Atria does it again with an amazing author!

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett is an outstanding new novel that I very much enjoyed.
This was a page tuner for sure with great character development. Even better plot and storytelling.
The writing was flawless and mesmerizing in was hooked immediately upon opening the page.
This is one y'all won't want to miss!

Creepy, scary, eerie house haunted by past inhabitants’ spirits theme is always a big winner for me!

I was making an interview with a director who shot a movie about haunted house and a creepy little doll reminds of us Conjuring’s Annabelle at the same time I received the arc.

After reading few pages, I said I was damned! The same plot line with more well constructed two childhood friends’ traumatic experiences and their never ending nightmares about the house kept calling them were great ideas which hooked me up even though they freaked me up more than I expected !

The story divided between three timelines: first timeline takes place in 30’s: introducing George who builds the house for his girlfriend Alice and his daughter Grace. He plans to marry with Alice but his possessive love and abusing tendencies scare Alice and little Grace also knows George hates her and he would be happy if she’s out of the picture.

Second timeline is about a family of four: who moved in the very same house in mid 60s. Ben, Natalie and elder daughter Joan who finds Grace’s baby in the basement of the house are narrators, trying so hard to adjust their new lives. Then a tragedy strikes out and the brutal murders haunt the place forever!

In present day, we’re introduced to main character of the story: Clare who recently returns back to her hometown from Chicago, after dealing with her traumatic miscarriage and breakup with her longtime boyfriend. Her childhood friend Abby’s mother called her to inform: she’s found at a house’s basement, overdosed and she called Clare’s name before the medics take her to the ICU.

Clare has to come back to confront the ghosts of her past: her guilt feelings, fears, regrets, unresolved issues.

In the summer of 1998, Clare went into that haunted Octagon house ( it’s unusually shaped like octagon) along with Abby, Lori and Monica. The house left abandoned after a man killed his family and sent to prison ( which connects it with second timeline of the story and present narration of Ben who is at the asylum now). It was a few miles outside Summer’s Hills.

If they have just gone one time, everything would be fine. Abby went there again at the same night.

And she was never be the same after she found herself locked in basement.

Clare is adamant to solve the mystery of the house because her childhood friend Lori’s daughter Taylor also went there and she has a big urge to return back just like Clare hardly resists.

She wants to help her friend Abby whose mind trapped in this place for years. But what if she’s not strong enough to face the entire truth the place holds. What if the curse is destructive enough to crash her!

It was well developed psychological, somewhat paranormal thriller. The author chose to emphasize emotional depth of friendship at the conclusion. Thrilling elements were a little overshadowed but it was still fair end for exhausted and broken characters of the story.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books For sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

The ultimate retelling of the neighborhood haunted house from your childhood. I, sure most of us had one. But this house reaches out to you past childhood and doesn’t let go!

Kid’s in Summers Mills have dare each other to enter the Octagon House. Deep in the woods, the house was the scene of a slaughter, where a man killed his entire family. Teenagers Clare and Abby take that dare and sneak into the house one night; and when they come out, both are changed, Abby irrevocably. Twenty years later, she returns to the house and tries to kill herself. When Clare gets word that Abby is in a coma, she rushes back to Summers Mills to try to make sense of what happened at the Octagon House and why it’s affected Abby so strongly. This is a creepy, read under the covers kind of book, great fun

I loved this book. It was so creepy in all the best ways. Highly recommended I literally couldn’t wait to find out the ending it was such a great book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I really wanted to like this book, but unfortunately I couldn't and it took me awhile to finish.