The blog Stainless Steel Droppings has hosted this reading challenge for the past 6 years. This reading challenge asks you to read books that fall into the following genres:
Mystery
Suspense
Thriller
Dark Fantasy
Gothic
Horror
Supernatural
If you’d like to join up just click the image above to find more info. Know that if you’re new to challenges (or just really busy reading other things) this challenge comes with levels. Including one that asks you to read just one book. I’ve chosen Peril the First, which means I’ve signed up for 4 books! That’s a lot of scary for a scaredy-cat like me, lol.
Without Further Ado, My 3rd Book…The Poisoned House
BookTalk
Roughly a year since her mother’s death Abi Tamper has decided to run away. Abi is a serving girl at Greave Hall, an elegant estate in which Abi spent the first 10 years of her life in relative bliss. Abi was treated as ‘almost’ one of the family, given privileges normally denied a servant because of her mother’s nurse position in the household.
But a year after her mother’s death finds Greave Hall a cold and imposing place. The master of the Hall is slowly losing his mind, his son returned from war ill and broken, and the Housekeeper wages a personal war against Abi forcing abuse of all kinds. This is the house Abi tried to leave. But fate didn’t allow such a wish. Something in the house wants Abi back. A ghost is beginning to haunt Abi’s dreams, and her waking hours…hand prints appear, books are burned, and rooms destroyed…but most chilling of all is the whispered word…Murder…
Review
Ooooh, this book was exactly what I wanted in an R.I.P. read. I killed about half the book in one late night read and had to stay up an extra half an hour with a trashy romance to avoid the nightmares that would come from the ghosts of The Poisoned House.
Side Note about the scary-ness:
Oh, the ghost hand! eek, coming through the window…shut the book right there. I swear, couldn’t read any further even with the hubby sleeping next to me and the dog at the foot of the bed; because dogs always know when something is up…it’s a sixth sense, you know.
The next night, again armed with my dog and my husband, I managed to finish the book. Luckily the ending was quite happy. I’m beginning to see this as a trend in horror/suspense novels. The happy ending. I think the authors put you through so much, get you to question every motive, every creak in the house, they have to overly assure you that once the story is told the characters are safe.
First off, I loved the beginning and the ending. The book opens with the warning that the following story was found amongst forgotten papers in an attic. Score 1 for creepy. Also, the first chapter was foreshadowing at it’s finest…scared Victorian serving girl running away screaming that the house was evil. Score 2 for creepy. But the ending…that happy ending I told you about…it’s written in obituary form. Yep, obituary. LOVED it.
Really, what keeps you going is the lovely writing (yeah, it’s well written to boot!) and the suspense. If you wanted a little sleep-with-the-lights-on-have-to-start-a-trashy-romance-slam-the-book-shut kinda read, this is it. I found Abi to be a little ‘young’ I won’t go as far as to say immature, she’s seen too much and been abused too many times to seem immature, but she exudes a youngness that had me reminding myself of her age. I think this added to the creepy factor. Abi is young enough to believe it all while still being old enough to realize ramifications and to piece the mystery together.
Oh and P.S. bookish peeps…there really is a ghost. Ooooh, Score 3 for creepy!
Finally we have our supporting characters. The half mad Lord Greave. The man is running around in his Victorian underwear (revealing I’m sure, lol) calling people the wrong names and staring at things in the fireplace. A medium actually connects with the dead and our ghost is an active soul…lots of ruined rooms, books, clothing, and dirty hand prints *chill*. Ahh, but our final and greatest supporting character is the Housekeeper Mrs. Cotton. Evil incarnate. Loved her character and I loved the role her character played in the final plot.
If you’re on the lookout for a good, fast, gothic read this Halloween…look no further, you’ve found the book.
Rating: 5/5 Creepy Victorian Gothic tale about things that go bump in the night.
*Book received for review from Albert Whitman & Company via NetGalley…Thanks!*
Sara O
thelibrarianreads 