THE DROWNING HOUSE rating: four stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐.
When not reading THE DROWNING HOUSE (Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, July 23, 2024), I felt myself being lured back onto the island setting, almost as if it were a waking dream. Cherie Priest has a way of creating an atmosphere that carves out permanent space in your consciousness. I can transport myself instantly to the Okefenokee swamp setting of THE TOLL (Tor/Macmillan, 2019), where you have to be very careful which highway bridge you drive across. There is something Flannery O’Connor about Priest’s writing, and I also get some Shirley Jackson vibes.
Thanks to Edelweiss Plus Above the Treeline and Sourcebooks for sending this book to me for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
What’s better than a haunted house? Two haunted houses on a remote island off the coast of Washington, one of which washed up on the beach next to the other one after being magically banished into the ocean 80 years ago. If you can resist that scenario, you clearly are not as warped as I am. THE DROWNING HOUSE boasts these delights:
- estranged, weird, elderly sisters (one of whom is dead and her body missing),
- three young people in an old love triangle (one of whom, Simon, is missing and may or may not be dead),
- a super-scary ghost and several really disturbing ones (who are dead but need to be a lot deader),
- a machine that makes calls to the Dark Side, very steampunk.
The super-scary ghost was the reason the house was consigned to the waves in the first place and he is trying to get his hands on this machine. How is he still alive in any form after 80 years? Pure malice (shiver). The two young people in the love triangle who are neither missing nor dead, Melissa and Leo, are attempting to find their friend Simon, protect the house from the undrowned/undead ghost and figure out what is happening on the island.
Things get pretty gruesome, and the ending is a thrill ride and a half.
It’s also possible, as in THE TOLL, to get stranded and have no escape from this island, so you can add that to the delights list.
Reading in context:
Priest has also written a couple of titles in the Booking Agents paranormal mystery series from Simon & Schuster, GRAVE RESERVATIONS (2022) and FLIGHT RISK (2023), which are very entertaining. I would be delighted to see more titles in this series, but I love Priest’s horror novels too. She has some older work that I haven’t gotten to yet but definitely plan to read, especially the adult novels.
More novels in which characters stay in, or return to, haunted houses because of someone they love, when I am thinking, often audibly, “Get out get out get out!”
MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (love of cousin)
THE SPITE HOUSE by Johnny Compton (love of daughter)
A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES by T. Kingfisher (love of mother)
STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow (love of brother); my review in blog post dated April 14, 2023
What I’m alternately reading and listening to right now:
THE WITCHES OF NEW YORK by Ami McKay (HarperCollins, 2017) which was pressed into my hand by a bookshop owner at Judy Bug’s Books in Columbus, GA, so I bought it, of course. Spot on, Alek!
#CheriePriest #TheDrowningHouse #TheToll #ShirleyJackson #FlanneryOConnor #BookingAgents #FlightRisk #GraveReservations #MexicanGothic #SilviaMorenoGarcia #TheSpiteHouse #JohnnyCompton #AHouseWithGoodBones #TKingfisher #UrsulaVernon #StarlingHouse #AlixHarrow