The September House by Carissa Orlando

Available now

Content notes can be found at The StoryGraph

From the Publisher:

When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee. 
Margaret is not most people. 
Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine—who knows nothing about the hauntings—arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September is just around the corner, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.

This book! I listened to it on audio and was instantly hooked. It’s so refreshing to have a middle aged female main character who is so interesting and intelligent and refuses to be made into a victim. Margaret is such an absolute force of calm, reasoned thinking that it’s almost disconcerting how easily she adjusts to the quirks of her dream home. Now, I fully understand that her devastating and painful past has shaped her into the woman she is, but she really comes across as a woman who knows herself and her ability to handle any situation. Literally, any situation.

The writing in this novel is absolutely incredible. I was instantly invested in the characters, especially the mystery of the house and it’s “pranksters” in just the first few chapters. Margaret narrates our tale of horror and supernatural suspense and do so in the most casual and light hearted way. The narrator, Kimberly Farr, was perfect as the voice of Margaret. My husband caught the last two hours of the book while we completed some home projects and stopped several times to comment how flippant Margaret seemed to be about actual horrors happening before her eyes.

Evenly paced with a balanced mix of plot and character development, flashbacks to Margaret’s early years of marriage and raising her daughter provide a very heartbreaking, but important insight to her ability to always be a survivor. And the way she has fallen in love with the house! I felt that on a visceral level.

I absolutely loved this book. I listened to all 13.5 hours over just two days because I couldn’t put it down. If you’d like to add this incredible novel to your shelf, you can click on the cover above or here for ordering information.

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