A review by eveofrevolution
The Good House by Tananarive Due

4.0

4.5 stars.

This was such an interesting book! It's one of the few horror books that has actually made me feel scared, so that's a huge plus in my book! It starts out really sad and it took a bit to get going, but once it did, SO much stuff started happening. I actually found it a bit difficult to keep up with at times, since it started jumping back and forth in time to explain things, so the story unfolds in both the present and the past. It didn't help that I'm pretty unfamiliar with the kind of magic and spells discussed in the book, so admittedly I didn't catch everything. However, I found it fairly easy to understand overall, once I finished the book.

The only problem I really have with the book is its casual discussion and inclusion of rape and sexual assault.
SpoilerAngie's first sexual experience is when she's 13, with a band instructor so pretty clearly an adult, and this is pretty glossed over for the most part. I'm not sure why it was necessary to include, as it didn't add anything to the story. Also, when Myles and Angie reconnect, they have sex twice, then he has sex with her again while she's asleep because he couldn't resist her? And it's supposed to be this romantic thing, that isn't presented as an issue in the text whatsoever? Hell no. There was also a prison rape joke that I didn't appreciate.
I will say that had a man written this, these instances would be a lot worse I'm sure, but I still found all of these things highly unnecessary to the story.

Overall, really good book! It felt super long, but a lot of stuff happened so I don't think it got bogged down much, though it took a few chapters to really grab my attention.