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A review by charspages
The Dead House (The Dead House #1) by Dawn Kurtagich
2.0
I am NOT a fan of horror books.
I don't like scary movies, I despise true crime, I stay far away from American Horror Story, and I haven't even seen the newest IT even though I'd totally follow Bill Skarsgard into any dumpster.
And yet, a couple days after Halloween this year, I saw the absolutely sinister, super gorgeous cover for this book in Mira's book shelf and found myself unable to resist. Perhaps, I thought, a spooky read is just what I need.
I was half right. The first 100 pages were so scary, so weird, and so utterly mesmerizing that I tore through them in one sitting. (At a friend's birthday party, no less.) I was hooked. I wanted, no, needed to know what was happening.
And then - I'm not sure what changed - about one-third into the novel, the story loses its fire. The rest of this book was terrifying only in the sense how much it bored me.
No one is more saddened by this than me. I think that this book had so much potential. I loved the concept and the set-up, which felt like a gentle way to introduce a complete horror-newbie to the genre. Not overly confusing, but not at all straightforward, either. Ultimately, though, this fell terribly short of my expectations.
PLOT: 1 / 5
Man, I did like the premise of this. (Except for the medically inaccurate portrayal of DID, which was just a little warped to make it more cool or spooky or whatever.) [b:The Dead House|22396591|The Dead House (The Dead House #1)|Dawn Kurtagich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421353573l/22396591._SY75_.jpg|41818801] is told in reports, police interviews, diary entries, and camera transcripts and tells the story of the Johnson Incident.
Or so it makes you believe.
In reality, all this book tells you is I don't know what happened either! You decide for yourself what the true story is here! and let me say that I fucking hated that. I felt so cheated - what did I just read 400 pages of Kaitlyn's insufferable edgy diary for if it doesn't even tell me what the fuck happened?
There were some interesting leads in the beginning - the death of Kaitlyn's parents, her relationship with her alter Carly, the dabbling in Scottish folk magic - that promised to get exciting. Let me make it short and painless for you: these leads did not live up to their promise at all. Instead, it felt like incident piled upon incident piled upon incident until it was all so terribly confusing that it honestly killed my will to find out what happened.
This book was long-winded and very blasé about not having a satisfying ending to tie together all the nonsense that happened over the course of 400 pages. Reading it felt like dragging yourself through knee-deep mud, only to realize you arrived exactly where you started.
CHARACTERS: 1.5 / 5
The second point where this book failed me spectacularly was its characters. I did not, and I mean this in all earnesty, did not enjoy a single one out of them.
"I curse anyone who reads this book.
If you touch it, hell will be waiting.
Screw you, happy reading."
Man, if anyone knew how to get on my fucking nerves, it was KAITLYN JOHNSON. Could've been a member of the Kardashian clan, judged by how unbearable I found her. She was all edgy! and dark! and rebellious! and I literally didn't care about her.
"You are a ray of sunshine at midnight."
CARLY JOHNSON, on the other hand, was someone I could very much get behind. I would have loved to get to know her more, to hear the story from her point of view. I loved her warmth, her dark secrets, everything. I truly wish she had been the narrator of the story.
NAIDA CHOUNAN-DUPRÉ and her brother HAJI were the two characters who I felt had the most depth and, at the same time, the highest annoyance potential out of the entire cast. They were both annoyingly mysterious and super interesting. I couldn't really make up my mind about them, to be honest.
The rest of the cast left such little impression that I don't even remember their names, except for ARI HAIT who can get fucked with his stupid bowler hat.
Don't get me started on the cringe-worthy battery of e-mails exchanged between Kaitlyn and Ari as their so-called "romance" blossoms - or when they start shagging in a graveyard. It made me cringe so hard I probably popped a vein or something.
WORLD BUILDING: 2 / 5
I guess the world building was okay. I don't know, I don't care enough to remember anything from it.
WRITING STYLE: 4 / 5
If [a:Dawn Kurtagich|8288991|Dawn Kurtagich|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1404838865p2/8288991.jpg] can do one thing, it's write. And she writes well. The whole style of this novel is mesmerizing and poignant. Ms. Kurtagich knows exactly how to play the words to make them sing. Her phrasing is gorgeous and wild and crooked and dark and twisted and it is so many things I could write one whole review on that alone.
DIVERSITY: 2 / 5
I guess the DID representation counts as diversity, right? Also a black boy as a side-character who neither dies nor turns out to be a cliché asshole with one line, that was a fun change. I'm honestly too tired to think about the rest.
OVERALL: 1.5 / 5
As much as I adore Dawn Kurtagich's style, and as much as I believe in her ability to tell great stories, I did not like this book. It dragged, it was confusing, it didn't have a solution for anything, and the characters were cringe-worthy at best. Overall, not a pleasant reading experience after the fire from the first seventy pages crackles out.
I don't like scary movies, I despise true crime, I stay far away from American Horror Story, and I haven't even seen the newest IT even though I'd totally follow Bill Skarsgard into any dumpster.
And yet, a couple days after Halloween this year, I saw the absolutely sinister, super gorgeous cover for this book in Mira's book shelf and found myself unable to resist. Perhaps, I thought, a spooky read is just what I need.
I was half right. The first 100 pages were so scary, so weird, and so utterly mesmerizing that I tore through them in one sitting. (At a friend's birthday party, no less.) I was hooked. I wanted, no, needed to know what was happening.
And then - I'm not sure what changed - about one-third into the novel, the story loses its fire. The rest of this book was terrifying only in the sense how much it bored me.
No one is more saddened by this than me. I think that this book had so much potential. I loved the concept and the set-up, which felt like a gentle way to introduce a complete horror-newbie to the genre. Not overly confusing, but not at all straightforward, either. Ultimately, though, this fell terribly short of my expectations.
PLOT: 1 / 5
Man, I did like the premise of this. (Except for the medically inaccurate portrayal of DID, which was just a little warped to make it more cool or spooky or whatever.) [b:The Dead House|22396591|The Dead House (The Dead House #1)|Dawn Kurtagich|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1421353573l/22396591._SY75_.jpg|41818801] is told in reports, police interviews, diary entries, and camera transcripts and tells the story of the Johnson Incident.
Or so it makes you believe.
In reality, all this book tells you is I don't know what happened either! You decide for yourself what the true story is here! and let me say that I fucking hated that. I felt so cheated - what did I just read 400 pages of Kaitlyn's insufferable edgy diary for if it doesn't even tell me what the fuck happened?
There were some interesting leads in the beginning - the death of Kaitlyn's parents, her relationship with her alter Carly, the dabbling in Scottish folk magic - that promised to get exciting. Let me make it short and painless for you: these leads did not live up to their promise at all. Instead, it felt like incident piled upon incident piled upon incident until it was all so terribly confusing that it honestly killed my will to find out what happened.
This book was long-winded and very blasé about not having a satisfying ending to tie together all the nonsense that happened over the course of 400 pages. Reading it felt like dragging yourself through knee-deep mud, only to realize you arrived exactly where you started.
CHARACTERS: 1.5 / 5
The second point where this book failed me spectacularly was its characters. I did not, and I mean this in all earnesty, did not enjoy a single one out of them.
"I curse anyone who reads this book.
If you touch it, hell will be waiting.
Screw you, happy reading."
Man, if anyone knew how to get on my fucking nerves, it was KAITLYN JOHNSON. Could've been a member of the Kardashian clan, judged by how unbearable I found her. She was all edgy! and dark! and rebellious! and I literally didn't care about her.
"You are a ray of sunshine at midnight."
CARLY JOHNSON, on the other hand, was someone I could very much get behind. I would have loved to get to know her more, to hear the story from her point of view. I loved her warmth, her dark secrets, everything. I truly wish she had been the narrator of the story.
NAIDA CHOUNAN-DUPRÉ and her brother HAJI were the two characters who I felt had the most depth and, at the same time, the highest annoyance potential out of the entire cast. They were both annoyingly mysterious and super interesting. I couldn't really make up my mind about them, to be honest.
The rest of the cast left such little impression that I don't even remember their names, except for ARI HAIT who can get fucked with his stupid bowler hat.
Don't get me started on the cringe-worthy battery of e-mails exchanged between Kaitlyn and Ari as their so-called "romance" blossoms - or when they start shagging in a graveyard. It made me cringe so hard I probably popped a vein or something.
WORLD BUILDING: 2 / 5
I guess the world building was okay. I don't know, I don't care enough to remember anything from it.
WRITING STYLE: 4 / 5
If [a:Dawn Kurtagich|8288991|Dawn Kurtagich|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1404838865p2/8288991.jpg] can do one thing, it's write. And she writes well. The whole style of this novel is mesmerizing and poignant. Ms. Kurtagich knows exactly how to play the words to make them sing. Her phrasing is gorgeous and wild and crooked and dark and twisted and it is so many things I could write one whole review on that alone.
DIVERSITY: 2 / 5
I guess the DID representation counts as diversity, right? Also a black boy as a side-character who neither dies nor turns out to be a cliché asshole with one line, that was a fun change. I'm honestly too tired to think about the rest.
OVERALL: 1.5 / 5
As much as I adore Dawn Kurtagich's style, and as much as I believe in her ability to tell great stories, I did not like this book. It dragged, it was confusing, it didn't have a solution for anything, and the characters were cringe-worthy at best. Overall, not a pleasant reading experience after the fire from the first seventy pages crackles out.