Solid possession story-  good, but not great. The story didn’t hold together as well as sat, The Devil Crept In. 

The scenes with our creepy kid are chilling, but the conflict between the parents can be distracting.

The dog dies.

“Can we hold such an act within us, without being irrevocably changed?” 

 

If you’ve read The Last House on Needless Street, you know that Catriona Ward is apt at delivering well written and fantastically confusing stories. Little Eve is no different. 

 

This book has a hazy, gothic quality to it that really helps you dig in to the meat of the story as we see the world through the eyes of brainwashed cult members who are awaiting the Adder and the inheritance of powers that comes with him. 

 

Little Eve is sometimes gruesome, always sad, and shrouded in mystery. If you enjoy an unreliable narrator and things that are not as they seem- this is the book for you. 

 

We primarily experience Eve and Dinah’s points of view- both are young women living under the heavy fist of their Uncle. And as we alternate between POVs and past and present timelines, we slowly discover the secrets of the Adder alongside them. 

 

“He keeps you starved, half-dead with exhaustion, always vying for his attention. That place is the very edge of the world, Evelyn, and you have been taken to the edge of what a person can stand, or be.” 

 

I really enjoyed reading this book and went with 5 stars! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC. 

Let’s get straight to be point- if you’re hoping for a scary book to read, this isn’t it. If I had to choose one word to describe this book I would choose the word ‘dull’. 

The Haunting of Hill House is a book that focuses on little more than insufferable characters who spend most of their time making rude comments to one another. The scariest thing in this book would be their social skills. 

Aside from that, we have some doors that bang. There’s that. 

This is a meandering book that I would’ve DNFed if it wasn’t for the audiobook and my sheer force of will. Absolutely nothing of note happens for the first 50% of the book and then what does happen doesn’t do enough to truly capture my attention. 

The Haunting of Hill House is my second Shirley Jackson book and I intend for it to be my last. After forcing myself through the drivel that was We Have Always Lived in the Castle well. Fool me once…