You know, I’m starting to get more into horror. I didn’t used to seek it out that much, but I’ve been really enjoying these spooky reads lately. Even if not everything about these books is hitting for me.
We follow Daisy, a young woman who moves to a mansion that her mother inherited. Daisy can see ghosts and the house draws them in, but doesn’t appear to be devouring them as it should. Slowly, Daisy learns that the house has developed a taste for the living, and her mother turning it into an AirBnB is giving it an ongoing supply. But the house hides dark family secrets that Daisy’s tight lipped mother has never hinted at and until that past is uncovered, the house will continue to take things from the people who stay inside.
And there’s a B-plot in the “present” that honestly you can skip. It follows Brittany, a Youtuber investigating a mystery without ever stating what the mystery is (Because it would have been a spoiler) and uncovering information in interviews that Daisy uncovers on her own anyway. The information doesn’t even typically match up to what’s going on in the Daisy storyline either, just that the character is being introduced. Her last two chapters are actually relevant, but that’s honestly it.
The pacing is also pretty slow. The first half of the book is dominated by Daisy pining over the college student who was dating her that dumped her because his friends found out how young she was, and the book gets a lot better when she’s more entrenched in the mystery of the house. The things that the house does and how the house evolves as a character is pretty fun and almost makes up for how convoluted the reveals ended up being.
Overall, it’s not bad but it could have been shorter and tighter. There were a lot of things that felt unnecessary, and it took a while to get to the point. The mystery was less of a mystery and the book outright refusing information, but it has a fun atmosphere and the world was a lot of fun.