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ruthlessreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Absolutely phenomenal haunted house novel! I'm kicking myself for not having started it sooner. The Spite House confronts one towns legacy of violent racism, bringing reparations to those who have been denied justice. But it's not just Spite House that has secrets, the Ross family is on a collision course to a reckoning with the past they've been running from and it all culminates in one harrowing event.
It's a horror novel, yes, but it's also about how far a father will go to protect his children, about grief, and about how the acts of the past ripple through time to affect us all still today. Powerful, deeply moving, and incredibly creepy.
It's a horror novel, yes, but it's also about how far a father will go to protect his children, about grief, and about how the acts of the past ripple through time to affect us all still today. Powerful, deeply moving, and incredibly creepy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Racism, Violence, and Child death
Moderate: Slavery
Minor: Body horror
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
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