The September House

Oh, my, goodness. This book is going to reside in my top ten for the year!

Margaret has found her dream home, and when things go crazy during September, well, she has found a way to deal with them. There are rules after all. Hal, her husband, is not quite as thrilled with the September events, but throughout the first three years, they learn ways to manage - until Hal has had enough. He is determined to leave, and wants Margaret to leave with him, but she refuses. There is something about the house, something that draws her back, unwilling to let her go too far away.

Master Vale, the Pranksters, Fredericka, everything with the house calls to her, and she is determined to keep her house, no matter what.

This book, sigh, was fantastic. I was not ready for it to be finished. I wanted more. The book just refused to let you walk away (there are rules after all), and this is easily a “once you start, you will not stop” read.

Margaret is such a unique narrator! Margaret kept me off balance through most of the book. I was totally sure I knew what was going on and then something unexpected happened. Some of the twists I knew, but others were a surprise, especially the resolution. It made the reading experience so much fun that I read the book in one day. I haven't done that in a while.

There are rules to these things. Everything is survivable.I haven't really gotten into the subcategory of horror of haunted houses so The September House was one of the first. One of the reviewers I follow said it felt similar to [a:Grady Hendrix 4826394 Grady Hendrix https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1542284521p2/4826394.jpg]'s style of writing. That really spoke to me especially in the first act. Margaret will not move out of her home - regardless of who else inhabits it. She can handle the bloody walls, her furniture being moved around, the ghosts in their various forms of brutality that they had suffered. There are rules and she simply has to follow them. She just has to make it through September.

This one was an interesting read but also felt like a real slog.

Seriously don't click on these if you don't want spoilers. It will ruin the entire ending of the book.

Taking off points because of the mad woman trope which is an ick for me. I had a feeling it would end up there when the mention of black mold started. Then even more so when the priest died and had dementia and of course, it was. At least it didn't end with her being "mad"

Grabbed the audio for this on sale, and Kimberly Farr does a fantastic job bringing the cast to life.

This was unique and I’m so happy it was what I was looking for. It mixed all of the traditional haunted house tropes you’ve ever read—bleeding walls, moaning and screaming voices in the night, past residence remaining, spooky basement to avoid, bible pages tapped to doors, missing items, even kamikaze birds and more—with something that felt entirely new. It’s cozy and silly, even humorous at times, with the perfect mix of an older main character, but it’s also not without its darkness, featuring gory descriptions and haunting pasts. Margaret has finally, at long last, made it into her dream home. No way she’s leaving. So when some things start to get a little strange, it’s not such a big deal as long as she follows the rules. Her steadfast attitude that she will not be bothered was so enjoyable and fresh. Things crumbling around her? What a nice place, at least there’s an enviable wraparound porch!

While I also recently read Model Home, which didn’t exactly work for me, this was really more along the lines of what I expected from a new take on the haunted house. However, the two of them together did explore the darker pasts of their families, and what it means to be ‘haunted’. I was a bit shocked that Margaret only mentions the abuse of her husband quite a chunk into the story, as I figured that would be a huge part of your lives together, but I think overall it may have been to feed back into the character’s strength at remaining unnerved.

What I particularly enjoyed was that all of these things are woven together with a fantastic voice. The author knew exactly what they wanted and they nailed it. All of the twists are manifested right from the beginning when you are told that the house is haunted. These things are happening, have happened, but get especially bad in September. It allows for those layers of funny and scary in a way I’ve not read before.

The ending is a whirlwind of stress. I was listening on the edge of my seat. As it seemed the daughter started to unravel the house’s mystery in an entirely human way, I was really wondering if this would stick the landing. Luckily, twist after twist kept me guessing as to whether this would end in an almost psychological Shutter Island reveal or something more supernatural. And while this did take an almost too-neat turn for me, it did land well.

Rating: 2.69 leaves out of 5-Characters: 2.5/5 -Cover: 5/5-Story: 2/5-Writing: 3/5Genre: Horror, Mystery, Paranormal, Thriller-Horror: 2/5-Mystery: 1.5/5-Paranormal: 5/5-Thriller: .5/5Type: BookWorth?: Eh, not reallyHated Disliked Meh It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedBooktok is getting to be the worst place for recommendations. I think people of the Bandwagon Syndrome on there and I am not about that life.I had such high hopes for The September House. What I got was a wanna be Amityville House mixed in with daddy issues. Carissa needs to pick a damn problem and stick with just that one. This book could have been 100-150 pages shorter. She repeated so much shit over and over and over again. It was like some kid trying to hit the word count for an essay. Carissa threw so much shit into the pot and nothing blended together. From this family issue to the house. I was give so little for majority of the book and not in a good way. A good mystery would want me to WANT more but also savor what I am reading. I just wanted to get the book over with. Another this is how things didn't make sense AND it was never fucking answered. Why did Katherine give a shit about her not talking to her father for a while when in the book it was clear she didn't like him. They hadn't talked for a while beforehand too. Why even put that there? Answer, it wasn't needed. Carissa needed a damn excuse for Katherine to come back home. Also what the fuck was that ending? I get reading is for fun... but that doesn't excuse the shitty writing. The plot holes. The mostly shitty characters. At this point there needs to be reading levels stamped in these books because I am so over the shitty books being pumped so hard.

“There was something disconcerting about opening your eyes first thing in the morning and seeing a thick trail of red oozing down your nice wallpaper, pointing straight at your head. It really set a mood for the remainder of the day.”

Margaret finds her dream home and refuses to give it up even after a series of increasingly dangerous hauntings drive her and her husband to the brink. When her husband leaves town and their daughter insists on finding him, Margaret is more concerned about her daughter discovering the truth than the blood pouring down the wall — that, after all, happens every September.

✩ Concept With a pitch like “woman moves into haunted house and is too stubborn to leave,” The September House was guaranteed to draw me in. Carissa Orlando absolutely delivered on this concept and leaned into every gory detail. It felt referential to classic horror media while also taking a fresh approach.

✩ Pacing What I love most about horror is its capacity to explore social commentary and push a hypothetical to its extreme — this book spent a lot of time making sure you understood what the commentary/message was here. That is central to the book, that is the book, but for me the plot seemed to lag under the weight of that message. Genuinely, I'd say the first 70% of the book is pretty slow and more exposition than plot progression. It's not until that last act that things get really interesting. The payoff is great, in my opinion, but it took me a while to read this book.

✩ Character I loved Margaret as a character. Without getting into too many personal details, I definitely saw a lot of Margaret in people I know in my own life. I connected with her character immediately, which kept me engaged while she struggled with the terrors of her house. I kept imagining her as a Winona Ryder type, with that same frantic and determined energy she embodies as Joyce Byers.

✩ Cinematic I often read books and think about how they might be adapted into other media — blockbuster movies, video games, HBO miniseries, etc. This book really felt so cinematic. The way the author moved me through action scenes, through rooms of the house, through time itself, felt like something out of a screenplay. I think she balanced description and action in a way that was both bloody and beautiful. I saw some reviews refer to this book as a dark comedy, and I honestly did not get the humor at all. Not in a bad way, I just didn't pick up on it. I think if it were adapted or I listened to it on audio-book, I would have picked up on the dark humor more.

✩ Psychological I love a haunted house story a la The Conjuring or The Haunting of Hill House. Those are pretty paranormal in nature, but I love it when a storyteller brings in a psychological thriller element. Margaret is an unreliable narrator — and the first unreliable narrator I've loved this much. I found out after reading that the author has a background in Psychology, and you can see threads of that in the book.

In Conclusion

If you love character driven slow-burns where you don't feel the tension creeping up your neck until it's got you in a choke hold — I'd say push through those slow parts and enjoy the payoff.