Could you survive a week in a haunted house?

Mara is the daughter of spiritualists. Her childhood was filled with séances, scam mediums and talk of ghostly presences.

When Mara finally left her family’s home, she vowed she would never allow superstition or false religion into her life again. Now she’s ready to start over with her fiancé, Neil, in a world based on rationality and facts.

But her past isn’t ready to let her go just yet.

Mara and Neil purchase Blackwood House, a derelict property outside of town. They’re warned about strange occurrences in the crumbling building. Doors open by themselves, voices whisper in the night, bloody handprints appear on the walls, and cold spots linger in the basement, where the house’s original owner was murdered.

But Blackwood was dirt-cheap and came with a large plot of overgrown land. Mara loves her new home, and disregards the warnings.

Because ghosts aren’t real…

…are they?

This was my first experience with Darcy Coates’ writing, but I had been wanting to pick up her books for ages and so many of them had caught my eye. I wanted to start with this one because the synopsis grabbed me and I was not disappointed. If you’re looking for a creepy haunted house book that is also psychological, this is a great example. I kind of wished more of the history of Blackwood House had been revealed a little earlier as I did feel that some of the foundation of the story was a little slow, but when we did get to the meat of the history it was definitely a great payoff. Mara did sometimes get on my nerves with how…fiercely independent she was, but that was explained in a great way that made it very understandable, so I was happy about that. While I did guess the final twist before it happened, it didn’t lessen the story’s impact for me, so I will definitely be picking up more of Darcy Coates’ books in the future.

Happy reading!