⭐⭐⭐
The September House by Carissa Orlando had a lot of potential. I liked the premise—someone choosing to stay in a haunted house rather than flee is a great twist on the usual formula. Margaret is an interesting lead, and her deadpan, matter-of-fact approach to the hauntings added a unique tone to the book.
But there were a few things that just didn’t work for me. The bleeding walls, for example, classic horror, sure, but they felt completely out of place here. There was no explanation for them, and they didn’t seem connected to anything else going on. It felt like they were there just to tick a haunted house box.
I also figured out the big twist about a quarter of the way through, so from then on, I was mostly just reading to get to the end. The tension kind of fizzled out for me after that. And speaking of the ending, those final scenes didn’t really match the tone of the rest of the book. They felt tacked on, like they were just trying to go for shock value rather than tying things up in a meaningful way.
All that said, the first half was genuinely atmospheric and had some memorable moments. It’s not a bad book by any means, just not one that completely worked for me. A decent read if you want something spooky and different, but don’t expect everything to click into place.
Gareth Ellis - Author 