Read this for Halloween! Review “This House is Haunted” by John Boyne

For the Halloween reading challenge I recommended RIP VIII, I started with John Boyne’s new book This House is Haunted. I don’t usually review books on this blog, but I decided to since I recommended the reading challenge.

About This House is Haunted

1867. Eliza Caine arrives in Norfolk to take up her position as governess at Gaudlin Hall on a dark and chilling night. As she makes her way across the station platform, a pair of invisible hands push her from behind into the path of an approaching train. She is only saved by the vigilance of a passing doctor.

When she finally arrives, shaken, at the hall she is greeted by the two children in her care, Isabella and Eustace. There are no parents, no adults at all, and no one to represent her mysterious employer. The children offer no explanation. Later that night in her room, a second terrifying experience further reinforces the sense that something is very wrong.

From the moment she rises the following morning, her every step seems dogged by a malign presence which lives within Gaudlin’s walls. Eliza realises that if she and the children are to survive its violent attentions, she must first uncover the hall’s long-buried secrets and confront the demons of its past.

About the Author

John Boyne

John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971 and is the author of eight novels including the international bestsellers Mutiny on the Bounty, The Absolutist and The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas which won two Irish Book Awards, topped the New York Times bestseller list in the US and was made into a Miramax feature film. His novels are published in over 40 languages. He lives in Dublin.
www.johnboyne.com

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My Review

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars.

What I Enjoyed

I enjoyed the majority of the book, and I think it worked really well as what it was meant to be, a gothic ghost story, playing off of the tradition of many classics. I really enjoyed it for the tradition it was written in.

First Line: “I blame Charles Dickens for the death of my father.”

I did love that first line. Charles Dickens doesn’t really have any major role in the book, but I liked that the author incorporated the historical author because as the back cover of the copy I received explained: Boyne wrote this book in Dickensian prose. The whole Dickensian prose actually made me nervous because I’ve tried to read Dickens and it is wordy, but thankfully Boyne didn’t get carried away with that aspect. His book is very readable and nicely done as far as historical English writing goes. As someone who writes historical fiction, I can tell you that is not easy.

I also really enjoyed the effect this ghost story had on me. Through the first quarter of the book, before I knew what was going on, I was really freaked out but in a fun way. I found myself jumping at the sound of loud noises throughout the day even when I hadn’t been reading the book and that effect was pretty fun in itself. I did stay up late on multiple nights trying to get more reading done.

I really think this is a great book for Halloween!

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Why Not Five Stars? 

Okay, there were two things that bothered me, but they are small and very possibly my own issues as opposed to something the author did.

First thing: The book starts out very mysterious which was good but eventually we want to know what’s going on and so does Eliza and so she finds out. Eliza Cain learns the history of the house, discovers the tragedies that befell previous inhabitants, and realizes the house is haunted and she is in immediate danger. Yet, she stays. It wasn’t very clear in my opinion why she stayed. Toward the end, it becomes clear that the motivation is the children but for a long while the children were just creepy, and it wasn’t clear that they were the motivation so I just kept wondering why she stuck around.  

Second thing: Once the backstory of the house was explained, the story became less creepy and more predictable. I knew what was going on long, long before the first person protagonist Eliza did, which kind of made her seem aloof. I’m not saying this is outright terrible though. Some people like predictability, but I personally don’t. If you have read my novel, you guys know I don’t like predictability.

However, in John Boyne’s defense, he took on a very difficult literary task, to recreate a classic genre. Do you use tropes to fit in with the genre or do you try for unique and risk not fitting the genre? That’s a difficult balance, but overall I think Boyne stuck with his intention, which was to recreate the joy of being chilled by a classic Gothic tale. He accomplished that and I enjoyed the book for that reason.

Buy on Amazon US!

Buy on Amazon UK!

I wasn’t paid to do this review. I received an Advanced Reading Copy.

Have you read This House is Haunted? What's your review?
 

About Stephanie Carroll
Stephanie Carroll is the author of A White Room and "Forget Me Not" featured in Legacy: An Anthology. She blogs about magical realism, her research into the Victorian Era and Gilded Age, writing, and life in general at www.stephaniecarroll.net and at The Unhinged Historian. She also founded Unhinged and Empowered, a blog for Navy wives and girlfriends.

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