Genre: Southern Gothic

Families are complicated, and our perceptions of our guardians shift over time, yet they’re still able to send us back in time and make us feel like children with one look – whether in a good or bad way depends on the family. Sam, an archaeoentomologist, returns home to her mother’s house – formerly her grandmother’s - when the dig she’s on is paused. It seems like the perfect time to check on her mother, who her brother is growing increasingly concerned about. Sam looks for a logical reason for her mother’s strange behaviour – her insistence on saying grace, her redecoration, returning the house more to how Sam remembers it when her grandmother was alive, devoid of the warmth she associates with her mother – and her inability to hear criticisms against Sam’s grandmother.

Of course, there’s something else going on, not just the vultures that watch the house. Sam has to reckon with the past, and her family history, to get to the bottom of it all.

I loved Sam. She was a great character, slightly sarcastic, with a fascinating job (despite the fact I hold no love for bugs, at all) which really added to the character. It makes it more intriguing when the first thing she notices in the garden is the lack of bugs. Her mother, too, is written really well, a woman who Sam remembers as being fiercely independent and progressive, reduced to someone who…isn’t. It’s a wonderful commentary on how our parents age, and the fears that come along with it, especially when they change before us – initially, Sam searches for a logical reason, but all are sad in their own ways.

Her grandmother hovers over all this, a presence even in death, a woman who was nasty, bitter, and slightly evil, but who – admittedly – still loved her child and grandchildren, who tried to protect them in her own way, and who messed up doing so.

The relationship dynamics are written really well, and there’s a strong undercurrent of creepiness to it, even when things aren’t actively happening. It’s one of those books where you end up focusing on every little detail, wondering how it’s all going to unfold, and end up feeling almost rewarded by the end.

It’s definitely a modern Southern Gothic, and a really interesting take on the haunted house. I enjoyed this, and will definitely seek out more works from the author.

Amazon UK
Bookshop UK

Review by Elle Turpitt

Twitter & Instagram: @elleturpitt

www.elleturpitt.com

I received this ebook from Titan Books via NetGalley for review consideration