Bumpy Oak Books

*I received an ALC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Actual rating: 3.5

Sarah Gailey returns with a haunted house thriller that is perfect for summer. When Vera returns home to assist her dying mother, she must face the things that happened when she lived in the home with her serial killer father. There is an artist who is a boarder at the house and is taking advantage of the lore surrounding Crowder House to bolster the reception for his art. And there are still more mysteries to uncover.

I’m not entirely sure what I expected from this novel, but what I got was an entertaining Gothic thriller with explorations of a possible haunting. I liked the balance played between the potential for supernatural versus human causes for the odd things that Vera experiences in the home. I also think that it was beneficial to have the dual timelines of Vera’s childhood in the house and her present.

Narrator Xe Sands did a perfectly respectable job with the audiobook. Her narration style is appropriately intimate considering the lens of the storytelling, and I think that her performance contributed to my enjoyment of this work. Even at my habitual 2x plus speed, Sands’ narration was clear and seemed to really suit the thriller style.

Overall, I was surprised by the way the book ended and liked it all the more for the way that Gailey is not afraid to push further. I think this book is exactly what I would expect from a summer thriller and I am happy to have had the chance to read it early.