Book Review Genre: Horror

Disclaimer: Reading is all about exploring new worlds, but this Book Review does not shy away from spoiling specific scenes as this is more of my free-flowing thoughts about a book.

The Analysis:

Halloween Season has officially started for me. This is the first of many spooky reads. Frankly, I’m anticipating the Autumn season more because I’ve got a few good sagas on those lists I want to get too. But let’s book review it. First, follow me on Goodreads.

Here’s The Blurb:

“The dead are restless here…”

Remy is a tour guide for Carrow House, a notoriously haunted building. When she’s asked to host seven guests for a week-long stay to research Carrow’s phenomena, she hopes to finally experience some of the sightings that made the house famous.

At first, it’s everything they hoped for. Then a storm moves in, cutting off their contact with the outside world, and things quickly become twisted. Doors open on their own. Seances go disastrously wrong. Red liquid seeps from behind the wallpaper. Their spirit medium wanders through the house during the night, seemingly in a trance.

Then one of the guests dies under strange circumstances, and Remy is forced to consider the possibility that the ghost of the house’s original owner, a twisted serial killer, still walks the halls.

But by then it’s too late to escape.

Cover Critique:

I love the cover. It doesn’t particularly match the insides. The story isn’t about demonic possession or exorcism like the cover implies. Although, it does play a significant part. A male, shadowy figure standing by the window would have been more apt.

Now The Story:

Book Info:
Pages: 372
Author: Darcy Coates
Available: Amazon

The most haunted house in America turned tourist attraction is now about to get a group of researchers to stay overnight for two weeks. And the tour guide is in over her head with everyone else.

The first guest was April. She’s 17 and the owner of the house. Usually, the spoiled rich girl trope immediately draws my ire. But she had a kooky personality. She wanted to be a psychic or something to that effect. The girl was fun to read about. Yes, she owned a horror house but I likened it to someone in love with horror movies. She thought she was living out her dream. And she wasn’t flaunting daddy’s money around. Her inability to truly trust her friend, Lucille, cause she might be hanging out with her because of her wealth gave me my first, awwww.

Small rant: I wanted to scream – Stop questioning her decisions. She’s 17. Not 12. She can pick her own room. Sheesh, none of them are her parents either. I would have bristled in April’s place and turned into their worst nightmare.

The second guest is Mark. He put the group together and is the one holding the purse strings. He comes across as shy, but well-meaning. However, I wasn’t completely on board with Mark constantly referring to Remy. Like, oh, she’s the adult in the room. So, what. She doesn’t own the house. She’s not the decision maker and despite her age, April deserved respect on some level. Also, I can’t tell you how much I did not care about his little innocent secret. Sad. He was just a puppy to me following Remy.

The third guest is Remy. She’s the tour guide of this fine establishment. She loves her job, but she’s not a fanatic. Frankly, she doesn’t want to see any ghosts or flying things. I think she’s Moreno in love with the legend and interacting with different people. But she’s stretching herself to try something different by joining the group. And she accepts the role of leader although I wish she had pushed back on that more.

The fourth guest is Margorie. She’s the hired psychic. She comes with her trusty sidekick Bernard. The guy doesn’t believe any of this. I guessed early he was going to be the skeptic. But whether the events are real or not. Margorie is fake lol.

The fifth guest is Taj. He’s the tech guy. He’s here with all the equipment and recorders. My first impression of him is he had a lot of nerve. Marjorie and Taj had beef. Marjorie was clearly jealous. But Taj’s problem seemed to be him not believing her skills were real. Real or not, you’re not more legit than her because you believe in science when yall both in this house like dummies trying to catch ghosts.

The sixth guest is Lucille. She was April’s guardian/friend during this little excursion. And the only one who acknowledged that April owned the place, even if it was to complain about accommodations.

The seventh guest is Piers. He was a guest on the tour with free time enough to stay for the fireworks. He seemed like a nice old guy. He also fancied himself as open to psychic abilities like April. My only thought was, what was the likely hood of that happening in real life? He’s also the first to die. It was kind of a sad moment cause I really liked his personality. But the story got real after that.

They had two choices for storing the body. Basement or Freezer. They were worried about how it looked. I thought about the legacy of the house. Freezer. Putting another dead body in the basement after all those spirits and deaths just seemed like a terrible idea and asking for trouble.

The Horror: There were false alarms (an old house breaking down) and people dying (my favorite old guy), but the story doesn’t seem to really start until the final seance. The ghosts showed up and showed out and somebody went missing. I was truly glued to my seat.

While I agreed with the guest’s overall assessment to leave the house. I was freaked out about everyone crossing the bridge during a storm with the deaths that also happened there. And it resulted in the death that affected me the most, Taj. Maybe because he willingly sacrificed himself for the good of the group. It just didn’t pan out for him or those counting on him.

But the killer or the spirits had another plan. And I was for sure thinking it was a killer when the psychic died. Before I even read how she died, I was like naw this is too much. This sucker is human. It actually ended up being a little bit of both. And I liked that.

Despite Mark’s obvious preferential treatment, Remy ended up being a favorite. Her leadership was a foregone conclusion, in the beginning, and it wasn’t so cut and dry for me when I could see anyone stepping into that role. But she earned the title in the last quarter. The way Remy was intent on cornering the spirits/killer made her my hero. The chick was smart. Her take-charge scenes offered up some of the best moments in the book.

The Ending: By the end, I wanted to watch the movie. And I could totally picture this being a B movie on Netflix. This book also offers up an epilogue that is just so great. It ends perfectly and everyone involved is in a better place. Of course, our couple is together. Not a fan.

Last rant: I can’t say I knew who the killer was but, as expected, there is an accuse everyone scene. What I did know? I wasn’t suspecting, Remy or April. And yet again, I was pissed when her motive for killing everyone as they went around the group and tried to guess the killer was that she was spoiled. I rolled my eyes too hard at that one.

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Book Review At A Glance:

Recommendation:  5 out of 5

Book Cover Appeal:

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Story & Narration:

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Romance:

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Character/(s) Personality:

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