DNF at 50% with skimming of the end

This was one of the most depressing DNFs I’ve had in a long time because I absolutely loved the opening of this book. The premise of a missing sister and a haunted movie/movie set is so cool. I loved that we were exploring the haunting and reenacting scenes from the original movie, but once the weird “The Path” stuff started, I was out. The book morphed into something completely different than what I was expecting and I’m not a fan of where is went. After skimming the end, I’m glad I stopped where I did. I’ll remember the beginning fondly, but the rest just wasn’t for me.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of the book!

I'm not really into horror, in fact I'm a huge coward towards anything scary. Since my kids are really into horror I thought I would give this book a try since it is YA and honestly how scary could it be. Well, it was scarier than I thought. The eerie, haunting feeling of the setting stayed with me long after I finished the book. The story has some confusing bits for me, but it all came together in the end leaving me satisfied. This would be a great gateway to Shirley Jackson for readers who aren't quite ready for her.

If you liked Paul Tremblay's 'A Head Full of Ghosts', then I think you'll enjoy this one too. It has a similar vibe with the sister relationship and the filming of the incidents. The author sets up an eerie, gothic atmosphere/setting through her skillful dialogue and general writing. I was on edge throughout much of the book and was left with a story that wormed its way under my skin and messed with my head. It was more of a slow burn horror but I feel that the payoff in the end was worth it. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

🖤✨Book Review ✨🖤

Do you enjoy haunted house stories??

Haunting of hill house inspired , this story features 2 sisters, Sophia and Layla. They create a horror movie that leads to very realistic scenes of an unknown entity (was it real or fake though?). 5 years later, one of the sisters disappears. What happened to her? It will be up to Sophia to go back and uncover the secrets of the past, and reveal her sister’s presence.

I really enjoyed this book as a fall read. There’s several scenes that reminded me of Disney’s a Haunted mansion, Coraline, Carrie, and Crimson Peak. If you like haunted houses, reading of spooky entities (Demons ? Ghosts?), time lapses , scenes with enough suspense and thrill, and a touch of romance, you’re going to enjoy this book. 👻🖤

Thanks to @tbrbeyondtours & @katyadebecerra for the opportunity to read this arc in advance. Checkout the tour schedule in my profile for more information.

* #WhenGhostsCallUsHome #TBRBeyondTours
* #KatyaDeBecerra

When Sophia was 12, she starred in her sister’s amateur horror film. The film recorded Sophia’s real, terrified, reactions to scenes her sister concocted in the massive California mansion, which comes with its own eerie history, that they were temporarily living in while their parents restored it. The movie catapulted Sophia’s sister to underground star status and the film gained a serious cult following, with a whole damn website dedicated to analyzing the film’s hidden meanings. Then Sophia’s sister disappeared. Desperate to find out what happened to her sister, Sophia agrees to star in a documentary about the making of the film that will be shot in the same California mansion as the original. While getting access to the mansion may be Sophia’s best chance at finding her sister, she will have to confront her childhood trauma, and the house’s real secrets, to make it out alive.

This is a very interesting premise and the beginning of the book pulled me in, but then it REALLY slowed down for the middle third of the book. Picked back up for the last third and ended well, but that middle was a slog. I think some of the middle scenes they filmed in the house could have been cut without losing anything. There is a slightly cringy YA romance, but hey, it’s YA. Very light on character development.

My personal opinion is that the publisher should have chilled on the Hill House comparisons in advertising because that just raises horror-lovers’ expectations to nearly unattainable levels. I am glad I stuck it out through the middle slog because that last 1/3 was a pretty crazy whirlwind worth a read.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC.

I’m really surprised not more people are talking about this one! It is so good! I loved the found footage horror movie aspect. It was so creepy and good. I highly recommend this one for spooky season or if you are just in the mood for creepy book! Loved it! Thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy of an arc in return for an honest review!

This gave me a chill-a-minute and read like a house afire. The setting of the coastal mansion was very well depicted and the characters (for the most part) were appealing and sympathetic. Being compared to Shirley Jackson's masterpiece of psychological horror, The Haunting of Hill House was apt and I hope this book leads teens to read Jackson's book. In my opinion, this was a little intense for younger teens--heck, even I, an adult, garnered a few nightmares after reading it just before going to sleep, but mid to older teens will gobble this up when released next October 2023.

A sequel to something nobody's seen or read before, this might seem very late-in-the-day as regards its subject, but still works. Five years ago, a young woman – living in a 'haunted' house being restored by the parents – filmed a one-person found-footage ghost chiller starring her twelve year old sister. The film blew up as a cult entity, spawning talk of real ghostly fallout for viewers, etc – and then the director disappeared. Now, the sister, still claiming scars from what she saw and experienced that summer, when the production might not have provided for the only haunting, is back, with a documentary crew honouring the fifth anniversary of it all. But have the ghosts of the old place ever left?

Coming to this, obviously, hoping for something much more "House of Leaves" than dodgy person weeing on some leaves (Blair Witch, in case you'd forgotten), I got a healthy mix of the familiar, revisited. The book does very well to introduce the film so many people know intimately to those – ie us – who don't, and while a heck of a lot of its flavour is familiar it doesn't come across as some sorry, pre-digested mash. Since the film came out, a corner of the Internet has become devoted to people conveying their experiences with it, that may or may not lead to the missing director, and our heroine Sophia is both caught up in that, and in what turns out to be a second iteration of the 'stand and look scared under cameras' experience she had growing up. Like I say, a straight sequel.

Only a slightly clunky romance thread really marks this down as a teen read; it certainly has the quality of a mass market piece. And you could argue it would work better for that audience, more likely to be without comparisons to a certain over-rated found-footage 'horror' blockbuster. I also found the nods to the 'The Red Shoes' story to be well worth their place here, adding further distinction to it all. There is a touch of Poe's 'Masque', a smidgen of 'The Stone Tape'. This is no fly-by-night chancer of a piece, but a rich and absorbing drama. I'm grateful I chanced upon it – to a four and a half star extent.

“Vermillion” was not only an epic found-footage horror sensation, but a religion. The diehard fans, V-Heads, not only worship the film and its creator, but are convinced it’s real and a path to unlock esoteric secrets of the world. But it’s not. It’s just a movie. At least according to the director’s younger sister—who happened to be the star of the movie.

Sophie Galich was only twelve when she and her older sister, Layla, made “Vermillion” but she’s certain that no actual ghosts were involved. Only Layla’s brilliance with special effects and film editing were used. But after Layla disappears and crazy V-Head theories suggesting Layla is on “The Path” of Vermillion, Sophie isn’t so sure. Desperate for answers, she teams up with a documentary crew and goes back to the house the movie was filmed in. But just how important are the answers to “Vermillion” and Layla when Sophie might have to give up her soul to obtain them?
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This was by far the best haunted house story I’ve ever read. It was like “Paranormal Activity” meets “Abbatoir” meets “Toad Road”. Literally three of my favorite horror films all rolled into one book and ohmygod did this combo work! The whole mystery of the film’s authenticity and how it was developed thru Sophie investigating The Path and Layla’s disappearance was powerfully chilling. But I was so addicted that I needed to keep going, needed Sophie to find Layla and figure out the secrets behind “V”. The end result was fantastically satisfying but I still wanted more. I’d be so stoked if this was made into a TV show produced by the team that made “Channel Zero”.

A very atmospheric read, mystery fans should definitely give this a go. Unfortunately it wasn’t really for me

Thank you to NetGalley and Page Street Publishing, Page Street YA for an eARC of When Ghosts Call Us Home!

When I read the words “found footage horror” in the description, I knew I would really enjoy this book. Super eerie with “sitting on the edge of your seat” type thrills that will keep you turning the page, until suddenly you finished the book before you felt like time passed at all. I love a good haunt and this was definitely the perfect read during spooky season.

Bizarre. Beautiful. Perfect.

This is the HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE comp we all need and deserve. It's my first of Katya de Becerra's books, but it certainly won't be the last--the tension & gorgeous writing here was THROUGH THE ROOF. Found footage horror in novel form? Sisterhood? Ghosts that may or may not be real? A house with a haunted heart? ALL OF THIS, YES, PLEASE.

As with most thriller-type books, I don't want to go too deep into detail for fear of spoilers. But if you've seen the stunning, freaky cover and thought "huh yes that looks suitably freaky and lovely" then chances are, you'll vibe with WGCUH. It definitely gets bizarre at times, but we love that here.

It's obsession. It's lies. It's Cashore House. Are you brave enough?

I really love the haunting feeling of When Ghosts Call Us Home. It really felt like a combination of the season of American Horror Story following Roanoke, and The Haunting of Hill House/Bly Manor. As a big horror fan, I think it really captured the essence and feelings of watching a horror story play out on screen, and this is a book I would actually love to see an adaptation of. I do think there's a beautiful coming of age message in there, but it often took the back seat to trying to figure out what happened to the sister. I think that was okay in this instance, because the focus on the sister and following the path made for a much more interesting and unique journey than other YA horror books I've read in the last year.

𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐆𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐔𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐚𝐭𝐲𝐚 𝐃𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐚
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞: 𝐘𝐀 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫 | 𝐆𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫
𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫: 𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦𝘥 3𝘳𝘥 𝘖𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘦𝘳 2023
𝐌𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝟑.𝟓 ⭐️ 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝟒 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬.

A unique gothic haunted house story. The writing style had me hooked from the very beginning, this is a slow burn but it is definitely worth it.

This follows Sophia and Layla. When Sophia was 12 she was the main star in her sister Laylas horror film ‘Vermillion’ which was filmed in the gothic house Cashore House, the film went viral. 5 years later, Layla has been missing for two years and it’s up to Sophia to follow the clues as to what happened to her sister.

The running theme throughout is can I trust Sophia’s mental state? Was what she went through just a made up film or something paranormal that her sister caught on film? The ending did leave me with questions but I think that was the point.

Recommend if you like
- Creepy Atmospheres
- Unreliable narrators
- Big haunted mansions

Thank you to Netgalley and Page Street Publishing for this Arc
#bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #bookstagrammeruk #netgalley #netgalleyreads #whenghostscallushome #katyadebercerra #booklover #gothicbooks #horror #yathriller #bookstagramuk #bibliophile #bookish #bookcommunity #arcs #bookshelf #horrorbooks

When Ghosts Call us home is a YA horror novel about a young girl named Sophie, who returns to a haunted home where she lived when her parents were renovating and before her older sister went missing. The Cashore house was supposedly haunted by a vengeful spirit named Vermillion, an old ballerina named Adriana Karkarof. When they were younger her sister Layla had recorded a film about Sophie interacting with Vermillion. She has a near death experience but doesn’t remember most of the events that night.

Fast forward a few years and Layla has went missing. The only known footage is of Layla at Cashore house, and the case remains unsolved.

The film Vermillion gained so much traction and interest when Layla went missing at 17, that there was a whole online community dedicated to understanding the film, Layla’s disappearance, and Sophie’s interactions with the ghost named Vermillion. The level of interest in Vermillion, had since inspired a director, to return to the Cashore house with Sophie and a cast full of people to act out and recreate the events. Sophie decides to returns in hopes of uncovering clues about Layla’s disappearance.

This was a mix of Haunting of Hill House (the show not the book) and The Red Shoes, the ballet. I had such high hopes that the book let me down a bit. It was a bit hard to get through because it was a bit repetitive, easy to predict, and slightly uneventful. Everything felt a bit drawn out and cliche. Loved the concept, mediocre execution.

This was such a unique YA horror! The premise is amazing, a young girl is going back to film a documentary on the house where her sister filmed a cult horror classic - starring our MC. She doesn't know what was real and what wasn't, and the mystery slowly unravels.

There's a bit of a romance that I didn't feel was really necessary, but the horror elements of this really stuck with me.

Every time I ask my high school writers what kind of writing mood they're in this fall, they say "horror" or "hauntings." when WHEN GHOSTS CALL US HOME perfectly fits this and I have recommended it repeatedly since it came out on October 3, 2023. It is a total vibe!

When Ghosts Call Us Home by Katya de Becerra is the ultimate Halloween read. It’s like a dark chocolate pumpkin spice latte for your literary soul. In the world of spookiness, this book is a top-tier attraction. The eerie atmosphere surrounding Cashore House, the creepy happenings, and the whisper of ghostly memories all blend to create an experience akin to being alone in a haunted mansion.

The plot kicks off with Sophia, a young woman who ventures back to the mansion that her family was renovating when she starred in her sister Layla's amateur horror film, "Vermillion." The suspense builds as she seeks answers to Layla's mysterious disappearance. What truly makes this story a gem is the way it blurs the lines between young adult and adult fiction. The writing is poetic and vivid, setting the tone for an otherworldly adventure. I was hooked from start to finish, feeling that shiver down my spine as the story unraveled. It reminded me of classics like Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" but with a modern twist.

While this is technically a young adult book, readers of all ages can relish the eerie joy it delivers. It's the perfect Halloween treat that offers spooky mysteries, deep sibling bonds, and a dash of found-footage-style horror. If you're searching for a captivating read that lingers in your thoughts long after the final page, "When Ghosts Call Us Home" should be on your must-read list.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. I absolutely loved this book, it was exremely well written, and that is no small feat for a found-footage styled novel. Ms. de Becerra did a phenomenal job balancing the descriptions, as well as the overall atmosphere of the story, it kept me consistently uneasy, and uncomfortable in all the ways I want from a horror story. A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

5 Reasons to Read

Atmospheric Setting

Who wouldn’t be intrigued by a castle like mansion sat upon a cliff overlooking the ocean? I mean…and the rooms in this mansion take this atmospheric setting to a whole other level.

Mysterious Disappearances

Sophia’s sister Layla disappeared two years ago. It wasn’t enough to have a celebrity sister, who in turn used her to create one of the most haunting films, but a screen shot of her sister popping up in the forums leads Sophia to take matters into her own hands.

Hauntings

The question remains, is Cashore House haunted or were Layla’s props just feel all too real? When Sophia returns to the house the ability to differentiate between what is real and what isn’t starts to blur all over again.

Secrets

The reasons behind Sophia’s host, the director and ticket back to Cashore house, are a mystery in themselves. Not only has he set the house up exactly how it was when Sophia lived there, but he’s wired it to capture all her reactions. He’s also brought along his son, Arthur, who is just a couple years older than Sophia. Sophia has her own reasons for being there but what about the motivations of everyone else playing a part in this game?

Sisterly Love

As someone extremely close to her sister, any story based around the love two sisters has for each other is immediately on my list. I would do anything for my sister, just like Sophia is doing for Layla.