This is a little predictable in places - I picked who the main villain was very quickly, as well as the identity of the protagonist - but it was still an enjoyable read. Then again, I do like haunted house stories so I'm predisposed to the sort of gothic, overblown melodrama that's going on here. What's particularly interesting about the book is that the sense of personality comes less from the house itself than the ghosts that inhabit it. For all the characters talk about how Bliss House feels alive, there's never that sense of looming malice that you get from, for example, Hill House or the Overlook Hotel. However, that's not particularly disappointing because it gives a schizophrenic sort of tinge to what's going on - the house is inhabited, is impregnated with evil, sure, but it's not haunted only by evil. Ariel, the 14 year old girl who moves with her mother into Bliss House, for instance, is both harmed and helped by what exists inside it. That's a very different sort of unbalance within a haunted house setting, and it was something that worked really well here I thought.