has thoroughly thought through it. Overall, this is a well written messed up story 😅
August 2, 2018
More horror than ghost story.
I really don't know what to make of Any Cross. Is she one person or is it a made up name, with numerous contributors writing under that particular pseudonym? Her books are so different, even individual stories fluctuate in their style of writing. For my tastes, this story contained too much unnecessary gory horror. That said, it was still a damn good read.
I really don't know what to make of Any Cross. Is she one person or is it a made up name, with numerous contributors writing under that particular pseudonym? Her books are so different, even individual stories fluctuate in their style of writing. For my tastes, this story contained too much unnecessary gory horror. That said, it was still a damn good read.
November 28, 2018
Good story
Very enjoyable. I couldn't put it down. Definitely love all of Amy Cross novels that I've read so for. Recommendation
Very enjoyable. I couldn't put it down. Definitely love all of Amy Cross novels that I've read so for. Recommendation
October 28, 2018
"But... Sir, there is a very good reason why Hardstone Prison has been abandoned for he past century."
Hardstone Prison has been in disrepair since the Victorian Era, after a terrible tragedy involving the inmates. Now it is once again a women's prison, and whatever has been biding its time is ready to act.
Honestly, by the end of my time with this book, I did not like it very much, though there were some aspects I did enjoy. For example, I love the way information about Amanda, one of the main characters, trickled in through the narrative. It kept me engaged, as I wanted to find out what had happened in her past.
In terms of foreshadowing, I think the author did a good job with it. It certainly kept me reading, as I wanted to learn how the characters all ended up in the prison, and what tied them together.
There was another point that I appreciated, but I'm not sure if it would be classified as a spoiler, so I will use the spoiler tag.
Unfortunately, these were the only things I ended up enjoying. There were many issues I had that I feel could have been improved upon. The first thing that comes to mind is the mistakes. There were so many spelling/grammar/consistency mistakes that they impacted upon my enjoyment of this book.
There were a lot of unoriginal plot points in this novel. While that in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, the author didn't do enough with these plot points to give them a unique, refreshing twist. Of course, that also means that there were many predictable plot points throughout.
The setting had a lot of potential, but I don't think it was able to reach it. It was the first novel I have read set in a prison, and it was a Victorian Era prison too (if you have read my reviews before, then you know I love Victorian settings). I had a difficult time picturing the jail, as it wasn't very well described. There was also no tension build up, so I was unable to feel concern for any of the characters.
There were a lot of points of view in this book, which can work, but in this case, it did not. I found myself getting confused by who I was following along with, and there were characters we didn't really need to follow. There was a structuring method that involved going back in time to show a snippet of the characters' pasts, and then snapping back to the present. This was interesting for a while, but I soon found myself getting frustrated, as it was difficult to keep track of, and interfered with the pacing. There was also a character who was very much a stereotype, that I did not enjoy.
The big reveal at the end was not satisfying, due to the predictability, and constant interruptions of point of view switching and the past segments. There were aspects of it that didn't make sense, and felt very convenient. There was also a lot of repetition.
As I said earlier, there were pacing issues. While I did feel compelled to finish the book, it felt like it took too long to find out what was happening, and then the ending felt rushed and forced.
I was ultimately disappointed by this book, though I wouldn't say I was bored. I honestly would not recommend this book, however, if I had to, I would say that people new to the horror genre may get more out of this than I did.
June 3, 2018
NO SPOILERS! This is the Exact same book as The Prison, it just has a new Title and Cover. Because I snagged this one while it was listed as FREE I didn't mind buying both versions, so that said ... it's an awesome Ghost Story that is well written, well thought out, and has an awesome storyline with excellent character development. Only Flaw being the occasional typos, a few sentence structure differences (but only if you're from the U.S. and not the U.K.). The sentence structure is a language thing, so it's basically a non-issue (which is why I called them differences). The spelling typos do occasionally distract from the story flow, but thankfully are very rare occurrences and not enough to make me drop my rating (as I have with other books littered with typos). Overall you will find yourself drawn in and your biggest issue will be stopping to eat or sleep as you'll find yourself (which is a common occurrence with Amy Cross books) unable to put the book down. Highly Recommended.
August 6, 2018
Good story. There were too many typos. Needs editing!
I liked this book, as I like all of Amy Cross books. I only have one problem with every book I have read and that is editing. I had to figure out what was meant and I just want to read the story. The character name would change and things like that. It is annoying to read a book with so many mistakes. I wasn't impressed with the ending. I would recommend this book even with the editing problems. Please care about your readers and EDIT your books. I would give you 4 to 5 stars, but I took off some because of that problem. I love your stories and they never fail to surprise me.
I liked this book, as I like all of Amy Cross books. I only have one problem with every book I have read and that is editing. I had to figure out what was meant and I just want to read the story. The character name would change and things like that. It is annoying to read a book with so many mistakes. I wasn't impressed with the ending. I would recommend this book even with the editing problems. Please care about your readers and EDIT your books. I would give you 4 to 5 stars, but I took off some because of that problem. I love your stories and they never fail to surprise me.
February 23, 2019
Another great Amy Cross!
Although this is only the third Cross book I've read, I already know I will be reading many more! Her stories are so interesting even before the twists and turns she adds, and those are always worth it!
I have to point out, however, there are times when the wrong name in the book is used, some words aren't spelled correctly, words are missing, and worst of all, to me, the word orientated is used. It is a bad mispronunciation of oriented. I think her books need to be read just one more time by someone who can pick up these things, to keep her stories flawless.
I am on a mission to read all of her books! Thank you Amy Cross! Christy
Although this is only the third Cross book I've read, I already know I will be reading many more! Her stories are so interesting even before the twists and turns she adds, and those are always worth it!
I have to point out, however, there are times when the wrong name in the book is used, some words aren't spelled correctly, words are missing, and worst of all, to me, the word orientated is used. It is a bad mispronunciation of oriented. I think her books need to be read just one more time by someone who can pick up these things, to keep her stories flawless.
I am on a mission to read all of her books! Thank you Amy Cross! Christy
March 5, 2019
I’m sorry but I got through the first 6 pages of this book and abandoned it. I have read Amy Cross’s books before but this is by far her worst. To me, she churns our these horror stories by the dozen - as long as there’s blood and gore she’s happy. This inane opening of a book was ridiculous - more like a Carry On story than a proper haunting thriller. There are far more sophisticated authors offering a more intelligent read, so I’m sorry Amy, I won’t be reading any more of yours.
October 14, 2020
You always wonder what history old Victorian buildings hold within their walls, or what's ghosts do they hold from the past.
Hardstone Jail certainly holds some secrets, not nice secrets either.
Well written and telling of the characters history and why they ended up spending time in jail.
Amy Cross continues to make me enjoy reading her books and wanting to read more by her, I would recommend reading this.
Hardstone Jail certainly holds some secrets, not nice secrets either.
Well written and telling of the characters history and why they ended up spending time in jail.
Amy Cross continues to make me enjoy reading her books and wanting to read more by her, I would recommend reading this.
October 2, 2018
I usually like Amy Cross's work and this one wasn't bad, it just wasn't great. I liked the concept of the story but I think it could have been expanded on more. Also, there were a couple things that were just too farfetched to believe, even for this type of story. Lots of typos were very distracting. Overall, it was a quick, enjoyable read.
October 9, 2019
Interesting Stuff
Well that was a crazy ride!
A bit too gory and dark for my usual tastes but I do like this story because even with all the gore and tragic circumstances that's happened to these poor people, they still get a happy ending.
Sort of.
The victims do find their peace and I have to admit that I shed a few tears on this one.
Well that was a crazy ride!
A bit too gory and dark for my usual tastes but I do like this story because even with all the gore and tragic circumstances that's happened to these poor people, they still get a happy ending.
Sort of.
The victims do find their peace and I have to admit that I shed a few tears on this one.
September 29, 2022
The Haunting of Hardstone Jail
Another good read by Amy Cross, she certainly has a gift in writing.I have now read several of her books and if you like
me are enthralled with Supernatural stories you will enjoy a look at all the ghosts and evil doings, that Amy managed to put into words.
Another good read by Amy Cross, she certainly has a gift in writing.I have now read several of her books and if you like
me are enthralled with Supernatural stories you will enjoy a look at all the ghosts and evil doings, that Amy managed to put into words.
June 11, 2018
Interesting story but editing needs work.
I enjoyed the story. Definitely an interesting twist but the editing process could have been done much better. Missing letters and misspelled words are going to drive several people crazy.
I enjoyed the story. Definitely an interesting twist but the editing process could have been done much better. Missing letters and misspelled words are going to drive several people crazy.
July 9, 2018
Review
This book just went on and on. Jumping around. Ridiculous scenarios and endless confusion. I wouldn't recommend it unless you like slaughter in your reading. I love the paranormal, this wasn't it.
This book just went on and on. Jumping around. Ridiculous scenarios and endless confusion. I wouldn't recommend it unless you like slaughter in your reading. I love the paranormal, this wasn't it.
July 13, 2018
Very good book.
I love your books always, and loved this one as well, but didn't like the ending. Too much unfinished. But still one of your biggest fans. Can't wait for book 3,in asylum. Thank you.
I love your books always, and loved this one as well, but didn't like the ending. Too much unfinished. But still one of your biggest fans. Can't wait for book 3,in asylum. Thank you.
August 31, 2018
Almost 5 but...
I loved this book. It was different and took a bit of imagination. The downfall was the lack of editing. So many mistakes. Hopefully the author reads reviews and will fix the issues.
I loved this book. It was different and took a bit of imagination. The downfall was the lack of editing. So many mistakes. Hopefully the author reads reviews and will fix the issues.
September 19, 2018
Loved it👍🏼✋🏼👊🏼
This was a great book with a totally different kind of scary gotta know what happens kind of concept. I was kind of freaked out, scared after reading in the dark alone. Only problem was the spelling and missing or mixed up words
This was a great book with a totally different kind of scary gotta know what happens kind of concept. I was kind of freaked out, scared after reading in the dark alone. Only problem was the spelling and missing or mixed up words
September 20, 2018
This is the perfect..
I love this book and I would love to see this in movie form! I think it would be a award winning film for sure ..and the book itself is thrilling to say the least.
I love this book and I would love to see this in movie form! I think it would be a award winning film for sure ..and the book itself is thrilling to say the least.
November 12, 2018
I love a bit of Amy📕
Great book by Amy Cross right up my street. I just love Amy's writing. She has great imagination and her stories are so well told. Read this in two sittings. Thanks Amy👍
Great book by Amy Cross right up my street. I just love Amy's writing. She has great imagination and her stories are so well told. Read this in two sittings. Thanks Amy👍
November 13, 2018
Wow, can Amy Cross write an amazing story. This is one you won't want to put down. It's constantly changing and keeps you interested till the end. Please read it. It's so different and interesting.
May 4, 2019
Not that great
I generally enjoy books by Amy Cross. However, this one was not worth the time I took to read it. Characters were nonsense and the spelling errors happened too frequently to count. Terrible book
I generally enjoy books by Amy Cross. However, this one was not worth the time I took to read it. Characters were nonsense and the spelling errors happened too frequently to count. Terrible book
December 21, 2019
I've loved previous works but this author but I can't do it anymore. I don't know who the editor is but they need fired. I eventually gave up due to all the errors and misspelled words. It's sad because the parts of the story I read were good. The lack of editing was a mood killer though.
June 14, 2020
Complicated
I like Amy Cross, but this story was too complicated with too many characters. It also had to many flashbacks. The reason for the haunting just wasn't believable. I will not give details for it, because I am not a spoiler.
I like Amy Cross, but this story was too complicated with too many characters. It also had to many flashbacks. The reason for the haunting just wasn't believable. I will not give details for it, because I am not a spoiler.
May 24, 2018
Great book
I really enjoyed this book. I loved Amanda and wish she would have survived along with her babies. More books
I really enjoyed this book. I loved Amanda and wish she would have survived along with her babies. More books
June 15, 2018
Good read , couldn't put it down
Fab , I find all her books addictive to read, once you start you can't stop , 5 star .
Fab , I find all her books addictive to read, once you start you can't stop , 5 star .
June 22, 2018
Awesome!
Very good book. I didn't see it coming. I couldn't put it down from start to finish! Will definitely read more of her books
Very good book. I didn't see it coming. I couldn't put it down from start to finish! Will definitely read more of her books
June 28, 2018
Interesting
I enjoyed the book, not too gory a bit of the paranormal, which I love. The ending felt a bit rushed. Still worth the read.
I enjoyed the book, not too gory a bit of the paranormal, which I love. The ending felt a bit rushed. Still worth the read.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews