The blurb on the back of the book sounded so promising! I love a good haunted house story but this book crawled by for me. I think it took me about a month to finish it because nothing ever happens. For a book that’s over 300 pages it boggles my mind how little plot there is; it could have been 100 pages and still told the whole story. 

The main character is basically brain dead. I know it’s standard in the horror genre (at least in movies) for characters to make some dumb decisions but holy shit I almost wanted her to die she was so useless. 75% of the book is her prattling on about how she has no money, no food, is scared to sleep anywhere in the house, thinks her aunt is batshit crazy with all the warnings and local legends, or her laptop is dead. The best character in the book is her damn cat! 

Anyways, I stuck it out because as I said, I love a good haunted house story. Come to find out

THE HOUSE ISNT EVEN HAUNTED

. The antagonist is basically a

zombie, not a ghost

with some “witchcraft” thrown in. It wasn’t even an interesting or meaningful reference to witchcraft. 

The big explanation is such a let down. This all could have been avoided if Edith’s

letter hadn’t fallen through a crack in the floor to the basement

. I mean, really? That’s all you got?

This is more of a personal preference, but I really dislike when books don’t have a concrete setting. At first, I just assumed this was set in the US (i know, that’s my own fault for being US-centric), but then certain word choices led me to think, “oh maybe it’s in England.” Then, after reading some more, I realized that still wasn’t right so I looked it up and saw the author is from Australia. It’s all fine and dandy if the book is set in Australia but can you say that at least once? Even if it’s a fictional town just tell me which country we’re in 😭