Reviews

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett

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daffodilcherry's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this haunted house, mystery book that has a very good mix of the supernatural mixed with realistic explanations. As teen-agers, Clare and her friends ventured into a local haunted house, but one friend, Abby, was left forever changed by her time in the house's basement. Now adults, Clare is brought back to her hometown by news that Abby attempted suicide in the house, and she can't rest until she delves into the house's past to uncover what went wrong.

This was an enjoyable book to me, with engrossing writing and a mystery that I wanted to uncover. I'm not usually a fan of a book that switches from first person to third person perspectives, but given that the majority of the book is in 3rd person I will forgive it. My one major gripe with the book is...

WHY DID NO ONE TRY TO PROP OPEN THE DOOR???? I MEAN SERIOUSLY! it would have been a fun scene to watch Clare or ANYONE try to prop the door open only for the prop not to have worked... THANK YOU

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Wheelhouses: haunted house, teen girls exploring haunted houses and getting messed up, woman has to return back to her small home town to discover secrets of the past, multiple pov,

cyclical nature of the haunting (teen girl being drawn to the basement), let's burn the whole house down.

Content Warnings

yodamom's review against another edition

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4.0

3.5 Creeptastic stars
Small town girls are haunted by a house they went into as children. A cursed house with a dark door that leads to an even darker basement. This fright doesn’t dissipate with time it develops and returns. The lingering horror, the curse is worse on them as adults.
I liked it. Parts of it had me nearly hyperventilating parts and me nodding off. There was a lot of rehashing information, reliving experiences, inability to say something even thought they wanted to, mostly in the first 1/2 of the book. The second half was where it all happened, where I started to really enjoy it. This was where I was nearly hyperventilating. I wanted more of that.
I really wish the author would have spent less time telling us the past and more time delving into the basement. After all the build up she wrote it just sort of crumbled into ash. Where was the rest of the story ? We met G and knew the beginning but that was it, we only saw this character through other’s eyes and those were very limited. The other characters weren’t limited this way. The last bit, last few chapters, not needed.
I look forward to seeing this author develop her craft in her next book.