Sam Wakefield lives in a haunted house at the edge of a swamp with her mother. This is place where ghosts and memories appear daily. When pregnant sister Elizabeth comes to escape an abusive husband something changes. Rather than just being haunted by the images of the dead Sam is seeing what looks like the future.
I enjoyed the idea of just accepting and dealing with living in a haunted house. For example the furniture never gets moved. It can be confusing to walk into a room that is currently haunted by images from years past, you don't want to trip over the coffee table!
Poor Sam wonders if shes going crazy with all the changes, wonders if she has always been crazy. The imagery is dark but the plot is very predictable. Still, even knowing how things will end you want to keep reading to see it play out. Its old fashioned and atmospheric. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.

What grabbed me? The book cover!!
What kept me? It was a great creeptastic story.

Would definitely recommend!!!

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for.providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

wow this book was a trip. I picked this out on netgalley because of the comparisons to we have always lived in the castle, so I expected it to be kind of a rip off of that but it wasn’t. there were certainly a lot of fun easter eggs though, if you’re a shirley jackson fan. the dynamics between the sisters were totally different and so relatable. I also liked that their mother was also a major character, and that all of them had flaws. my issues with the book were that the pacing was off and the ending felt pretty rushed. I would have loved to see more of sam’s life after the climax of the novel. overall, though, this was a cool metaphor for how pain and trauma are passed down through generations. horror fans will get a kick out of it and it’ll make you think.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy to review.

This is a really good haunted mansion/gothic story. Jo Kaplan did an excellent job with the details and bringing the haunted mansion to life. It was a little slow at first but kept my interest. Storyline was well thought out. Intriguing characters, chilling and very creepy.

I read dead people and they are in everywhere… That son of… faceless kid scared the living daylights out of me!!!

Another batshit crazy roller coaster ride I have, are you also in? Let’s dive into blurb:
Two daughters live with their mother at the haunted mansion built at the edge of the swamp. (Yeap, they should sue the real estate manager, oh, wait a minute, they inherited that place, my bad!) It is a place like same production designer of Netflix’s “Haunting of Hill House” worked on about the entire creepy, spooky details ( creaky stairs, labyrinth halls, echoes behind the walls, spirits of mad ancestors watching you).

One of the daughters leaves the place but then returns back because of the domestic disturbance at her marriage a few years later, pregnant, about to give a birth sooner. And a faceless boy feels the existence of a baby’s coming out, starts wandering around the house, disturbing the last crumbles of the peace, terrifying the children and animals, following Sam who never leaves the place (unlucky daughter)

Sam wants to run! Sam doesn’t want to live in terror, be afraid of her own shadow but she cannot leave her sister and her innocent baby.
This book gothic version of Shining dances with Shirley Jackson’s eerie, nail biter novels (the very same horrifying Netflix production that You’s Love plays I mentioned at the beginning and We Have Always Lived in the Castle). Only negative thing I felt about it was long and detailed descriptions slow down the pace and heart throbbing rhythm of the story-telling.

But it’s dazzling, surprising and it has also mouth dropping and smart ending which was quiet satisfying. If you’re big fans of dark, ominous, claustrophobic, irritating, nerve-bending, gothic stories, this book is definitely great choice for you (and also for me, too, even though it was a little bit slow burn thriller for my own taste)

So I’m rounding up 3.5 stars to 4 and keep my lights open before go to sleep because the haunted mansion’s blood freezing, petrifying vibes will stay with you after you finish your reading.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for sharing this gothic horror ARC with me in exchange my honest review.

Thanks for the ARC of this book. A very spooky book that kept me on edge. Loved it. Look forward to more by this author.

What a wild ride.

It took me a little bit to get into this. At the start I found the writing a bit pretentious I admit, the author substituting 20 words where one will do. The long flowery descriptions of everything was distracting and the sisters were bitchy and unlikeable. I had trouble getting into the story.

But that gradually changed. The long flowery descriptions became creepier, setting the scene for a thrilling ghost story that I devoured in two days. It has been a while since I read anything about ghosts that I really enjoyed, and I worried this would be more of the same. The haunted house. The family with a dark history. The fearful townspeople. While this has some of the typical elements that make up 99% of ghost stories I found myself really enjoying this one and the darkness within.

This was a very interesting, creepy gothic read that had me on every page. I stayed way to late in the night finishing this book because I couldn’t put it down. If you are a fan of Shirley Jackson then I highly recommend this book. It hold your attention throughout the whole story.

I had a LOT of thoughts about this book throughout the time I was reading it so if this is a little long I apologise!

On the whole, I really enjoyed this book.

The setting for the book was perfect, it had this amazing gothic feel to it, I can only describe it as the same feeling I got from the Haunting of Hill House on Netflix, eerie but beautiful. Considering the majority of the book took place within the house and its close surroundings, it never once lost those eerie tones and feelings. The literary horror atmosphere was immense and really grabbed me.

Possibly one of my favourite parts was the idea that the house was ever growing, and towards the end, I felt like we were getting lost in the house, it was a really creepy feel and got me all in a tizzy.

The characters, I loved Sam and Elizabeth so much, I thought they were excellent characters and their interactions were so well written. However, I wish we had a bit more expansion on Elizabeth's husband and their Mom, they didn't seem to have much backstory, which I feel would have lent itself to the story.

Once or twice, I did feel a little lost and confused with the storyline and as though there were too many aspects to it. However, once we hit the last few chapters it all made sense and I loved how the ending brought everything together and tied up some of the larger loose ends of the plot.

And I certainly did NOT expect that ending! I haven't been shocked like this by a book for a very long time and I will certainly remember this book for a long time to come.

"Once this house has you, it doesn't let you go."
Wakefield Manor is a "decaying ancestral mansion" in Virginia; we're told there's a locked room there that hasn't been open for years. Even though it's set in a place that evokes the past and has strong connections to it, the story takes place in the modern day. The descriptions are evocative in this tale of an unreliable narrator, our protagonist, who has flashbacks to what her ancestors did. The language is amazing and very vivid. The immediacy of the pacing is wonderful, and makes for a compelling, fast-paced read even though there's the requisite languidness that fans of Gothic horror have come to know and love for years. It's an interesting tale where the past and present are inextricably bound together. Overall, I think of this book as a direct heir to Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher" mingled with Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle."

Samantha, Sam, tells the story of her return to live in her mother's haunted mansion built on swamp land. Although Sam narrates in first person, the house could be called the main character. Horrific events from the past, spanning from before the Civil War and through generations of the Wakefield family, play out in its winding corridors and dusty rooms over and over again. Perhaps even more horrifying, are the events that seem to come from the future. Can they be prevented? Suspense and urgency drove me quickly through the conclusion of the book as Sam tries to change the future.
This is one of the most surprising and unique novels I've ever read. It messed with my sense of time, sometimes through rather ponderous musings of Sam, and more often with quite vivid occurrences. Atmosphere and setting are particularly important to me and they are most certainly well-done here. Horror is not usually my genre, but this book intrigued me. Thank you for the opportunity to read it.

An interesting gothic tale with notes of Shirley Jackson and classic horror, It Will Just Be Us keeps the reader on tenterhooks throughout. With deep running claustrophobia and characters that leave you questioning everything, this book builds atmosphere very successfully. There’s a couple of scenes that are extraordinarily tense, like the scratching at the door and the tarot card reading, and they bring an overbearing sense of fear to the reader. This was a very well-written haunted house novel; the best certainly that I’ve read in a very, very long time.

Hi all! 
Today I am going to be giving you a spoiler-free review of Jo Kaplan's upcoming new release (publication date: August 11th 2020) of It Will Just Be Us. I received an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) from NetGalley and was also given the opportunity to interview the author herself! You can check out that Q&A here. If you are interested in pre-ordering a copy, please click here. Without further ado, let's get into this review! 

Screenshot from my NetGalley account
THE PLOT
Sam Wakefield's ancestral home is a decaying mansion built on the edge of an overgrown swamp. Built by her mad ancestors, Sam has possessed a unique gift since she was a little girl. She can witness echoes of the past and the ghosts of those that came before her. When her pregnant sister Elizabeth, moves in with her and her mother, Sam begins to see a faceless-boy whom she suspects is a symbolic prophecy of her unborn nephew. She is further disturbed when he starts to commit extremely disturbing acts and taunts her throughout the labyrinthine hallways of the mansion. As Elizabeth's due date approaches, Sam is determined to prevent an innocent baby from evolving into the evil child he is destined to become. Moreover, the boy appears to be connected to a room within the mansion that has always been locked. What will Sam find once the door finally opens and will she be able to save her family from their dark destiny? 
THE CHARACTERS 
Sam Wakefield is our protagonist and it is through her eyes that we gain insight into not only her life in the present, but also the ghosts of the past. She is an archaeology teacher with a reputation for being quite odd. Throughout the novel, we learn about her tumultuous relationship with her sister Elizabeth and her brother-in-law Donovan. Sam feels incredibly connected to her home, the Wakefield history and her ancestors; having witnessed their memories and presence throughout the mansion. She lives with her alcoholic, negligent mother and strong-willed sister, after Elizabeth decides to leave her husband and move in quite late into her pregnancy. The characters in both past and present are equally important to the story itself; intertwining and creating meaning as the reader gets deeper into the story. It is a little bit difficult to trust Sam as the narrator purely due to her inability to discern reality from memory, but I felt she was the most developed and interesting character within the book. 
THE WRITING STYLE 
The writing style was incredibly strong, beautiful and poetic. It was almost dreamlike but also unsettling as I found myself rather disturbed by certain moments. In my opinion, this is exactly what I desire from a horror novel. I want to be moved but I also want to be scared. The author was able to evoke emotion and fear quite seamlessly. I also felt she painted such a vivid picture with her descriptions. I was utterly absorbed in the novel to the point where I felt like I was getting lost in the hallways of the decrepit mansion. As a huge fan of the horror genre, I couldn't recommend this story enough. It was hauntingly magnificent...
STAR RATING
I gave this an easy 5/5 stars! 
I hope you enjoyed this honest, spoiler-free review. Feel free to order a copy for yourself from the link above.
Thank you for reading
Peace & Love xoxo
Disclaimer: This post contains links to my Book Depository Affiliate which helps fund my blog, I am not being paid or sponsored for this post/products – all my thoughts/opinions are my own

Thank you to Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley for sending me an eArc of It Will Just Be Us in exchange for review consideration.

I love Women in Horror Month. I find new names to add to my TBR, boost my favorites, and find genuine camaraderie in the women horror community on Twitter. If you haven't checked it out yet, you're truly missing a great opportunity. And while this title isn't due to be published until late summer, I will definitely be talking it up until then.

It Will Just Be Us is a creepy, Gothic tale that gave me Shirley Jackson vibes. Samantha returns home to live with her mother just as her sister, eight months pregnant, arrives after a fight with her husband. While their relationship is pivotal to the plot, it's difficult for me to pin down exactly what the focus of this story is. Family? History? Mysticism? The land? Time? Legends? Yes, to all the above. The sisters are at the forefront, but the real star is the house. Rich with horrifying history and very real ghosts, Sam regards the house as its own character, a living thing with its own unidentifiable agenda.

Built by Mad Catherine, the house is constantly changing, a maze where even the family still gets lost if they aren't careful. This reminded me so much of Stephen King's Rose Red--a trait which really worked for me. Each room acts as a conduit for memories, ghosts of everyone who lived in the house and their moments echoing through time. They appear without warning, playing out their lives on a loop, and Samantha approaches them like any other chore. How can I make the bed when there's a dead body in it now? But the closer Elizabeth gets to her due date, the more Samantha is haunted by a faceless entity--malevolent and dangerous and truly terrifying.

We see the effect the house has on the women who live there, but we also see how it affects men, specifically one who has a history of violence. Elizabeth's husband Don goes from estranged husband with a temper to a violent, vengeful presence in the course of a few chapters. The descent into madness, however, is subject to interpretation. Is he really the villain, or is he the hero? An antihero, maybe, but we can't really tell for sure, because we've been following Samantha's rationale, and we see what she wants us to see. Kaplan's use of perspective shines in this aspect.

Culminating in a heart-pounding series of events that I will not discuss because the unraveling timeline is one of the best parts of the story, we see the strings of memories connect and extend, and watch as Samantha is faced with past, present, and future.

Just. Wow. I'm still speechless.

Sam's voice and interaction with her sister reminded me of We Have Always Lived in the Castle. There's a formality to her speech that strategically alienates her from a contemporary tone. There are cell phones and power lines, but they feel removed from the text. Another world. This feels deliberate and only enhances the isolation she feels in the house. Kaplan's skillful handling of diction and atmosphere is beautiful and effortless but powerful.

For fans of Rose Red and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, It Will Just Be Us is a must-read in 2020. 10/10 would recommend.

I want to start off by saying thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book, it was a very good read easy to follow along with storyline and characters. This was a new author for me but I very much enjoyed it, thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to reading more by this author again. I highly recommend this book to everybody.

Profoundly disturbing. Chilling details.

Set in the Virginia swamp, Sam’s ancestral home, Wakefield Manor, has been cursed since inception. The house collects memories, replaying over and over snippets of events that occurred within its walls. All that dare to enter this haunted house are subject to these visions of the past.

Living in the house taints Sam and her sister, Elizabeth, leaving them as outcasts in the small nearby town of Shadydale. It has claimed her father, driving him to suicide. It has claimed her mother’s sanity. Sam tried to leave but always finds her way back to the house as if being pulled by a magnetic force.

When a pregnant Elizabeth moves back home to escape an abusive relationship, the house feels different. A new darkness penetrates the walls showing Sam the future evil within her unborn nephew. She is desperate to find a way to change the future horror she has seen but when her sister suddenly goes into labor during a blizzard, leaving them stranded, is she too late?

This book is out of my comfort zone as I don’t usually read horror novels. It is a very well written story that left me wondering what memories my house would show. My only issues with the story are the graphic parts involving animal cruelty. It almost made me stop reading. I understand why those parts were needed to show the true evil the author was portraying however the amount of detail deeply disturbed me.

I genuinely think this might be my absolute favorite horror book I have ever read. The visuals and the pacing were so on point - I could actually picture the scary moments. The story was incredibly original, and there were so many twists and turns. I loved the combination of the gothic ghost story and the slave heritage. My only complaint is that I thought the last 15% of the book dragged on - it could have been shorter and accomplished the same thing. But I really enjoyed the book, and cant wait to recommend it to others.

I went into this expecting something similar to The Haunting of Hill House, and it definitely has that vibe. The author did a good job building that creepy setting, and I was very engaged for the first quarter. The book also tried to be too many other things, and some of those inspirations were not very successful. There's a definite nod to The Shining, but the author made us do leaps of logic and suspension of what we already believe of the characters to get there. A blizzard in a southern swamp? Having to run outside with a child to escape the scary guy with a crowbar who wasn't a threat to begin with, but became a threat after the three women knocked him out and tied him up? It made for a quick final quarter, but it felt like rest of the plot should not have led up to that. Some of the gore felt off and even unnecessary, so I wish the author would have leaned in more to the gothic side of her writing. Interested to see more from this writer, though. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

First off I want to thank @netgalley, @crookedlane & @jokaplan for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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Wow ! A chilling haunted house with ghosts count me in. I really enjoyed this book from beginning to end, I have to say the start of this book starts off so strong.
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The way the author describes the environment with such succulent writing. It all comes to life. This is not a book that is centered on characters it mostly centers on the environment and all the chills it has to offer. If you're looking for a fast paced book this one will not be for you, I am usually not a fan of slow paced, but it was so well done. Even with it's slowness and longer chapters the haunting atmosphere takes over. The main character Sam lives in this haunted mansion with her mother and pregnant sister, she has nowhere else to go until she solves all the mysteries of Wakefield manor.
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This was an amazing slow paced book that brought on all the chills. If you're looking for a haunted, horror, ghost story pick this one up you won't be disappointed.

"It is a house haunted by memory; it digests us, all of us, and spits us out again at random."

The Wakefield House is reminiscent of Winchester House. It's a labyrinth of corridors and rooms that echo the past, changing and transforming themselves at will. Phantom images of people and events of the house's history plays out like a movie reel. Even current residents are able to glimpse segments of their childhood memories-always there, unable to be forgotten.

This reads like a classic Southern Gothic tale. The atmosphere, the house, the landscape all culminate into an eerie tale full of dread and despair. This is such a great, thought provoking book that brings to mind Shirley Jackson's "The Haunting of Hill House" which was so much more than a ghost story! The house's past is pieced together through glimpses of its replayed history. Our protagonist, Sam, is also able to glimpse images of the future or so she thinks. Is she mad or is the future of the Wakefields also imprinted on the house? And if so, can it be altered or is fate?

The ending of this was so unsettling. A book's ending hasn't chilled me to the bone since Susan Hill's "The Woman in Black." That ending will linger with me for a long time to come.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.