Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to give this an honest review!

Read the full review here.

“The mind hangs by a thin thread, these unknown things, forever lost, upside down.”

While this book took a while to get to the plot, once it did, I couldn’t put it down.
The writing creates a constant, on the edge of your seat anxiety, and a palatable sense of dread.

Hannah grimaced, clearing her throat. “Afraid?”
“They should be.” She took another step forward, close enough to touch the girl. “Of what?” 
“The house, silly.” She laughed, coughing up a demonic giggle from her drowned throat. “It’s alive, and it likes to play.”

Big fat nope to that, scariest line I’ve read in a while.

I do have some grievances with this book. The characters are all supposed to be in their late 30’s, and they all felt younger than myself and my friend group- all of whom are 25 and younger. Scarlett, our main character, is so very “I’m average but not beautiful even though everyone would disagree with this- also I’m not at all like other girls, I am funny.” It got annoying really quickly. I don’t know any almost 30 year old woman who thinks wearing converse instead of heels is a personality trait, which brings me back to: Scarlett cannot possibly be 29 based on how she is written.

I wish we had had more time in the house and more time after the fact, rather than the relatively drawn out build up to the entrance into the house. While some of it I can see as important to the storyline within the house, a lot of it was redundant subplot and it took me a while to get interested into the story due to that. I would have liked to know more about Vincent, the magician, and less about Tommy and Jackson, honestly.

All in all, the horror in this book is what really sold it for me, and it delivered well.