A chilling psychological horror novel filled with twists about the connection between our world and the beyond.
Sam Avery sees things no one else can... Gruesome spirits have haunted and plagued Sam since childhood. He believes he is alone in this terrifying ability, until he meets beautiful Amanda Foster, who can hear the voices of the dead.
Amanda tells Sam there are even more like them, a group she calls her spirit circle, comprised of powerful individuals endowed with the abilities to seek out and commune with the dead.
At first, Sam eagerly accepts the invitation to join this circle but slowly begins to grow suspicious about it—and Amanda’s—true purpose.
Does she really want to use Sam's power to help free unfortunate spirits trapped in the physical world? Or is there something more sinister Amanda has planned, a darker, more twisted truth that lies unseen?
Experience a harrowing psychological horror novel filled with dark twists as Sam digs into the truth behind the connection between our world and the supernatural.
S.E. Howard lives in Kentucky where she works as a registered nurse, certified in toxicology (a fitting field given her side-hustle writing horror stories). Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies, and her short story “You’ve Been Saved” was also adapted for the screen in the 2022 GenreBlast film anthology Worst Laid Plans. Her horror novels The Vessel and What Lies Unseen are available now through Aethon Books / Wicked House. For more information, visit online at www.sehoward.com.
I did pretty much like this book. The plot was good and well researched. The main character, Sam, was not very likable, IMHO. He was rather annoying, actually. The character of Amanda was overdone, I think. The ending was fine; everything tied up with no cliffhanger. I might pick up something else by this author.
A young man who can see ghosts finds himself in a whole lot of trouble when he finds work at a museum. Maybe he should have worked at The Gap or something.
Anyway, most of it you can see coming a mile away, but some of the ghosts are pretty creepy.
This book was a wild ride. Howard definitely had done research while writing this. My favorite horror features scenarios that have a little bit of truth and bends reality. This book follows Sam, a young man who sees dead people. He finds a group of people and a woman and feels like he fits in for the first time in his life. But not everything adds up with his new friends, and he starts to pick apart lies.
I don’t even know where To begin…this book gives you everything you want in a horror novel but somehow manages to keep the human aspect. I literally could not put this book down until I was finished. Can’t wait to see if any other books develop from this. You will not regret reading this book!!!!!
Sam can see spirits and interact with them. Too often they become threatening to Sam. Throughout his childhood he relied his older brother to keep him safe. This poor kid had such a terrifying time as a kid. He seemed to be a magnet for all manor of spirits. As he became an adult Sam did what he could to avoid spirits. Unfortunately he returned to the place that as a child, he experienced true terror by a spirit that did not want him at all historic mansion. Because he was so powerful a nefarious group of people decided they needed him to bring forth an ancient entity. What they did not know was; Sam had no intention of being a vessel for anyone. This book was really terrifying. Not only that I was angry at how Amanda used Sam. Sam was an easy target because until Amanda, Sam knew no one that could see spirits. She needed a naive person to participate in the ritual and Sam fit that bill. I sympathized with Sam as his heart broke. I was glad to see Cole finally came around. He had been used also then quickly discarded. The author did an amazing job at keeping things frightful as well as emotional. I could not help but feel empathy toward Sam because he really had a rough time of things.
Title: What Lies Unseen By: S.E. Howard Publisher: AETHON: Wicked House Published Date: March 10, 2026 ASIN: B0G4WZWV9F Page Count: 283 Triggers: Spirits, psychological manipulation, betrayal, supernatural violence, possession themes Star Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Skull Dread Rating: ☠️☠️☠️
What Did I Just Walk Into? Sam Avery has spent his entire life seeing spirits that would rather torment him than politely haunt someone else. Childhood was less “imaginary friends” and more “why is that ghost trying to crawl through the wall at me?” Then along comes Amanda Foster, who hears the dead and introduces Sam to her cozy little spirit circle. Sounds supportive, right? Wrong. Turns out when a secret paranormal club invites you in, there is usually a ritual, a hidden agenda, and someone planning to use you as the supernatural battery for something ancient and very, very bad.
Here’s What Slapped: The tension in this book is fantastic. S.E. Howard knows exactly how to build dread and then twist the knife when you least expect it. The supernatural elements feel creepy without being over the top, and the mystery surrounding Amanda and her spirit circle keeps tightening like a noose. Sam is also an easy character to root for because the poor guy has basically been ghost bait his entire life. The emotional punches land just as hard as the horror. You feel his fear, his loneliness, and especially the betrayal when things start unraveling.
What Could’ve Been Better: Amanda will absolutely make your blood pressure rise. She is the kind of character that makes you want to throw the book across the room and yell at fictional people for making terrible life choices. Which, honestly, might have been the point. Some readers may also wish we got even deeper backstory on certain characters like Cole because there is clearly more story there waiting to explode.
Perfect for Readers Who Love: Supernatural horror Ghost stories with psychological tension Secret occult groups with bad intentions Haunted locations and rituals gone sideways Characters who discover the hard way that trust is dangerous
Sum It Up: What Lies Unseen crawls under your skin with creeping dread, emotional gut punches, and the constant feeling that something terrible is waiting just outside the light. By the time the truth surfaces, you realize the real horror was never the ghosts. It was the people standing next to Sam the whole time.
This is a fine supernatural thriller by S.E. Howard, who's proven time and again to exceed all expectations when it comes to horror stories with a heart, complex plotting, and relatable characters. In fact, "What Lies Unseen" is an emotional rollercoaster, touching on themes of grief, loss, and family, as well as romantic love, betrayal, and complicated friendships. The supernatural elements, revolving around ghosts or spirits, range from paranormal to cult and archeological horror: people with abilities of seeing, hearing or feeling ghosts are drawn into a harrowing tale of epic proportions, involving an unearthed ancient artifact and the entity housed within.
The main character, Sam, a young man who's been seeing spirits all his life, finds himself right in the middle of things when he's offered the job of a security employee in a mansion-turned-museum - a place where he, as a child, first saw the ghost of a burnt woman, Rosemary, the victim of a past disaster involving a séance gone wrong. Archaeological work in the mansion has revealed several disturbing details. Sam, to his surprise, soon hooks up with the director of the dig, Amanda, who can hear ghosts. It seems like a match made in heaven; is it though?
Sam's family dynamics are perfectly integrated into the story, at the same time his relationship with Amanda grows deeper and more demanding. What follows is a fast-paced dive into cult horror, with several twists and surprising reveals about Sam, Amanda, and the history of the mansion. But what makes this a fascinating horror story is the mystery about what lies underneath the place, not only what lies unseen. The last third of the book offers one revelation after another, balanced with psychological insight, emotional depth, and thrilling suspense about Sam's fate.
When it comes to horror, Howard keeps getting it just right! I highly recommend the book to fans of the paranormal and readers who love their horror cleverly executed and solidly anchored in emotionally authentic experience!
What Lies Unseen is a book that will scratch a lot of itches for the avid horror reader. On it's surface, what lies seen, if you will, is deceptively simple. From a young age, Sam Avery has been plagued with visions of ghosts. He seems to be tempting fate when he accepts a security job at mansion where he first discovered his ability to see the dead. After meeting Amanda Foster and her circle of like-minded spiritualists, he is given a chance to foster what he thought was a curse into what his new acquaintances assure him is a gift.
What unfolds from this jumping off point is creeping, crawling ghost story filled with left turns that will constantly have the reader turning the page for more. S.E. Howard is a pro when it comes to pacing, knowing just when to leave the scares at a hair-raising creep, and when to turn the scare level to full, white-knuckle terror. We also get a full cast of characters that we get to know well, familiar faces that we root for and cross our fingers that they get through the end of the book relatively unscathed.
What Lies Unseen is a great time, well written, and sure to satiate any horror reader with the good stuff.
Thank you to the author for a chance to get an early read on this one!
Truly foreboding horror builds tension and dread through the things we cannot see, the evil that lurks in the dark, the monster that hides in the shadows, barely there, stygian and insubstantial – just beyond the edge of vision, yet menacingly, terrifyingly, real. And, in ‘What Lies Unseen’, S.E. Howard wields this idea like a weapon. In this brilliant read, nothing, and no one, is truly what they seem. There are grave-deep secrets and ancient mysteries. There is subterfuge and betrayal. Friends can be found in enemies, charity and assistance in the most nightmarish of entities. Even the leading characters struggle to understand their own hidden pasts and traumas. Howard has buried a terrible truth deep inside this story, and it will force every reader to dig, dig, and keep on digging until they uncover it. Great stuff. A dark, mesmeric story about the secrets we keep and the evils we hide away. Jeff Clulow – author of ‘Veil’ and ‘The Leper’s Garden and Other Contagions’.
This novel completely pulled me in from the very first page and never let go. The character development is absolutely impeccable. Sam feels incredibly real and relatable, and his struggles with his abilities are both haunting and deeply human. Watching his journey unfold, especially as he meets Amanda and becomes entangled in the mysterious “spirit circle,” kept me fully invested the entire time.
The atmosphere is perfectly crafted—dark, eerie, and genuinely unsettling in all the best ways. The psychological tension builds steadily, with twists that kept me guessing and questioning everything right alongside Sam. The pacing is spot-on, making it a true page turner that I didn’t want to put down. It was also so cool to realize that it takes place in maryland since I'm from there!
If you love psychological horror with depth, strong characters, and a chilling storyline that lingers long after you’ve finished, this book is a must read.
A new job that includes a mysterious older love interest!? Considering death has followed him (literally and figuratively) all his life, this might be the break Sam needs. Little does he know that he chose the wrong museum, and he's long been expected.
Expertly paced with a mystery that unfolds steadily, Howard's follow-up novel cements her place in the genre. The dialogue is crisp and the characters a healthy combination of endearing and rage-inducing (in a good way). This is the perfect companion piece to The Vessel, her previous work, as she builds and even improves on ideas started there. Best of all is the world building. I am a sucker for "rules", so to speak, and I enjoyed learning how this world worked and what could be achieved. The ending hints at larger possibilities that I hope are explored one day.
I enjoyed this book despite not being exactly what I was looking for. I desperately wanted it to be scarier but I did enjoy it for what it was. The writing was excellent and it was properly edited - two things I’ve been struggling to find in a good horror novel lately. I got a little confused at the end when I couldn’t tell if one character was another - but seems like the protagonist was also having that issue so it might have been intentional. Amanda was a lot - maybe a bit too much. Sam was typical for his age. I needed a bit more from Sam and Luz’s relationship to make it more three dimensional because it fell a flat sometimes. I got all the security guards confused. I would definitely read more from this author.
If you're looking for a tale that will keep you on the edge of your seat and make you want to keep the lights on, this is the one. S. E. has done it again by introducing us to Sam, who can see spirits and they torment him. He meets Amanda, who can hear the voices of the dead. She invites him to her spirit group, and the story jumps off with a bang from there. The cast of characters are drawn great, and it makes you want to see who will survive this night as they try to raise an ancient spirit, and who can you trust. The pacing is spot on, and the tension keeps you turning the pages. I can't wait to see what S. E. has in store for us next.
“What Lies Unseen” by S.E. Howard is a thrilling, twisty book that you will not want to put down. Howard has expertly crafted a narrative that combines supernatural horror and mystery, and introduces you to characters you will love to get to know. I was completely hooked on this story and had to pick my jaw off the floor as it unfolded. This was my introduction to Howard’s writing and I cannot wait to get whisked away by her storytelling again. If you haven’t already, give this one a pre-order! You’ll be thankful you did! Thank you to the author for allowing me to get an early glimpse with an ARC. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What Lies Unseen by S.E. Howard 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 This is a dark, creepy, and exciting psychological/supernatural horror story. This book has it all, scares, haunts, ghosts, rituals, twists, grief, emotions, and so much more!!
Sam lives his life seeing images of the dead. It’s a very powerful gift he has… or is it a curse? Sam meets Amanda at work and they hit it off. He learns about a whole spirit world from Amanda and great horrors ensure!
This book is a mysterious and spooky read! I love how the author told this story. It drew me in immediately!!
Thank you to S.E. Howard for an arc of this fantastic book!! *I highly recommend the creepy read!! It comes out March 17th!!*
S.E. Howard is quickly becoming one of my favorite voices in the indie horror genre. I’ve read her short story collection as well as “The Vessel” and needed more.
Sam has always been able to see things others can’t, namely ghosts still wandering the mortal plane. What’s difficult is handling an unwanted gift such as this while navigating grief and loss. When Sam starts a new job as a security guard at a historical landmark, he’s plunged into a mystery that’s much bigger than he could have ever dreamed of. Seduced by a beautiful academic, he falls into a crowd of fellow psychics, mystics, and the like, and what he discovers is far more frightening than any silly ghost.
Howard has earned a fan for life. She crafts characters well, her prose is gorgeous, and her dark humor is on point.
What a roller coaster! Sam has had a rough life. Nothing has been handed to him on a silver platter without serious consequences. Even in adulthood he is still paying for his father’s mistakes, or so he thinks. His secret ability has always been a hindrance to him but never did he think it would be of importance. The twists and turns of this story leave you thoroughly engaged and excited for the turn of each page!
He can see things most people can't and would never want to see if they could. Put him in a night security job at a haunted mansion and what could go wrong? Then bring in a beautiful woman whose not at all what she seems to be and the feelings begin. Add in an ancient Native American burial ground and a trapped demon who wants out of their prison. Let the paranormal thrills begin.
This is my first read from S.E. Howard. This book pulls you in almost immediately going right for the throat with the spookies. From there, it flowed easily with twists and turns, keeping you on your toes with what was going to happen next. I can't wait to read another book from her! Highly recommend!
This book was pretty solid. I’ve found most “horror” books leave me with more questions than I started off with, but this one didn’t really. I enjoyed Cole’s character development a lot. The setting was well described without excessive confusing details. I enjoyed the read and will be looking for more books from this author!
I love all things horror, suspense and mystery, and this book satisfied them all! The main character is relatable and I was attached almost immediately. Although this book is spooky it gives a cozy and familiar feeling. The many twists and turns, left me reeling for more. I cannot wait to read what else this author has published!!
In What Lies Unseen, Howard has created an intensely human story of grief, desperation, and horror. With thriller-worthy twists, frustratingly real characters, and sinister as hell scenes, What Lies Unseen promises to live on in your mind long after you've finished reading.
WHAT LIES UNSEEN is a seamlessly plotted, high-octane ride where the terror is just as psychological as it is supernatural. S.E. Howard delivers a refreshing twist on the haunted house story that will keep you riveted until the very last sentence!
Borrowed this on a whim, might even have been an ad on Instagram. But I'm glad I did bc it was different than most of the supernatural books you come across. Plus I don't seem to come across many male lead characters lately either.
This was a good read! I loved the different kinds of lore that was thrown in. From ghosts to ancient beings, this story is a fun ride. Moral of the story is people are nuts 🤣
Drama, mystery and the supernatural - this book has it all. I could not put it down. While our MC Sam is often naive, he is just 21 so I'll forgive him.