Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - The Spite House

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐.75/5
Unsettling: 😬😬/5
SCARY: 👻👻/5
DEATH: 💀💀/5
INTRIGUE: 🧠🧠🧠🧠/5

The Spite House was nothing like I expected. With such poignant writing to take you through so many cycles of terror that were being held within the four walls of the Spite House. The tenants withheld in those four walls have every intention to make your life hell while you are there. Would you believe me that two children run the house? Oh yeah. Those children will scare and torture you till you finally just give up.

With a family on the run after a miraculous happening, the chance to make 6 figures is always a plus. Especially when you are hiding who you are and why. But is the money worth it when you know that you could lose the two people you love the most? The ones you went on the run for??

Eric is a father that is determined to do everything for his girls that he can. Even after his daughter comes back to life after dying, he knows something within their family gives them that blessing of life after death. Just as it did for his grandfather. But he is determined to make a life for his girls and figure out more about the gift they have been given.

With so much paranormal activity, lies, deception and money there is always room for mayhem. Enter the Spite House. Welcome to the chaos!

I also want to include that this book is a great representation of POC by a POC. Which I absolutely love and appreciate. In what bit of horror I have read there isn't a whole ton of POC representation. But also the representation showing how different the stereotypes that so many authors stick to aren't the same in this book.

Content Warnings

rachelunabridged's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

[ Thanks so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the ARC! ]

This book had an amazing start. The author did a fantastic job setting up the story and characters + getting the reader invested in the Ross family. He drops all of these delicious breadcrumbs that really pulled me in and had me asking all kinds of questions + getting excited about learning the answers.
I also really loved what he did with the sisters in this story. Adore seeing positive sisterly relationships in my reads~

While the book started out strong, it didn't take very long for it to start to drag for me. I felt like there were too many exposition dumps that I wished were more organically woven into the narrative rather than dropped on the reader all at once. I was also surprised about how little time was spent in the titular house + felt my attention wavering in the sections spent away. Additionally, there were a lot of side character POV switches, and I felt like it really brought down the mood and the pacing.

All in all, it was an enjoyable read, but not something that I would revisit. And while this read wasn't a new favorite for me, I'm still looking forward to seeing what this author has in store for us in the future.

Would recommend this to readers who enjoy stories about haunted houses, generational trauma, and family bonds.

Content Warnings

starrysteph's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The Spite House is a gothic horror tale revolving around parental love & protection, ancestral hauntings, and complicated karmic seeds.

We follow the Ross family (dad Eric and daughters Dess and Stacy) as they run from their mysterious past, desperate to improve their circumstances and find some stability. When an eccentric billionaire offers them a small fortune to stay inside a mysterious house and record potential hauntings, it’s too good of an offer to pass up. But of course everything isn’t quite so simple, and vengeful ghosts and complicated family histories soon intertwine in a deadly way.

If you tend to get irritated by horror story protagonists making absurd choices for no reason, you won’t find that here. The Ross family aren’t foolish risk-takers. They’re not intentionally charging into danger. They’re thoughtful and do safety drills. They’re logical and calculated. And they’re forced into the house out of desperation – which makes this story all the more compelling.

I enjoyed the multiple POVs, but could have gone without the one-offs of side characters and antagonizers. I would have appreciated being kept to a more limited viewpoint - so that I as the reader could uncover truths alongside the three Ross’, instead of being given reveals from the secret-keepers surrounding them.

I thought the pacing + flow was very well done. However, I would have loved more scenes of action & atmospheric horror inside the house. We actually didn’t spend a whole lot of time between its walls. Additionally, the history of the house was well thought out, but became a bit convoluted. This was a 300 page book and a lot of info was squished in.

Overall, this was an engaging read and a chilling story – I only wish the plotting & POVs were little less complicated and more expansiveness was given to the central family and terrifying spite house;

CW: death (incl. child death), gore, murder, child abuse, psychosis, war, racism, gun violence, mental illness, kidnapping, confinement

(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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