Review: The September House by Carissa Orlando

 

The September House by Carissa Orlando

Publication Date: September 5th 2023 by Berkley 

Pages: 336

Source: Publisher 

Rating: ★★★★

Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

My Thoughts:

Margaret and Hal found a-steal-of-a-deal home to buy, were warned of past deaths, but that didn’t discourage them from purchasing their beautiful dream house. The original hard wood floors, wrap-around porch, gorgeous fireplaces, made it hard to resist! It’s old so of course there would be a death or two, right?

Margaret has managed all the disturbing events over the years and found a way to make staying manageable. She loves the home, so she’s willing to put up with a few things, but Hal wasn’t so committed to staying. Now Katherine, their grown daughter, has become insistent on coming to stay and find Hal.  Margaret must deal with Katherine while trying to get through September, when all the odd occurrences in the house build into a crescendo of macabre.

The September House was creepy and scary!  I thought twice about reading right before going to bed. Even thinking about it now makes me uneasy, but there was also a bit of dark humor to it. The way Margaret just tackled all the crazy, scary stuff so matter of fact. It didn’t phase her much, and handling it was like just another chore to mark off her list. Well, that’s if whatever she had to deal with didn’t come from the basement. *shivers*

I kept wondering if I was going to find out this was all in Margaret’s head. I wondered what happened to Hal. Bits of the past, Hal and Margaret’s marriage and the relationship with their daughter Katherine are revealed.

I won’t detail anymore, but I will say this is one of the few books that actually scared me. I liked how it all turned out, which isn’t something I can often say with horror stories. Definitely a good, scary story! Perfect for this time of year!

4 Stars

Book Description:

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.

Photo Credit: Cameron Massey

About the author:

Carissa Orlando has a doctorate in clinical-community psychology and specializes in work with children and adolescents. In her “day job,” Carissa works to improve the quality of and access to mental health care for children and their families. Prior to her career in psychology, Carissa studied creative writing in college and has written creatively in some form since she was a child. It was only a matter of time before Carissa, an avid horror fan for much of her life, merged her understanding of the human psyche and deep love for storytelling into a piece of fiction.