This book is a mess. The only reason it got three stars is that it kept me interested enough to finish it. ( )

"This is my home," she said. "And you're just passing through it."

Shocking and gritty - this one pulled me in and never let up.

Vera has been called back home. Her mom is sick and her father's already gone. She needs to help her mom and work on the house before she is gone. Because Vera's family isn't like other families. They have a past - with this town and with this house. And Vera needs to try to protect her family before it all goes wildly out of control.

It's great to go into this one a little blind. I did this as an audio book and I can't recommend the narrator enough - it was so good! I liked letting the secrets and the twists slowly reveal themselves. I found the reveals shocking and I didn't anticipate any twists, I was so sucked into the story!

This one was great, I can't wait to read more from this author! ( )

Starting off, this book was not for me. What caught my attention was the gothic-esqe haunted house, troubled protagonist with a dark past, and family secrets. The pacing is slow and repetitive, and there were a lot of areas in which I had trouble visualizing and understanding what I was reading. The story is much more focused on the internal struggle of the main character than the environment she is in, which is fine, but it didn't work for me. In the end, I felt like I still wasn't entirely clear on the motivations of the protagonist, and while it seemed to have a resolution, it fell rather flat.

It is difficult to write about this book without giving anything away. I would recommend for readers who enjoy a slow-burn and are open to supernatural stories. I will say that the final quarter of the book is where it finally picks up, but there is a lot of trudging through the first three quarters to get there.

Thank you Netgalley and Tor Books for an eARC of this title! ( )

Serial killer dads, mean mothers & creepy houses.

Don’t think I could stand hearing the word “grease” one more time.
The cover is stunning and that’s what drew me in.
But for me this was just ok - I also feel like it could have been cut down a lot. ( )

Too slow. ( )