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 House That Horror Built by Christina Henry Published by Berkley on May 14 2024
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 336
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A haunted house full of secrets takes center stage in Christina Henry’s latest, a fun but uneven thriller.
Christina Henry always comes up with interesting story ideas, and I look forward to reading all of her new books. The House That Horror Built is a haunted house story that revolves around a horror director and his house cleaner, and while it did have some very creepy moments, it wasn’t the tense page turner I was hoping for. Instead, Henry focuses more on her characters and tackles themes like homelessness and abuse, which added nice layers to the story but didn’t make up for the lack of excitement, unfortunately.
Harry and her fourteen-year-old son Gabe live in Chicago and are trying to stay afloat in the middle of the Covid pandemic. Harry lost her waitress job when all the restaurants closed down, but luckily she was able to get a house cleaning job working for a reclusive film director named Javier Castillo, making just enough money to hang onto their small apartment. Mr. Castillo lives in a huge mansion called Bright Horses, and Harry goes three days a week to clean and dust Mr. Castillo’s hundreds of horror movie props. Although Harry is a huge horror movie buff herself, being around Castillo’s creepy masks and costumes is a little unsettling. Still, she’ll do anything to keep their apartment, which is close to Gabe’s school.
One day while’s she’s cleaning one of the upstairs rooms, Harry hears—or think she hears—a voice in the next room crying “Help me!” She brushes it off as her imagination, because Mr. Castillo lives alone, and he doesn’t seem like the type of person to keep someone locked up in a bedroom. But later when she’s dusting a costume from Mr. Castillo’s most famous movie, A Messenger From Hell, Harry swears she sees the eyes of the mask follow her. And was that the monster’s claws reaching for her neck? Harry’s not sure what happened, but she senses an otherworldly presence in the house that may be trying to tell her something.
This was a mixed bag for me, mostly because I wanted the plot to focus more on the haunting at Bright Horses. Most of the story is told through Harry’s point of view, and Harry is the only one who seems to notice that things aren’t quite right in the house. She spends most of her working time cleaning right alongside Mr. Castillo, but he never seems to hear or see anything. I did like these moments, and the spookiness of the incidents was subtle enough to make you wonder whether Harry is actually experiencing them or not. Unfortunately, these scenes are interspersed with chapter after chapter of Harry’s struggles to survive during the pandemic: her apartment building is being sold and they have to move out; her part time job with Mr. Castillo barely pays enough for rent and food, and moving would mean taking Gabe away from his school, not to mention she certainly doesn’t have money to pay a moving company or even produce first and last month’s rent at a new place. It was all very depressing, and as I’m not a big fan of pandemic stories, I was a little disappointed that Henry spent so much time on this.
Later in the story, there’s quite a bit of page time spent on a subplot involving the paparazzi, after a terrible incident at Bright Horses puts Javier Castillo in the spotlight. Harry is forced to dodge rude reporters and even alter her route home in order to keep them at bay, and I didn’t think it added much to the story.
What did work for me were Harry’s and Castillo’s flashback chapters, which added depth to both the story and the characters. Harry grew up with strict, religious parents who wouldn’t let her do anything. When she discovers a love of horror movies at a young age, Harry begins to sneak around and tries to hide her obsession from her parents, but eventually they find her hidden Fangoria magazines and Stephen King books, forcing Harry to run away from home before she can graduate from high school. Harry spends many years homeless, gets pregnant by accident, and finally pulls herself out of her misery in order to support her baby. But it’s a tough road and it’s still tough for her many years later. We also get to see Castillo’s rise to fame, from the first Godzilla movie he saw as a young boy that made him want to make his own movies, to the recent scandal involving his son Michael and his wife Lena. I almost liked these glimpses into the past more than the action taking place in the present.
To be honest, not a lot happens until the last chapter, when everything happens all at once. This is what I was waiting for, when Henry finally reveals what’s behind the voices Harry hears and the spooky costume. I can’t say I was that surprised, as I sort of figured out what was going on early in the story, but I did love the final reveal, I just wanted more suspense and build up to it.
This wasn’t my favorite Christina Henry book, but I’m still glad I read it.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
The constant mentions of the pandemic and the focus on the MC’s struggles rather than on the horror aspects of the story might prove annoying to me, so I understand your partial disappointment with this story: at least the ending seemed to counterbalance the previous dissatisfaction, at least a little…
Thanks for sharing 🙂
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…THESE BURNING STARS (The Kindom Trilogy #1), by Bethany Jacobs
The ending was a lot of fun, so it definitely made up for some of the elements I didn’t enjoy:-)
I am glad that, even if this book wasn’t what you were expecting, you still enjoyed it! I hope ypur next read will be more satisfying!!
I always enjoy her books, even if I don’t end up loving all of them.
It sounds like this book was trying to do a lot of things at once, which was to its detriment since it wasn’t able to focus on the exciting parts. Hopefully this author’s future books will be better for you! <3
aimee can read recently posted…This Duology About Magical Card Decks Left My Jaw on the Floor: The Shepherd King by Rachel Gillig Series Review (One Dark Window, Two Twisted Crowns)
Yes, exactly. There was a lot going on, and if the book had been longer all those elements could have been developed more.
I’m sorry it wasn’t quite stellar, but it still sounds like there’s good reason to read it! I have it coming up soon, and since I generally enjoy Christina Henry’s books, I’m going to stay hopeful about this one too. 🙂
Very curious to hear your thoughts!
I’m glad there was some good to go with the parts that were disappointing. I have a number of her books marked to read, but somehow haven’t gotten to any of them yet. Now I at least know it would be better to pick one of her other books over this one.
Her Alice books are fantastic, I would try those:-)
This author always have fun sounding book but they never work for me. I have only enjoyed one which happened to be the first book I read by her, Lost Boys.
Stormi recently posted…Week in Review #80
I think Lost Boys is my favorite of hers too!
I’m sorry that this wasn’t exactly what you hoped for although I’m glad you still enjoyed it. I have to admit the rise to fame flashbacks sound rather intriguing to me but its surprising to hear that there’s not as much focus on the horror as you’d expect.
Most of the supernatural horror comes at the end, and it would have been nice to spread it out more.
I’m not a fan of fan of pandemic stories either so when I know a book has it I tend to avoid it so I get what you’re saying about that part of the story. It also sucks that the author spend so much time on it. But other than that I do like the sound of the story and I do love flashback chapters!
I think the pandemic parts just highlighted what a tough life Harry has, which I appreciated. But yeah, so over the pandemic!
I still plan on reading this one eventually, but it sounds like it falls more on the side of Near the Bone and that was not one of my faves. Great review! And I agree – it seems I’m seeing more COVID stories now than ever and I’m done.
Barbara S Briggs recently posted…April 2024 Wrap Up
I’m so curious to see what you think!
“To be honest, not a lot happens until the last chapter, when everything happens all at once.”
Uh…And while I understand incorporating Covid in a story, I would expect a horror thriller to focus more on the actual horror and thriller parts LOL. Very balanced review anyway!
Roberta R. recently posted…Offbeat Offline: April 2024 (Back in Session)
I think the story was trying to do too many things.
Fangoria magazine! I’d forgotten all about that. Don’t think I still have any, and I was never a subscriber or collector, but I certainly had a few copies. Your review, and how some of the choices of plot/theme/etc went in directions that didn’t work as well for you had me thinking about how easily any of the books we love could have been like this one if the author had made slightly different decisions, still good books, just not the ones we fell in love with.
I wasn’t into horror back when Fangoria was popular so I don’t think I ever read it, but I did love the reference in the story:-)
I’m still finding myself not in the mood for pandemic mentions in books at the moment but perhaps one to think about for another time maybe 😀
Pages and Tea recently posted…Book Review: The Rockpool Murder (Shell House Detectives # 3) by Emylia Hall
I’ve been so curious about this and I’m so glad to see your review. I think I was hoping for a bit more of a creepy factor as well, but I’m curious to see how everything else works out. I have an ARC I need to get to and I’m still curious, but I think I’ll tamp down my expectations a bit.
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Agreed, not my favorite of hers, but not bad either. I kind of liked the mother-son dynamic more than anything I think. I need to write my review soon too, and I agree that not a ton actually happens. I wasn’t bored though, so that is a plus! Great review!
Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight recently posted…Reviews in a Minute: Spring Sensations
Ah, I don’t think I would enjoy this one much either – I’m also not keen on pandemic stories and prefer a strong focus on spooky aspects.
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I really enjoyed this! It’s more conventional than her recent offerings, but it really worked for me!