THE VISITORS by author Catherine Burns is creepy with a capital "C."

This tale will have readers questioning the lives of their neighbors and possibly their own family members.

Freaky, eerie, and terrifying are all appropriate adjectives to describe this realistic psychological thriller. THE VISITORS is equal parts thriller and horror. In fact, I believe this book should (and probably will) be turned into a movie. If that happens, I will be at the front of the line.

Catherine Burns has created two of the most horrifyingly realistic characters I have ever encountered.

Marion Zetland is the kind of middle-age woman that is times past would have been labelled a spinster or even a hermit. However, she fails to fit those molds exactly since she doesn't live alone. Her older brother lives in the house as well. Marion's brother John is continuously verbally abusive to her and she seeks solace in a bed full of her teddy bear "friends."

Their family had money once and the siblimgs grew up in the same Georgian townhouse that they still occupy. Once a grand home, the siblings have allowed the house to fall into disrepair. In fact, even Marion, who seems to have stopped growing both physically and emotionally around the age of twelve, realizes that if she ever had a visitor, they would think that she and John were hoarders.  

Though Marion is odd, John is not only strange, he is also creepy and often sadistic toward anyone who crosses him. The worst thing about John is his secret in the cellar. Marion knows very little about what goes on down there. She just knows that is where he spends most of his time and she tries to put it out of her mind.

When John suffers a sudden heart attack, Marion realizes that she will have to go to basement. It is there that she has to face John's secret, and she will be forced to decide what to do about it.

As readers delve deeper into the pysches  of both Marion and John, what they find will astonish, disgust and horrify them.   

As a reader this is a book that really is 'impossible to put down.' I suggest that once you are ready to read this book, that you set aside an entire weekend. Tell the kids to order pizza 'cause Mom is too busy reading. 

I rate THE VISITOR as 5 out of 5 Stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟.

Captivating and astonishingly readable, THE VISITORS is one of the creepiest books I have ever read. There are no police chases or secret service agents trying to save the world in this book. It doesn't need any of that. Instead, it focuses on the characters and does this so well that it deserves it's 5 Star rating.
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

“The Visitors” by Catherine Burns is a slow-burning suspense novel that tells a morbid tale. Though I found the first half of the book to be fairly slow, the content in the remaining half more than made up for that. The novel dealt with darker themes such as kidnapping, sexual abuse, animal abuse, and murder. This is not a read I would recommend for the faint of heart.

Marion and John are a sister and brother duo who share their lives in their long-time family home. The story is delivered in third-person and focuses on Marion’s point of view. For the first half of the novel, the reader learns some of the backstory of Marion’s family. Marion’s mother is emotionally unavailable, and her father appears to be as twisted as his son is. All of her life, Marion felt like a nothing, a nobody. Neither her family, her peers, nor her educators expected anything impressive of her. Everyone considered her ignorant, so she never learned how to take control of her life. John, on the other hand, was highly intelligent—though cruel—and thought to be someone who would achieve much in life. Ultimately, both of these highly different characters end up in the same place.

Marion knows that something is happening in the cellar. She knows there are “visitors”; she doesn’t know what is happening to them, though. She lives in a world of fear and denial, thinking that if she doesn’t acknowledge the girls in the cellar that their lives won’t affect her own. In the meantime, she copes with her suppressed knowledge by living in a constant daydream in which she imagines various lives for herself based upon the people with whom she comes into contact. Marion’s character is highly sympathetic, and many times the Southerner in me wanted to say, “Bless her heart.”

The more I learned about Marion and John, the more I experienced an unraveling. Rather than there being an unraveling of the characters, I experienced an unraveling of my perception of the characters. The truths I thought I knew were false, and the biases I had developed were unfounded. The author managed to deliver a twisted story that didn’t rely on cheap thrills or heart-pounding suspense; instead, the author slowly gave us pieces of the story until all was revealed at the conclusion. The thrill was subdued and restrained; because of this, the author made me think and analyze the situation more than I would usually do. By the end of the novel, I felt like I had had a true experience while I was reading the pages. My one critique is that the first half of the book felt a bit too slow; however, I understand why the author gave that slow buildup after having finished reading the story. Otherwise, I thought this was a stimulating read, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys dark themes in their reading materials.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Marion lives with her brother John in their old family home. She is in her fifties and he is a little older. She seems to live under his rule. She grew up afraid of his moods and bending to them. He runs the house and the basement. The basement is locked and she is not supposed to go in there, even though she knows what’s down there, she abides by his rules. Marion lives in her own little world, filled with stuffed animals, and daydreams of a different life. Marion is a very different bird. When John takes ill, she must go into the basement and what happens after that ….

This has to be one of the creepiest books I have read in a long time. This family was so strange and so mentally ill. There were times I felt bad for Marion. She was so bullied by John but then she would do something to someone and I was not feeling the pity anymore. There were parts that seemed to drag so I found myself wanting to flip through but it is a well-written thriller.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Legends Press in exchange for an honest review.

Psychological thrillers are kind of my thing, as dark as possible being the preference, and so I've come across a great deal of literary psychos across the pages and yet Burns' creations still stand out for their sheer...and I've seriously contemplated the descriptor here and the winner seems to be...nastiness. Strikingly repugnant sibling pair living Grey Garderns style, but with unlimited financial resources and virtually nonexistent morals/ethics. Maybe the two are connected, so much idleness and all that, but it's genuinely terrifying to witness the sort of quiet evil that comes out of appalling laziness, physical and mental. Like two sides of a horridly warped coin and so very ugly in every way...and definitely, definitely unsuitable to receive visitors. Although that's a different matter altogether and you'll find out why as you read this. Burns toys with her readers and throws some curveballs and twists and does a very credible job with this debut, but it is, for all the reasons listed above, a viscerally unpleasant read. Not a likeable character in sight, except for the victims. This has been done in fiction before, of course, not every psychopath/sociopath oozes charm, but they can be still be engaging and fun (recent example of this being the hyper awesome hyperawesome You by Kepnes) or they can be...difficult to read about. This is the instance of the latter. It's still fun in its own way, I mean it's certainly entertaining and compelling, but enjoyable would probably be the wrong adjective. Disturbing, eerie, dark...that's more like it, moral filth, genuine vileness of being described vividly. Read with caution, but do read, if you're into this sort of thing. And then balance it out with something sunny immediately. Thanks Netgalley.

I honestly tried hard to get into this book but I just couldn’t. Maybe another time, I may just be in a slump. As of now, no rating. Thank you Netgalley.

The Visitors is a story of two siblings that are now adults that still live together in the family home. Marion has always came and went as she pleased and left her brother Johns to his secret excursions in the cellar. That is until she has to do into the cellar and discovers just what he has been doing down there all these years, which was quite frightening. My review will be a little vague, it’s just so hard not to give to much away, so have to say I’m sorry in advance.

Marion was verbally abused growing up, never feeling wanted, never believing that she worth anything. Even as an adult, she is still this way. She spends most of her time in her own little world, unaware of the world around her. John on the other hand, is just as mean and spiteful as an adult as he was a child growing up. I felt for Marion at time because of the way he treated her, but just couldn’t wrap my head around why she let it go on now as an adult. Need less to say, they weren’t very likable characters, but I’m not sure if they were meant to be or not. Anyway, there some others side characters that I did rather enjoy, but their parts were here and there and they added some great things to the story.

The plot itself is slow moving, and with a thriller I don’t mind that at all. It gives time for the pieces to fall in places and builds the suspense up to the ending. Now there were mysterious emails between two people, and I was certainly curious to who they were and what they meant. As well as, just what was John doing in that cellar that he kept it locked up tight and never let Marion down there. So, the story had a lot going for it. but when we do get a glimpse of the events in the cellar was jaw dropping, and gave me the spine tingling chills. The ending was something that I was pretty shocked by, and I won’t say exactly what happened or how everything played out, because that will away the entire story. Let’s just say, John isn’t the only one in the family with some issues.

The Visitor is a seriously dark and twisted story, and overal this was a fairly suspenseful read, and I think that fans of suspenseful thrillers will enjoy it.

Excellent book. I adored the storyline and the characters. A real page turner. I would this recommend this book.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

What a big surprise this book was!! I chose it randomly from NetGalley. I liked the cover and description so decided to give it a go, but I was not expecting to like that much!
This is a debut novel for Catherine Burns and I am so looking forward to read her next books because this story was creepy, chilling, very mysterious and the overall atmosphere is very frightening. Catherine did an amazing job here. It does not feel at all that this is her first novel. I think she has a very bright future as a writer.

This novel gave me the vibes of the famous 1960s movie of Bette Davis & Joan Crawford "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" except the story is different and it is between a sister (Marion) and her brother (John), both above 50 years old. The characters are very well written, very unique. Many times Marion sounded or acted stupid as was intended by the author. Sometimes the stupidity of Marion made me laugh without throwing my mind out of the creepy atmosphere. The story happens in the present and also we get to know the brother and sister relationship from the past, so this gives us a good idea how they were and how they are right now.

If you like a wicked story, a creepy and chilling one that is believable then this is the one for you. When it is believable it becomes scarier than the fantasy and supernatural stuff.
I loved this novel a lot and I would love to see it one day on screen made into a feature film. Don't miss it. It deserves to be read by everybody and appreciated.

What the heck did I just read? Who were those people? John and Marion are brother and sister who are raised by very controlling parents and who end up living together, both unmarried and with enough wealth that neither are forced to seek employment. Quickly the reader can determine that John just isn't a nice person. But I spent the entire book trying to figure Marion out. Was she intellectually challenged? Mentally ill? Just damaged from the continual mental abuse from her parents and John? Or was it all a defense mechanism to protect her from what was going on? This book is a slow burn, like a good Alfred Hitchcock movie, where the fear of what is going to happen propels the reader forward. As a weird side note, I like the other cover better. I feel it does a better job of symbolizing the solid family that is fraying at the edges.

I absolutely hated this book, I am so sorry, I wish I could give it a better review. It was like watching a 24/7 newsfeed of someone binge eating and watching tv, and the occasional thump from below. How boring! No thanks.

I have to be the reviewer that goes against the grain on this one – The Visitors has garnered some fantastic early reviews, but it was not the book for me. I’d read a lot of reviews prior to reading this book so I was under no illusions before starting this novel; many reviews had stated this is not a fast-paced thrill ride, but more of a slow-paced character study. I am in agreement with that, I have enjoyed a few slower paced novels lately and I enjoy a good character study so I opted to read this one.

My main issue with this novel was it felt like it was on a loop – three quarters of this novel was ‘incident where Marion was made to feel low’ after ‘incident where Marion was made to feel low’ on repeat. Now ordinarily this wouldn’t bother me as each incident was different, but I felt like after each incident we didn’t learn anything new about Marion. From the blurb – “A timid spinster in her fifties who still sleeps with teddy bears” – the reader can gather an idea of the kind of character Marion is and after a few incidences were described from Marion’s childhood and adult life, her character study was complete, I felt there was no need to continue showcasing more incidences as we already knew Marion’s character.

The same was true of the John, he mistreated Marion, and we got to know his character very early on so there was no need to continue showcasing examples of it. Now usually this build-up of repetitive information works if you’re leading up to a plot twist or reveal; but again, once you started reading this novel, if you can’t make an educated guess from the blurb, the “gruesome truth that her brother has kept hidden” comes as no surprise at all. It felt a bit like the majority of this novel could have been told in a chapter or two.

Yes, I like my novels dark and The Visitors is a dark novel, but I felt it was also surface level, the psyche of the characters was never truly explored indepth. When I read a character study, I like to remain thinking about that character, be shocked or appalled, have some kind of reaction but here it all felt rather bland. There were definitely themes of misplaced loyalty and evilness but it just didn’t come to life in the way I’d hoped. There was no creepy atmosphere, no unsettled vibes, I wasn’t disturbed by the characters in anyway.

I did like the ending, mainly because it was a different “incident” to all those explained earlier on but it didn’t come as a surprise. I do like the fact that Burns didn’t change the pace, tone or tempo when she told this part of the plot – if I had enjoyed the earlier part of the novel, I think it would have been one of those endings that’s great because it feels like the author wasn’t trying to be great but simply telling you what happened and by default it was great [I hope that makes sense]. You know sometimes, events can feel forced in a novel, nothing felt forced here and I appreciate that, even though the novel did not hold my interest.

Unfortunately, I can’t, in good confidence, recommend this novel. It will certainly appeal to some readers but this was not the book for me.

4 stars--I really liked it. Warnings for animal violence, sexual violence, and dark themes.

This book is dark and unsettling, and I greatly enjoyed it. I stayed up until 1:30 on a work night to finish it, and I'm not sorry! While reading this book, I had a deep feeling of unease. You know how some books just make you feel worried or even unclean? That was how I felt reading this. (Which is a good thing while reading this sort of book, in my opinion.)

On the surface, this is a quiet book. There's not a lot of action. But underneath are dark currents, a feeling of menace under the daily lives of an English brother and sister. And what a family! I can't decide if the mother or father was more damaging to their children.

If you like dark books full of secrets and creeping menace, give this a try. Very spooky!

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

The Visitors

WOW! What a debut !! Absolutely loved this book. It reminded me of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine but on a much darker level. I really didn't want it to end and now I have a serious book hangover. What to read after reading this book? Not a clue. I seriously recommend this book if you love dark enthralling, atmospheric and chilling reads. I would give it more that five stars if I could.

This was quite an uncomfortable read for me insofar as I also share an inherited house with an older, slightly domineering brother and, although I don't sleep with them, I also have still have affection for my childhood "teddies", that and the fact that we also had a bit of a domineering, occasionally brow-beating mother in our shared past. Happily, that's where the similarities between us and Marion and John end, although I suspect that I might have snuck a sneaky check of the cellar if we had one, just to be sure!
Going back to Marion and John, cos it's their story not mine and, if you like character driven books starring, shall we just call them, wounded and very dysfunctional characters, you're probably going to love this book. Due to the nature of, shall we just say, John's character and his subsequent actions, it's not an easy read and occasionally graphic but all in keeping with the story being told and not glamourised or glorified for effect or shock tactics.
Marion definitely tugged at my heartstrings and not only because of my personal connections to the character. I really felt for her and all she had to endure at others' hands throughout her life. Especially that meted out by her Jekyll and Hyde like brother. To say she both lives in fear and denial would be a bit of an understatement but her naivety means that she is powerless to affect and change for the good so she carries on living in a world that she has created in her head, ignoring the bad and making up the good. It's only when her brother is temporarily removed from the picture that she really starts to wake up and this book charts this awakening.
It's a very atmospheric book, heavy on the claustrophobic. The twisted nature of the story really lends itself to this and, aside from the short interludes into brighter scenes, the heavy feeling continues pretty much throughout the book. Not one to read if you are looking for something on the light side. It's the sort of book that grabs you from the off and, like a car crash, steals your attention and, forgoing everything won't let you go right up until the end. Well, it did me anyway!
It also got me thinking about the whole nature and nurture thing a bit too. As Marion and John are products of their parents there's a case to be answered about how much was their influence and how much was inherent personality. The differences between Marion and John in the present added lots to my debate but I will leave you to make up your own minds. Suffice to say, even after finishing the book, I was still thinking about it for several days after.
I would definitely add this to my ever growing list of marmite books. Judging from the reviews that are already up, I think it will continue to divide readers' opinions. All good qualities which will make this an excellent book club choice as I am sure it would garner some interesting both during and post reading discussions.
All in all, although an uncomfortable read, I did find it mostly satisfying at the end. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

So, so boring! I don't have any problem with changing story between the past and the present but in this one; just killing me!

Una vecchia casa in decadenza.
Un uomo di mezza età e sua sorella, timida e sognatrice.
E le ospiti in cantina.

Tutto il resto lo devo tacere: troppo il rischio di svelare qualcosa di questo moderno, inquietantissimo Psycho: un viaggio nell'oscurità del cuore e della mente, nell'assenza di coscienza, nella fuga dalla luce, reale e metaforica.

more psychological than anticipated, but fun quick read.

This novel is full of cruelty. To animals (one of my triggers), to humans and even the casual cruelty that most people associate with honesty and tough love. Marion has grown like mold. Ignored and neglected, in the dark. Her parents were probably psychopaths, chain-smoking, boozing and using people to feed their selfishness. Is it any wonder that Marion and her brother John are completely messed up? John would be the main character in any other novel, but this is Marion's story. She is so insecure and disgusting. She hates herself and she may be evil. She may just be the product of her upbringing. In any case, she is not a good person. She is unlikeable, unlovable and evil. Her life is unbearably sad and lonely. So tell me... how is it that I grew to care so much about her? She is weak and, when burdened with the darkest secret of all - his brother's crimes - she really grows as a person. The story combines the past and the present. We get to really see why Marion is the way she is. The writing is great - the way you get to see their house in your mind's eye. Marion feels like a real person. It's like eating a treat that is making you sick, but you can't stop. One of my favorite reads this year.

I found the blurb of The Visitors to be misleading. I thought I was going to read a certain story, but it ended up being entirely different than I imagined and I loved it! Very creepy!

Well written and suspenseful. I really disliked the characters in the book. However, I believe that was intentional so I'm still buying a copy for my library.