The September House by Carissa Orlando

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Content notes can be found at The StoryGraph

From the Publisher:

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. 
Margaret is not most people. 
Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September is just around the corner, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

This book! I listened to it on audio and was instantly hooked. It’s so refreshing to have a middle aged female main character who is so interesting and intelligent and refuses to be made into a victim. Margaret is such an absolute force of calm, reasoned thinking that it’s almost disconcerting how easily she adjusts to the quirks of her dream home. Now, I fully understand that her devastating and painful past has shaped her into the woman she is, but she really comes across as a woman who knows herself and her ability to handle any situation. Literally, any situation.

The writing in this novel is absolutely incredible. I was instantly invested in the characters, especially the mystery of the house and it’s “pranksters” in just the first few chapters. Margaret narrates our tale of horror and supernatural suspense and do so in the most casual and light hearted way. The narrator, Kimberly Farr, was perfect as the voice of Margaret. My husband caught the last two hours of the book while we completed some home projects and stopped several times to comment how flippant Margaret seemed to be about actual horrors happening before her eyes.

Evenly paced with a balanced mix of plot and character development, flashbacks to Margaret’s early years of marriage and raising her daughter provide a very heartbreaking, but important insight to her ability to always be a survivor. And the way she has fallen in love with the house! I felt that on a visceral level.

I absolutely loved this book. I listened to all 13.5 hours over just two days because I couldn’t put it down. If you’d like to add this incredible novel to your shelf, you can click on the cover above or here for ordering information.

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Middle Grade Horror Review: Mine by Delilah S. Dawson

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Reader Friends, kids these days don’t understand how good they have it. Mine by Delilah S. Dawson is legit scary!

CW: ghostly harm to children, very strained parental/child relationship, the dog is fine at the end

From the Publisher:

Lily Horne is a drama queen. It's helped her rise to stardom in the school play, but it's also landed her in trouble. Her parents warn her that Florida has to be different. It's a fresh start. No theatrics. But this time, the drama is coming for her.

The Hornes’ new house is awful. The pool is full of slime, the dock is rotten, and the swamp creeps closer every day. But worst of all, the house isn't empty . . . it's packed full of trash, memories, and, Lily begins to fear, the ghost of the girl who lived there before her.

And whatever is waiting in the shadows wants to come out to play.

Mine is extremely creepy and chilling. Lily and her parents have moved to swampy Florida, thousands of miles from her beloved Colorado, to live in a house that was too good of a deal to pass up. The reason it’s such a good price? The former tenant was a hoarder and the house is bursting at the seams with all of the trash and delivery boxes. Because the state of the house is so overwhelming, and the family’s storage container hasn’t shown up yet, the already tense relationship Lily has with her parents is at a near breaking point. We know something happened in Colorado that forced the family to move suddenly, and we’re led to believe Lily feels it’s her fault throughout the entire book. Lily’s dad starts his new job immediately and it’s up to Lily and her mom to clean out the mountains of trash and turn their disaster of a house into a home. So when creepy things start happening in the house, Lily’s parents have zero patience for her drama and insist it’s all in her head. Lily spends most of the story feeling ignored, hurt, and betrayed by her parents actions. Lily feels like a character that many kids will be able to relate with. She has to move unexpectedly, leave her friends behind, and finds herself alone and terrorized by a ghost that no one believes is there. Lily is also a smart and determined kid who knows she’s the only one who can save herself and she does.

If you have a middle grade reader who loves horror, this book is perfect. It’s chilling, atmospheric, and very creepy. If you’d like a copy of your own, you can find ordering information here:

As always, this post may contain affiliate links and I may earn from qualifying purchases. All opinions and mistakes are my own.

The Lost Village by Camilla Sten

Available Now

Obsessed over the long-ago disappearance of an entire mining town, Alice and her production team set out to the abandoned village create a documentary. Camping in the village square, cooking over a portable grill, and bathing in the nearby river are far from glamorous, but everyone on the team is dedicated to helping Alice make her dream documentary a reality. Everyone knows that part of Alice’s fascination with the village is her grandmother’s ties to the village. Her grandmother moved away shortly before her family and the entire village disappeared. But not the entire village, a lone baby was found nearby. What the team doesn’t know, is that Alice isn’t the only person with a connection to the village.

As the team searches the village for clues, they encounter strange occurrences that quickly escalate to violence. With no way to contact the outside world for help, Alice and her team must fight to stay alive. But what are they fighting?

This is such a great thriller! I loved how the author includes two time lines, the present day with Alice and her team and Alice’s family from 1959, the year of the disappearance. While you would think that Alice’s grandmother and great-grandmother would provide all the clues to the disappearance, the author doles out the information in small bits, constantly keeping you guessing. But that’s not to mean this a slow book, it actually flies by as the team seems under constant threat from the mysterious force that is trying to force them away from the village. The “Lost Village” is a character itself. While it was once a prosperous mining town full of young families, it held it’s own dark secrets. Gossip spreads quickly in a small town and the village church was a huge influence on the villagers. A young woman named Birgitta, left on her own after her mother’s death, is cared for by Elsa, Alice’s great-grandmother. Birgitta’s difficulties to care for herself, from what appears to be a cognitive deficiency of some kind, causes the village to pity her, but not enough to provide her with proper housing and decent food. As a new pastor gains influence over the villagers, they grow to fear and despise Birgitta, much to Elsa’s disbelief. As the village becomes more hostile towards Birgitta, everyone’s true colors come to light. The same occurs with Alice’s production team. The more danger they find themselves in, the more they become suspicious and fearful of each other. It was really interesting watching the two storylines overlap in that way.

This is an excellent thriller filled with horror elements and an intriguing mystery. It’s a compelling and fast paced story that will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat. I can’t wait to see more from Camilla Sten!

If you would like to add this creepy and thrilling book to your shelves, you can find ordering information here:

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and review this title. All opinions and mistakes are my own. This post also contains affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases.