Hush Little Hauntings

by Marie Croke

Model Home meets Delicate Condition in this hauntingly original gothic horror about a mysterious midwife tasked with delivering hauntings who must uncover the truth behind her newest patient’s uncanny birth before it tears her world apart.

Within Midhouse, a secluded manor deep in the woods, midwife Halie has a strange calling: overseeing the births of hauntings. Each arrives as an uncanny miniature—perfect replicas of places steeped in pain and unresolved wrongs. And once nestled within Midhouse’s walls, they reach ghostly fingers back into the world, seeking justice and retribution.

When Midhouse’s newest patient, Isabelle, arrives, Halie expects a routine birth, but the house-child is fragile, incomplete in a way she’s never seen. Halie suspects Isabelle is hiding a dangerous secret. Then strange men arrive at her door—and Midhouse changes.

Corridors lengthen, rooms disappear, and Midhouse itself becomes hostile. To survive, Halie must uncover the truth behind Isabelle’s arrival before she’s lost in a haunting of her own

Genres: Horror, Gothic, Adult, Fiction, Haunted House, Horror Thriller, Fantasy

Kindle Edition

Expected publication March 2, 2027

Reviews

[BonniePB · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome to Midhouse where you can expect to give birth to your precious baby haunted house in peace and safety. Halie will be your capable midwife and take over custody as soon as your little dollhouse is born so that it can get to work cultivating your revenge while you get on with your life!

Yes, this is what Hush Little Hauntings is about: Haunted houses made from the traumas of their birth mothers. It’s a story of feminine victimhood and rage wrapped up in ludicrous packaging, but somehow manages to be uncomfortably horrifying instead of silly. Midhouse is a sentient house as are the little mini haunted houses, or “house-children”. The house-children are a unique and creative way to see what trauma looks like, show how it feels, and how to reconcile with it.

That being said, I’m not sure the book entirely resonated with me in the end. The pace and plot got a little uneven and muddy in the back half for me. I think Halie and Isabelle were good enough protagonists, but Halie felt inconsistent at times in her characterization and Isabelle felt flat. I needed more from them as individuals in order for their eventual connection to fully impact me.

A solid debut, and a great option for readers looking for an exceptional haunted house story.

Thanks to Saga Press for the eARC via NetGalley.

[Maria Dong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Croke has achieved the impossible in this lush and lyrical book: a truly original haunted house story that will keep readers on their tip-toes as they try to guess what comes next. Hush Little Hauntings is poignant, startling, and tender—and sure to thrill fans of Sarah Gailey, Gwendolyn Kiste, and Carmen Maria Machado.

[Rudi McKay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hush Little Hauntings by Marie Croke was exactly the kind of strange, atmospheric horror that gets under my skin. The idea of a secluded manor where hauntings are literally born is creepy enough, but Midhouse itself becomes increasingly terrifying as corridors stretch, rooms disappear, and something feels very, very wrong.

I loved the eerie concept of these miniature haunted places carrying the pain and wrongs of the past. Halie and Isabelle’s story pulled me deeper into the mystery, and the whole book has this wonderfully unsettling, dreamlike quality that made me want to keep reading even when I knew things were getting darker.

This was creepy, gothic, weird, and beautifully unsettling. Five stars from me!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[Ai Jiang]

My blurb for the book!

HUSH LITTLE HAUNTINGS is a lilting, lyrical shroud filled with echoing voices that desire to be heard. Croke crafts an unsettling and intimate tale of trauma, loneliness, suppression, but also one of overcoming, reclamation, and the courage to tear down and rebuild.

[Jessica King · Rating 5 out of 5]

🪵👶 BOOK REVIEW: Hush Little Hauntings by Marie Croke 🏚️👀

Release Date: March 2nd, 2027 🗓️
 
If you’re looking for a gothic horror that is completely original, deeply unsettling, and beautifully written, you need to add this debut to your 2027 TBR immediately. It feels like "Delicate Condition" meets "The Spite House"—creepy, atmospheric, and utterly unforgettable. 
 
The Premise:
Deep in the woods sits Midhouse, a secluded manor with a very strange purpose. Halie is a midwife there, but she doesn't deliver human babies—she oversees the births of hauntings. Each haunting arrives as a perfect, miniature replica of a physical location steeped in human pain and unresolved trauma. Once "born" inside Midhouse, these miniature house-children reach out into the world to seek vengeance. 
Everything changes when a new patient named Isabelle arrives. The house-child she gives birth to is fragile and incomplete, signaling that Isabelle is hiding a dark, dangerous secret. Soon, strange men show up at the door, and Midhouse turns hostile—the corridors begin to stretch, rooms vanish, and the house itself turns against them. Halie must uncover the truth before a haunting of her own swallows her.
 
My Thoughts:
Wow. The world-building in this book is absolutely breathtaking. The concept of delivering miniature, physical manifestations of trauma and grief as "house-children" is one of the most unique magic/horror systems I've read in years. Croke’s background in short fiction shines through here—the pacing is incredibly tight, and the prose is lush, dark, and deeply emotional.
The shifting architecture of Midhouse creates an incredible sense of claustrophobia. You truly feel trapped alongside Halie as the stakes escalate. It’s a brilliant examination of how we carry trauma, wrapped up in a genuinely terrifying haunted house story.
 
Thank you to Saga Press for the early digital review copy! 🖤

[Jensen McCorkel · Rating 3.5 out of 5]

The premise is what initially caught my attention. A secluded manor where a midwife oversees the births of miniature haunted houses, each born from trauma and harboring its own dark secrets, is such an unusual and imaginative concept. The idea that these tiny, living hauntings can seek retribution for the suffering that brought them into existence adds a particularly unsettling twist to the traditional haunted-house story. It’s eerie, surreal, and full of potential, blending gothic horror with a strong sense of psychological unease.

The mystery surrounding the strange house-child and the arrival of the mysterious men adds another layer of intrigue. There are plenty of questions to keep you guessing, and I enjoyed the uncertainty surrounding what was really happening and what secrets might be lurking beneath the surface. I also appreciated the themes of trauma, feminine rage, and the desire for justice woven throughout the story. The idea that these miniature houses embody the suffering of the women connected to them gives the supernatural elements a deeper significance, making them more than just a source of creepiness.

That said, the unusual premise can be confusing at times. Understanding how hauntings are born, what they can do, why they seek retribution, and how the manor itself operates is essential to making sense of the story, but the rules aren’t always clearly explained. There’s a lot of world-building to establish, and I would have liked more depth and development when it came to the characters. Still, the story explores powerful themes of trauma, victimhood, anger, and retribution, which complement the compelling characters and intriguing plot. Despite some of the confusion, the imaginative premise and underlying ideas make for an interesting and unsettling read.

Overall, Hush Little Hauntings is an imaginative and unsettling read with a wonderfully bizarre premise, an intriguing mystery, and some thought-provoking themes. While the world-building could have been clearer and the characters more developed, I appreciated the blend of gothic horror, psychological unease, and supernatural elements. It may have left me with a few questions, but its originality and exploration of trauma, feminine rage, and retribution made it an interesting story with plenty to think about.

[Lexi Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s something deeply unsettling about Hush Little Hauntings by Marie Croke, and it’s not just the creepy manor or the ever-changing hallways. It’s the idea that pain, grief, and the things people do to us can take on a life of their own. This book takes that concept and turns it into something wonderfully strange, dark, and haunting.

Midhouse was easily my favorite part of the story. A place where women give birth to miniature haunted houses that carry their trauma and seek justice is such a bizarre, imaginative concept, yet somehow it works incredibly well. The gothic atmosphere is thick from the beginning, and as the house starts behaving in increasingly disturbing ways, I found myself questioning what was real and what horrors were waiting around the next corner.

I also appreciated the deeper meaning woven into the supernatural elements. Beneath all the eerie imagery is a story about the weight women carry, the damage caused by cruelty and abuse, and the anger that can grow when justice is never served. The horror feels especially effective because there is so much truth hiding beneath the fantastical premise.

While I occasionally found myself wishing for a little more clarity and character development, the originality of the story more than made up for it. Croke has created something that feels fresh in a genre filled with haunted houses, and I loved how unsettling and unpredictable the whole experience was.

If you enjoy atmospheric gothic horror with a touch of the bizarre, a sentient house, and a premise that lingers in your mind long after you finish reading, this one deserves a spot on your list. Strange, imaginative, and deliciously creepy, Hush Little Hauntings is a memorable debut that proves sometimes the most terrifying things are the ones we carry inside ourselves.

[Winnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Hush Little Hauntings Halie and her manor house Midhouse stand ready to help mothers birth house-children. Isabelle shows up ready to pop. Shortly after, creepy guys show up looking for her and Midhouse turns from a nice comforting place to a hostile spooky place. Halie has to figure out what’s going on before she ends up dead.

It is an interesting concept for sure. The house-children find a spot on Midhouse’s walls, settle in, and then haunt those who are responsible for the trauma that brought them into being. I really like that idea. There are too many times in real life that we see horrible people go unpunished. The idea is terrifying, but since this is a work of fiction, I can sit back and enjoy the idea of awful people getting their comeuppance.

Halie is an interesting character, and as the story goes on we get chapters dedicated to her past to understand her better. I found myself liking Isabelle more than Halie over the course of the read, but there were some times that I wanted to just yell at both of them to stop keeping secrets and talk. Not that they really have much of a chance, once the action starts it just keeps on going. Isabelle’s secretiveness made sense to start, but after things started getting weird I got frustrated with her still not trusting Halie. I would have liked it to feel more like Halie choosing to help instead of being thrown into the situation.
Overall though, it was a great quick read which makes it perfect for spooky season. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a unique take on justice.

Thank you NetGalley and Saga Press for giving me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Kirsten Callahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hush Little Hauntings is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. It explores the sisterhood found within trauma, despair, and grief, the things women carry within themselves and, sometimes, for one another. It examines how that pain grows, where it festers, and how we either birth it into something new or finally release it from ourselves.

Through an eerily realistic yet completely otherworldly depiction of birth—and the idea that what haunts us can eventually become a haunting itself—this story weaves a beautiful and unsettling tapestry of what women endure and continue to endure. It explores the burdens we carry, the ways trauma shapes us, and how some men unfairly attempt to capitalize on women’s pain.

This is truly one you have to read for yourself and allow yourself to settle into. At its heart is an understanding of a kind of sisterhood that, as women, we all come to know in one way or another.

I could not put this book down. It is beautifully written, deeply complex, and such an interesting exploration of what we harbor within ourselves and how we continue carrying it until we are finally ready to let go.

[Priscilla Calvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gothic, atmospheric journey into women’s trauma and how we hold and birth those traumas in due time.

Halie, the FMC, is a midwife who lives in Midhouse and has been assisting in haunting births for a very long time. She finds herself challenged when a woman shows up who isn’t what she seems. As Halie navigates the birthing and everything that comes after, she looks inward toward her own feelings and need for connection with someone or something beyond Midhouse and the hauntings she looks after.

From the first haunting birth, this book grabs the reader and holds them captive as an audience or perhaps a witness to the traumas and horrors the women who come to Midhouse are carrying. This story is not for the faint of heart and you may find reflections of yourself in the hauntings that dwell in Midhouse. I truly enjoyed the idea of each trauma being birthed as a replica of the building where they happened and the mini tales of different hauntings woven in between the actual story chapters. This book will defy social norms and really explore the darkness of how trauma haunts us and what we will do to be rid of it.

[Rebecca Holt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I genuinely do not know what I just read. Hush Little Hauntings by Marie Croke was a literary fever dream that had me begrudgingly crawling to its “finish line.”

If you love the very idea of Wild by Cheryl Strayed and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland procreating a literary novel — this book is for you. It was deeply introspective, too philosophical, and, many times, hard to read for me to enjoy this “love child.” This author’s mind created a storyline of women who birth houses containing the hauntings of traumas for revenge. Yes. BIRTHING. HOUSES. I almost gave the book 4/5 stars for because of how out there that very concept is… I spent the entire book wondering if I had missed several VERY important chapters and or rereading sentences on pages over and over again.

I appreciate symbolism, explorations of trauma, and unconventional storytelling. But there’s a difference between making me think and making me repeatedly ask, what the actual **** am I reading?

Horror? I could not find it… I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t unsettled. I was CONFUSED. This was less a horror novel and more an existential crisis in book form, which made me question my reading comprehension.

[natalielikesbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

”It wasn’t their fault. Born of trauma, created to haunt, the very purpose of their existence putting them ill at ease as their natural state. Which is why Halie and Midhouse were here: to be the voices of reason among the pain, reliable when the world felt as if it were crumbling.”

This was a perfect mix of gothic horror, fantasy, and haunted houses. There is a lot of world building in this story so it can get a bit confusing but that confusion will eventually fade away. One things for sure, women are coming to Midhouse (which is a sentient house) to give birth to house-children…like actual miniature hauntings/houses😳 which represents trauma and pain. It was such an interesting and unique concept I’ve never seen before in a book! There was a mystery aspect to the story with Isabelle that does keep you hooked cuz you want to know wth is going on and why?! I definitely felt there was a deeper meaning behind the actual story but I don’t want to assume, especially when the book isn’t out yet but if I’m right, I really appreciated and loved the deeper meaning.

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press for the arc.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 ⭐️
📖 ARC

While I haven’t found a book out there that quite compares to Hush Little Hauntings, I have to say I was a little disappointed with this one.

I just never really connected with any of the characters, even as their stories slowly unraveled throughout the book. I kept waiting for that moment where everything would click and I’d become invested, but unfortunately… nope.

The most compelling part for me was the mini hauntings. Honestly, I almost wish I could have visited each haunting myself and gotten a glimpse into why each one was created rather than just where they were housed to haunt. The little visions we did get were eerie, graphic, and absolutely the kind of creepy shit that had me wanting more.

So while this is definitely a great spooky read and there were parts that genuinely pulled me in, the overall story lost me a little. I wanted to be more invested in the characters and the bigger picture, but for me, the hauntings were definitely the star of the show.

[Jada · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Saga Press fore approving me for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

To start off, I really did enjoy the lush prose and the creepy atmospheric setting! The idea of women giving birth to their hauntings really drew me in. The fact that these house-children were their justice when laws failed them hooked me IMMEDIATELY. I will say I do wish this was a bit longer 😭 don’t get me wrong I’ll never complain if a book is short and sweet, not wanting to be drawn out I do wish we explored Halie and Midhouse just a bit more, but I still enjoyed the story as well as Isabelle’s side. Now, I will say I was highly suspicious of Isabelle from the get-go and didn’t end trusting her until like 83% in 😭 but I did enjoy her dynamic with Halie. While I didn’t love this like I wanted to, I still liked it for the original premise and lush prose.

If you’re looking for something short with a spooky atmosphere, I recommend checking this out once it gets published! ♥️

[Autumn Ketchum · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Firstly I would like to say I really enjoyed the premise and idea of women carrying trauma and abuse and in turn, creating and giving birth to haunted houses to haunt the person who did them wrong. That is so different and smart, what a great idea. I loved the visuals of the different haunted houses and how cool Midhouse was, I was very invested in that relationship. Gothic horror, so this was a slow burn. I did enjoy it, but I didn’t feel like I was as invested as I should have been with what was going on. I too got a little bit lost with everything that was going on, just like the characters. But still all in all, a good read. Thank you, NetGalley and Saga Press for the arc!

[Audra Michael · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

Thank you to Net galley and Saga Press for the advanced ARC. Pub Date: Mar 2, 2027

This book had a very unique premise. Women come to give birth to "hauntings", and those hauntings are free to leave the home and wreak havoc on those that may have wronged them. This book is short and fast paced, though I felt quite a bit of the story was confusing. I liked the story and the uniqueness of it, but there was so much happening it was hard to keep up.

I am giving this book 3.75 stars, because I did enjoy the book, and it was the most unique premise I have ever read.

[Josh Escandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, thank you to Saga Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, for the free e-copy of Hush Little Hauntings by Marie Croke for review. I loved reading Hush Little Hauntings; it was a very unique gothic twist on the themes of trauma. Women come to this secluded manor to deliver their "hauntings" with help from the midwife Halie. I loved Halie as the primary voice of the book, and I loved the concept; I thought the novel told an important issue in a very cool way. The pacing was a bit slow, but it matched the atmosphere needed for the novel, of being trapped in a massive shifting house.

[LauraxChristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. This was an incredibly unique way of conveying the horror and trauma ones suffer (in the underlying story). I have read similar books with girls homes being the topic, but that is where the similarities start and end. There is nothing like this out there, that I have read anyway. Though I wasn't emotionally invested in the characters, neither of them were particularly likeable, I was invested in the entire plot. This was a great start to my spooky season!

[Melissa Barnes · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Saga Press for the ARC!

Hush Little Hauntings was exactly the vibe I was looking for during spooky season. Haunted houses built from the trauma of birth mother’s?! I was here for it! I loved the gothic atmosphere, the intriguing storyline, and most of all…the femenine rage.

[NICOLE MAZUREK 🥀 · Rating 3.75 out of 5]

I am not sure if it was me being the issue but I was just bored honestly.
I lived for the hauntings segment but nothing else was really keeping my attention so I kept reading for that.
The idea was there, women birthing their trauma quite literally was good but it didn’t really translate well I think.

[Ronnica Fatt · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a well-drawn horror world where women can birth their trauma into house-children. Gothic, but the horrors are very familiar to women living in a patriarchal society, to the point that this world though invented feels very real.

Thank you Saga Press for the review copy.

[Nicole P · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

haunting and lyrical, this is a short read that packs a punch. full of feminine rage but wrapped in the package of a haunted house that just won’t let you out. a mind bending read but with a story that ties together neatly by the end.

[Geertje · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can tell this author has a lot of experience with short stories (complimentary).

[Cassidy]

Thanks to Saga Press and NetGalley for this ARC! Hush Little Hauntings by Marie Croke comes out on March 2, 2027.