The Spite House by Johnny Compton

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters in tow. Having left his wife, his house, his whole life behind in Maryland, he’s desperate for money–it’s not easy to find safe work when you can’t provide references, you can’t stay in one place for long, and you’re paranoid that your past is creeping back up on you.

When he comes across the strange ad for the Masson House in Degener, Texas, Eric thinks they may have finally caught a lucky break. The Masson property, notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas, needs a caretaker of sorts. The owner is looking for proof of paranormal activity. All they need to do is stay in the house and keep a detailed record of everything that happens there. Provided the house’s horrors don’t drive them all mad, like the caretakers before them.

The job calls to Eric, not just because there’s a huge payout if they can make it through, but because he wants to explore the secrets of the spite house. If it is indeed haunted, maybe it’ll help him understand the uncanny power that clings to his family, driving them from town to town, making them afraid to stop running. A terrifying Gothic thriller about grief and death and the depths of a father’s love, Johnny Compton’s The Spite House is a stunning debut by a horror master in the making.

I really don't know how to talk about this plot at all without giving anything away. I will say it is not the haunted house story I expected, but something totally different and unique. I had never heard of a spite house before picking up this book. According to google "A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes." If you look it up be sure to click on images because there are some doozies. They really do exist. Anyway...

Eric Ross and his daughters are in dire straights. They've been hiding out for unknown reasons, and money is running out. The youngest daughter has been taught that if Eric or the older daughter says run, it means she must run and hide and not come out until they find her. We are not told at this juncture what they would need her to hide from, but it was not at all what I suspected. 

When Eric sees an ad that promises a huge payout just to stay for free in a spite house and record any strange goings on it seems like just the break his family needs. This is where I thought the bumps in the night would lead to a typical haunting but instead, this story travels down a more unusual and twisty path. 

The story is told from multiple points of view, which at times made it a bit frustrating. I would have preferred fewer chapters that veered away from Eric and his daughters. Still it was a good read in "spite" of that. The ending had my jaw dropping!

3 out of 5 stars

I received an advance copy for review.

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About the author
 

The Infection Party and Other Stories of Dis-Ease by Douglas Ford

 Douglas Ford’s first collection of horror fiction, Ape in the Ring was called a “must have collection for every horror library” by Owl Goingback. Now, from the author of the best-selling The Beasts of Vissaria County comes a new collection of tales that will infect your imagination and unsettle your dreams. In these stories, a horrific truth lies concealed beneath the wrappings of a mummy costume; a church potluck becomes the scene of a satanic communion; the ruins of a road-side attraction hides a forgotten, monstrous entity; an illicit transaction in a hotel room awakens a demonic presence; an overnight trip in the Everglades is disturbed by something unworldly preserved in an old still of moonshine; and in the title story, the presence of a black box brings dread to a gathering of teenagers.

Welcome to the party and enjoy the refreshments—if you dare!

If you enjoy short horror fiction as much as I do, these stories are for you. These 19 tales are cleverly crafted and I had multiple favorites including the title story. 

In The Infection Party a pandemic has arrived but never fear, the religious zealots have a plan, much like those who host chicken pox parties they will attempt to infect all their kids at once to get it over with. It's scientific don'tcha know! 

The Halloween Mummy is about a costume malfunction that has far-reaching consequences more dire than mere temporary embarrassment.

I Will Not Eat The Son Of God finds the fun and fellowship of a church potluck interrupted by a gluttonous stranger and his disturbing children.

When Sith Arrives, someone tries to drown a kitten and gets what they deserve.

Mama's Hand Of Glory was chopped off her dead body and kept in the china cabinet. Too bad it didn't stay there!

What Aunt Kaye Brought begins with seeing her lick the bathroom towels which let me know straight off that whatever she is bringing is nothing good and nothing anybody would want.

I enjoyed all the stories but those for me were the 5 star reads in this collection.

It's the most fun you'll ever have with plague and pestilence. Perhaps the author will tackle fire and flood next. If he does I'll be there for it!

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Mouse Trap by Caryn Larrinaga

 Death haunts the Scott family home.
Twenty years ago, Dakota Scott’s baby brother died falling down the back stairs. Twenty-four hours ago, her older brother, Lennox, wasted away into nothing in the same house. Two deaths, just floors apart, yet no one suspects a connection.

Settling Lennox’s affairs lures Dakota back to the family’s old Victorian home overlooking Astoria. It has changed over the years—what was once a happy home is now filled with sadness, strange memories, and lights that won’t stay lit.

In the ever-growing darkness, a sinister force has awakened from a long slumber, and it is far from finished with Dakota. Her life and sanity hang in the balance—alongside everything she holds dear.

Fans of Shirley Jackson, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and Elizabeth Engstrom will love the quiet horror in this modern gothic tale.

Dakota and her adoptive parents return to their former home to settle affairs and pack up belongings after her brother's sudden death in the house. They all knew he did not like to go out but his funeral drives that point home when the attendees are people he only ever knew from the internet.

Dakota and her parents have never recovered from the first death in the home 20 years ago. The house was meant to be a place full of love and laughter. They had planned to adopt many more children, adding on bedrooms as needed. After the death of their toddler staying in the home became unbearable, and the thought of more children was just too painful. Everyone eventually went their separate ways and only Lennox stayed behind, never wanting to leave the house.

Dakota is wracked with guilt over not having visited Lennox more, and when she learns the reason why he never left the house it's all the more heartbreaking.

Mouse Trap is more a story of grief and loss than the scares I was expecting.

It's heavy with guilt and regret, loneliness and despair. I would recommend it for fans of more subtle horror with a dose of family drama as opposed to anyone looking for chills.

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Angel Falls by Julia Rust and David Surface

 

What if you had the power to bring back someone you lost?

Fifteen-year-old Jessie Reed would do anything to keep her parents together. But when her father inherits an old house from mysterious Cousin Dorothy, Jessie accompanies him to the seaport village of Beauport, while her mother stays behind in New York City.

Jessie stumbles across the isolated trails of Angel Falls, a wild and beautiful place that holds the ruins of a three- hundred-year-old town with a strange history. There she encounters Jared Younger, a sixteen-year-old local boy who considers these forbidden woods his own.

Jared feels powerless to save his father, an artist crippled by depression—until a series of unexplainable events brings him face to face with a power he never knew he had. Jared’s teacher, Chris Delany offers to help him control the strange thing that’s happening to him—but are Delany’s motives as pure as they seem? Or, as Jessie suspects, does Delany have a secret agenda of his own that puts Jared in danger?

Jessie and Jared discover that the truth is far more dangerous than they could have imagined.

I was happy to be invited to read this young adult novel with the gorgeous cover and intriguing synopsis. 

Angel Falls is a poignant coming-of-age tale with supernatural overtones, told from the alternating points of view of two young teens, Jessie and Jared.

It will definitely be a summer to remember for Jessie Reeds. First love, family secrets, spooky woods, and more await her in the seaside town of Beauport where she stays with her father to settle the estate of a recently deceased relative. Here she hopes to reunite her parents before the permanent split she fears is coming. 

Jared is a teenage resident of the village who is desperately trying to support himself and his father as they fall deeper and deeper under a mountain of bills that no child could possibly pay alone.

Jared's father has succumbed to such a deep depression he is no longer a functional parent.

When Jared and Jessie meet they will uncover secrets in both of their pasts as well as a strange dark history of the village. Between the two of them they may have the power to make their fondest wishes come true but at what cost?

I feel like I knew these characters, almost like I watched Jessie and Jared move on from childhood to maturity. I had a lot of sympathy for them both as I watched them longing to change things that could have been, and finally learning that we must all accept the reality of the way things are instead of how we wish they could be.

This was a bittersweet tale of loss and loss, and growing up.

4 out of 5 stars

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Julia Rust

David Surface