Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Hare House

I read this book in full spooky season because the blurb made it sound perfect: gothic atmosphere, a remote estate, secrets, witchcraft... basically spooky gold. And yet, when I finished it, I found myself disappointed and left wanting, although I couldn't really articulate why. I gave myself some time to process (a little longer in truth than I'd planned to be honest), trying to get some clarity but several weeks on I'm still no further in this.

Starting off with the positives, the atmosphere is spot on. The author does a great job with the settings and captures the dark, cold weather particularly well. I could almost feel the cold seeping through the page (and my headphones for the parts I listened to on audiobook). The settings are vivid and the tension is palpable, which is the main reason I didn't abandon this halfway through, because for the rest I was fairly disappointed.

The characters were profoundly unlikeable, and not in a good, interesting way. The main character, a woman trying to leave her past behind as a mysterious event led to her losing her job in London, had all the cards to be an interesting, complex character but ended up being quite flat for me. The rest of the cast is entirely forgettable, and I actually mixed them up pretty frequently aside from the mansion owner, his sister and the MC's neighbour, who came across as very one-dimensional.

Quite a few mysterious happenings occur throughout, which may or may not amount to witchcraft, but I became increasingly frustrated as it felt as though the story wasn't really going anywhere. Eventually, I was just bored and the ending felt completely anticlimactic. Nothing is really explained, a lot of things just fall into the void, and what is implied to have happened would contrast with everything we've read up to that point, making the whole thing even more confusing.

Essentially, this didn't quite have enough plot for my taste, feeling to me more as directionless meandering, but also didn't go deep enough in exploring its characters to read like a character study. Such a shame, because the ideas were clearly there and the writing itself was actually good, but I was left very unsatisfied overall.

I received an advanced review copy of this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Content Warnings

enyltiak's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Incredibly atmospheric, there's a quiet, tranquil beauty of the setting enmeshed throughout the novel. The what and how and why of everything that happens is deeply intriguing and keeps you turning the page, especially as the tension ramps up in the last third of the book, but it all dissolves into... nothing? There's a climactic bang that is followed up by a sense of serenity, followed by an ominous, discordant ending note. Ultimately, there are so many unanswered questions that it feels less mysterious than unsatisfying. The main character is horrible (I do love an unreliable/unlikeable narrator) and she almost herself doesn't seem to understand her motivations, which makes it all that much trickier. I really enjoyed what there was, but it seemed like the end was missing.

Content Warnings

kristenreads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

aish_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

ohennui's review

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

inthearchives's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I think this book did the things it did well very well. It had an interesting premise & it was atmospheric. If the main character is meant to repulse the reader intentionally, then that was also something done well, because she is an absolute creep. She made my skin crawl when her inner monologue turned to her thoughts and recollections of interacting with her teenaged students.

As others have mentioned, it doesn’t conclude well. You progress thinking several characters will develop into an interesting part of the plot, only to never hear about them again. A lot of wasted opportunity.

Odd book. Really can’t tell if the dated attitudes to women, mental health & food were intentional to be reflective of the setting, or if the author didn’t feel the need to be thoughtful about these themes. I even double checked to see if Sally Hinchcliffe wasn’t a pen name for a man, that’s how off the vibes in this book are.

Content Warnings

piareadss's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

Content Warnings

five_rats_in_a_trenchcoat's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

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