Chantel's Reviews > The Spite House

** spoiler alert ** It is important to note that the majority of the themes explored in this book deal with sensitive subject matters. My review, therefore, touches on these topics as well. Many people might find the subject matters of the book as well as those detailed in my review overwhelming. I would suggest you steer clear of both if this is the case. Please note that from this point forward I will be writing about matters which contain reflections on financial insecurity, kidnapping, psychological distress, bigotry, racism, child endangerment, the death of a child, suicide, violence against an animal, & others.

In a small town within the State of Texas flows the poisonous gas known to the residents as the smell of crisp new dollar bills. Under the watchful eye of a woman playing the part of a jolly Saruman—one who gifts her money to all those who will adopt her every whim & fancy—the Spite House lies solitary & daunting within the woods. Eunice Houghton is the last remaining member of the Houghton family. In a bid to not be met with the ghosts of victims her ancestors hung to death, Eunice decides that standing on the doorstep of the Crypt Keeper’s layer is as good a time as any to endeavour a paranormal investigation so that she may be free of what haunts her. Truly what better reason is there to do good in the world than because you want to maintain a facade to save face?

If it wasn’t clear, that last sentence was written sarcastically. Rather alike are my feelings towards this story & the things it asks the readers to feel when meandering through the plot—ridiculous. First & foremost, this book is done a huge disservice by being presented as Adult Fiction. The dialogue alone is incredibly juvenile & might be better suited for a matured Middle Grade or Young Adult Fiction audience. There are rather few, if any, aspects of this book that lead it to thrive within the Adult Fiction genre. Should the author & editors rework certain aspects to encourage the flow that is already present within this story, I believe that the piece in question will see many eager young readers devour what might be their first introduction to Horror.

Unfortunately, because this book was received in my eager hands at the ripe old age of adulthood & presented to me as one such book that an adult would devour & which would insight dread, fear, turmoil, & terror into the hearts & minds of matured homo sapiens, I am left rather disappointed in what resulted in being an incredibly corny story that truly blew past its ideal audience in a plight to present itself along Titans of the genre.

This style of Horror is dramatic, mawkish, & filled with elements of a teetering fantasy that require the reader to abandon their inhibitions to be able to move through the novel swiftly & without muscle cramps to their cerebellum. That said, I think that Compton had a clear idea of the world he wanted to present & the characters he wanted to see flourish within this plot. Though there were certainly far too many chapters granted to an array of characters—we do not need to hear everyone’s take on everything, this is incredibly tedious & amputates the thrill the author is attempting to build—I acknowledge that the voices of each character were clear. Compton presented emotions & motivations in concise ways that fit within the world he crafted.

This approach to Horror truly requires the patient reader or, more realistically, the reader who is easily spooked. For those such as myself, this long-drawn-out approach to a mysterious occurrence that turns out to be not so mysterious after all feels like a cheat & had me rolling my eyes. I return to my original points here when saying that this story would prosper in the hands of younger readers who have perhaps not been acclimated with the graphically morbid genre that is Adult Horror Fiction. Stories like this are important because everyone deserves to have the opportunity to dip their toes into a vast array of genres.

In that same breath, one is not crafting a substantial Horror when one is littering the story with pitiful characters, all of whom make ridiculously stupid decisions & are troubled to their core, rendering them unreliable narrators. Again, seasoned readers will easily piece together where this plot is going & the ways in which it will approach arriving at its final conclusion. These same casually joyful readers might not be left wondering how a body that was buried in a locked coffin might escape in that same body without markers of decomposition. Or, perhaps, they might not wonder how a body that was practically desecrated in a bomb blast made its way to recuperating its limbs.

I understand that the subject matter in this story is otherworldly—it’s not supposed to make sense to the logical world in which we live. However, it does have to make sense in terms of the writer's world. What faults this premise is the author’s lack of substantial explanations. Certainly many cultures of people are familiar with the folklore of the Changeling. I just read a Goosebumps book—“Let’s Get Invisible” (1993)—that presented some of the aspects of this lore alongside the beliefs associated with mirrors. This leads me to wonder why this Adult Fiction’s details simply state that a Devil-like entity was responsible for the Changeling occurrences.

Where did this entity come from & how long has it been chasing random souls to reincarnate them in a bid to gain their spiritual matter for its own? What is the purpose behind reincarnating people such as Frederick Emerson when the demon could go after people who would truly do damage? To what goal is this endeavour succeeding? Did the demon want to see the underdog have a win against Uncle Sam? What is the point? I’m aware that not everything has a necessity for meaning but in this case presenting a life-altering demonic entity that casually resides in a random house in a random township in Texas makes me feel confused, not afraid.

There were so many arbitrary occurrences in this book that I didn’t have time to care about any of them. We follow Eric for too long in his ramblings of his grandfather perhaps being a reincarnated Changeling for me to care when we finally got to the end & the demonic entity got its stage time. Frederick was an exceedingly aggressive man who assaulted a dog because it was protecting its home & owners, just to say to Dess that one has to act so one is not acted upon. The gratuitous reliance on threats of violence was exceedingly high throughout this book & within circumstances that did not necessitate it.

Was it right for Eric to accuse Emily (“Millie”) of being racist against Black folks because she wrote an article questioning the totalitarian practices of a Millionaire in rural Texas? No. Was he valid in questioning the motives of everyone in the town given they were only acting kindly due to the promise of money? Yes. Much of what transpires in this story could have been cut to the quick if Eric had acted in any semblance of reason. It’s bizarre to me that he would take his two (2) children through the American South where they hadn’t been treated with dignity only to jump at the first instance where an entire town is flamboyant in their ‘acceptance’. Perhaps he had yet to see “Get Out” (2017)

I make note of Eric’s behaviour because I could not rationalize his actions. I appreciate what it is to live in financial insecurity—having little opportunity to cherry-pick your endeavours. However, this whole scenario read as bashfully ignorant, especially because Eric was involving his children. There was no forethought in his mind as to how this would impact them & I can certainly appreciate that the forward moving of the plot is thanks to his shocking inability to ask questions, of any kind. Regardless, I was frustrated with his character. I didn’t want to see Dess have to act older than her years because she felt the need—-responsibility—to care for her parent whom she deemed catatonic in life.

I felt horribly for both the children & also for those who met their demise & were left to haunt the house that they were killed within. I cannot even begin to list my questions with regard to this because, again, it makes no sense. Why would the children become evil after death? I suppose one might regard this in terms of its hidden meaning; our intentions do not dictate whether what we are doing is truly being taken in the ways in which we desire.

The children who died within the house received no reprieve & were transformed into little devils roaming the corridors in search of a sacrifice for the demonic entity that killed them. Why he did that, I cannot begin to know. If a demon can roam the earth reincarnating dead matter, why stay in a house in the middle of the woods that could easily be burned down? The reliance on a building that is of no substance, given that it was built purely out of spite by Peter Masson, is bizarre & illogical. Lest we take into account the natural progression of nature to overtake the abandoned building. I digress.

This leads me to my next point; how long had Eunice been attempting to prove there were ghosts in the Masson House? Why was the house in her possession & not a descendant of Peter Masson? Why would she keep this house in her possession given the curse that plagued her family was around prior to its construction? What did proving there were ghosts bring to her fear of dying? This woman is well into her eighties, long gone is the time to confront a demonic being whom you suspect is waiting for you. The whole thing just felt so boring to me.

Where am I meant to gather the empathy to feel bad for a woman who manipulated society into performing her every whim because her financial situation permitted it? The reliance on the hangings being the reason her family was cursed simply disconnected me from the story; I do not care that you are being haunted by people whom your family killed at whim. It feels weird that these same spirits are written as grovelling morons waiting like mosquitoes for a piece of flesh to appear. You would think they would want to rest with the rest of their deceased family members & not spend their time antagonizing a child—Stacy—into feeding Eunice to them.

As is evidenced in this review, I did not enjoy this story. I was hoping that this would be a story of haunting occurrences & utter terror. Rather, this was a story that fore-fronted the grief & banality of decisions made under duress. Eric’s course of action was absurd & truly those made by a man who was withheld by bereavement. I would have appreciated it if he questioned one of the events transpiring. It might have added some level of depth to his character to wonder why a random elderly lady was giving away six-figure salaries to people who would stay in a house on the hill.

Alongside my qualms with the plot, there was a substantial level of edits that had been overlooked. I acknowledge that at the time I am writing this review the book has not yet been published & therefore these errors may have been resolved by the date of publication. Primarily among these errors was the misspelling of character names which made it difficult to track who a character was. For example, Peter Masson was often called “Pete” by both himself & other people. Another instance of this is Lukas Masson being referred to interchangeably as “Luke”. As well, when Peter is in France, the French portion of the story should be edited to reflect the correct spelling of numbers. We do not say “dix-neuf cent dix-neuf” this would be a direct translation from English. Rather, 1919 is written as “mille neuf cent dix-neuf”.

When all is said & done, this was not a book that had me as the target audience. I know that none of my friends or family would have recommended me this book, but I know some of them might enjoy it because it is not written as being a distinctly horrific Horror story. The haunting of the Masson House plays second fiddle to the roaming of Eric & the enumerable point of view chapters that clutter the book. The raving paranoia experienced by a multitude of the characters was sad but never left me to feel any levels of empathy as the flow of the story & the way in which it was written was like boogie boarding on Tsunami sickened seas.

I have confidence that this book will be appreciated & adored by people who are easily scared. Those that can walk the dark halls at night & imagine The King of the Dead & the Dead Men of Dunharrow roaming in the periphery waiting to combat the oath that sent them into the hills all those years ago as the demon in the house watches them in throbbing anticipation.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, & Johnny Compton for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!