Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Good House

Overall, I really liked this. It was chilly and atmospheric, the perfect amount of haunted house creepy in my opinion. As much as I wanted to keep reading, I’d have to put it away at night because I didn’t want to risk nightmares. It’s a long book — 600 pages/22 hours — but I never felt like it was dragging. There were a few points where I’d wonder how we had so much left when it felt like we were so close to figuring it out, but then another twist would appear and I’d forget I’d questioned anything. I loved the twists too; they never felt forced or too unbelievable and they kept me on my toes the whole time. I loved the haunted house, I loved the underlying voodoo aspects, and I loved rooting for Angie and her family. I was shocked from the start with what happens to Corey and the shocks kept coming as we pieced everything together. I also personally loved the ending, because I’m a sucker for that.

However, I do have some complaints that kept this from being *my* perfect horror and that I think are worth alerting others on. First, Myles was SO close to perfect. I was rooting for him. But you do not have sex with people who are asleep. I don’t care if you had consensual sex the night before. I hated that scene and how it was presented as him still loving her and it completely turned me off of him. My second issue has to do with the numerous trigger warnings. I get that most of these are expected in a horror book, but I hate that. I’d love a mystery/thriller/horror that *doesn’t* rely on homophobia to be scary if written by a straight person. Just like I don’t want one relying on racism to be written by a white person, because those are real horrors and if you’re not the targeted community, I don’t think you should be sensationalizing them. There’s homophobic language and plot lines that aren’t necessary, as well as use of the r-word. I will clarify that this book was originally published in the early 2000s though and while it does not excuse the language, it may no longer reflect the way Tananarive Due writes. Tariq and Corey’s inner monologues almost justifying domestic abuse also just made me feel icky.

Other trigger warnings include suicide, death of a child, animal cruelty, blood/gore, sexual assault and rape (including of a 13 year old girl), homophobia, racism, ableism, domestic abuse.

There’s also some discussion into the indigenous history of the setting, although I can’t speak to the accuracy of the representation.

Overall, I will absolutely be reading more Tananarive Due and I’m especially excited to dive into more of her more recent work.

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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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danimacuk's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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ommageden's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The book was ok. Although the build up didn't really pay off in a worthwhile ending to me. Everywhere I read people hyped this book up as THE haunted house book and it really just wasn't. It felt more like the paranormal was driving human violence and anger which wasn't really what was there for.

The ending itself felt anticlimactic and the overall the book started to overstay it's welcome with some unnecessary time jumps said long near the end.

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Parts of this story really dragged or they really rushed. The ending was arguably the strongest part of the story and also the most enjoyably paced. Other parts felt like the supernatural element was breaking its own rules. The nastiness can infect anyone who leaves a piece of them in this specific location. But it only infected about five characters including one person who was nowhere near anyone else. That one person got more infected than anybody else and murdered someone tangentially connected to the main characters. Thankfully the dog either did not die or the death was not described, which is a rare mercy in horror fiction. The horses also did not experience any on-page tragedy. There are references to needing chicken blood and paper made from the vagina of an animal.
There was a dark spot that I didn't appreciate reading. It was where a character faked, and later admitted to doing so, a sexual assault between themselves and an antagonist solely to get one of the main characters to act with violence. I just don't think "fake sexual assault" is a scene that is needed in literature published after the 1990's.
This story is somewhat effective in the 'gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss' nature of horror stories.

You spend most of the story wondering if the Big Bad got Corey and you find out in chapter 33 that Corey committed suicide to prevent the Big Bad from getting what they wanted. "With all his strength, Corey Toussaint Hill won his last fight.

Two sets of characters have whirlwind relationships that end, of course, tragically. It feels a bit cheap and scripted to do it twice in the story and I am a bit resentful of how one of the relationships is ended. The ending of that relationship is action-packed but very quick

Myles is watching over Angela while she does a ritual and tries to defend her against Tariq. Myles is shot once in the body and finished off with a gunshot to the head, presumably.

It was a cheap way to include a "strip the main character of all hope" moment.
The last two chapters threw me for a loop at first.

The ending is Angela's ancestors giving her a miracle. It is not stated what the miracle is but the final chapters show Corey, Sean, and Angela breaking the curse and banishing the Big Bad. Then the party on July 4th proceeds as planned, with fireworks, dancing, and merriment. Angela decides that she no longer has feelings for Tariq and will proceed with the divorce. Angela and Myles promise to keep in touch. Therefore the miracle is making it so the violence from the Big Bad never happened.

It is a unique way to wrap up a story and one that can often feel very cheap. With this specific story it felt welcome. It almost felt like walking into your childhood home, but the one of your memories and not the actual building. These last two chapters were the most effective for me as a reader.

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boujeebookworm's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was long and drawn out for no reason. Then I get to end and it could’ve all never happened?! Omg I hate I wasted my time with this book.

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