The September House by Carissa Orlando

Synopsis: A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

Margaret is not most people.

Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

I like spooky stories and horror movies. Annabelle (even if I hate scary dolls), The Conjuring, The Exorcist, any zombie movie, The Haunting of Hill House, Evil, and the list goes on and on. I don’t know why but it always feels like I am testing the limits of my bravery. I mean I deal with so much anxiety just living life everyday, the worst things people do in these books or movies is get into more trouble then would be plausible in my own life. I’ve had my share of real life ghost experiences too, and yet I devoured this book like it was the last piece of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving.

There were multiple times while reading it I had to stop and remind myself that this was the author’s DEBUT novel! It was so beautifully immersive and pulled me in, making it almost impossible to leave it. The writing was beautiful, the suspense was delicious, and the dynamics between the characters were outstanding. I think this is one of the best books I have read all year. Over the course of the book we are brought in to Margaret’s life – experiencing memories from the start of her marriage to Hal, to having a daughter, her husbands addiction, and ultimately his disappearance. I am a detective at heart and as soon as we got into the first few chapters I was already formulating theories as to what happened to Hal. But like an onions’ layers being peeled off one by one, the author was careful to feed us just enough to keep us invested – while tantalizingly dangling the carrot out further.

I related so much to Margaret and her quotes, it reminded me of when I talk to myself. Things that might seem bad or unbearable for some people – if you are flexible enough you can survive anything. Which was the main thread weaved so beautifully through the whole book. No matter the trial, threat, or just disturbing nature of the house she dealt with it all. Doing things that most people would find unimaginable (for example: digging up a dead body to perform a kind of ‘ritual’ to get one of the many pranksters to settle down).

As the story moved forward, her daughter Katherine showed up to help find Hal. We got to learn more about the family dynamics and history. The author was very good at discussing difficult and sensitive topics: murder, alcoholism, physical abuse, emotional abuse, therapy, and more. It was pretty clear that Katherine seemed to get her more volatile emotions from her dad, but seemed to still carry the anger she had that her mom never just left him. It reflects what happens a lot in real life, and especially when Margaret explains her rules to us the audience – it makes sense. She was so flexible she would put up with anything, whether that was from decades of abuse or lack of self-confidence or a combination of both.

I loved the ‘friendly’ and helpful ghost Fredricka, she was a delight to have. I know from personal experience that not all ghosts are bad, some just want to be helpful. It was great to see that little ray of light in a book that could have just kept it so dark. It gave us some much needed humor whenever she left a stove turned on or moved the spoons to the upstairs bathroom; which of course always happened at the least opportune moment.

I saw a couple reviews that said the pacing of the book was too slow and ‘boring’. But I actually thing the slower moments actually worked in the books favor. I was constantly waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop. You knew things would be calm and quiet before the blood started dripping down the walls and certain pranksters were creepily pointing at the basement. It also allowed time to explain all the research Margaret did into the house and it’s former inhabitants.

I won’t spoil the book – but I will say is I was sure I had this book nailed down by chapter 20. I knew who was dead, who was alive, who was crazy (or not), and what the heck all the pranksters really wanted Margaret to do about Master Vance. And then…. Chapter 25 hit. There were some inkling feelings things weren’t all what they seemed before that. But Chapter 25 is really where my jaw dropped. It took all my theories, threw them in a blender and set the power to high. And just about the time I was figuring out the new dynamic we did it again. I wish I could say more, but I hate spoiling endings. Just let me know when you get to Chapter 25 if you had your world turned inside out too or not. Maybe its the inner Nancy Drew in me? Whatever it was it was good – the author gets five stars for the conclusion of the book.

Overall I cannot say enough about this book – and I really want to read it again! I hope this author writes another book at some point. I would love to read more from her. Her writing style was just a chefs kiss for the genre. It pulled all that I adore from the horror/supernatural genre and spun it in a fresh direction. If you want a spooky book to read this fall or you just love horror spooky season or not, definitely pick this one up! You will not regret it.

You can view and buy the book on Amazon here.

Overall Rating: 10/10

Re-readability Rating: 9/10

---