A beautifully written and chilling horror novel with an engaging main character. This is sort of Scooby Gang meets HP Lovecraft with a lyrical, atmospheric voice. I devoured this in a day. Another compelling horror story from Mira Grant.

Thank you to Netgalley and Subterranean Press for providing me with this book in exchange for my honest opinion. This will be available to buy June 30th.

Edgar Cantero’s Meddling Kids meets The Haunting of Hill House (the Netflix show) in this eerie tale about a grown-up Scobby-esque group wanting to solve one more mystery. Told from the perspective of Harlowe, the orphaned “brains” of the group, this book was more ghost story than mystery.

Harlowe, who isn’t ready to stop being a teen-sleuth and start paying for things like insurance, convinces the rest of the mystery solvers (Andy, Addison, and Kevin) to join her in a “haunted” house, to discover who actually owns it: two of three families are offering a pretty penny to anyone who can find proof of ownership (each hoping it’s theirs). The catch? The whole “haunted” thing. It seems no one has been able to last in the house long enough to discover who owns it.

Mira Grant did a wonderful job of setting an eerie tone, making the house feel like a separate, malevolent character in its own right. Her choice of wording, especially in the first couple of chapters, was perfect. She chose atmospheric horror over gobs of gore, which was fantastic for this sort of book.

I actually felt that the house was a more developed character than any of the actual people in this book- including Harlowe, unfortunately. I liked Kevin, but I felt that none of the characters were fully realized or grew at all.

The reason for this could be that this book wasn’t all that long. It could have benefited from an extra hundred pages or so. That’s not the say I didn’t enjoy this book- I did. I liked it a lot. The setup was fantastic, and the ending was creative. But..it wasn’t amazing.

It’s worth reading, but if you want a good representation of the “grown up Scooby gang”, grab Meddling Kids as well.

I am continually amazed by Mira Grant/Seanan McGuire's ability to cram so much story and character into the novella format without making things feel incredibly rushed. This particular novella is less science and more supernatural then many of the other Mira Grant works, but still falls firmly under the horror umbrella.

"In the Shadow of Spindrift House" is basically Scooby Doo meets Lovecraft. Our narrator Harlowe belongs to a group of teen mystery hunters. The problem is that they are not teenagers anymore, and the others in her little found family are ready to move on and grow up. Harlowe doesn't want to lose what they have. She also wants to figure out what happened to her parents, who were murdered by presumed cultists when she was a small child. The answer is one last investigation, unraveling the mysteries of the notorious Spindrift House on the coast of Maine. If they succeed they get 3.5 million dollars. If they fail, well, no one else who has tried to solve the mystery has ever been seen again.

In true Lovecraftian fashion, the atmosphere of this novella is one of inevitable creeping dread. If you like the particular flavor of horror found in Lovecraft's work but find his personal history of racism and bigotry off-putting, then this is the novella for you. It is a Mira Grant story and so of course the cast is more varied then your average horror tale. That said, don't get to attached to anyone, and watch out for the call of the ocean.

*ARC received from NetGalley in return for an honest review*

Oh, Mira Grant, you have taken my childhood and reinvented it into something amazing. I got so many Scooby Doo feelings that were revived from reading this story. Every time I take my glasses off I am now reminded about seeing life in curves rather than straight lines. With lines that will haunt me for all time, I certainly recommend this to people who love paranormal mysteries.

A Scooby Doo-like gang of ghostbusting kids is growing up and possibly breaking up, when one of them (the Velma) puts together one last big score—if they can find the deed to Spindrift House, they’ll make millions, but they can’t leave once they’ve entered and others have died in the attempt. Quickly things go full Lovecraft, with not!Velma’s heretofore unknown family secrets playing a big role. Grant doesn’t rely on her usual repetition/fairytale tics here, which I really appreciated; a brisk and different novella.

<b>WARNING:</b> this is more of a reader-response than incisive lit crit, in case the lady who huffed at my review of the last mira grant novella for not being informative enough hasn't gotten around to unfollowing me yet, despite announcing she was going to.

to rip off the band-aid - i didn’t love this one.

i first discovered this on <a href="https://subterraneanpress.com/">the subterranean press site</a>. i saw “mira grant” and i saw a cover with a spoooky house. i somehow missed the NUMEROUS tentacles writhing up from below.

<img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1549200927l/43821255.jpg"/>

if you know me, you know i do not like lovecraft. and not just because his horribly racist and misogynist views are a shameful blight on the reputation of my birth-state, little rhody. i’m perfectly comfortable separating an author’s life from their work, since everyone’s pretty much terrible, and if his specific brand of horror had ever been appealing to me in any way, i’d simply shrug off his toxic opinions and focus on the oh-so spooky shivers within, and - more importantly, it wouldn’t prevent me from appreciating contemporary horror writers who continued in the lovecraftian tradition, many of whom lovecraft would have hated because of those toxic opinions.

but i just <i>don’t</i>.

and i have <i>tried</i>.

when i turned 30, i decided to reevaluate all the foods i had previously denounced as “from the devil,” reasoning that my officially adulted palate would have become refined enough to appreciate what made my baby taste buds recoil. happily, i ended up coming around on a number of foods. but not olives. olives are never going to taste good to me. likewise, i have actively <i>tried</i> reading lovecraftian authors, and i've occasionally stumbled unaware into lovecraft-infused books by authors i already like, but there’s just something about his steez that clangs right off of me and my readerheart says “no.”

lovecraft is my olives.

<img src="https://kitchenoverlord.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/20140225_100221.jpg"/>

so even though i love mira grant, i just couldn’t get over the briny taste of lovecraft in this one, which might have been in part because i had not seen the (admittedly very prominent) tentacles and was caught off guard when it started going thataway.

and maybe, MAYBE i could have gotten past it if it weren’t for (those) [book:Meddling Kids|32905343], which is a scooby-doo meets lovecraft story in which the scooby gang (or here, the Answer Squad) is all grown up and investigating one last haunted house together that turns out to be pretty-darn-lovecrafty and there are drugs and death and one of the girls has a crush on the other girl. which is also exactly what this is, although the cantero is mostly a goofy romp while this one is pure horror, with mira grant’s trademark “don’t get attached” attitude to her characters and <i>sans</i> a scooby.

readers who are not me will probably enjoy it very much, but between the “been here, done this” of the cantero book and the “hate being here, hate doing this” of the lovecraft elements, this is a pretty clear case of a “not for me” book by an otherwise beloved author.

**************************

for you people with $$$$

https://subterraneanpress.com/in-the-shadow-of-spindrift-house

i will wait for it to come to netgalley, as usual. oh, this pauper's life...

In the Shadows of Spindrift House is the latest novella from Mira Grant (AKA Seanan McGuire). It’s heavily influenced by Lovecraftian lore, so if you’re a fan of that tone and style of writing, then you’re surely going to love this one.
As you can probably surmise from the title, the plot of In the Shadows of Spindrift House circles around a house. It’s a disturbing tale, with creepy tones and foreshadowing elements strewn all over the place.
This novella is perfect if you’ve read any of Lovecraft’s works, and felt like it needed more human emotions and reactions in the tale. Mira Grant perfectly captures the nature of both the house and the people in this chilling tale.
In the Shadows of Spindrift House is without a doubt one of my favorite reads for the year. It may be early to say that, since it is only March, but that is how much I loved this novella. It’s dark and eerie and captured the curiosity that is human nature so eloquently. It shook me to my core, and I know it’ll stick with me for quite some time.
I was sold just upon reading the introduction to this story. Having the first chapter being about, and by, the house itself was a brilliant, if disturbing choice. It started the novella off with a poetic feel to it, but also went a long way in establishing the world.
From there it cuts to a team of four near adults, whom together form a team that can only be described as rookie mystery hunters. The juxtaposition is quirky, but it also sort of suits the world. The two extremes are intentionally jarring, I believe. In one location we have a dark house with strong intents and a hidden purpose. In the other location, we have four kids with varying degrees of issues, who just want to do one last job (haven’t they learned never to say ‘one last job?’).
The story unfolds at a perfect pace from there. Every few pages it felt like another hint was dropped as to the true nature of the tale. Eventually hoping to feed us enough information to put it all together ourselves. I know I had more than one theory before the story concluded.
Never once did I feel like the plot rushed itself along. There was plenty of time to take a break and disturb us with another set of details, like an accurate description of a room or reminding us of a character’s particular issues. Together these elements just heightened the tension of the tale, slowly building it up…
I loved every moment of this novella. I honestly couldn’t put it down, and read it all in one sitting. I then promptly turned back to the first page and read it all over again. This tale got under my skin in ways I hadn’t expected.
The best part? I can see where this tale would connect to some of Mira Grant’s other novels and worlds…it’s a disturbing thought actually, but I like it. I can’t wait to see if any formal connection is ever drawn between them or not.

After the murder of her parents by a mysterious cult, Harlowe Upton-Jones is sent to live with her Grandparents. When she is befriended by three other misfits they form a mystery solving teen detective agency. Now years later they are no longer teens, unprepared for their adult lives they have to make a decision to split up or try to keep the group together. When Harlowe discovers Spindrift House, a haunted house with a dark history, she thinks this will be the case to make or break them. The team will receive a huge payoff if they can find documents proving the legal ownership of the house and surrounding property. Others have tried to solve the case and failed, all of them meeting their untimely demise. The team thinks they are up for the challenge...but this time they may have met their match.

In the Shadow of Spindrift House combines the elements of a gothic horror story, a Scooby Doo mystery, and an H. P. Lovecraft novel for a very interesting plot. I really enjoy Mira Grants books so I was very excited to start reading this one. While I really enjoyed this novella, I wish it would have been a little more developed so we could have gotten deeper into the characters, especially Harlowe's family history, and the origins of the house. I felt like this was more of an introduction to a new novel or a companion book rather than a full story. This is definitely a quick, entertaining read but you might be left wanting more when it ends.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy!

I think this was my first book by Mira Grant but I have seen so many rave about her work. I can see why people enjoy her work. I really enjoyed this book. It definitely had its fair share of chilling moments. Anything with a spooky house gives me the chills.

I have noticed smaller ratings on this but I am not sure if that is because others enjoyed her work more so for that I will have to check out her other work but this was a solid 4 star read for me. I may will know more about her other writing once I read more by her but I really enjoyed the creepy aspects to this book.

This felt tailor-made for me—a gang of late teens in a Scooby Doo-style mystery squad decide to unravel the mysteries of a haunted house, and there turns out to be an aquatic horror angle. It was great and I knew I was going to love it, but ultimately I wanted more.

Concept: <span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span>
Pacing: <span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span> 1/2
Substance: <span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span><span>&#9733;</span>

<i><b>"Nature abhors a straight line. The natural world is a place of curves and softened edges, of gentle mists and welcoming spirals. Nature remembers deviation; nature does not forgive."</b></i>

Mira Grant can write well, and that's an obvious detail for <i>In the Shadow of Spindrift House.</i> Regardless of the plot or the characters, I loved reading this story purely because the paragraphs were gorgeous.

Harlowe, her foster brother, Kevin, and two best friends Addison and Andy are a teenage mystery-solving group in the Chicago area with very strong Scooby Doo vibes. Harlowe hears about this unsolved haunted house case in Maine involving a place called Spindrift House and she convinces the group to try to piece together its mysteries. <b>In case you couldn't guess it: the house is seriously messed up, and the people who try to live there, die. Spook factor: great.</b>

Once in the house, things go sour and the house's...horror element...quickly takes center stage. I say quickly, because the entire novel is 200 pages. I can't go into spoilers, but the action and resolution of this book was both incredibly satisfying and underwhelming in equal parts, mostly due to its pacing and lack of space to explore each new plot point. <b>I loved what was happening. I just couldn't help but feel like we were speeding by the good bits.</b> Maybe this was due to the fact that there was a significant portion of the first half devoted to the mystery squad's origins—told in narrative info dump style amidst present-day action—and therefore I expected an equal amount of attention to be paid to the haunted house element. Regardless, this was the main reason I was let down.

<b>However, despite my overall underwhelmed feelings about the ending, after setting down <i>In the Shadow of Spindrift House</i> the takeaway feeling was positive.</b> I liked the horror element (very original, and reminiscent of Lovecraft), I liked the writing style, and I liked Harlowe from the limited window the novel allows you to see. <b>A solid entry into this subset of horror, and a killer short(ish) tale for a dark night spent by the ocean.</b>

My thanks to Subterranean Press and Netgalley.
I will read anything and everything from Mira Grant. I love this woman! She has managed to scare the crap out of me often! Zombies? ✔Mermaids? ✔Viruses? You get the idea. So, I went into this book expecting big things. Unfortunately, it starts with teenage monster hunters. Eh, it's Mira Grant, "I told myself" how bad can it be? Well.....If I'm honest, it's not a bad story at all. But, it seemed more of a Seanann story than a Mira story. I'm not a fan of Seanann's stories. Yes, I know it's the same author, but the tales are vastly different. I could see how with this being a story with Lovecraftian tones, maybe someone decided to market it under Grant. Bad choice. It wasn't nearly scary enough, or
very sciency. Matter of fact, this story was just downright tame. Would I recommend it? Sure. After all, it Mira Grant! Will I reread it, as I do with all of her book's? Nope.

Mira Grant is someone I’ve always associated with oversized books for undersized (YA) audience. And so accordingly I’ve stayed away. But then this one showed up on Netgalley, advertised as scary, non YA and very reasonably sized at 200 pages, so I figured I’d give it a try. And now I can say I’ve tried Mira Grant and…underwhelmed. This book did honestly go for scary, specifically cosmic. Spindrift isn’t merely haunted and possessed, it’s haunting and possessing. And it sits by the sea and beneath the waves there is an ancient presence…waiting, waiting…well, you know how the stories go. Or maybe you don’t and if you don’t, this might not be the best place to start unless you’re very young. Because although this book isn’t advertised as YA, it seems that Grant just can’t get far enough away from it, it fact she only managed a year. That’s one year that separated the kids in this book from high schoolers, so technically still teens or just about, there are four of them and they are a team of supernatural mystery solvers. Thinks Scooby Doo mystery team without the Scooby Doo (which is already a huge detractor, because obviously that’s the best thing about it) and way more angsty. Now that the foursome are technically i.e. barely adults, they need one major score to become self sufficient and stay together. The various intergroup dynamics are explored extensively and in a very YA fashion, which for me means emotionally simplified and very morally black and white and hyperbolic. You know, like kids think. But then for the narrative Grant choses a much more mature tone, perhaps the fact that she’s doing a cosmic pastiche weights heavily in, perhaps just trying to justify charging adult moneys for YA lit, who knows. But you do end up with a very uneven book, overwritten and underwritten at the same time, where the character’s lack of maturity and sophistication is constantly and consistently at odds with the main narrative and antagonist. So yeah, underwhelming. Reads like young adult fiction with literary pretensions. Cosmic sure, but definitely not out of this world. At 200 pages it was a very quick read, which was good, because it was much too frustrating to merit longer. I can’t really completely understand the attraction of YA fiction for adult audiences, I know the appeal exists, but...for me it’s very much akin to adults dressing as teens, both are wrong, on different levels, but same principles. Thanks Netgalley.

A chill runs down my spine even thinking about this story. It was magnificent and equal parts creepy and lovely. The idyllic prose in the opening scenes sets the mood perfectly for the deeper meaning of the story to come. There are four characters, each utterly relatable in their own way, but Harlowe is our main character. Even from the beginning you know there is something peculiar about her. The more you learn about her family's history and in turn, Spindrift House, the more enthralled you get. Even though it's short, the pacing was perfect. All in all, this book was a wholly original "haunted house" story, and I just couldn't put it down - and I can't stop thinking about it!

I received a free copy of IN THE SHADOW OF SPINDRIFFT HOUSE by Mira Grant in exchange for an honest review. Harlowe Upton-Jones is the daughter of tragedy and neglect. Harlowe eventually found refuge in a group of friends who, together, aspired to be like the Scooby Gang; during their youth, the quartet of friends solved all sorts of mysteries, including ones that, at first, appeared to be supernatural. However, now, it’s time to grow up. Addison, the unrequited lesbian love of Harlowe’s life, is ready to move on, to leave their group of friends, and to quit investigating mysteries. This means the group is breaking up. However, they need money, so Harlowe finds their final challenge-the Spindrift House Mystery, which has a multi-million dollar payout upon resolution. People have died in the attempt to solve this case. Harlowe hopes the funds will keep them together; Addison is desperate to use the money to escape, and the other two go along to keep Harlowe and Addison company. The rest is what happens when Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby Doo gang investigates Stephen King’s Rose Red and also when thwarted obsession turns into bitterness.

This was an interesting read. I got a little tired of all the whiney yearning for Addison, whose primary character traits seemed to be coldness and selfishness. Since Harlowe had healthier relationships with the other two members of their Scooby gang, I would have liked for Harlowe’s focus to have been more evenly spread out. This is not a happy book, but neither is Newsflesh.

#InTheShadowOfSpindriftHouse #NetGalley

Add one part Scooby-Doo to one part Lovecraft, sprinkle on a heavy dash of agony, and you end up with this delightful novella about friendship and family and the unnaturalness of straight lines.

Harlowe Upton and her three best friends are teen detectives who’ve left their teenage years behind and are wondering what comes next. What comes next turns out to be the mystery of Spindrift House, an old Victorian manor in a slowly-drowning New England town with a history of mysterious deaths and other, more horrific things. Harlowe is our narrator and our Velma, and also somewhat more than both those things, though if that’s a spoiler then you weren’t really paying attention.

Lovecraftian anything is very much my cup of tea, and add in the inestimable Seanan McGuire, and it’s guaranteed to be a treat. This was no exception; even at such a short length, the characters breathed, the story gripped, and I kind of didn’t want it to end. Despite the aforementioned agony.

(As an FYI: this is under her Mira Grant pseudonym, which usually is more mad science-y than her Seanan McGuire work, but if there was a science basis to the story here, I missed it. So be aware of that, if that’s important to you.)

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

And as always with anything by Seanan/Mira, I have to read it IMMEDIATELY because I have absolutely no chill. I would describe this novella as kind of a mix between her other novella Rolling in the Deep and Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids. As always, she really manages to make her characters come to life immediately and it's cool to see her take on a more Lovecraftian approach to her horror novellas as well.

My only complaint is that I wish it were a full length novel instead of a novella. I do think she is one of the few authors that always manages to pack a complete idea into a novella or short story, but the worlds she creates are always so interesting that I immediately want more of them. With this story in particular I think it could have been scarier if it was drawn out a bit more, but it was still a really creepy read and I like that she never pulls her punches with her endings.