A review by gothgirls_readingnook
What Happened at Hawthorne House by Hadassah Shiradski

4.0

“Dead Moths. Dead Butterflies. Dead spiders.”

A nine-year old girl named Rosalyn lives at an orphanage with a group of other girls her age. Who finds themselves bored. Rosalyn invents a game, that quickly took a turn for the worst…

Gothic-Horror Novella set in 1926

My Thoughts

Merged review:

“Dead Moths. Dead Butterflies. Dead spiders.”

A nine-year old girl named Rosalyn lives at an orphanage with a group of other girls her age. Who finds themselves bored. Rosalyn invents a game, that quickly took a turn for the worst…

Gothic-Horror Novella set in 1926

My Thoughts

Trigger Warnings:
Gore
Violence
Pranks gone to far
Bullying
Boredom
Horror
Lots of insects

Books Content Warnings:
Intense bullying
Child abuse and endangerment
Child harm
Detailed depictions of child death
Abuse (physical and psychological)
Neglect
Death

Part one:

Kids can be mean and cruel and this book demonstrates that in a horrific manner. These kids took a game too far and paid the price.

Instead of creating a beautiful court of royals they built it on pranks and having to outdo the higher up to become queen. The pranks and games became worse and worse…. I felt bad for the new girls and all the girls that participated in something like this. Girls can be mean.

I think this book is very dark and creepy.

Honestly it’s quite morbid, but not a bad read.

Part two:

I love the rebuild of the home and how the game continued even in the afterlife of the girls.

I feel the new Ambassador knew what he was doing when it came to the house and how to interact with the girls.

I also like how visitors were able to come and see ‘spirits’ and how the Ambassador wrote down all his sightings and interactions, like a researcher would.

I feel the second part went by fast and wanted more. Maybe have the girls find peace and make their way, and Hawthorne house becoming a normal house once again.

Overall it was a great read. Thank you NetGalley and Bridge Gates Press for allowing me to be an ARC reader.

Merged review:

“Dead Moths. Dead Butterflies. Dead spiders.”

A nine-year old girl named Rosalyn lives at an orphanage with a group of other girls her age. Who finds themselves bored. Rosalyn invents a game, that quickly took a turn for the worst…

Gothic-Horror Novella set in 1926

My Thoughts