Well, I finally managed to read a bit of a disappointing spooky read this month. I wanted to love this book so much, but it just missed the mark.
The story starts with mother (Ruth) and daughter (Jane) traveling across the country to move into Ruth’s childhood home in Maine. Jane hates it there. It’s cold, she misses her dad, who just passed away, and the house is creepy.
I can’t really give you more details than that, or I’ll end up spoiling the story. I felt, though, that the plot was lacking some beefy information that would help to propel it along.
The Mother-Daughter Relationship was really odd. It felt more like two estranged friends living together. I would have liked the author to develop that relationship more. We never really get answers as to why they are so odd with each other. It just felt empty.
The extra characters in the story ended up not bringing a lot of information or excitement to the story. We meet a lot of people, but they just felt like side-fluff as the story progressed.
The spooky atmosphere was there in spots, but ended up being really weird towards the end. I thought it was going to be a book I needed to read with the lights on and my back against the wall, but in the end, I was able to just move forward in the story. The spooky parts ended so quickly, my heart never got a chance to begin pounding in anticipation.
The ending was really disappointing. It felt rushed, and left so much for the reader to question and wonder about. Sometimes endings like that really work, and I find myself thinking about the book for days, trying to work through what happened. In Horrid though, I just kind of shut the book and moved on.
Overall, I enjoyed this book a lot less than I wanted to. I didn’t connect with the characters and found myself wading through so many side-stories that I lost interest in what was happening.
Where to Find This Book:
Horrid by Katrina Leno is available at these sites.
From the author of You Must Not Miss comes a haunting contemporary horror novel that explores themes of mental illness, rage, and grief, twisted with spine-chilling elements of Stephen King and Agatha Christie.
Following her father’s death, Jane North-Robinson and her mom move from sunny California to the dreary, dilapidated old house in Maine where her mother grew up. All they want is a fresh start, but behind North Manor’s doors lurks a history that leaves them feeling more alone…and more tormented.
As the cold New England autumn arrives, and Jane settles in to her new home, she finds solace in old books and memories of her dad. She steadily begins making new friends, but also faces bullying from the resident “bad seed,” struggling to tamp down her own worst nature in response. Jane’s mom also seems to be spiraling with the return of her childhood home, but she won’t reveal why. Then Jane discovers that the “storage room” her mom has kept locked isn’t for storage at all–it’s a little girl’s bedroom, left untouched for years and not quite as empty of inhabitants as it appears….
Is it grief? Mental illness? Or something more…horrid?
Just the Facts: