Book Review | The House That Horror Built

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry

Published by Penguin on May 14, 2024
Genres: Fiction / Fantasy / Contemporary, Fiction / Fantasy / Dark Fantasy, Fiction / Horror
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback

A single mother working in the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director stumbles upon terrifying secrets in this captivating new novel.

Harry Adams has always loved horror movies, so it’s not a total coincidence that she took the job cleaning house for movie director Javier Castillo. His forbidding graystone Chicago mansion, Bright Horses, is filled from top to bottom with terrifying props and costumes, as well as glittering awards from his career making films that thrilled audiences—until family tragedy and scandal forced him to vanish from the industry.

Javier values discretion, and Harry has always tried to clean the house immaculately, keep her head down, and keep her job safe—she needs the money to support her son. But then she starts hearing noises from behind a locked door. Noises that sound remarkably like a human voice calling for help, even though Javier lives alone and never has visitors. Harry knows that not asking questions is a vital part of working for Javier, but she soon finds that the sinister house may be home to secrets she can’t ignore.

ISBN: 9780593638224

I was so excited to get my hands on this book. For the most part, I really enjoyed the novel. It mostly fell flat for me at the end.

First off, the set up of the novel was so well-done. I loved the back and forth between present day and the Harry and Javier past chapters. It was interesting to see how each of them ended up where they were in present day.

Henry writes spooky, horror so well in that she teases out the tense scenes. There were times when reading where I felt like I would have the Sten costume looking at me. The narrative is done in third person but the inside thoughts of Harry were great to see how she doubts and gaslights herself so much so that the reader can start to doubt or justify what’s happening.

The ending and finding out what was going on in the house was satisfying while a bit predictable. I figured out what had happened to Javier’s wife and son pretty early on. I did think what happens to the house was satisfying but I would’ve liked to see an epilogue or extra chapter. It was an abrupt ending or that the last chapter or two were cut out.

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