This was my first Christopher Golden book, and I love the concept of haunted houses especially in beautiful locations like Becchina. I would love to be able to move to a beautiful place and just completely reset our lives.
Kate and Tommy has left their Boston home to resettle in Becchina, where Tommy’s family is from. In an effort to promote others to live in the town, the Becchina Mayor has started an initiative for couples to buy a fixer upper for practically nothing. Kate and Tommy have jumped on this and have decided to purchase a beautiful home that just needs some renovations. Shortly after moving in though, weird things begin happening around the house and even learning the history of the house doesn’t stop their questions of what’s really buried beneath them.
The premise is fantastic, but the story ended up feeling flat for me. I never felt particular connect or anything actually towards our characters and the ‘American Savior’ complex that Tommy and Kate had irked me, though in Tommy’s defense his family does live there. I was hoping to be more ‘scared’ throughout this book and while I’m a big fantasy reader (aka I’m on board with demons, ghosts etc) the delivery of on this aspect wasn’t quite what I was hoping for, ie nothing outright scared or particular shocked me. While there were certain aspects that made this a page turner it’s a slow burn horror story, that doesn’t pick up until the very end. For being under 300 pages this took me much too long to read.
The House of Last Resort comes out January 30, 2024. Huge thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy in exchange for an honest review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.
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