Review: The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry
Title: The House That Horror Built
Author: Christina Henry
Published: 14th May 2024
Genre: Gothic Horror
Recommended Age: Adult
Page Count/Audio Length: 320 pages / 9 hours 9 mins
What’s it About?
Harry is a single mom trying to raise her teenage son in Chicago, where she has taken on a new job as a house cleaner to reclusive horror film director Javier Castillo. Following a family scandal, Castillo values nothing more than discretion, and Harry is happy to oblige despite being a big fan of his work. However, Bright Horses - Castillo's forbidding mansion - might have other ideas.
It's not long into her time working there that Harry starts to hear suspicious noises behind locked doors, and she quickly begins to suspect that one of the many film props she is hired to keep clean is watching her. Harry is more determined than ever to keep whatever is going on at Bright Horses away from her personal life, and especially her son, but when tragedy strikes again just as Harry faces eviction, she might be forced to face whatever is happening head on.
As she exited the second guest room and crossed the hall to the small library, she kept her eyes averted from the closed door to her right, the last room on the guest room side.
That door was always locked, and it wasn’t her job to be curious about it.
Opinions:
This was my second book from Christina Henry, but my first that wasn't based on an existing work*. Starting out with the positives, I really enjoyed the sinister atmosphere created every time Harry set foot in Bright Horses. I could feel the way the house seemed to breathe down her neck, and the discomfort caused by the constant watchful presence of Mr Castillo - even when he was behaving as nothing more than a perfect gentleman. The rooms filled with props reminded me of many science fiction exhibitions and museums I have visited over the years and the way that the puppets and costumes can feel almost alive, as if at any moment a mask might blink or a bony finger stretch out. The whole book reminded me greatly of Grady Hendrix, one of my favourite horror authors, but without the gore.
However, there was just something lacking here. The big reveal at the end about the mysterious locked room was so predictable that I found myself waiting for a double bluff that never came, and the ending happened so abruptly that I turned the final page expecting to carry on only to find myself reading the acknowledgements - one of the most dissatisfying moments you can have at the end of a book. I also struggled to engage much with the characters; they weren't "bad", they simply had nothing of any substance about them that made me want to root for them.
Still, every time Harry dusted the sharp distended chin, the high cheekbones, the pointed ears, the curling horns, she was certain that the fanged mouth would curl up in a terrible smile, that the icy blue eyes would shift in her direction a moment before long-fingered hands grasped her shoulders. And every time she felt this way, she shook off her unease, recognizing it as irrational. She loved the character in the movie, and a costume and mask were just that—empty props. They were nothing to be frightened of.
Overall, this was an enjoyable but fairly average horror novel that failed to tread much original ground but will make for a quick and easy summer page turner.
*This book is something of a Rebecca retelling, but not based on the original book itself.
Many thanks to Berkley Publishing Group for the ARC.
Rating: 3/5
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