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A Haunting in Plum Hollow
A family slain. A house steeped in darkness. A horror that never sleeps...
Siblings Michael and Ellery Lisbon are desperate for a fresh start. Reeling after a series of misfortunes, the pair settle down in the quiet town of Plum Hollow in the hopes of kick-starting their stalled lives. The house they move into is unbelievably affordable—a seeming gem in a ferociously competitive market.
But it was in this house that, two years prior, a family was savagely butchered. Despised by their neighbors, the siblings are left to grapple with the grisly reality of the house's past—and with the possibility that the evil behind the slayings is still present.
Jagged shadows leer at their bedsides, watching them sleep. Laughter erupts from unoccupied rooms, and Ellery is plagued by visions of the infamous killings. Gradually, they're being drawn into a nightmare—destined to become the prey of an insatiable horror.
Some say the devil lives in Plum Hollow. And they may well be right.
A HAUNTING IN PLUM HOLLOW is a novel of horror and supernatural suspense by Ambrose Ibsen, author of THE HOUSE OF LONG SHADOWS and THE POSSESSION.
Siblings Michael and Ellery Lisbon are desperate for a fresh start. Reeling after a series of misfortunes, the pair settle down in the quiet town of Plum Hollow in the hopes of kick-starting their stalled lives. The house they move into is unbelievably affordable—a seeming gem in a ferociously competitive market.
But it was in this house that, two years prior, a family was savagely butchered. Despised by their neighbors, the siblings are left to grapple with the grisly reality of the house's past—and with the possibility that the evil behind the slayings is still present.
Jagged shadows leer at their bedsides, watching them sleep. Laughter erupts from unoccupied rooms, and Ellery is plagued by visions of the infamous killings. Gradually, they're being drawn into a nightmare—destined to become the prey of an insatiable horror.
Some say the devil lives in Plum Hollow. And they may well be right.
A HAUNTING IN PLUM HOLLOW is a novel of horror and supernatural suspense by Ambrose Ibsen, author of THE HOUSE OF LONG SHADOWS and THE POSSESSION.
233 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 23, 2024
199 people are currently reading
188 people want to read
About the author
Ambrose Ibsen
58 books660 followersOnce upon a time, a young Ambrose Ibsen discovered a collection of ghost stories on his father's bookshelf. He was never the same again.
Apart from horror fiction, he enjoys good coffee, brewed strong.
Apart from horror fiction, he enjoys good coffee, brewed strong.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 23, 2025
The things that shamble and groan; infect and haunt the houses in Ambrose Ibsen’s books aren’t your normal ghosts and these aren’t your normal ghost stories.
These apparitions can get to you no matter how many times you tell yourself they can’t.
They are dark. They are death incarnate, they are vengeance and they are nightmare. We don’t always know why they turn so evil.
Once I start reading one of his books I start to tense up and that tension does not ease until the book is done. Sometimes even after that…
It depends on the end.
Or on the beginning at the end.
He is the master conjurer of the most horrific things to crawl from the dark depths of one’s attic imagination.
These apparitions can get to you no matter how many times you tell yourself they can’t.
They are dark. They are death incarnate, they are vengeance and they are nightmare. We don’t always know why they turn so evil.
Once I start reading one of his books I start to tense up and that tension does not ease until the book is done. Sometimes even after that…
It depends on the end.
Or on the beginning at the end.
He is the master conjurer of the most horrific things to crawl from the dark depths of one’s attic imagination.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 6, 2025
No. Just no. This is supposed to be a haunted house story, but the scariest part is being reminded at least once a chapter what the job market is like, what the housing market is like and how tight money is. Add in a revolting ghost giving grotesque dreams, this was just bad.
Maybe edit/ trim down all the unnecessary stuff and turn it into a short story.
Maybe edit/ trim down all the unnecessary stuff and turn it into a short story.
January 21, 2025
Brother and sister move into a haunted house. Both wait way too long to leave. What awaits them now that their fate is sealed? It was an ok read. Not the best by this author but not bad.
January 11, 2025
Pretty darn scary
November 28, 2024
Loved this creepy tale by Mr. Ibsen.
August 22, 2025
Lacklustre opening, and too much explicit information given right at the start. Within the first few chapters we're already given the answer as to what the protagonists will be facing, and what she's capable of, which basically sets up the rest of the novel to have absolutely no suspense.
The writing itself wasn't bad, but did this author eat a thesaurus or something? The book is full of descriptions of overly flowery metaphor and simile (there was at least one metaphor or simile on just about every single page of this book). The obsession with likening one thing to another can only go on for so long before it just becomes irritating. Sometimes, it really is just better to use the more common word, or not try and be all creative with your descriptions. I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes every single time "gore" was used as a substitute for simply "blood", or when instead of simply using "magic" to describe the used the word "glamour" over and over again. The book was also riddled with passive voice, which when a little isn't that bothersome, but when it's all over the place it really does stick out.
The pace of the story was also just so slow. Partly, I think this is because literally nothing happened half the time, and partly because the characters were so dumb and being strung along like paper cut-outs from scene to scene that there was just zero tension of investment in any of the things that did happen.
While I expect the main characters of a horror novel to be in denial for some part of the story, I also expect them to actually be affected by all the psychological and physical attacks they experience. However, their reactions can be summed up by "What was that? A disfigured, bloody creature stalking me through the house??? Oh silly me, it couldn't be". Every time either of them is assaulted by something, it always ends with "in the cold light of day she completely forgot about it". Sure, sure. I understand that sometimes characters won't make great choices, given that we want them to be slowly but surely forced into a corner in these sort of genres, but when all they do is make arbitrarily stupid decisions to do nothing more than forward the plot with no agency of their own, it just serves to frustrate.
None of the characters were particular interesting or fleshed out, and not one of the minor characters like the ex-sheriff or any of the locals were used for anything more than giving some off-hand comments (that didn't even lend anything to the suspense as we already know all that we need to regarding what's going on in that house. Even the ex-sheriff's little spiel when he finally showed up again added no new ah-ha moments or twists to the story at all, and he really could have been any character at all in that moment).
There were also just some weird inconsistencies/things the author obviously didn't care to bother about when writing, which on top of everything else was really frustrating. For example, when the protagonist is directed to be on a strictly liquid diet, not once does she actually eat anything even marginally soft? This wouldn't bother me so much if it actually had any sort of consequences, even just in passing, but it didn't. She's literally sitting there eating snacks and ordering lasagna with a hole in the tongue giving no complaints of even discomfort.
Another thing that bothered me was when the ex-sheriff is giving his little spiel, he's kind enough to off-handedly mention "it was a blue moon, exactly like we're having tomorrow night" (not a quote), but then once the siblings are home and it explicitly talks about however many hours having passed, it's going on about the blue moon that night. That's a pretty big oversight that would have been easily caught with a single read-through.
As for the ending, it wasn't particularly interesting, it didn't do anything new or different to other books of this sort, and it was just sort of "okay, and?". The siblings were both just so bland that no matter what happened to them I wouldn't have cared. The whole book lacked atmosphere, tension, and suspense.
And if I see one more brother character calling his sister "sis" in every. Single. Conversation, I'm going to throw my Kindle in the ocean.
The writing itself wasn't bad, but did this author eat a thesaurus or something? The book is full of descriptions of overly flowery metaphor and simile (there was at least one metaphor or simile on just about every single page of this book). The obsession with likening one thing to another can only go on for so long before it just becomes irritating. Sometimes, it really is just better to use the more common word, or not try and be all creative with your descriptions. I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes every single time "gore" was used as a substitute for simply "blood", or when instead of simply using "magic" to describe the used the word "glamour" over and over again. The book was also riddled with passive voice, which when a little isn't that bothersome, but when it's all over the place it really does stick out.
The pace of the story was also just so slow. Partly, I think this is because literally nothing happened half the time, and partly because the characters were so dumb and being strung along like paper cut-outs from scene to scene that there was just zero tension of investment in any of the things that did happen.
While I expect the main characters of a horror novel to be in denial for some part of the story, I also expect them to actually be affected by all the psychological and physical attacks they experience. However, their reactions can be summed up by "What was that? A disfigured, bloody creature stalking me through the house??? Oh silly me, it couldn't be". Every time either of them is assaulted by something, it always ends with "in the cold light of day she completely forgot about it". Sure, sure. I understand that sometimes characters won't make great choices, given that we want them to be slowly but surely forced into a corner in these sort of genres, but when all they do is make arbitrarily stupid decisions to do nothing more than forward the plot with no agency of their own, it just serves to frustrate.
None of the characters were particular interesting or fleshed out, and not one of the minor characters like the ex-sheriff or any of the locals were used for anything more than giving some off-hand comments (that didn't even lend anything to the suspense as we already know all that we need to regarding what's going on in that house. Even the ex-sheriff's little spiel when he finally showed up again added no new ah-ha moments or twists to the story at all, and he really could have been any character at all in that moment).
There were also just some weird inconsistencies/things the author obviously didn't care to bother about when writing, which on top of everything else was really frustrating. For example, when the protagonist is directed to be on a strictly liquid diet, not once does she actually eat anything even marginally soft? This wouldn't bother me so much if it actually had any sort of consequences, even just in passing, but it didn't. She's literally sitting there eating snacks and ordering lasagna with a hole in the tongue giving no complaints of even discomfort.
Another thing that bothered me was when the ex-sheriff is giving his little spiel, he's kind enough to off-handedly mention "it was a blue moon, exactly like we're having tomorrow night" (not a quote), but then once the siblings are home and it explicitly talks about however many hours having passed, it's going on about the blue moon that night. That's a pretty big oversight that would have been easily caught with a single read-through.
As for the ending, it wasn't particularly interesting, it didn't do anything new or different to other books of this sort, and it was just sort of "okay, and?". The siblings were both just so bland that no matter what happened to them I wouldn't have cared. The whole book lacked atmosphere, tension, and suspense.
And if I see one more brother character calling his sister "sis" in every. Single. Conversation, I'm going to throw my Kindle in the ocean.
December 20, 2025
A content warning needs to be given in this book and I could only find one review that noted it. A few content warnings are spoilers, but due to its very graphic descriptions and nature of the content, spoilers are needed to warn readers.
Content/trigger warnings
(Spoilers ahead)
🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
‼️‼️Graphic descriptions several times of a baby being eaten by a witch and parents. Very graphic descriptions of the babies sounds while being eaten, the eating sounds, the parts of the baby eaten and how, the gore. Repeated several times in the book
❗️Graphic, graphic violence and gore. Very gory & violent.
❗️Detailed suicide scene, hanging
❗️Mental illness/treatment of mentally ill
❗️Detailed scene of burning someone
The repeated scenes of the baby being eaten really made me want to stop this book. Had to skip over them. The amount of graphic gore also made me want to stop this book, by the last half to third I was skipping over the scenes or doing other things to avoid listening to the nastiness. Some gore doesn’t bother me but this was extreme. The baby bit was just excessive and honestly didn’t need to be repeated. We get it. A witch caused a horrific event. It happened. We don’t need to revisit it over and over. The initial shock was enough. It just became disgusting to repeatedly have the event described over and over and over…
I won’t pick up another book by this author. I have a few on my kindle I’ve been looking forward to reading but after this, I’ll pass. Respect your readers enough to include a graphic content warning but also be creative enough to tell a story without repeating the same nasty, violent gory scene over and over.
Review of Book:
Listened to audio version. Run time 6:15. Narrator Joe Hempel.
This just wasn’t a good horror/haunted house/witch story. Even setting the gore and content warnings aside.
The story dragged with really nothing happening. Middle aged brother and sister move in together after a stereotypical divorce and job loss. The plot didn’t make sense here. It’s harped on how they got a sizable inheritance from their recently deceased mother yet they spend the book droning on and on about how tight money is and how broke they are. It’s even mentioned the sister’s ex husband decides to divorce her when he does because she’ll get enough money from the inheritance to support herself, yet they can’t afford snacks or food? They can’t afford food but the sister never looks for a job or attempts to restart her life? The brother had a great job, paid well, and is suddenly laid off, yet he has no money to live on?
They are told the history of the house and its supposed haunted status yet decide who cares, let’s buy it. Then spend the time saying they can’t afford it and hate it. They hear noises, the investigate, see horrible things, decide oh well, we’ll stay and go back to eating junk food and watching tv. We’re told everything that will happen, and shocker, it happens. There’s no twist or “no way” moments. No scares, no shocks, no creep. Disgusting and stomach churning gore, yes. Creeped out or surprised, absolutely not.
The “haunting” was nothing new or fresh for the genre. Boring and cliched. Main characters ignore it/deny it, make bad choices, things end badly. A witch is in the house, but then has to enter it. She’s always there, she only comes during a blue moon. Pick a direction.
We know the “haunting” right away so there is zero build up or suspense there. We’re told what happened, then for 6 hours we’re just repeatedly told what happened with no new details or excitement being added. The description of the witch isn’t even really creative or new. A little condescending on homeless and mentally ill, but nothing creative.
The characters were flat. The story mostly deals with just the brother and sister and they are unlikable and uninteresting. I didn’t care what happened to them and I wasn’t invested in them. There’s no real development here, just some 2D descriptions so the reader isn’t given much to work with to even attempt to like or care. We’re constantly told how protective and caring the brother is yet every. single. haunting scene with the sister he is nasty to her and his blow ups/treatment of her are a complete contradiction. They’re also awkward and felt very forced and unrealistic. At the start, she’s screaming for him in the middle of the night because there’s an intruder, yet his reaction is immediately anger, belittling her, disbelief, and just flat rude. This is the first occurrence. It makes sense if this was #37, but you’d think a protective, caring brother’s initial reaction would be fear, shock, anxiety, maybe a little supportive. Nope, immediately he’s just rude.
The secondary characters, were really non existent. For some reason the neighbors and residents of the town are angry the MCs are living in the house. No reason given, they’re just immediately hostile over it. Not scared or “omg how can you live there,” nope, flat angry and hostile like how dare out of towners buy a house where a tragedy happened 2 yrs ago. The ex sheriff is immediately hostile. Then when we see a brief few minutes of him later he just restates what we already know happened. Nothing new added, he really didn’t add to the overall storyline or progress it in any way. The MCs decisions aren’t just typical horror genre stupid, they’re just plain stupid. They don’t add value or excitement to the story. You aren’t going to be yelling “don’t go in there!” You’re just going to pull an eye muscle with all the eye rolls and yawn from boredom.
The ending is just bad. We’re told what will happen and again, it happens just as described. No shock. No surprise. It’s a let down and boring but also, there’s no payoff. It’s not just an unhappy ending, there’s no real resolution. It just ends as described.
Even though I listened to the audio version, the amount of errors came through clearly. Mispronunciation of words, wrong words, wrong grammar, wrong characters referred to. The book itself needing editing, but the audio recording did as well.
The plot holes were plentiful. The witch has no feet yet she’s described as walking on the soles of her feet. The sister is told to do a liquid diet, yet she orders lasagna, bread and wine the next day. The witch is in the house, yet she comes through the fence and enters the house. The witch is in the house, yet she only comes in and causes mayhem on a blue moon. There’s one witch, but two grotesque intruders. The witch can only cause issues during a blue moon, yet she returns the next day. She haunts the house, yet she’s seen elsewhere and causes issues outside the house. There were just too many and the story felt undeveloped and like a rough draft. The amount of similes/metaphors and thesaurus words were really overdone. The writing was very flowery like high school or early college paper. Sometimes it’s ok just to say what something is without over describing or comparing it. Every paragraph was overly flowery. There’s so much unnecessary fluff in this. We don’t need pages of describing the divorce or break ups of the two MCs. We don’t need pages of descriptions of what they eat or drink. There’s a lot of telling in this story and nothing shown or left to the imagination. The dialogue felt forced and unnatural. It also felt very immature and basic for being between 38/41 yr old characters.
The repeated graphic gore really detracted from the story. It could’ve been left out. Just give us a good haunted house or a witch story. Gore is fine to an extent but we don’t need the same events repeated every page. If it wasn’t so disgusting it would’ve been boring. I don’t need to know over and over how the baby screamed while being eaten alive or the sounds his bones made as they’re being chewed. That’s not scary or haunting, it’s just gross and depraved. We don’t need to be told over and over how much blood was on the previous owners clothes or the wife’s death scene retold a dozen times. Give us something really scary and a true story, not just restated descriptions of blood and gore.
The narration was ok. It really didn’t leave an impression on me and more than a few times the character voices would change from one scene to the next. This may have been due to what the narrator was working with because I’ve listened to a few narrations by Joe Hempel and they were better than what this performance was. There were quite a few mispronounced words. The tone was pretty boring and flatlined to me without much deviation or emotion. Again this could be due to only two characters for the vast majority of the book and because we’re told everything that happened or will happen so there isn’t anything for a character to be surprised over. The characters also appear to be written rather flat emotionally with unrealistic responses to things. I don’t think the narrator is poor, I think his performed was largely impacted by a poorly written book. I would still pick up another book Joe Hempel narrates.
Overall, wholly do not recommend. For being a shorter book, this was a chore to get through and felt twice as long with all the repetition, flat story, 2D characters, and rather basic writing.
Content/trigger warnings
(Spoilers ahead)
🚩🚩🚩🚩🚩
‼️‼️Graphic descriptions several times of a baby being eaten by a witch and parents. Very graphic descriptions of the babies sounds while being eaten, the eating sounds, the parts of the baby eaten and how, the gore. Repeated several times in the book
❗️Graphic, graphic violence and gore. Very gory & violent.
❗️Detailed suicide scene, hanging
❗️Mental illness/treatment of mentally ill
❗️Detailed scene of burning someone
The repeated scenes of the baby being eaten really made me want to stop this book. Had to skip over them. The amount of graphic gore also made me want to stop this book, by the last half to third I was skipping over the scenes or doing other things to avoid listening to the nastiness. Some gore doesn’t bother me but this was extreme. The baby bit was just excessive and honestly didn’t need to be repeated. We get it. A witch caused a horrific event. It happened. We don’t need to revisit it over and over. The initial shock was enough. It just became disgusting to repeatedly have the event described over and over and over…
I won’t pick up another book by this author. I have a few on my kindle I’ve been looking forward to reading but after this, I’ll pass. Respect your readers enough to include a graphic content warning but also be creative enough to tell a story without repeating the same nasty, violent gory scene over and over.
Review of Book:
Listened to audio version. Run time 6:15. Narrator Joe Hempel.
This just wasn’t a good horror/haunted house/witch story. Even setting the gore and content warnings aside.
The story dragged with really nothing happening. Middle aged brother and sister move in together after a stereotypical divorce and job loss. The plot didn’t make sense here. It’s harped on how they got a sizable inheritance from their recently deceased mother yet they spend the book droning on and on about how tight money is and how broke they are. It’s even mentioned the sister’s ex husband decides to divorce her when he does because she’ll get enough money from the inheritance to support herself, yet they can’t afford snacks or food? They can’t afford food but the sister never looks for a job or attempts to restart her life? The brother had a great job, paid well, and is suddenly laid off, yet he has no money to live on?
They are told the history of the house and its supposed haunted status yet decide who cares, let’s buy it. Then spend the time saying they can’t afford it and hate it. They hear noises, the investigate, see horrible things, decide oh well, we’ll stay and go back to eating junk food and watching tv. We’re told everything that will happen, and shocker, it happens. There’s no twist or “no way” moments. No scares, no shocks, no creep. Disgusting and stomach churning gore, yes. Creeped out or surprised, absolutely not.
The “haunting” was nothing new or fresh for the genre. Boring and cliched. Main characters ignore it/deny it, make bad choices, things end badly. A witch is in the house, but then has to enter it. She’s always there, she only comes during a blue moon. Pick a direction.
We know the “haunting” right away so there is zero build up or suspense there. We’re told what happened, then for 6 hours we’re just repeatedly told what happened with no new details or excitement being added. The description of the witch isn’t even really creative or new. A little condescending on homeless and mentally ill, but nothing creative.
The characters were flat. The story mostly deals with just the brother and sister and they are unlikable and uninteresting. I didn’t care what happened to them and I wasn’t invested in them. There’s no real development here, just some 2D descriptions so the reader isn’t given much to work with to even attempt to like or care. We’re constantly told how protective and caring the brother is yet every. single. haunting scene with the sister he is nasty to her and his blow ups/treatment of her are a complete contradiction. They’re also awkward and felt very forced and unrealistic. At the start, she’s screaming for him in the middle of the night because there’s an intruder, yet his reaction is immediately anger, belittling her, disbelief, and just flat rude. This is the first occurrence. It makes sense if this was #37, but you’d think a protective, caring brother’s initial reaction would be fear, shock, anxiety, maybe a little supportive. Nope, immediately he’s just rude.
The secondary characters, were really non existent. For some reason the neighbors and residents of the town are angry the MCs are living in the house. No reason given, they’re just immediately hostile over it. Not scared or “omg how can you live there,” nope, flat angry and hostile like how dare out of towners buy a house where a tragedy happened 2 yrs ago. The ex sheriff is immediately hostile. Then when we see a brief few minutes of him later he just restates what we already know happened. Nothing new added, he really didn’t add to the overall storyline or progress it in any way. The MCs decisions aren’t just typical horror genre stupid, they’re just plain stupid. They don’t add value or excitement to the story. You aren’t going to be yelling “don’t go in there!” You’re just going to pull an eye muscle with all the eye rolls and yawn from boredom.
The ending is just bad. We’re told what will happen and again, it happens just as described. No shock. No surprise. It’s a let down and boring but also, there’s no payoff. It’s not just an unhappy ending, there’s no real resolution. It just ends as described.
Even though I listened to the audio version, the amount of errors came through clearly. Mispronunciation of words, wrong words, wrong grammar, wrong characters referred to. The book itself needing editing, but the audio recording did as well.
The plot holes were plentiful. The witch has no feet yet she’s described as walking on the soles of her feet. The sister is told to do a liquid diet, yet she orders lasagna, bread and wine the next day. The witch is in the house, yet she comes through the fence and enters the house. The witch is in the house, yet she only comes in and causes mayhem on a blue moon. There’s one witch, but two grotesque intruders. The witch can only cause issues during a blue moon, yet she returns the next day. She haunts the house, yet she’s seen elsewhere and causes issues outside the house. There were just too many and the story felt undeveloped and like a rough draft. The amount of similes/metaphors and thesaurus words were really overdone. The writing was very flowery like high school or early college paper. Sometimes it’s ok just to say what something is without over describing or comparing it. Every paragraph was overly flowery. There’s so much unnecessary fluff in this. We don’t need pages of describing the divorce or break ups of the two MCs. We don’t need pages of descriptions of what they eat or drink. There’s a lot of telling in this story and nothing shown or left to the imagination. The dialogue felt forced and unnatural. It also felt very immature and basic for being between 38/41 yr old characters.
The repeated graphic gore really detracted from the story. It could’ve been left out. Just give us a good haunted house or a witch story. Gore is fine to an extent but we don’t need the same events repeated every page. If it wasn’t so disgusting it would’ve been boring. I don’t need to know over and over how the baby screamed while being eaten alive or the sounds his bones made as they’re being chewed. That’s not scary or haunting, it’s just gross and depraved. We don’t need to be told over and over how much blood was on the previous owners clothes or the wife’s death scene retold a dozen times. Give us something really scary and a true story, not just restated descriptions of blood and gore.
The narration was ok. It really didn’t leave an impression on me and more than a few times the character voices would change from one scene to the next. This may have been due to what the narrator was working with because I’ve listened to a few narrations by Joe Hempel and they were better than what this performance was. There were quite a few mispronounced words. The tone was pretty boring and flatlined to me without much deviation or emotion. Again this could be due to only two characters for the vast majority of the book and because we’re told everything that happened or will happen so there isn’t anything for a character to be surprised over. The characters also appear to be written rather flat emotionally with unrealistic responses to things. I don’t think the narrator is poor, I think his performed was largely impacted by a poorly written book. I would still pick up another book Joe Hempel narrates.
Overall, wholly do not recommend. For being a shorter book, this was a chore to get through and felt twice as long with all the repetition, flat story, 2D characters, and rather basic writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 16, 2025
A Haunting in Plum Hollow is not bad, but I saw the ending coming a mile away. Not quite the reasoning behind it but defiantly the overall outcome. Certainly this is not Ambrose Ibsen's best work.
The family dynamic between Ellery and Michael was interesting and believable. It was clear they loved each other but also at times where just highly frustrated with each other, sometimes for nothing. The house they lived in was also a great setting. The author was vague enough in description for my mind to build and change things as the story moved on which was just enjoyable. The two siblings where really the only characters in the main part of the story. Obviously there are people they randomly interacted with but for the most part it is the two of them alone in a house. There are only a couple of other brief parts of the story told from another perspective that do feature other people, but I would say that is less than 15% of the book.
One of those brief parts was the opening of the book. That takes place in a mental hospital and is honestly the strongest part of this story. I was hooked in by that. After about the half way part of the book though I was fully out of it and just ready for it to be over. The ending was predictable and so heavily build up that it just felt like an obvious let down. Over all the book was not bad but not something I will be revisiting.
Ambrose Ibsen really is a hit or miss author. Sometimes his writing is so strong and beautiful and creative. Other times his vision just falls short. I do enjoy his work and will continue reading him, however this particular book is one I would not recommend.
The family dynamic between Ellery and Michael was interesting and believable. It was clear they loved each other but also at times where just highly frustrated with each other, sometimes for nothing. The house they lived in was also a great setting. The author was vague enough in description for my mind to build and change things as the story moved on which was just enjoyable. The two siblings where really the only characters in the main part of the story. Obviously there are people they randomly interacted with but for the most part it is the two of them alone in a house. There are only a couple of other brief parts of the story told from another perspective that do feature other people, but I would say that is less than 15% of the book.
One of those brief parts was the opening of the book. That takes place in a mental hospital and is honestly the strongest part of this story. I was hooked in by that. After about the half way part of the book though I was fully out of it and just ready for it to be over. The ending was predictable and so heavily build up that it just felt like an obvious let down. Over all the book was not bad but not something I will be revisiting.
Ambrose Ibsen really is a hit or miss author. Sometimes his writing is so strong and beautiful and creative. Other times his vision just falls short. I do enjoy his work and will continue reading him, however this particular book is one I would not recommend.
May 12, 2025
I didn’t like the movie “The Witch”, and I didn’t like this book any better. They have a few key moments in common.
There was horror in this book, but nothing scary. Ibsen never let the suspense build. They hear a noise, investigate it, and see something horrendous, then go back to watching tv or whatever. It was bizarre.
The characters weren’t developed so I never had any stake in their survival or well being. When you don’t care about that basic tenet then why bother reading the story at all?
There was horror in this book, but nothing scary. Ibsen never let the suspense build. They hear a noise, investigate it, and see something horrendous, then go back to watching tv or whatever. It was bizarre.
The characters weren’t developed so I never had any stake in their survival or well being. When you don’t care about that basic tenet then why bother reading the story at all?
July 9, 2025
Alright, so. This was my first novel (that I'm aware of at least) written by Ibsen. It was okay. At times it got too wordy, and the descriptions were a bit much. Just very flowery, using words that weren't really necessary I guess? To be fair, a lot of us writers tend to do this. We want things to sound good, but, alas, sometimes it isn't necessary.
There were a few errors in the book. Nothing with the plot, just small grammar things or wrong words. NOW let me defend that! I'm an author too, and I self-publish. Not all of us can afford to pay for editors, which is unfortunate but just a fact. We rely on our own eyes, and those of friends and family willing to read and edit for us. Stuff slips through the cracks. I've never, as a reader, really let small errors take me out of a story. So if that bothers you, try to let it go. I've found errors in Stephen King books before. That's just life.
Now, the story itself.
A bit slowly paced, and we got too much information at the start of the story. It sort of ruined the suspense a little. I did, however, like the authors storytelling and I liked the two main characters! The brother and sister duo was great, and I liked how Michael went sleuthing for answers while Ellery was losing her mind. It was fun! I also liked the stuff with the ghost mom and the witch, and the ending was great!
I want to read more by this author in the future! Maybe once I get through my enormous TBR pile. Oof.
There were a few errors in the book. Nothing with the plot, just small grammar things or wrong words. NOW let me defend that! I'm an author too, and I self-publish. Not all of us can afford to pay for editors, which is unfortunate but just a fact. We rely on our own eyes, and those of friends and family willing to read and edit for us. Stuff slips through the cracks. I've never, as a reader, really let small errors take me out of a story. So if that bothers you, try to let it go. I've found errors in Stephen King books before. That's just life.
Now, the story itself.
A bit slowly paced, and we got too much information at the start of the story. It sort of ruined the suspense a little. I did, however, like the authors storytelling and I liked the two main characters! The brother and sister duo was great, and I liked how Michael went sleuthing for answers while Ellery was losing her mind. It was fun! I also liked the stuff with the ghost mom and the witch, and the ending was great!
I want to read more by this author in the future! Maybe once I get through my enormous TBR pile. Oof.
January 26, 2025
A fast paced paranormal novel! The haunting itself was intriguing and I liked the end. It had some really spooky parts which is why I like this author. But the siblings, Ellery and Michael were annoying. I can’t imagine finding a house that’s $30,000 under the market value, hasn’t sold in 2 years and had deaths in it yet not ask more about all of that. I would be asking what exactly the realtor meant by “deaths”. Also, the author having Michael say “sis” every other sentence while talking to Ellery was distracting. That’s not how normal conversations flow. Nobody refers to a person be it by name or nickname every other sentence during conversations. I am confused as to why the author wrote dialogue that way.
I read the book through Kindle Unlimited which was worth it, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it.
I read the book through Kindle Unlimited which was worth it, but I wouldn’t pay full price for it.
October 8, 2025
Some say the devil lives in Plum Hollow. And they may well be right. Let’s just say I would never buy a house for $30,000 less than what it’s listed for after knowing murders happened.
I was bored with a few chapters of the book, and the siblings annoyed me a little, but they were interesting at the same time.
A Haunting in Plum Hollow gave me creepy vibes a little, and the description of the witch gave me the chills. I would have given this a 3 star, but I enjoyed more towards then end so I give it a 4.
I was bored with a few chapters of the book, and the siblings annoyed me a little, but they were interesting at the same time.
A Haunting in Plum Hollow gave me creepy vibes a little, and the description of the witch gave me the chills. I would have given this a 3 star, but I enjoyed more towards then end so I give it a 4.
January 26, 2025
Not his best
The two main characters are not likeable or particularly sympathetic. Very little background given on them leaves them flat. The lack of information on, or purpose driving their nemesis is frustrating and leaves the reader searching for some sort of context. Passages are often too long, and filled with repetitive in formation. Seems like a ploy just to up word count. Seriously needed a good editor.
The two main characters are not likeable or particularly sympathetic. Very little background given on them leaves them flat. The lack of information on, or purpose driving their nemesis is frustrating and leaves the reader searching for some sort of context. Passages are often too long, and filled with repetitive in formation. Seems like a ploy just to up word count. Seriously needed a good editor.
September 29, 2025
Spoilers!
The fact that NOT A SINGLE REVIEW warned me that this book included a mother and father being brainwashed to EAT their OWN child has me extremely disturbed. It needs a trigger warning.
Besides that, the story was full of plot holes and parts that didn’t make sense. Why are the neighbors and the former sheriff mad at the new owners? Scared I would get, but hostile? Eyeroll. I did a lot of that during this book.
The fact that NOT A SINGLE REVIEW warned me that this book included a mother and father being brainwashed to EAT their OWN child has me extremely disturbed. It needs a trigger warning.
Besides that, the story was full of plot holes and parts that didn’t make sense. Why are the neighbors and the former sheriff mad at the new owners? Scared I would get, but hostile? Eyeroll. I did a lot of that during this book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 27, 2025
I don't read a lot of books in this genre. This was OK. I'm not thrilled with the ending, though. The one thing that puzzled me most was how the siblings were approved for a mortgage when neither had a job? The brother was actively looking for a job, and the sister wasn't even doing that. Banks want assurance that the loan will be repaid.
April 29, 2025
There has been better from Ibsen
I really didn't like this one. I live many of ibsens works but just couldn't with this one. I'm sure there will be future stories to enjoy but this 1 is a little bit too gory for me
I really didn't like this one. I live many of ibsens works but just couldn't with this one. I'm sure there will be future stories to enjoy but this 1 is a little bit too gory for me
July 6, 2025
Not my favorite from this author. I got irritated with the characters and their unrelenting stupidity. It was scary and horrifying, as Ibsen always is, but I felt more sorry for the ghost than I did for the living. Oh well, can't love them all.
April 13, 2025
Fast paced and scary but the ending felt a little clunky
April 21, 2025
Scary read!
I literally had to stop in the middle of a chapter last night. The description of the witch gave me chills!
Read the rest today. Love the story!
I literally had to stop in the middle of a chapter last night. The description of the witch gave me chills!
Read the rest today. Love the story!
June 29, 2025
this was weird. it wasn't awful but most of his stuff is super long and this felt like a project I don't know if quick is his thing
July 6, 2025
Great Read
Enjoyed the depth of explanation of the gore!! Could be a really good film Very impressed with the plot and the character building
Enjoyed the depth of explanation of the gore!! Could be a really good film Very impressed with the plot and the character building
August 3, 2025
This is pretty good. The haunting ramps up real quick. Would have liked to see more of the town or some of the neighbors. The ending may not be to everyone's taste.
August 7, 2025
I have to remember in horror books that there are no rules when it comes to death. This wasn't bad, but it could have been a tad better.
September 11, 2025
This book was so creepy! You can feel the hairs standing up on your neck and arms. If you liked the series The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor, you will love this book!
April 23, 2025
This one was okay? It's not something I'm going to be running back to read, but it's also not something I regret reading. I'm very much on the fence on how to feel about it.
The beginning felt like it was very slow, I couldn't stand the brother most of the time, and the ending might have been the reason for the rating it got. The meat of it all was just okay in my book.
The beginning felt like it was very slow, I couldn't stand the brother most of the time, and the ending might have been the reason for the rating it got. The meat of it all was just okay in my book.
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