Published: September 15, 2020
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Series: Standalone
Genre: Horror
Pages: 336 (Hardcover)
My Rating: 3.0/5.0
Synopsis:
From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.
Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.
As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all–it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears….
Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more…horrid?
This was one of the more intriguing books that I’ve received in my OwlCrate boxes this year and I was feeling like a goody creepy read. Horrid is a fairly basic suspenseful and creepy story. The main character Jane and her mother have just moved to Maine after her father suddenly passed away. They were left massively in debt and had to sell their home in California and move to the somewhat dilapidated mansion Jane’s mother inherited.
Jane is understandably quite upset at all the sudden and unwelcome changes in her life and is struggling through each day. Fortunately she’s found some nice girls at her new school to hang out with and a job at the local book store. She still has to go home to that darn creepy house where things don’t seem quite right and sometimes it seems like someone else there. The townsfolk know something happened at the house many years ago, but no one will fill Jane in on the details – not even her mother. Even so, Jane can’t quite tell if it’s her grief that’s making her a bit mad or if the house is really haunted.
The plot is, well, about what I summed up above. There’s not much to this book aside from what I’ve already mentioned and it did make for an entertaining read though it wasn’t particularly memorable. I didn’t quite expect the book to turn out the way it did and the surprise had the appropriate amount of flair. I would probably pick up more books by this author if the synopsis was catchy because this wasn’t a bad book at all, just not one that stands out from the crowd.
Powder & Page 
Yahhh, sometimes a book just needs to be filler. Make us appreciate the really good ones even more 🙂
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