I don’t quite know what I just read omg wow… but it was well-written lol. Unsure if I’ve ever come across a book with an intermission half-way through before.
I love this author’s mind. I am now very intrigued by Mona Kabbani, especially considering this is their debut!

The Bell Chime is a unique, dark, horror novella about night terrors and sleep paralysis.
The foreboding sense of utter dread and terror is built up well throughout. The psychological horror elements build up as the characters, and the reader, try to figure out what is a dream and what is reality…

”What would you abandon for happiness?”booktok-recs kindle65 s1 comment Brandon BakerAuthor 2 books6,861

A beautifully written story that at times felt I was experiencing a night terror. Loved it!!38 s Laurie (barksbooks)1,811 724

I’ve been on an amazing roll of exceptional reads. I don’t know what’s going on but I’m just happy that it’s happening.

The Bell Chime is unnerving from the very beginning and it’s getting all five of my stingy stars. Although I haven't been super grinchy with them in 2021! I’m starting to sound a broken record and this is such a strange spot for grouchy me to be in!

A young novelist spots a strangely sinister missing persons poster tacked to the door inside of her apartment complex. The poster features her face but her face is twisted in a weird way! What the heck? And things, well, things only get weirder from here and I am not going to spoiler any of it for you.

The Bell Chime is crawl under your skin creepy and impressively disturbing and at one point incredibly gross and it will more than ly confuse you. It confused me and I was pretty sure it was going to break my brain by the time all was said and done but it’s also incredibly readable. And the way it all comes together in the end is exquisite! Perfect really. I don’t have a single complaint. Books these are welcome to break my brain any day of the week. My highest recommendation. I think everyone should read it! Right. This. Minute!

CW: suicidal thoughts, self-harm, depression, eating disorder favorites horror33 s Victoria332 152

This book consumed me in ways I never thought it would. I deal with depression and nightmares and this book hit home for me. Did I want this book to end? No. I felt I was stuck in a fever dream that I didn’t want to wake up from. Am I even awake now?25 s Kyle30 3

This was an interesting story. But I couldn't get into the horror of the story. I think because the poster reveal and what follows happened so quickly it didn't come off as creepy. Not much buildup. The author also writes too much description. Sometimes I just wanted her to get on with the plot instead of describing a setting. She's a good writer but a lot of the sentences seemed she wanted to be poetic. And I didn't really understand what the bell chime was. The author didn't really explain it or it went right over my head.

I read this because it got a lot of good and an author I read reviewed it. It's not bad, but I don't know what everyone else is talking about.23 s1 comment Stitching Ghost881 163

Very well written, uncomfortable and sometimes almost ethereal feeling, worth the read just for the stylistic experience. 22 s Ashley Daviau1,946 958

This little novella just absolutely knocked me off my feet! And to think that it’s the authors debut makes it even more mind blowing. How can a first time author be so damn bloody good?! Amazement at that fact aside, this story is just so freaking excellent. I could feel the terror and dread mounting as I was reading and I was so absorbed by it, I felt I was in the story along with the characters and living it alongside them. It is such a beautiful and yet incredibly creepy and terrifying story at the same time and I just devoured it in one sitting and then was terribly sad that it was already over. This author is one to watch out for, I can’t want to see what they come up with next!17 s Jonathon Von439 65

On the lower end of being a 3-star but there’s something there. A young woman thinks she is going insane, starts seeing missing posters with her own face on them and keeps hearing a bell chime. We learn all is not what it initially seems. It’s a portrait of youthful anxiety, if not very deep, but reasonably heartfelt. Almost gave up multiple times during the first segment which I thought was pretty bad, only for it to turn out in the afterward that the first part was a short piece that the author had expanded on. Well, thank goodness for improvements. It’s short, there’s a disturbed, sort of anxious vibe; a light snack of mental illness perhaps. 18 s Madeline31 2

Did I read the same book as everyone else? I thought this was pretty pedestrian for an adult novel, one that professes to be horror. I’m sure the author has something better inside her, and I’ll give her another shot with her next book, but this one... I feel the emperor has no clothes, if you catch my drift. I even gave it to a writer friend of mine, and he agreed. Good for Mona for collecting so many positive from unpaid strangers.18 s Ellen Gail865 407

One of the most creative and dynamic horror stories I’ve read.

"Can you hear the bell chime?"

The Bell Chime is a novella that does several things really well. It structurally does some things that managed to surprise me, in ways I didn't even know I could be surprised. Definitely don't skip the introduction!

It's comfortably at home in the horror genre, continually unsettling even when the overt scares are on the back burner. It works at delivering horror that's sometimes predictable (I mean, any horror nut out there has seen a spooky picture change.) But there's just as much that feels fresh and introspective. It wears its melancholy on its sleeve (book sleeve?) and leans into the bleakest terrors of the human mind.

How many nights has she had this? Where one little word or wrong question triggers her? Where she cries herself to sleep because she can’t deal with the eventuality. The eventuality that everything is just as it is, that there is no explanation. No rhyme, no reason. These things just sometimes happen.

The Bell Chime is an odd and haunting little book that I never expected. I'm always happy to find a hidden horror gem this one.hidden-gems horror impulse-purchase ...more15 s Hannah Gordon651 647

What would you abandon for happiness?

A girl discovers a missing person poster with her face on it. What follows is a tightly coiled tale of paranoia, grief, and the lengths we’ll go to in order to escape reality.

This didn’t go in the way I expected it to, tbh, but that’s what made it so intriguing. It kept me on my toes. There are countless “what the fuck?!” moments. I loved the narration, the breaking of the fourth wall. The author really invites the reader into the story and that’s what makes it so fucking terrifying.

The writing is v dramatic at times. Somewhat inconsistently. Gets lost in metaphors and imagery. 14 s Devin Evans37

If I could give this book a half of a star I would.

It began with a half thought out version of a nightmare.

It drifted endlessly through boring and awful prose that discussed the ins and outs of psychosis with the same understanding as a self-diagnosing teen on tumblr.

It went through a pretentious and haughty intermission that served absolutely no purpose than for the author to say "look, this is scary, okay?"

Then it ended with a predictable, annoying, and whiny ending.

I think the worst part about this is the pretentiousness. The complete lack of humble grace that comes from actually being a writer and not being someone who spouts off random words and calls it horror.

Worst book I've read in a long time. Don't waste your time. 12 s1 comment JeffReadsHorror349 9

I’m always looking for unique books, and boy, did I ever find one with The Bell Chime. It’s told out of order ( Pulp Fiction), so the information is presented slowly, carefully and oh so perfectly (with a little help from our narrator who feels the story guide from the Dark Pictures Anthology games)! The prose stands out with each simile landing on a beautiful dark note. There’s so much emotion jammed in this story that when you finally take a step back to think about what you just read, you have so much to feel and chew on. I’ve never read a book this, and I’m unsure if I’ll find another it, but I’m going to keep reading Mona’s work in hopes that I do!12 s Carol2,959 114

It's not often that I can honestly say "I don't get it"...but this one? I don't get it, and I don't think from what I did get, that I ever want to. It's a novella of psychological horror that makes the worse nightmare you ever had fall into the best dream you ever had category. The story is mostly a horrible depiction of a person in the midst of a quite severe mental illness, and much of the narrative is from the main character's muddled and delusional point of view. To say this character's grasp on reality has taken the last train out of the station and is far down the line...is a vast understatement.12 s1 comment Kayla6

Matrix meets Pavlov’s dogs in the worst way possible. I’m not one to write cynical and I usually share popular opinion when it comes to books, but this one just did not do it for me. None of the supporting characters had any personality or purpose it seemed other than to exist in the world and interact with the main character. The plot really wasn’t bad but was weighed down by an over abundance of unnecessary descriptions of nearly e v e r y t h i n g. Glad so many others enjoyed it, but the abundance of positive really had me questioning my sanity or whether I was reading the same book. 11 s1 comment Melinda’s Crackpot s553 19

Ok. Well now. No way to really summarize this story except to say it’s about a woman’s sanity or lack thereof.

This novella was borrowed ideas from several other books and movies. I know it was supposed to be dark, but me it was just a gloomy exercise in whining.

The writing was a bit pretentious (in my opinion). Here’s a random sample:

“From between his teeth blooms a garden of desire, seemingly never-ending, as though he is poisoned by his unconditional love. Yet this garden does not die from the poison. It only grows.”

I did enjoy the “intermissions” with Twilight Zone-type narration, but not enough to save the whole thing for me.

I’m glad everyone else loved this so much. I just finished another highly rated book that was so full of flowery prose that it took from the plot. People must that style. Lots to talk about at book clubs, but it’s just not for me. 10 s Ayden PerryAuthor 8 books151

Review of “The Bell Chime by Mona Kabbani” @moralityinhorror

All I could think when I finished “The Bell Chime” was , Wow! There is something about psychological horror that makes you question your own reality. If I could compare this book to something you would be interested in, I’d say “Black Mirror”. Have I gotten your attention now?

A girl suffering from night terrors wakes to find a missing persons poster with a face that looks oddly familiar. The face on the picture is smiling back at her and the eyes are following her every move. The main character is left to question her sanity. Is this reality or a nightmare?

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