I found the premise of this book to be highly attractive and as October is approaching I thought it would a perfect book to help get me in the spooky mood for Halloween. The plot of the novel is fairly easy to recognize and brings to mind many horror movies and ghost stories. A young NYC couple move to upstate New York to run a historical house/museum with a mysterious past. This story never ends well; at least one in this couple is bound to die or come close. Unfortunately for reader it takes far too long for this inevitable end to occur. While I did not find this book extremely painful, it was though a tad bit underwhelming. The first half of the book is tedious with not a lot happening. Between the chapters filled with the descriptions of the mundane tasks of running a poorly visited museum are the musings of the historical figure who lived in the house. These passages from the notebooks are not really illuminating and feel often pointless. They don’t help to drive the plot or add to the ghostly atmosphere. The second half of the book does move much quicker so much so that the ending feels rushed. There was so much space devoted to describing the lack of activity in the beginning and once there is actually something happening in the story it is described in such a quick manner that it rushes by. Despite the revelations in the last chapters, this never seemed like a ghost story and I wouldn’t really describe it as such and that is a disappointment.

After a few bumpy starts, I raced through about 2/3 of this book in one go until a 3am finish. Obsessed with ghosts at an early age, I enjoyed this delightfully atmospheric novel which was told often with some humor and a good dose of self-reflection, by the narrator and protagonist, Nick.
He and his fiancée Hannah move away from the big city and into this historic museum, the Wright House, in tiny Hibernia, to be its caretakers, which immediately gives you flashes of 'The Shining'. We don't get to know too much about Hannah right away, and the story centers around Nick's experience as he is the one who is really 'brought along for this strange ride'.
Because I was reading a digital copy, I didn't get to experience what the special notations of the original owner of the house, Edmund Wright, Mary have looked like, as with the ones kept in a journal by Hannah. I expect those to look different in the finished copy. This will likely add to the atmosphere of the novel. Also, whoever picks up this book should be fooled by that sweet cover, for there are spirits working within that aren't so innocent.
I found this book to be filled with quite a bit of mystery, some humor, self-reflection, a look at grief and loss, the supernatural, and the author, Ben Dolnick, uses fascinating language throughout.
I'll be interested to see a finished copy with the 'Ghost Notebook' writings included.

This is an atmospheric, supernatural tale that focuses on a historical museum. I read it pretty quickly, in two sittings and overall, I enjoyed it. Parts of it seemed a little rushed to me/not as fleshed out, but it was entertaining and had some great details/moments for me. Definitely an interesting story, I would recommend it.