Reviews with content warning for Child death - The Spite House

I picked up this book because it was the March selection for the Literally Dead Book Club.
"The Spite House" follows a plethora of characters, but the story centralizes around Eric Ross. Eric is on the run from something haunting him in his past. He left his wife and has his two daughters along for the ride. He is desperately trying to make money as they run from town to town. He thinks his luck is finally turning around when he sees an advertisement to reside in this house and document any strange occurrences. But this house harbors decades old secrets and Eric quickly discovers that this may be a larger undertaking than he thought.
I was initially intrigued by this story because there are multiple mysteries going on. First, we do not know what Eric and his daughters are running from or why they are running. Second, we do not know what is going on at Spite House. It ended up taking me a LONG time to get into this story because it is so densely written. It may be closer to a novella in length, but it felt like I was reading a 500-page story. I also struggled because there are so many different characters and POVs to read from. I felt like just when I was becoming invested in one character's story, I was given a new character. This constant changing really took me out of the story. For a book this short in length, I wished we got less POVs. I think the story could have been just as strong with solely Eric's POV.
Once it was finally revealed what was going on, I was interested in the story once again. I really enjoyed the mystery that Eric was trying to hide about why they were running, and I ultimately enjoyed the resolution they reached as a family about how to handle it. The Spite House's mystery was a bit more traumatic I felt, but it was definitely engaging. My heart went out to everyone affected.
I had a very okay time reading this, and I am intrigued by Johnny Compton as an author.

Content Warnings

ashtheaudiomancer's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

This is a fantastic twist on a classic haunted house story, with solid, vivid characters whose decisions made sense even in the face of certain doom. Johnny Compton has neatly solved the "Why would you want to live in a house you know is haunted?" question without resorting to everyday skepticism. My only complaint is I wish it was longer. There were a couple details about Eric's family history left unresolved and I could've done with just one more chapter wrapping those up. I understand why it ended where it did, I just wanted more! Definitely going to keep an eye on this author from now on.

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blacksphinx's review against another edition

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mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.5

Although I felt the ending was missing something, Johnny Compton knows how to puts words in front of each other and I eagerly await for whatever he does next.

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carissa230's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Eric and his girls are on the run from something. When the chance to stay at the spite house for a large sum of money comes up, he can't pass it up. He knows that there has to be something wrong with the spite house for the owner to pay him so much money, but he brings his girls along anyway. He has experience with the supernatural and he thinks he can handle it.

As soon as they arrive at the house it's clear that something otherworldly is going on there. The house itself seems to want to keep them forever. There are also children and an old man stuck there that are very mean and will do anything to capture the people that come along.

Eunice the owner of the house will do anything it takes to learn the secrets of the house. She believes that there is something in there that will help her survive longer than any other member of her family. If only she can figure out how the house works.

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