Hannah C > Recent Status Updates

I bought this after reading the sample. It’s a fun take on a modern fantasy haunted house tale. All characters and happenings seem surface level for now, but I’m early on in the book. I don’t really feel it pulls the reader into its world quite as much as I’d like, & that may be because the haunted factor of the house is made clear in the outset rather than becoming a realization later in the story.

Toggling between this & You Watched in Silence. Other book has won for now but it’s slow pacing has me looking back to this. Thinking of picking it back up this weekend.

What happens when a super fan w/a dark past gets a job w/her influencer idol? An attractive but detached husband, two children who are more Wednesday than sunshine, a loyal assistant & a quiet chef. & there’s pentagrams popping up in the woods. I’m enjoying the believably written characters & the gentle but surprising twists so far & am so ready for this story to break from a trot to a run- slow build for sure.

I’m enjoying how seamlessly the author works the supernatural into the story. Little bits & pieces at first then full blown ghost apparitions who request items be brought to the new home to reunite the family line of those passed on, & a white deer that may be another form of the apparition! Now the forest girl is tracking her mother’s dive down into the esoteric that occurred shortly before her disappearance!

I love how the beginning of this book pulls you in with believable dialog & moody forest ambiance. Two city teachers move out to picturesque, bucolic rural settings with a dream of building their own salt box house. Darling concept, but will they succeed? Also what’s with the motherless daughter who is so willing to help? She sure spends a lot of time in those woods…

So the writing is great but I really don’t like that all our heroines in this tale are operating from “unalive” status. A little too dark & it’s bumming me out. Shelved for now.

The main character and narrator of this story is written with such terrifying authenticity you truly feel like you’re inside the mind of that one girl from HS whose crushes were concerningly intense. To wit, I have said to myself “omg wtf” at least 8x times already. Plus now she’s just found out her current obsession is hiding a bloody weapon? Omg wtf!! Twisty terrifying throughly weird & I’m loving it!

Oh no, where’d Amaya go?? Also, Amaya’s vivid flashback with character development, as well as the first creepy twist when Cassidy calls the mystery text number, & the cellphone she found on the beach RINGS(?!). Who sent the text? 😳

Pausing progress to switch to my other current read. Nice & creepy so far though!