The House That Horror Built

Very character-driven, which I usually enjoy. But the horror aspect seemed to fall flat for the sake of it. The book could have been really great as a chilling haunted house story, but instead it's more about broken families, a critique of hero-worshipping and the struggles of raising a child as a poor single mother. All of which were really well depicted! But the final payoff was lacking in the surprising revelation moment, and a little disappointing since the groundwork that Henry laid throughout the novel seemed very promising and to have more going on than I initially thought.

This book starts pretty strong, setting the mood for what is to come but in the end sadly fails to deliver its promising potential. All in all it is a love letter to horror as a genre but never achieves the greatness of the work it is clearly inspired by.