Book Review: The Way It Haunted Him by Laura R. Samotin
Genre: Horror Fantasy
Age: Adult
Format: ebook
The Way It Haunted Him is a book rooted in Jewish folklore, exploring guilt and grief, trauma and abuse, through the unreliable and sometimes hard to pin down Michael Stein. After the death of his boyfriend, Michael picks up his boyfriend’s work, travelling to the Schechter Institute for Judaic Studies, where his boyfriend was offered a very rare opportunity to enter the archives. When Michael arrives under the false name, he doesn’t meet the Institute’s archivist, but the archivist’s grandson, Jacob. Michael, unlike his boyfriend or Jacob, has no time for folklore and superstition, until strange things happen at the Institute that can’t be explained by anything but demons.
As the story unfolds, Michael gradually opens up to Jacob, unable to deny an attraction between them. But both have their secrets, and as those secrets threaten to spill, Michael must confront his own past and open his eyes to what’s going on around him. I found these characters to be really interesting, and the setting of the archive offers an interesting, enclosed, gothic space for the characters to move through. I can understand why some might not be the biggest fans of Michael’s actions, but I think Samotin does a good job of revealing Michael’s trauma, offering a layered character who isn’t always honest with the reader or himself.
A lot of his actions are informed by guilt, grief and trauma and it’s apparent early on he isn’t really thinking clearly. I love when horror explores these themes, when we get characters who are not ‘perfect victims’ and make messy, poor choices because it makes them feel incredibly human. We’re led along a particular path, and Samotin does a good job of allowing the reader to pick up on certain reveals before our unreliable narrator does. Absolutely a book I enjoyed and I’d be keen to read more from this author.
Review by Elle Turpitt
Twitter: @elleturpitt
Bluesky: @elleturpitt.bsky.social
I received this ebook from Titan Books via NetGalley for review consideration.
