THE SEPTEMBER HOUSE by Carissa Orlando – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The September House by Carissa Orlando
Published by Berkley on September 5 2023
Genres: Adult, Horror, Psychological thriller
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Beware the month of September, when the ghosts come out and the walls bleed, in this outstandingly creepy and heartfelt story about coping with all of life’s challenges.

“I put my hand in hers and saw the whole scene from the night she died—the candles and the dining room and the laughing man and the axe and the watermelon sound. I felt blood trickle out of my nose and my head throbbed, but it was worth it because sometimes you just need somebody to hold your hand, somebody who might have been a mother once but couldn’t quite remember.”

The September House is one of the most surprising books I’ve read in quite a while, and even more impressive, it’s a debut novel. Carissa Orlando deftly wrangles several different subgenres and tropes into a spectacular haunted house story with heart. It starts out as a paranormal ghost story, then morphs into a domestic thriller, and finally combines the two in ways I wasn’t expecting. Not only are there some terrifying ghosts in this story, but Orlando somehow manages to add humor and lots of emotional moments as well, all of which work perfectly together. There are shades of The Exorcist here, and for some reason it reminded me at times of The Last House on Needless Street, so if you enjoyed that book, you’ll probably love this as well.

Margaret and Hal bought their dream house four years ago, a beautiful Victorian that was listed for an impossibly low price. At first they were blissfully happy, but then September rolled around and everything changed. It started with small things. Margaret noticed a smear of blood on the bedroom wall upstairs, but Hal brushed it off as a rusty water leak. At night they could hear a strange moaning sound, but Hal said it was just the wind. As September wore on, though, the blood smear became bleeding walls and the moaning turned into screaming. And then the ghosts appeared. Some of them were harmless, and even helpful, like Fredricka, a maid who cooks and makes tea for Margaret. But others turn out to be dangerous, like Elias, a ten year old boy with razor-sharp teeth who bites if you get too close (and Margaret has the scars to prove it). 

For the past four years, Margaret has learned how to cope with her haunted house and live with the ghosts. She’s discovered that there are rules for every situation, and as long as everyone plays by those rules—even the ghosts, who seem to be at their worst in September, but settle down the rest of the year—coexisting shouldn’t be a problem. This is her dream house, after all, and no one—nothing—can make her leave.

Hal, though, has had enough. When the story begins, Hal has gone missing, although we suspect that Margaret knows exactly what happened to him. When her grown daughter Katherine calls one day, worried that her father hasn’t been answering his phone, Margaret does everything she can to assure her that Hal is fine. But Katherine insists on coming to visit, hoping to find clues as to her father’s whereabouts. Now Margaret must figure out a way to hide the grim truth about the house from her daughter, who has never visited and has no idea the house is haunted. But it’s the middle of September, and the house is up to its old tricks. And Katherine won’t rest until she uncovers the truth.

I loved the way Orlando sets up and tells her story. Instead of starting at the beginning, we meet Margaret after she’s lived in the house for four years, and little by little we learn about what’s going on in the house, what happened to Hal, and why Margaret is so good at coping with difficult situations. Margaret’s nonchalant delivery about her interactions with the hauntings was such an unusual approach, and it’s one reason this story worked so well for me:

“The walls of the house were bleeding again. This sort of thing could be expected; it was, after all, September.”

The story is told through Margaret’s point of view, and through her eyes we meet the otherworldly inhabitants of the house. I loved Fredricka, a harmless, lovable ghost who seems to dote on Margaret and is constantly making her tea. She does have that nasty gash on her head that’s hard to look at (the cause of her death), but she understands Margaret in ways that no one else does. Most of the ghosts wouldn’t harm a fly, although they are scary at first (like Blythe, a woman who was burned to death in the fireplace). Then there are the “pranksters,” the children who hang around the basement door and utter the cryptic phrase “he’s down there” over and over. Margaret knows exactly “who” is down there, which is one reason the basement door is boarded up and no one ever opens it. The author drops lots of hints about Master Vale, the ghost in the basement, but it isn’t until much later that we come to understand just how evil he is.

When Katherine enters the picture, the story changes to a mystery, as Katherine takes on the task of trying to find out what happened to Hal. Katherine doesn’t have a very good relationship with her mother, and at first their interactions are very tense and a little upsetting. Katherine is simply awful to Margaret, and I really disliked her in the beginning. Later we find out there are good reasons for her anger, and it was heartbreaking. Despite the ghosts, the moaning at night, and the bleeding walls, Katherine doesn’t seem to notice any of it, and the reader wonders what the heck is going on. It’s at this point that the story becomes more of a twisty, psychological thriller. Is the house really haunted, or is there something wrong with Margaret? Why is Margaret’s neighbor Edie the only one besides Margaret who sees the ghosts? As Katherine doggedly follows the clues her father left behind, the truth turns out to be stranger than anyone could imagine.

Orlando’s story also deals with horrors of the human variety, namely domestic abuse and alcoholism. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will mention that Margaret’s ability to cope with the ghosts in her house comes from years of learning to cope with an abusive husband. I absolutely loved the parallel the author makes between the two, and Margaret’s insistence that you can learn to live with anything, as long as you follow the rules. Margaret has had her share of heartbreak, but she’s grown stronger because of it, and even though I didn’t agree with all her choices, I ended up respecting the hell out of her.

The final confrontation with the thing in the basement was both scary and gross—you might need a strong stomach for some of it—and a few final twists at the end surprised me in a good way. After all the pain and terror earlier in the story, I was delighted by the feel-good ending. And yes, I even started to like Katherine by the end of the story. If you read one spooky story this season, I hope you’ll consider The September House. This is a debut I won’t soon forget, and I can’t wait to see what Carissa Orlando does next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.