A review by cheye13
The September House by Carissa Orlando

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

As all really good horror is, this is an excellent metaphor for the social issue -

domestic abuse

- it's approaching. I don't necessarily think it's a spoiler, as it's the core of the story, but others might. I mention it here because I think some other content warnings are more obviously spoilers, so I suggest checking that only if you are genuinely concerned about reading certain content (also for more details regarding the nature of

the abuse

).

I very much appreciated that it didn't dance around the metaphor; the social issue was brought into the light and addressed directly in conjunction with the haunting and what it represented. And in general, I found it a very good horror story. I'm not a huge horror fan and can be a baby, but this is the type of horror that is scary for the characters rather than the reader, which is the style I prefer, I think. This didn't give me nightmares, which I'm grateful for. On the other hand, the language is so effective and visceral that I did gag or feel my skin crawl at times. It made for a fun and interesting reading experience without dipping into true unpleasantness for me.

I think my main gripe was

using alcoholism as a sort of springboard for the anger issues and domestic abuse; it felt like a way to excuse the behavior, when they're really two discrete issues that can occur indepedently. Removing the alcoholism would maybe make the abuse storyline more universal.

That being said, it didn't necessarily take anything away from the concept so it was easy to look past.

This is possibly one of the best, most accessible horror books I've found so far.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Mental illness, Vomit, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Torture, Cannibalism, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

abuse: the nature of the spousal abuse is an alcoholic husband physically and emotionally abusing his wife; the physical abuse is never detailed, but the emotional abuse is very much so, often including misogynistic rhetoric. While the narrator excuses the abuse to herself, she is adamant it will not affect their child. There is, however, a single detailed scene in which the husband threatens their child.

Dementia: there is a long scene calling the narrator's mental health into question, including discussions of genetic mental illness, schizophrenia, self harm, murder, and symptoms of PTSD.

While I was concerned about the potential 'it's all in her mind' twist, that is not the eventual conclusion.

animal death: birds die often from impacting the exterior of the house; disposal of their corpses mentioned often, but not in great detail

cops: police officers are present and do wield guns

vomit/bugs: not often depicted, but includes some scenes of people vomiting flies (living and dead)

much upsetting content is part of the ghosts' pasts, witnessed and described in middling detail by the narrator, including: cannibalism, child abuse, child death, torture (of children), fire/fire injury, kidnapping, and violence