How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

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Interestingly creepy!

Horror with a touch of twisted humor that reminds me of Stephen King’s writing.
When Louise receives the call from her brother Mark that their parents were in a fatal car crash, she flies home to take care of everything. What she walks into is nothing like she expected and a secret, that’s been held quiet for two generations, bursts their reality. Mark and Louise struggle with each other until they finally realize they need each other’s help to deal with the haunting of their family home. Interestingly creepy!

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

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Shea is a receptionist in a doctor’s office and makes a crime podcast in the evenings. She wants to interview a woman accused of but acquitted of murdering two men forty years ago, Beth Greer. Beth is a rich heiress who lives alone in the family mansion after her father was shot and her mother died in a car accident. Mystery surrounds Beth. She reaches out to Shea to talk about what happened forty years ago. Little by little, Shea is exposed to Beth’s life and secrets and the further she digs the more dangerous it all becomes. 5 stars for this well-written haunted mystery!

The Haunting of Maddy Clare

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A haunting spooky thriller!

Sarah Piper is alone in the world. She lives in a little apartment and works temporary jobs for a living. In 1920’s post-war England, live is dreary. Most young adult men have injuries from the war, physically and mentally and jobs aren’t easy to find. When the temp service calls her to assist an unfamiliar male writer, Alistair, Sarah is leery but accepts the meeting and eventually the job as his ghost research assistant. They travel to a haunted barn in a small town and meet the homeowner. Mrs. Clare has told Alistair about the haunting, the ghost Maddy, and that Maddy hates men and recently chased a vicar away who was trying to perform an exorcism. Alistair is hoping for actual evidence of a haunting or manifestation and Sarah just wants the job. Both of them become part of a horrible past tragedy and the terror the tragedy caused. A haunting, spooky thriller! 5 stars!

Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

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The perfect spooky thriller!

As a child, Maggie lived at Baneberry Hall with her parents for twenty days before leaving for good under the claim that the house is haunted. Her father wrote a book about their experiences and Maggie is still recognized for the book, even though she’s now an adult. Her father left her the house in his will and he recently passed away. Her parents never would talk about the house or book even though Maggie had many questions. Her parents divorced soon after the book was written. Now that she’s inherited the house, she’s planning on restoring it to sell because that’s what she does for a living. Maggie has no idea what’s in store for her once she returns to Baneberry Hall. She finds old Polaroid pictures and hears odd noises. A record player randomly plays a song from The Sound of Music and then skeletal remains fall from the kitchen ceiling. Maggie talks to town residents, reads articles about the house’s past and even talks to Marta Carver who lost her husband and daughter in Baneberry Hall when they were living there as a family. Every time I thought I had it all figured out, something else happened to reveal more secrets. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book!
A perfect spooky thriller, 5 stars!

The Hacienda by Isabel Canas

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I did not want this book to end!

Beatriz marries Rodolfo. He’s a businessman and owns a large estate. He leaves to do business so Beatriz runs the estate in his absence. Juana, Rodolfo’s sister, believes she’s the one in charge and she treats everyone gruffly. Beatriz starts to feel like she’s being watched and things get creepier from there, to the point that she’s afraid for her life. She asks the local priests for help and all but one shun her. Padre Andres helps her under the guise of being a priest to help the estate workers. He has knowledge from his ancestors that can help exorcise evil. The house has an extremely powerful, angry spirit and it’s harmful. This is an elaborate and beautifully written horror story that I didn’t ever want to put down. I also didn’t want it to end. 5 stars!

The Unleashed by Danielle Vega

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Creepy and more complex than The Haunted!
Hendricks is trying to get past the loss of Eddie with the help of her friends. She thinks that Steele House is destroyed and when strange things start to happen again, she hopes that it’s Eddie trying to contact her. An evil has been set loose in Drearford that connects the murders that have occurred in town over the past several decades. New terror builds on top of what Hendricks has already uncovered, creating a complex string of horrible events. Suspense, hold your breath terror and an unexpected ending, 5 stars!

Echoes Between Us by Katie McGarry

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Controversial issues and thought provoking!
Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Teen, Edelweiss and Bookish First for the opportunity to read and review Echoes Between Us by Katie McGarry!
Veronica has an awesome father who drives trucks and makes waffles. Sawyer moves into the three story house that Veronica lives in. Veronica and her father live on the third and second floor. Sawyer lives with his little sister Lucy and their mom on the first floor. Supposedly the house is haunted. Veronica gets migraines and ghosts often accompany her headaches. She’s unsure whether the ghosts are truly there or hallucinations. Veronica’s deceased mother often appears and she wants to believe her mom’s ghost is watching over her. Veronica has a benign brain tumor but she does her best to live her life despite the wrenching headaches that disable her. Sawyer is tired of his mom controlling his life and he’s sick of her drinking. The two of them develop a relationship and help each other deal with their struggles.
Several controversial topics are explored in this book, the use of medical marijuana, if ghosts are real or not, choosing or denying treatment for an illness, addiction, enabling addiction and self-care.
4 thought-provoking stars!

8 Souls by Rachel Rust

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A haunting that just won’t stop!
Thanks to Entangled Teen and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review 8 Souls by Rachel Rust!
Spooky and ominous from the beginning; I was instantly hooked! Mysterious and recurring dreams about a house haunt Chessie; they have since she was little. These dreams were part of her life, to the point that she drew the house for her elementary teacher after she gave the students the assignment of drawing their dream house. Little does she know that Chessie dreams of a house where murders were committed over a century before. When Chessie draws her dream house scene, the teacher is worried and notifies her parents. She then ends up being sent to a psychiatrist. Ever since then, Chessie keeps her dreams to herself, even when she’s hearing voices. She finally confides in someone else and the two of them share the struggle of solving the haunting. 8 Souls is well-written, contains awesome characters and a haunting that won’t stop until justice is complete; 5 spooky stars!

The Haunted by Danielle Vega

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Perfectly spooky!
Thanks to Bookish First for choosing me as a winner of The Haunted by Danielle Vega!
Hendricks and her family moved to a small town and into a house with history after some undisclosed problems in Philadelphia. The house they moved into is known as the Steele House. This is where a girl was murdered years ago. Hendricks begins to have hallucinations that terrify her. She also discovers tragic things about her neighbor’s past and deals with PTSD ex-boyfriend issues. On the upside, Hendricks makes friends and begins to enjoy her new home but not necessarily the house. Her friends are fun and make her laugh and enjoy life again. But when she’s home, strange and terrifying things happen. A perfectly spooky young adult horror book that gave me chills! The mystery surrounding the house and also Hendricks’ past kept the story interesting and suspenseful, 5 stars for this creepy tale!

The Shining by Stephen King

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The Shining by Stephen King is a well-known horror classic in book and movie form. Jack Torrence is receiving instructions on how to take care of the Overlook Hotel for the winter. He’s just been hired as the winter caretaker and will be bringing his wife and five-year-old son along for the winter. Jack’s and Wendy’s marriage has already had struggles and Jack is lucky to have received the Overlook caretaker job because of his past drinking problems and anger issues. Danny is bright and kind and wants his parents to be happy. Little by little, Wendy can see changes in Jack. He hasn’t been drinking but he’s showing all of his old drinking signs. The story continues in much of the same way as the movie with some small differences, topiary hedges, mallet, and then the biggest difference is the ending! I like the book ending so much better than the movie ending. Classic Stephen King writing and dark imaginings create a story of possessions and seclusion in this book, 5 stars!