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starrysteph's review
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.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Confinement, Death, and War
elliotvanz's review
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? No
3.5
This might be one of the most claustrophobic books I have ever read. Between the Ross family looking over their shoulders, the secrets being kept, and the narrow walls of the spite house itself closing in around them, this book is a tense gothic tale with plenty of hidden layers. Each secret revealed feels like a dust cloth being pulled from an old piece of furniture, the shape and impression of the thing gaining sudden stark detail. This is a classic haunted house yarn with a family that you root for as they walk into the danger not out of some stupid notion but out of desperation. Reading this feels like Hill House by way of Jordan Peele.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Child death, Murder, Gore, Death, and War
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