The September House by Carissa Orlando
I don’t know why The September House by Carissa Orlando was on my ‘to read’ list. I think I probably found it recommended somewhere and saved it on impulse. I also don’t have a great reason for adding it to my Halloween reading docket - it just had an ominous house on the cover and I wanted a good haunted house story.
Haunting stories generally come in two flavors - generic and predictable, or undermining the supernatural. I’m not looking for a psychological thriller or human mystery when I read a haunted house story - I want ghosts. And I want a refreshing twist on it - social commentary such as with The Spite House by Johnny Compton or a unique setting such as The Shining by Stephen King.
The September House scratched that difficult to reach itch.
I will avoid spoilers.
Setting and Premise
Set somewhere in the modern United States, we follow empty nester and retiree Margaret. After her daughter Katherine moved out, Margaret and her husband Hal purchased their first home - a beautiful Victorian mansion bought at a true steal. Fans of the genre will recognize that a beautiful old mansion on sale for cheap because of a small murder means that this place is going to be ripe with hauntings.
By the time we start the story, Margaret and Hal have been surviving absolute hell for years. They are plagued with constant ghosts, bleeding walls, suicidal birds, and an ominously evil presence in the basement. Margaret’s husband Hal has been missing for a month, and their daughter Katherine is beginning to wonder why Margaret isn’t letting her speak to him. Katherine decides she will come to visit in September, when the haunting goes most haywire every year. But this is Margaret’s house and no one - Hal, her daughter, or ghosts - will make her leave.
Themes
Domestic abuse, resilience, healing from trauma
Thoughts
The hook of this story is the tone: Margaret isn’t scared - she’s tired. The walls weeping blood were frightening the first September it happened. Now, it just means she has to clean every day. And all those dead birds will attract rats if they're just allowed to rot on the yard. The mundane way Margaret approaches her haunting provides no end of amusement.
The story is mostly told in the present, but we regularly flashback to related events in the Hal and Margaret's marriage. The story also plays with the medium in a very interesting way that initially confused me near the transition from the second to the third act. Once I realized what was happening, I was locked in and couldn’t put the book down. The story has a few very fun twists that really make the ending satisfying. There’s a secondary plot as the flashbacks progress that helps you empathize with the characters, even if they are all still rather unlikable people.
The second act lagged a little bit in the second half. Still a good read, and a recommend.
Check out the content warnings to make sure it's right for you.