House of Thorns / Isabel Strychacz / Book Review

HOUSE OF THORNS

Five years ago, something happened to the Peartree family. Something happened, and they fled their ancestral home in the dead of the night. Something happened, and they left one sister behind. Something happened, and Lia Peartree doesn't remember. Or at least that's what she's always told the press.

After that night, the Peartrees were never the same. Lia's the only one holding it together. Her oldest sister is gone, lost during that night. Her second sister, Ali, has gone off the deep end, only drifting back into town when she needs to beg for money. Which leaves only Lia left to be the daughter her mother always wanted. And that's a hard burden to shoulder.

And as the five-year anniversary of that night approaches, Lia starts to realize she can't dodge her past forever. Literally. Because her sister's ghost is back, haunting her--calling her home. And when Ali answers to that call, well, Lia isn't going to lose another sister. Not if she can help it. And saving Ali means going home...

THOUGHTS

This is a fairly solid sort of haunted family home book. I enjoyed reading it, and I would recommend it to readers who like, well, haunted ancestral home stories. But I'm not sure it really adds much to that niche overall.

PROS

Haunted History	This book is full of echoes of the past. Lia is absolutely haunted by her sisters, both of them. She is haunted by the sister they lost, left behind at the house that scared them away. She is also haunted by the sister who is still around, a shell of herself, spiraling in addiction and willing to drag everyone down with her. Lia is haunted by what happened to these girls on a personal level, but she is also haunted by what others think, by the social ramifications that her sisters are both too gone to face themselves.
Crashing Waves	The haunted setting that Isabel Strychacz weaves is perfect. The crashing waves, the tumbling cliffs, the rotting seaside mansion: something about this works so well with time slips, with ghosts, with lapses in memory and lapses in judgement.
Jumbled Memories	It can be really difficult to write a book that hinges on gaps--gaps in narrative, gaps in memory, gaps in history. But Strychacz nails it here. This book is full of jumbled memories, memories that grow only more chaotic and confused as the climax approaches. It is utterly overwhelming. Just as a haunted house should be.

CONS

One of my early points of confusion here wasn't, I think, meant to be a point of confusion. Lia and her family have been hounded by press, investigators, true crime podcasters wanting to know what, exactly, happened in that house years ago. And Lia, who definitely remembers, tells them that she really doesn't remember. She was too young. But in reality, she was thirteen years old, which is too old, I think, for these investigators to buy the "too young" excuse. And her age isn't exactly clear off the bat, so I kept having to do mental math. Was she thirteen (so now she's eighteen)? Or was she eleven (as it says later), which makes her sixteen now? Don't worry. The numbers ultimately do match up, but the timeline here felt a bit too confusing off the bat. It really pulled me out of the narrative, for sure.	Playing It Off
This book relies a lot on Lia's internal turmoil. It relies on her obsession with the house, her obsession with the past and what happened to them all there. There isn't really an extrinsic motivator in this book. All of the drive comes from within. But that makes it a little hard, because when Lia says something along the lines of "I have to do this; I have to do that," well, readers might not exactly relate. Because there isn't anything actually pushing her to do this, and the obsession, though incorporated into the book, doesn't feel strong enough to really prop up the plot? Not as it is written, anyway.	Motivation
Which kind of leads me into this final critique. This book feels very... vague. It's got an ethereal quality to it, which isn't necessarily bad except that I didn't have enough grounding in it to really, you know, get invested. Something here just doesn't quite click, but I'm not sure I could put my finger on what. Everything feels too... loose.	Wavery, Watery Prose

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/10

Fans of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House will love entering into this haunted home on uncertain footing. Those who loved Liselle Sambury's Delicious Monsters will enjoy diving into these ancestral halls.

Details Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers Date: August 20, 2024 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.