2.5-3 stars (rounding up)
The book started out so strong for me but kind of fizzled out by the end, and I found the ending itself to be just fine and nothing that's going to leave me pondering. During the first act I was thinking the book might be 3.5 stars, then it went down to 3 and 2.5 in the second and third acts.
The book begins with a family of four - Tenn, Ward, Anders and Aisling (mother, father, older brother, younger sister) - starting over in a new state, new house, new careers and schools. Tenn seemed rather unhappy in their previous life, and Ward "gifted" this new life to her, but she can't help but to feel pretty isolated and lonely in a place where she has no support system. On top of that, Ward knows of Tenn's battle with anxiety/depression, and is constantly leaving her alone to take care of everything with the house and the kids while he works more than a full-time job, always consumed with work, and tries to ignore all problems that he can't easily fix. Oh, also, something about their new house/life seemed haunted, a problem that *certainly* doesn't have a simple solution. As one could imagine, Tenn's mental state also takes a turn for the worse due to her current situation, making reality a bit... slippery?
The set up seemed like something I was definitely going to be into; I love a good psychological horror/unreliable reality situation. And in the beginning, as we're first shown Tenn's continuous, rambling, sped-up, run-on thoughts and everything turning strange, I was invested. However, after a while, the narrative started becoming repetitive and dragging a bit - not great when the e-book was only 235 pages.
The target audience would be someone looking for an emotional haunted house/ghost story with an unsettling atmosphere, but not necessarily someone looking for a lot of scares along the way.
Thank you so much to the publisher Putnam Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to receive an ARC of this book! Accumulation is set to be released 5.5.26!