If you're looking for an easy, fun story to ease into the horror genre, look no further! At only 191 pages, it's a super quick read that will keep you laughing throughout, and trying to figure out what on earth just happened by the end.
As with many shorter books, the plot wasn't as in-depth as I would've liked it to be, but that may have been the author's intention. Either way, let's talk about it!
"If you had the good sense to ask if you were going crazy, you couldn't be."
Like most families, when the Hansens moved into 4596 James Circle, they were hoping for a fresh start—but are things ever that simple?
Sabrina Hansen has always had a strange relationship with her 10-year-old son, Damien. Originally one of a pair of twins, Damien absorbed his twin in the womb, and Sabrina was devastated. She won't come out and say it, but she holds this against Damien, even though it was by no fault of his own. She can't help but see him as a monster.
Damien has decided to lean into this, hiding his precocious nature and his true, bright personality, instead choosing to act aloof, odd, and downright creepy around his mom.
"Everything was one big joke. So Damien decided to play the biggest one he could think of."
Almost immediately, Sabrina starts to feel that something isn't right. After expressing displeasure about the shower curtain in the kid's bathroom, a yellow duck-emblazoned number that her 12-year-old daughter Michaela was bound to despise, the curtain has mysteriously changed to plain white.
Meanwhile, Damien has started receiving progressively creepier texts from an unknown local number.
I can see you ignoring me.
When Zephyr, their new neighbor, stops by to welcome them to the neighborhood, Sabrina invites her inside. Zephyr takes one step across the threshold and immediately runs back home, muttering some weak, generic excuse as she flees.
Later, as Sabrina is moving some unneeded boxes to the basement, a huge man descends the stairs after her, carrying a box. He politely asks her where she would like it, and Sabrina, stunned, can do nothing but point. The man stacks the box with the rest, then climbs into a crawlspace and disappears.
Upon further investigation, this crawl space isn't large enough for any human to fit into, much less a man that size. So, where did he go?
Obviously shaken, Sabrina decides a bubble bath will do her some good. She heads to the master bathroom to find a hot, steaming bath waiting for her. Her husband, Hal, is at work, and both kids are at school, so who could have done it?
Sabrina is terrified, believing the house is haunted. Naturally, Hal thinks she's crazy, and has even made an appointment with a psychiatrist for her in the coming weeks.
Damien has decided to use his mom's paranoia to his advantage, ready to terrorize her to his heart's content.
The next morning, as Sabrina heads downstairs to make coffee, she finds a fresh pot of coffee already brewed.
She decides it's time to pay Zephyr a visit to see what she knows about the house.
"The things you've seen—a strange man carried a box down the basement steps. A bath appeared out of nowhere, morning coffee—none of it is... malevolent. Quite the opposite, actually. Have you ever thought that maybe you're just... lucky?"
Relieved, Sabrina starts to embrace the seemingly caring nature of the house.
However, Damien starts to put together the ultimate prank on his mom, and the mystery texter is trying to talk him out of it, insisting that he leave his mother alone. Or else.
What really happened in the house? Is it haunted by an extremely considerate ghost, or is it something a little more sinister? Well, you'll have to read along to find out, because I promise the answers are nothing like you think.
Like I said, this is a quick, fun read with a unique twist on the stereotypical haunted house story.
Unfortunately, due to the short length, we don't get as much character development as I normally would have liked, and it felt a little hollow in certain places. However, the story wraps up nicely, albeit very unexpectedly, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Please let me know if you decide to give it a read yourself, and be sure to join me on Discord so we can talk about all our favorite books!
'•.¸♡ Happy reading! ♡¸.•'