A Veritable Household Pet

by Viggy Parr Hampton

“Brooding and twisted, but beautiful in its honesty, A Veritable Household Pet will chill you to the bone as it simultaneously breaks your heart." -Paulette Kennedy, bestselling author of The Devil and Mrs. Davenport

Darla Gregory received a lobotomy at 11 years old ... and she was never the same.

Based on painfully true history, mixed with family drama, complex characters, and a gut-punch twist.

[Scribe’s This is my sister Darla’s story, as dictated to me. I have tried to remain as faithful to her diction and voice as I can, while also making it intelligible and coherent. Darla has progressed considerably since the lobotomy, but she is still unable to write by herself. I have added notes, interpolations, and supporting documentation where necessary to clarify or explain, or to add my own experience if relevant.

If you’re wondering why it took so long for you to read this, I’d encourage you to keep your bratty thoughts to yourself. You’re lucky I’m telling you the truth at all. This is the last thing I have to do for her, and I hope you’re finally mature enough to handle it.]

“Painful, tragic, horrifying—yet achingly beautiful. A testament to resilience, this book held me in its thrall from the first page. Like peering into the most intimate thoughts of two sisters, it was like witnessing a car crash in slow motion—devastating, impossible to look away. A powerful novel about sisterhood, independence, freedom, and the fragile value of our minds and bodies. I wanted to cry, to scream, to rage—and still I could not look away. I have borne witness. Now I hope you will too.” -Dawn Kurtagich, award-winning author of The Thorns and The Madness

“A blistering indictment of patriarchal power — A Veritable Household Pet is a luminous, tragic, and unputdownable story of the nightmare that is the theft of autonomy and identity, a quiet and constant terror women know all too well.” -Haley Newlin, author of The Film You Are About to See and Take Your Turn, Teddy

“This book twisted my guts, my heart, and my head. There’s toxic family dynamics that would make VC Andrews blush. There’s body horror made all the worse by its historical accuracy. There’s the ingenious device Hampton uses to tell the story from two POVs simultaneously. Plus, there’s this constant competition in tone between hopelessness and determination. All underscored by the knowledge that this exact story may very well have occurred in reality. So that’s the scariest part…all the ingredients existed for this story to be true. Something precisely like this probably did happen somewhere, sometime. What could be more tragic than that?” -Ben Young, author of Home

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Audiobook, Thriller, Horror Thriller, Historical, Historical Fiction

314 pages, Paperback

Published January 28, 2026

Reviews

[Chewable Orb]

A Veritable Household Pet: A Horror Novel by Viggy Parr Hampton
5 🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮orbs
Pub. Date: Jan. 28, 2026
Horror Humor Hunger Press

In a dark place…...

💡 Orbs Prologue: The girl sits by the casement window overlooking the street filled with happy children playing a myriad of games. The prescribed drug courses through her spidery veins, leaving her tired and useless. Eyelids obey, shutting slowly. Deep within the trenches of her own personal war, she finds herself floundering in the silence of dark open water. There is no light, there is no hope, yet she manages to swim ashore. Shivering, she walks down this newly introduced path, the broken fingernail clippings crunching beneath her feet. Looking back, she is followed closely by an army of skittering rats, herding her like cattle further into the chilling nightmare. Arachnid eyes cast devious intent behind several dilapidated tombstones lining the crunchy uphill walkway. A large strobe light appears in the distant sky, further illuminating the horror of worms and maggots carrying bacteria infesting the soil. Upon reaching the summit, a mysterious woman appears in a flowing white robe, seated in a chair made of femurs and skeleton heads. The woman’s gaunt hands hold barbarous tools. The flashing glint of a solid mallet and the pointed end of an ice pick, calling out to the girl…

🔩 Nuts & Bolts: Fear-induced irrational behavior clutches at Darla’s being. Vomit and germs provide a worthy opponent, leaving Darla incapacitated and suffering in her room, afraid to live within the frameworks of “normality.” As her situation escalates, her parents search for answers. Thorazine becomes the first alternative, but this solution soon succumbs in the battle as well. The talk of a lobotomy becomes the last line of defense, and Darla is soon taken to Dr. Hupman to execute the procedure. This life-altering decision has dire consequences, and soon the family spirals into chaos. Darla’s sister, Ellie, attempts to help Darla return to a normal life. Yet as one would imagine, having been the recipient of such a controversially wicked procedure, Darla is rendered helpless. How can the sisters move through life with an abundance of pain and suffering on the periphery? Viggy Parr Hampton’s prose shines in the bleakest of tales about betrayal and redemption. Moving with an exposed beauty through a canvas of uncertainty and tragedy, readers will be moved by the experience.

👍 Orbs Pros: The dual narrative is an absolute winner. Providing the reader with different perspectives allowed me to be fully invested in both sisters' characters. A twist on horror, which, to be honest, I was not expecting. While I love a good slasher or traditional trope, this book sneaks up on you. The underlying sense of discomfort followed throughout like a lost puppy. To say this novel is emotional is an understatement. For those who have dealt with anxiety or those in the family dealing with someone else's affliction, this novel will resonate. Viggy Parr Hampton offers readers a look into a damaged family dynamic and how those defective personality traits tend to surface during difficult times, often leading to tumultuous endings. A conclusion that left my jaw open, one I should have seen coming yet had no clue about, a perfect ending to a brilliant offering.

👎 Orbs Cons: Mr. Knowles, the next-door neighbor. Without spoiling too much, I will say his lack of contribution was interesting. Shouldn’t he have had more input in this situation?


Must read! No doubt one of the best novels I read this year! If you love haunting stories that tug at your heartstrings while angering you simultaneously, do yourself a favor and seek out this book. This was a gem!

💡 Orbs Epilogue: Thunderous cracking of bat wings flying by as the girl approaches slowly with caution and sits next to the woman in white. Gently placing her innocent head into scarred, bony hands, she gazes upon the piercing, silvery orbs set within this ghostlike entity. With precision, the woman places the torturous pick into the corner of an unblinking eye. A thwack ensues, a solid tapping motion, followed by a vortex swirling of the instrument, leaving the girl breathless. Following the same routine, the contents behind the other eye are also properly stirred, leaving the girl on the ground, attempting to speak, and slowly writhing like a worm in defensive response. The woman gently kisses the girl's sweaty forehead and dissipates into the ether. The still blackness comes, and disconnection bites into the girl’s brainwave frequency. A phone rings, rings, rings… unanswered. Without as much as a hint of knowledge or know-how, our girl is conscious and yet left in a zombie-like trance. What is known is that this girl no longer fears emesis or harmful microorganisms, but dear readers, at what cost?

Many thanks to Viggy Parr Hampton and Booksirens. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Haly Hoards Books]

4☆
You may know Viggy Parr Hampton as a traditional horror novelist, but with A Veritable Household Pet Hampton tells a horror story that is based on cold hard reality. There are no supernatural elements, no body horror or unnatural happenings. What Hampton has done is write about the horror of how mental illness and disability affects one family. She does this with compassion and honesty, and yet nothing is sugar coated.

The horror of transorbital lobotomy was real. I remember from my childhood an older woman in my community who had undergone a lobotomy. I remember her lack of any facial expression or emotion. I also remember how uncomfortable I was when in her presence. Truthfully, she scared me. As I read about Darla and Ellie I experienced those same feelings I had as a child. I also had feelings of anger and disgust toward the characters who teased, preyed upon and abused the sisters.

The use of two points of view in a diary format was genius. I liked how Ellie's point of view was inserted as, "Scribe's notes." As the story unfolds it became clear that the diary was written for a specific person.

I truly enjoyed this novel and recommend it. But, go into it knowing it is not a spooky kind of horror novel.

Favorite Quote:
"Darla never moved, she never escaped; she was like a hamster I could keep in a cage and caress when I saw fit. She was no more than a veritable household pet."
Ellie Gregory

[Lori]

A Veritable Household Pet tells the story of a girl lobotomized as a child, and the brutal, heart‑wrenching life that follows. It’s dark, twisted, hopeful, soul crushing, and horrific all at once.

But let’s be clear: this isn’t gory horror, or body horror, or even spooky horror. This is help‑I’m‑trapped‑in‑a‑body‑that‑can’t‑speak-the-thoughts-in-my-head horror. This is toxic family dynamics and psychological trauma horror. This is people‑can‑be‑the‑absolute‑worst horror.

Imagine living every day with the awareness of what’s been stolen, carrying the impossible hope of ever being whole again, and knowing those around you will never truly grasp what you’re struggling against. This is the kind of book that unsettles not because of monsters in the dark, but because of the cruelty and silence that can live inside a home.

I couldn’t help but feel the story would have flowed more seamlessly if Darla’s sister’s notes had been given space as alternating chapters. In full form, their voices could have echoed against each other, amplifying the weight of their shared grief instead of being diluted in fragments.

The ending didn’t completely surprise me - the foreshadowing was strong - but it still managed to twist in a direction I hadn’t anticipated.

[Horror Reads]

There aren't any monsters in this novel. No supernatural entities, no eldritch gods seeking human flesh. Not even a serial killer in sight. No, this is a tragic, haunting, heart piercing novel spanning decades. And, in the exploration of its themes, lies the true horror.

Darla was only eleven when she begins a downward spiral towards a mental illness which eventually leads her bound to her bedroom refusing to even use the bathroom. Eventually, she's forced to get a lobotomy. But this "procedure" leaves her trapped in her mind, not remembering how to walk, eat, talk, read, or write.

As her parents start deteriorating mentally and emotionally, her older sister, Ellen, is forced to be her caretaker. We'll spend decades with these two and it's painful to read sometimes but still unforgettable.

The novel begins in 1972 and is dictated to Ellen from Darla near the end of her life. But there are also interjections from Ellen, things she remembers differently and some things which Darla remembers that Ellen denies.

There's a great deal of pain and guilt and grief in these pages and emotionally, it hits the mark perfectly for the reader. This is real life horror and because it's based in reality the feelings hit hard.

It's thoroughly engaging, extremely gut wrenching and I highly recommend it. I received an ARC of this book through Booksirens. This review is voluntary and is my own personal opinion.

[unstable.books]

In A Veritable Household Pet, we follow Darla Gregory, who has a double transorbital lobotomy at age 11 … yeah, already horrific. This novel is a devastating and deeply unsettling work of fiction. Told through the perspective of a "scribe" (Darla's sister Ellie) we watch the erasure of the girl Darla was and the woman she could have become. This story confronts the horrors of old medical butchery with a quiet, unwavering gaze. The choice to center the narrative to an observer heightens the emotional impact and what is lost is made painfully clear through what remains. Hampton's prose is precise, refusing melodrama and allowing the weight of the subject matter to speak for itself. The lobotomy is not a single act of violence but as a lifelong trauma, one that reshapes the family dynamic, turning care into an obligation and love into something tinged with grief and guilt. The book's title becomes increasingly chilling as the story unfolds, underscoring how easily autonomy is stripped away and reframed as necessity. This story is about medical and parental failures and the quiet ways a family can be ripped apart when forced to adapt to the unthinkable. A Veritable Household Pet is not an easy read, nor is it meant to be. It is, however, a powerful and necessary one, an indictment of medical abuse and a tender elegy for a girl who was grieved while still alive. Thank you to BookSirens for the ARC. You can pick this book up when it publishes January 28, 2025 wherever you buy your books!

[Leo]

I got the audiobook for review on netgally.
Have been wanting to read this book for a while but was not prepared for the emotional rollarcoster. I feelt frustration for what the characters went trough, angry at the parents and an overall sadness and gloom. I dont usually pick up book that makes me sad but it added to the horror of the lobotomi. A very impactful read.

[Haley Newlin]

A blistering indictment of patriarchal power — A Veritable Household Pet is a luminous, tragic, and unputdownable story of the nightmare that is the theft of autonomy and identity, a quiet and constant terror women know all too well.

Probably the most unputdownable book I read this year. Viggy is officially an auto-buy author for me.

Highly recommend for readers who enjoyed Slashed Beauties by A. Rushby

[The Blog Without a Face]

BWAF SINISTER SELECTION
BWAF Score: 7/10

TL;DR: This is a vicious little character study about what happens when a terrified girl gets fed into the meat grinder of mid-century psychiatry and family burnout, and somehow keeps shambling forward. It is not a fun time, but it is a gripping, gut-sick time, and if you like your horror grounded in real world cruelty, this is absolutely worth space on your shelf.

Viggy Parr Hampton has quietly been carving out a very specific niche: smart, nasty horror about institutions that say they will save you and instead chew you up. A Cold Night for Alligators went after public health and abandoned spaces, Much Too Vulgar took a bone saw to academic ambition, and The Rotting Room dragged faith through the crypt. A Veritable Household Pet feels like the most intimate of the bunch, less set piece fireworks and more slow vivisection. You can feel the author settling all the way into character voice here, letting the spectacle of the lobotomy and the Thorazine drool sit underneath the real horror, which is how casually everyone decides this girl is a problem to be managed rather than a person to be helped.

The book is framed as the life story of Darla Gregory, an eleven year old in the 1960s whose emetophobia is so severe she locks herself in her bedroom, lives with a shit bucket and red Jell-O, and eventually attempts suicide rather than risk vomiting again. Her parents, exhausted and broke, sign her up for a cheap transorbital lobotomy with a sleazy doctor. The procedure “fixes” her fear at the cost of almost everything else, leaving her a placid, childlike woman who gets shuffled from home to home as a kind of living responsibility. Around her, big sister Ellie grows into a surgeon, a wife, and a deeply angry narrator trying to make sense of the wreckage. The stakes are simple and horrible: Darla wants a life that is not ruled by terror; everyone around her wants a life that does not revolve around Darla. The collision of those wants feels like watching a slow train crash you cannot stop.

What makes this book special is the duet between Darla’s voice and Ellie’s “Scribe’s notes.” Darla tells her story in soft, looping, almost childlike prose, always slightly behind her own life, always minimizing how bad things were. Ellie drops in bracketed commentary like a scalpel, correcting details, confessing to petty cruelties, and admitting the kind of resentments most families pretend do not exist. When Darla remembers a “good” relationship with her sister, Ellie cuts in to admit that she saw Darla as a needy, squeaky wheel who sucked all the oxygen out of the house. When Darla describes her parents as loving but confused, Ellie spells out the arguments through the thin walls, the money problems, the suicide attempt with the broken glass, the fact that Thorazine and lobotomy were as much about parental relief as patient care. The effect is fucking brutal: you are constantly forced to hold the version of events Darla can live with against the uglier truth Ellie insists on.

Hampton leans into a hybrid structure. You get Darla’s first person recollections, Ellie’s notes in a sharp, almost clinical first person of her own, and interludes of medical notes from smug psychiatrists and hack surgeons describing Darla like a case study instead of a human. The prose is clean but textured: Darla’s sections are simple, repetitive, and obsessive, circling germs and sickness and safety; Ellie’s are spiky, sarcastic, and tired; the doctors are full of detached jargon that reads like a long, dry shit of paternalism. The pacing is deliberately slow, especially in the middle stretch where Darla is trapped in her room, then trapped in her sedated haze, then trapped as a “household pet” in later homes. The drag feels intentional. You are meant to sit with the boredom and indignity of a life that never expands beyond the next caregiver, the next small humiliation.

This is absolutely medical horror, but not in the glossy “evil scientist in a basement” way. The lobotomy sequence is awful, yes, and the aftermath is full of bodily details that make you wince: the drooling, the weight gain, the bib, the shit bucket, the way a transorbital ice pick is treated like a routine office procedure to be done cheap and fast. Mostly, though, the book runs on emotional body shots. The horror lives in every casual decision to talk about Darla like she is furniture, every time a professional prioritizes cost over safety, every shrug when someone suggests dumping her in “a place.” It is not flashy, but it is steady and mean, and by the time a caregiver dies and Darla is left alone again, you feel like someone has been poking you in the ribs for two hundred pages.

This is a book about personhood, sisterhood, and the way caregivers get eaten alive by systems that offer them shit for support. Darla’s terror of vomiting maps easily onto any chronic mental illness: it makes sense internally, ruins her life externally, and gives everyone around her a weapon to use when they are tired. The lobotomy becomes a physical manifestation of what the family has been trying to do from the start: smooth her over, quiet her down, make her convenient. Ellie’s whole arc is built on guilt and resentment, torn between the doctor she becomes, who knows exactly how wrong this all was, and the teenager who once wished her sister would just disappear. The title is doing a lot of work. Darla is treated like a pet, an accessory, a burden that can be handed off, but she never stops being aware enough to notice the difference between love and management. The book sits in your gut like something you should probably throw up and cannot.

A Veritable Household Pet sits in that lane with books like The Bell Jar and The Vegetarian on one side and small press medical horror on the other, but meaner and more explicitly genre. It is not the loudest or flashiest, yet it feels like one of the more distinct takes on “institutional horror”, and it deepens Hampton’s whole project of dragging real world systems into the horror spotlight.

A fucked up, slow burning, quietly vicious medical horror that hits hard where it counts, and one I would recommend to anyone who wants their horror to feel uncomfortably, nauseatingly real.

Read if you crave horror that feels like a fucked up memoir; if you can handle detailed depictions of mental illness, bad psychiatry, and medical procedures; if you love sister dynamics that are tender and vicious at the same time.

Skip if you need fast pacing and big supernatural fireworks; if medical abuse and suicide attempts are hard no subjects; or if you require at least a mildly hopeful, neat ending rather than messy, realistic fallout.

[Jenni]

I stormed into this book the way I storm into my bestie’s DMs when she says “you’re not going to cope with this” — already sweating, already dramatic, already preparing to emotionally combust.

Darla Gregory is eleven when she’s lobotomised — eleven — and from that moment her life becomes a horror story stitched together by trauma, silence, and the kind of patriarchal cruelty that makes you want to flip a table. Her sister, the scribe, is trying to tell Darla’s story faithfully, but she’s also clearly one bad day away from burning the entire family tree to the ground.

Friend‑liner moment:
This book had me texting my imaginary therapist like “hey girl, we need an emergency session.”

The narrative device?
Genius.
It’s two voices at once — Darla’s fragmented, childlike, heartbreaking perspective, and her sister’s sharp, furious, exhausted commentary. It feels like reading a diary and a court transcript at the same time, and both are screaming.

The family dynamics?
Oh Jenni…
They’re so toxic VC Andrews would look up from the grave and say “tone it down.”
Every adult in this story is either complicit, cowardly, cruel, or catastrophically useless.
It’s generational rot with lipstick.

Friend‑liner moment:
If I had to live with these people, I’d simply walk into the woods and never return.

The horror?
It’s not monsters.
It’s not ghosts.
It’s the real‑world nightmare of medical abuse, stolen autonomy, and a system that treated girls like disposable experiments.
It’s body horror made worse by the fact that it actually happened to real children in history.

The tone?
A constant tug‑of‑war between hopelessness and determination.
Between “I can’t watch this” and “I can’t look away.”
Between wanting to scream and wanting to hug Darla through the page.

Friend‑liner moment:
This book didn’t just twist my guts — it rearranged them alphabetically.

The twist?
Gut‑punch.
The kind of twist that makes you sit upright, blink twice, and whisper “oh absolutely not” into the void.
It’s devastating, inevitable, and perfectly executed.

The vibe is:

historical horror with teeth

sisterhood forged in trauma

patriarchal indictment

body horror grounded in reality

rage‑fuelled tenderness

a narrative device that deserves awards

It’s brutal.
It’s beautiful.
It’s horrifying.
It’s heartbreaking.
It’s the kind of book you finish and immediately need to lie face‑down on the floor.

A 4‑star read — feral, tragic, brilliantly crafted, and emotionally catastrophic in the best way.

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading]

Wow. This was horrifying on so many levels. I am kind of speechless right now. Fantastic narration, deeply disturbing and well written story. It’ll shock you, upset you, and keep you thinking about how mental health has been treated in the past, and how it’s still mismanaged by the healthcare world and stigmatized by the general public to this day.

Thank you to the author, narrator, NetGalley, and Tantor Media for a copy!

[Jennifer]

WOWWW👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 absolutely riveting from beginning to end. It's not gore, supernatural, or anything extreme but very much a horror book based on reality which is always the scariest kind. I couldn't help but feel sad for everyone in this story, especially Darla and Ellie.

[Kendall Saunders]

Horror comes in many forms, which is one reason it is my favorite genre. A Veritable Household Pet is not your typical horror novel, this story is based on the true nightmare of the barbaric transorbital lobotomy which was a dark time in medical history. The loss of identity and bodily autonomy, the balance of unhealthy family dynamics, and just trying to live after trauma are just a few themes in this historical horror novel.

This book is devastating in every sense of the word, but wow, it is absolutely fantastic. I was locked in from the first word and it kept the same pace from start to finish. I loved the structure of this book with our “scribe”, who was older sister, Ellie. It was interesting to get dual POVs simultaneously, and did an incredible job of highlighting the struggles of both Darla and Ellie. While Darla was trapped in her own mind, losing her identity and cognitive function, Ellie was also struggling to live her own life while trying to go to the ends of the earth for her sister. Both girls had truly such tragic stories and my heart just broke for both of them the entire time.

Thank you so much to @viggyparrhampton for this eARC. I am beyond lucky that I was able to read this fantastic book before its release, and this story will live in my head rent free for eternity.

[Joshua Waselynchuk]

It's not everyday that a book stops me in my tracks and leaves me speechless, but this one. Yeah it did that.

This is a horror book, but a different type of horror, and it was so unique and I think that is also why I was so engaged with it.

We are following Darla and Ellie, sisters. As a young girl Darla has a sever phobia (it's also back in the 50s so different time), and her parents get her a lobotomy and needless to say ends up leaving her unable to care for herself. She is 11 when this happens.

The story is being told by Darla, through Ellie, so while we have Darlas parts, the story breaks out to Ellie to come in and fill in the spots that Darla isn't aware of.

We follow this family that just begins to crumble and life moving forward with someone who needs constant care.

I went through anger, shock, happiness and sadness while reading this.

I loved it.

[Rebecca]

I received this book as an audio arc from NetGalley. Thank you to all involved!

This audiobook was a 5/5 experience. Despite the 2 POVs I had no issues with comprehension. It was well done and I enjoyed it a lot !

I rated this book 4.5 out of 5 stars.

I loved:
🧠 I enjoy a historical fiction dealing with the treatment of women’s mental health- this is one I would recommend to anyone else who likes this topic.
🧠I enjoyed the way this was written like a letter with Darla’s POV but then with her sister Ellie’s pov after. I think the audio book did this really well and it was never confusing on who you were hearing from.
🧠I was able to connect with Darla and Ellie and I enjoyed their entire story. I finished this in a day because I was so invested.

I’ve read a few other books by this author and I’ve enjoyed them all but this was my favorite. I will say it’s less horror more horrifying if that makes sense. I would definitely recommend this audio book !

[Brandi]

Well, I can safely say this is one of the BEST books this year!

I am sitting here at 2pm, stunned, shocked, saddened, and many other emotions I can and cannot identify. I am both hating and loving what I listened to. I am sobbing. I am numb, I am angry. I just….ugh! And I suppose that’s what this book is supposed to do. Release these raw and visceral emotions to the trauma you felt as you navigate stage after stage of this book.

First off, this book is not for the weak It may not be suitable for all audiences. I recommend reading the tropes and themes and warnings before diving in. It says horror, but it’s not horror in the way we think of a general horror novel. This is pure medical horror. I have a medical background so I found this story both fascinating and horrendous at the same time.

Now don’t get me wrong, I loved this book. It’s told in a journal format from the POV of Darla, an 11 year old, who suffered mental illness and had been forcibly lobotomized by her parents after being promised by doctors it would ‘cure’ her. But Darla was never the same again. It contains footnotes and additions from her sister, Ellie, who acted as her caretaker for some of her life. It chronicles her life from around age 11 to her late 40’s. (60’s to the early 2000’s I believe).

This book evokes so many emotions in me as a mom, as a human, as a medical professional. It is so disturbing that you want to jump through the pages (or screen) and slap someone and intervene to save this poor girl. What happened to Darla should have never happened and I felt immensely sorry for her. Her parents were despicable, Her sister was indifferent. The guys? Well, I’ll let you read that for yourself. Everyone around her failed her. EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON! That’s the true horror of this story.

The ending! OH EM GEE!!! I didn’t expect that. I could have seen one aspect coming, but not the exact end! Yeah, that was rough! I cried so much!

I would say this book is medium to fast paced. It starts strong and keeps building until the end. I was sobbing by the time the book ended. Again, pacing is consistent. The plot was excellent! I’ve not had a book pull me in like this in a long time. The story is very well written. I would definitely read this author’s other stories. It was so well written that you wonder if it really is a true story or not.

Narration was amazing. I felt as if the characters were speaking to me themselves. I suppose that speaks volumes.

I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone!

Tropes/themes: mental disorders and illnesses, forced medical procedures, permanent disability, dehumanization of a disabled person, medical trauma, autonomy, family dynamics, toxic family, sexual coercion/assault, caregiver fatigue, resentment, jealousy

Thank you NetGalley and Tantor

[Carissa | the.grim.readers]

This was the kind of horror that slowly, creepily seeps into your mind and showcases how raw, real and uncomfortable life can be. I was absolutely captivated by this story from the start and, after loving another of this author’s books, had a feeling I would enjoy it as much as I did.

As someone working in neurology the premise was not only fascinating but also fantastically researched and executed. The lobotomy procedure is one that seems in such distant past times to most, but truly is that far from reality for some people today. This author writes the kind of horror that crawls under your skin rather than screams in your face, which I love. Bravo to Viggy for another fantastic book!

[gracie]

That feeling when you finish a book and it was so good you have nothing to say?? That's me right now.

A horror novel where the horror is set in reality and how horrific it is being disabled and existing in a body that doesn't do what you wish it would, how humans will take advantage of you and how it all affects the people around you too. I teared up reading this, the ending especially.

Thank you Netgalley and Tantor Media for the alc in exchange for an honest review

[luceski]

This is the kind of horror that doesn’t lurk in the shadows - it sits right at the kitchen table and stares you down.

The story follows two sisters growing up in a home where fear, neglect and “treatment” take on a whole new meaning. Darla’s severe phobia rules her world, and the family’s response sends everything tipping slowly, steadily into darker territory. It touches on outdated psychiatric practices, family dysfunction and the way children quietly take on the weight their parents couldn’t (or wouldn’t) carry.

Ellie, especially, feels painfully real: a kid trying to protect her sister while surviving a home that gives her nothing in return.

There’s a quiet dread threaded through the whole book - hints that something is building, that life in that house can’t stay the same forever. The real horror isn’t supernatural at all - it’s what people insist is “help” and the damage left behind in its name.

It blows my mind that lobotomies were once considered a fix for “neurosis.” Very Bell Jar vibes. Truly grateful I wasn’t born in that era - I’d have been labelled “unwell” for just… existing.

[Kayleigh Marie]

This book absolutely blew me away. It was so well done I can’t even articulate a proper review just quite yet but … this is one of those books that will haunt you long after the last page.

[David Washburn]

I had to honor to meet Viggy Parr Hampton at a book event and had heard nothing but great things of her work leading up to this first impression read. Also, I was going in mostly blind.

This story starts as what feels like a journaling of a woman named Darla, who undergoes an illegal lobotomy and is rendered a fraction of the human she should be. The very real history is highlighted with a tone of precaution and in the formatting of this story I felt like a voyeur in someone else’s tragedy in slow motion as the entirety of a person’s life was captured.

What hooked me was the format, for sure. It was like reading one girl’s unfiltered perspective and then having this immediate payoff of an older sister correcting and setting the record straight. It felt at times snarky, and would come off satirical if there weren’t rage teeming from those bits.

I won’t say much else about the story or where it goes but I wholly enjoyed this in a way that feels a tad inappropriate. Even with it being fiction it still feels connected to very real experiences that I’m sure may have not been much different than this.

Viggy did an incredible job capturing a tone and carrying it through an ending that I needed a minute to sit with.

This book is profound, speculative, and in proximity… nothing short of terrifying.

Well done.

[Blaiz Ferrel]

This book was HEARTBREAKINGLY traumatic. And I mean that in the most literal sense. 😭

This isn't your typical horror story. This is the kind of horror that was a very real reality inside some families' homes, and the devastating trauma that can domino from it.

It was HEAVY. Gut wrenching. Beautifully done. And honestly, the kind of story that makes you sit with your thoughts long after you've finished reading.

The characters were complex, the family dynamics were painfully compelling, and knowing the history behind it all made every moment hit that much harder. I was not prepared.

This is one of those books that reminds you horror doesn't always need monsters, ghosts, or supernatural forces. Sometimes the most terrifying stories are the ones rooted in real human cruelty and the lasting damage it leaves behind.

At just eleven years old, Darla Gregory underwent a lobotomy that changed her life forever. Told through her sister's account, this haunting story explores a family's complicated history, the devastating consequences of a very real medical practice, and the trauma that echoes through generations. Based on painful historical truths and complex characters

Viggy Parr Hampton, you absolutely broke my heart with this one. I know this story will stay with me for a LONG, long time. 🖤

[Joana Marta]

This audiobook completely took over my time over the last couple of days. The storytelling is just so well-crafted and immersive, keeping a steady layer of suspense that holds you right through to the very end.

The plot really delivers on every level, but the narrator’s performance is what makes it truly stick with you. Her delivery is grounded, precise, and brings so much nuance to the experience.

An incredible listen from start to finish. I'm still fairly new to audiobooks, but this one set the bar seriously high.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[domsbookden]

DNF 48%

I think this is one of those cases where a novel is labeled as horror but it doesn't read as horror. It has darker/unsettling content, but the mere presence of that type of content doesn't automatically make a novel horror to me. It has more of a general, slice-of-tragic-life litfic feel to it and that's not the type of story I'm interested in reading. It's definitely subversive and can be disturbing for some, but it unfortunately didn't capture my attention enough to continue.

Readers who enjoyed Where I End by Sophie White, The Witch in the Well by Camilla Bruce, and maybe Carrion Crow by Heather Parry will have a better time with this read.

[Shae Bentley]

5⭐️

[Chandler]

A Veritable Household Pet is a historical horror novel about the absolutely real and barbaric transorbital lobotomies performed in the 40s-60s. The era when people really said, “What if we just…stabbed the brain a little?” And then did it…. A lot.

We follow Darla, a young girl who gets the procedure for neurosis, and she comes out… different. Better? Worse? Depends on who you ask. Her sister Ellie; our scribe and historian definitely has thoughts. Many of them conflicting. All of them simmering under the pressure of suddenly being her sister’s caregiver.

One thing I genuinely love about this author is how much I learn while reading her works. In this instance, she uses a very real medical practice to show just how terrifyingly fragile the brain is. How it controls emotion, memory, learning, balance… all the little things that make you you. The medical and historical detail is top tier and kept me equal parts fascinated and horrified. The horror is in the loss of bodily autonomy and control of the mind. Also in the absolute audacity of men. The terror of medicinal malpractice/ignorance can’t be glossed over either.

The family conflict is brutal and heartbreaking. The fallout of Darla’s procedure is catastrophic not just for her, but for everyone around her. The depiction of caregiving for someone who is almost incapacitated is painfully explored. Ellie’s emotions are raw, ugly, honest. There were moments when I gasped at her bluntness, but also… yeah, I got it. You really can’t help but ask: Is it harder to be the person who doesn’t fully understand what’s happened, or the one who has to carry the grief and the memories? I still don’t know, but I’ll be thinking about it for a while.

The feminist angle and the sisterhood themes were superb. I loved the dynamic between the sisters; one forever changed and the other left to stitch herself together while holding up everyone else. Both women are incredibly strong, just in completely different (and sometimes unhinged) ways. My allegiances switched back and forth like six times, and I love that. Give me moral ambiguity every day.

The diary/scribe format threw me for a second but once I settled in, it absolutely worked. The contrast in perspectives, the little scribe notes correcting or reframing the events… it all added an intriguing layer to the dynamic. Since it is in a diary format, it’s written rather conversational in tone which can be a hit or miss to me but in this context it works at adding authenticity.

Thank you to Viggy Parr Hampton for the gifted eARC— all opinions are my own.

[Shelby]

I read this book as part of an ARC. I had not heard of Viggy Parr Hampton prior to joining the ARC site I’m currently on, but after reading a Cold Night for Alligators I knew she was going to become a favorite author. Since reading that first book I have joined every ARC I could for her.

The Veritable Household Pet did not disappoint. The structure of this novel was intriguing from the beginning and the characters so well developed. I felt discomfort and know more about lobotomies than I ever thought it would.

In the acknowledgment section she writes, “Horror can be gory, sure, but it can also be quiet, profound, uncomfortable, disgusting, taboo, mournful, and thrilling. As a genre, horror pushes you to confront terrifying scenarios and sit with that discomfort until you break through to the other side, changed for the experience.” This summarizes the feelings I felt while reading this novel perfectly. I will never be able to recommend this book or any of her other novels enough.

[Ben Young]

This book twisted my guts, my heart, and my head. There’s toxic family dynamics that would make VC Andrews blush. There’s body horror made all the worse by its historical accuracy. There’s the ingenious device Hampton uses to tell the story from two POVs simultaneously. Plus, there’s this constant competition in tone between hopelessness and determination. All underscored by the knowledge that this exact story may very well have occurred in reality. So that’s the scariest part…all the ingredients existed for this story to be true. Something precisely like this probably did happen somewhere, sometime. What could be more tragic than that?

[Mikka Chapman]

Wow! Thank you for the ARC! This is a horror story in the sense that it could really happen and probably did in the time of lobotomies being a popular procedure.

The downfall of characters was shocking and sad at times. I was raising my eyebrows several times and going back to reread it to make sure I read it correctly.

The dual perspective simultaneously was a very different but also great addition to the overall story. This may be a scarier horror story because it’s about what people are capable of doing that affects another’s life for the rest of the life.

[Trina 🖤]

OMG!
I can’t remember the last time a book captivated me so completely. I may have stayed up way too late, eating it up!

Trama, trama trama! The utterly disgusting practices done in honor of ‘helping’ mental illness in the earlier days is nothing short of barbaric. Especially when children are concerned.

A living nightmare wrapped in an extremely toxic family dynamic, A Veritable Household Pet touches on realistic events, pulls at the heart strings and delivers horror beyond belief.

I can’t recommend this book enough!!

[KDub]

4.5 🌟 rounded up

While it may not be a traditional horror story, A Veritable Household Pet is truly horrifying in its own way. Once I started, I could not stop reading this book. I was so drawn into Darla and Ellie’s history and the unique way it was presented. There is so much trauma endured by the two girls as they grow up. It’s like a train wreck that you can’t look away from. The entire book is gut-wrenching, and I highly recommend it!

Recommended for fans of psychological & historical horror.

Thank you to BookSirens and Viggy Par Hampton for the eARC.