Reviews - The September House

7.05k reviews for:

The September House

Carissa Orlando

4.02 AVERAGE

kelreads's review

DID NOT FINISH

strange

seemaryart's review

4.25

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

alicia_nevermore's review

4.5

dark tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

graceg's review against another edition

2.5

I wanted to like this book but it felt incomplete throughout, almost like a first draft.

Margaret’s father’s mental illness was hardly mentioned but used as strong evidence for her behavior. There is no way Margaret, Katherine, and Jones would be believed (there were two dead cops, a rotten body in the basement, and absolute chaos in the house). The ending was far too cheesy (I read “get out” a dozen too many times). Also, why could master Vale be hurt but not the other specters? Honestly would’ve liked it better if the true plot WAS that Margaret was experiencing a mental breakdown after finally killing her abuser.

alibraryofourown's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

borrowedlibrary_dreareads's review

4.0

3.5 ⭐️ That was unexpected, in a really good way. This is a very different take on a haunted house book, in that instead of the residents being scared and running away from the ghosts, the owner is resigned to live peacefully with them and develops her own sense of rules and acceptance to survive…that is until her husband disappears and her daughter comes to town determined to find him. Only it is September, the one month where all the ghosts of the house become restless. I loved the audio version of this book, I think the narrator’s cadence and despondency to her experience was top notch. I know a lot of other reviewers thought it was boring but I loved that it was so different. I am also an outlier regarding the ending of this book, which I won’t go into details but the last 20% or so this book throws in some curveballs that didn’t sit well with me, but I was still OK with how this ended. Also, I expected this to be somewhat scary and it wasn’t at all, gory yes but not scary in the slightest. I took off 1/2 a star for that end curveball but still highly recommend this book if you want something different from your traditional haunted house story.