Synopsis

Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parent’s messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped Alex of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house.

After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house flipping content. Only, as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims. As memories resurface and Clio finally reads her mother’s book, the presence in the house becomes more real, and more sinister, revealing ugly truths that threaten to shake Clio’s beautiful life to its very foundation.

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Review

Are demons real? Or are they a manifestation of a dysfunctional life?

Clio and her sisters grew up in a house purported to be haunted. Their mother even wrote a book about it, but it didn’t do well. Fast forward about 20 years, and their mother has died in the house they thought had been sold years ago. To top it off, they have inherited the home. What follows is discovering what is true from their past, and learning to move forward despite the relationships that they have with one another.

Clio is one of those women you might dislike. She is an influencer in NYC, but hasn’t taken control of her own life. Her dad still pays for her cell phone. Her sisters, Daphne and Leda, create an unusual dynamic among these three sisters. They love each other, but sometimes I wonder if they like each other. Their life growing up with their mother was unconventional to say the least. Their memories of this time are faint, and we learn a little more about it through the book. Was everything in there true? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t based on some fact.

The cast of characters was interesting, and they came across as a typical family, but all families have their issues. Was their life perfect? No, but who has a perfect life? It took time, but the truth was slowly revealed about their parents’ marriage and divorce. There were some characters that we saw only glimpses of, and it would have been nice to have had more inclusion of them. Roy is one of these characters. What motivated him? What was his relationship with their mother, Alex?

This novel may fall into the horror and occult genres, but it also contains humor. I felt like it was campy, and if it were made into a movie, it is one that you would be yelling at the screen to not go in that room because something is going to happen.

While not my usual genre, I have enjoyed several books by this author. They force me to expand my horizons and give other genres a chance.

We give this book 4 paws up.

About the Author

Rachel Harrison is the national bestselling author of So Thirsty, Black Sheep, Such Sharp Teeth, Cackle, and The Return, which was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Guernica, in Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading, as an Audible Original, and in her debut collection, Bad Dolls. She lives in western New York with her husband and their cat/overlord.

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