4-5 chilling, scary stars! This book was very well written and developed in a way that actually brought on some real scares! I literally had chills at parts of the book, and loved that it mixed a few genres and seemed to come up with a tantalizing read! It’s definitely full of chills, scares, thrills, and shocks! Highly recommend to those who love a greatly written scary story, with a edge of mystery in the mix!
Will make sure to buzz it up on all the different platforms!

Sam's childhood home isn't your lovely, sunlight filled house most people grow up in. On the contrary, it's a decaying mansion built on the edge of a swamp. Not only that, but it was also build by one of her mad ancestors, who became obsessed with the grandness of her future home. Sam lives with her hermit mother, who refuses to leave her home. When her pregnant sister gets into a fight with her husband, she also moves back in. The oddest thing about their ancestral home is that memories from past times keep replaying themselves. Up until now, these so called echoes have been harmless and merely stories that played themselves out. Suddenly though, Sam keeps encountering a faceless boy, whom she is convinced means to do harm to both her and her loved ones.

I'm going to start by saying that I love this book. The story is amazing, and is like a fresh breath of air into the modern Gothic fiction genre. I have always been in love with creepy old mansion in stories. As an avid horror lover this book still managed to give me chills. It's truly creepy and eerie. Even though this story plays out in our modern times, it felt more of an "old" book. There was hardly any evidence of modern things, which I truly appreciate.

I do think that the book could've been a bit shorter and was just a tad bit dragged out. The author surely has a way with words, and some things were described in an exaggerated manner. I'm not saying that that is necessarily a bad thing. Just something I observed throughout the novel. Otherwise I really loved it.

4 out of 5 stars!

Thank you for the ARC Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books.

DNF, sorry this was just not my type of read, I prefer more mystery over a haunted house. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC!

Welcome to a haunted house with lots of rooms and its own swamp to boot. It’s the perfect setting for a gothic house novel. Sam lives with her mother and several ghosts. Like, really. The ghosts are all around and they appear to Sam almost like holograms at the Disney palace, reliving various scenes from their life, even their deaths. Things are fairly okay until Sam’s pregnant sister appears on the doorstep having separated from her husband. With her arrival, another ghost appears that is unlike all of the others, a boy that is more sinister than the rest.

For a gothic house novel, this book works nicely. The scenes with the boy ghost are freaking creepy and while it was difficult at first to adjust to the ghosts just being part of the scenery. I thought it was actually a smart aspect as the house’s past comes to life in front of your reading eyes instead of being revealed through flashbacks or found letters or other kinds of tedious expositional techniques.

Overall, it was an entertaining read with some really creepy scenes. In some scenes it reminded me of that Netflix adaptation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, where ghosts just seem to be everywhere all the time. I found some of the family drama a bit dry and the pacing is a bit off in places, but in total, if you are looking for an interesting twist on gothic novels, this would be for you.

I absolutely loved this book! Spooky, creepy and unique!

A haunted house that sometimes feels like a maze and ghosts all over the house. What else does a scary book need?

Sam and her mother live in a huge house that everyone knows to be haunted. Sam’s sister Elizabeth is pregnant and she moves back into the house since she’s running away from her abusive husband. Since they were kids, Elizabeth never really believed the ghosts that her sister insisted she saw.

Sam is used to the ghosts of old people who used to live in their house. But they’re just memories telling a story; they mean no harm. Except one ghost - a faceless boy who keeps showing up. It seems like he is a very mean child who’s always hurting animals and one day, he calls Sam “Auntie.” She realizes it’s the ghost of her future nephew. Why will he become mean? Is it really foretelling her future? Can Sam do anything to change him?

Meanwhile, Sam finds her way into the only room that’s always been locked in the house. Her mother never let them in there because it’s the room where their dad killed himself. But Sam finds something that can help understand the ghost of the faceless boy: her dad’s journal. Sam will finally get some answers about the past while trying to change the future.

I adored this book and would love to see it turn into a movie. The concept of ghosts, past and future was really unique.

A few awesome quotes from the book:
"A house is haunted by memory."
"Are they the ghosts, truly, or am I?"
"The past is everywhere, here, wrapped up in the present."

I love a good ghost story and this one weaves in a historic Winchester-like house. The gothic horror reads slowly with gorgeous visual description and rich literary writing. I felt like I was touring the house along side the main character, Sam, and I had lots of creepy shudders myself. Sam grew up with the ghostly memories of the house, so none of them phased her until she was met with a new ghost, who scared her and wasn't behaving like the rest. Through this, she learns that she needs to do everything to protect her family. And the end wrecked me! I didn't see it unfolding that way, but the author did an incredible job!

If you're a fan of haunted houses, horror, and the supernatural, you won't be disappointed in this story!

Thank you to NetGalley, Jo Kaplan, and Crooked Lane for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

When the very-pregnant Elizabeth returns to her rotting ancestral home on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp, she upends the lives of her reclusive, alcoholic mother and unstable sister, who herself moved back home after a vicious mugging that left her struggling with PTSD.
I went into this very blind, I liked the cover on Netgalley so I went ahead and requested it. By the time it arrived, I had completely forgotten any blurb that may have been included. This was absolutely for the best. A compelling gothic horror, Jo Kaplan had me uncomfortable and uneasy with where the story was heading. All the trappings of a gothic classic are here, the (very literally haunted) House as character, a woman on the brink of madness, engrossing prose. Definitely a page-turner, I'd recommend this not just for fans of gothics, but for general horror readers as well.

*I was sent a free ARC of this book by Crooked Lane Books in exchange for an honest review*

The dilapidated mansion that has housed generations of the Wakefield family has a way of remembering and recreating past events. The current residents, Sam and Agnes Wakefield are forced to relive the dark past of the house indefinitely. One night Sam’s sister Elizabeth returns unexpectedly, fleeing a toxic relationship with her husband as the due date of their first child approaches. As time goes on, Sam starts to be haunted by a new and strange entity of an adolescent boy that she fears represents the darkness surrounding the house’s history and her sister’s current predicament.

This novel’s strength really lies in its atmosphere and dreamy prose. Kaplan’s writing is very well crafted and elegant and she really emphasizes describing the physicality of the decaying mansion. Each time I sat down to read I felt absorbed by the unique descriptions and interesting metaphors Kaplan employs to emphasize just how strange the Wakefield residence really is. There’s a sense of uncertainty throughout the story about whether the evils threatening them come from outside or from within the house’s walls that I think is very well done.

Although the atmosphere kept me interested in the story, I do think one of this book’s biggest weaknesses comes from the pacing. The story can’t quite seem to decide whether it wants to be centered on the character of the house and its unfortunate history or whether the essence of the story is about the family dynamic of the Wakefields and of Elizabeth’s upcoming birth. The characters of Sam, Elizabeth, Agnes, and Donovan never felt fully realized because so much of the descriptive power of the story was focused on the tragedies of the house rather than on the people inside currently. While the climax delivered a fun and tense chase, the book generally felt a bit boring and slow in the middle and much of it seemed to go on without a clear direction. Because of this, the resolution of the story doesn’t seem fully resonant or hitting on much of an emotional cue.

This book terrified me.... the author wrote a brilliant novel. While reading it at times I would mentally psych myself out which made for a more intense situation. This book makes you feel like you right there walking through the house. This is a perfect novel for those who loved to be scared!

Very unsettling, creepy gothic horror... Absolutely LOVED it! The characters were brilliant and well-thought out, the storyline kept me intrigued and I was always wanting to turn pages, long past my bedtime. This is definitely an author I'd read again. Very well done!

Jo Caplan tells a ghost story as if you are sitting next to her waiting on her every word.
Being one of '' Those Wakefields '' is not to be taken lightly. Together with her demented mother and her pregnant sister Elizabeth, Sam Wakefield lives in their ancestral home built on a swamp.
Sam is the sensitive sister and has admitted to seeing ghosts or apparitions since childhood but when Elizabeth's marriage breaks down and she returns the Wakefield Manor a new image starts disturbing Sams life
Could this really be a ghost of Elizabeth's unborn child ?

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of It Will Just Be Us.

I love horror movies, scary books, scary anything so I was excited when my request was approved.

This book seemed to have it all: haunted house, ghosts, characters haunted by the past (and ghosts), atmosphere, a sense of dreariness.

Sam Wakefield has returned to her ancestral home, a crumbling mansion filled with the echoes of the dead, her disturbed relatives and the ghost of her father, who committed suicide when she and her sister, Elizabeth were just young girls.

When Elizabeth reappears, nearly nine months pregnant, on the run from her abusive husband, Sam sees a vision of the future: the son Elizabeth carries is a demon seed, the next reincarnation of Damien from The Omen.

What will Sam do to protect her family? And, how far is she willing to go?

The writing was good, though wordy. The author loves metaphors. She really does, and she wields them well. Sadly, she loves them too much. When one metaphor would do, she strings three or four in a single sentence.

Also, the ghosts that move spectrally throughout the house helps the creep factor.

There's plenty of atmosphere and foreboding in the dry and dusty walls of the Wakefield manor; the author sets the dark tone, the gloom and doom, yet she spends far too much time describing the house, the path Sam drives to her job as an adjunct professor at the local college, than she does on character development.

The pacing is slow, most times painfully slow, where nothing happens, just a lot of descriptions of the house and its many hidden doors and what may lurk behind and Sam's ongoing fear for Elizabeth's unborn son and the horrors his birth will unleash on all of them.

Aspects of how Wakefield manor came to be reminded me of the ghost story behind the Winchester house.

Stephen King also wrote an original script based on a haunted house called "Rose Red" in 2002 that was a television mini-series.

Yet, despite the ghosts and the unsettling tension, I wasn't scared. Not even a little.

It didn't help that I didn't identify with Sam, Elizabeth or their mother. Also, I didn't like any of them.

Sam is a bland character/narrator. We know she's an archaeology professor but we never really know her.

She's timid, meek, and what else? Not much.

The ghosts prowl around the mansion like they own the place and Sam and her family just get out of their way. Events happen to them, instead of the other way around.

Sam has a tendency to flip flop between the present and past, recalling her and Elizabeth's childhood as they scampered around the woods and swamp of their childhood home. This constant recollection threw me out of the present narrative and neither served to make me like Sam or her sister any more.

The only slightly intriguing character was the sisters' deceased father, naturally, since he's deceased, we don't know much about him, just what Sam can remember despite losing him when she was young, which isn't much.

This was not a bad book, well-written but the pacing was slow, nothing much was going on, and lack of character development made it difficult to stay interested.

I would recommend this for readers who are interested in books focused on an entity rather than the characters.

It Will Just Be Us reads like a gothic horror movie. Kaplan does a wonderful job of creating the atmosphere. I really enjoyed the imagery. The overall story was interesting; however, I really struggled with the pacing. Several times I found difficulty with the transitions between the present story and the 'memories'. This may be an ebook issue and the print issue might provide a visible spacing or some kind of indication of the transitions. Definitely a creepy and entertaining read.

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

I read this book overnight. This book was really good! With the stress of what the world is facing right now I was able to put that away and fall into a wonderful novel. Thank you for that!

4.5 rounding it to 5.0 stars! Full review on my blog soon.

It took me awhile to finish this. I would be lying if I say it didn’t scare me because it really freaking did! I’ve never read a Gothic/horror/mystery/thriller book in my entire life but this one is really good! I thought I wouldn’t like this but the end really amaze, surprise and enlightens me.

This story is about a mansion, which is near a swamp, with a “weird & scary” family as what everyone calls them. There are ghosts, a swamp witch, and a faceless boy. The story is somehow fresh on me as I have never read a book like this. It’s really good.

The first parts has a mix of third point of view and one point of view which is Samantha’s. In the later parts of the book only Samantha’s point of view is focused. I love the scary thoughts of Samantha. She has a wide unfathomable vision and opinion of things which is fascinating. Her way of thinking is fascinating.

The whole book is a great read. It’s mostly suspenseful to me as it took me some time to finish because I just can’t read it at night. Lol. I love the story. It’s unique, new, rare, scary & adventurous. I love the idea of seeing memories of past and future. The ending is epic! I love it & never did I expect it to happen!

Such a chilling ghost story!
While Sam is trying to protect her mother from her mind slipping, her pregnant sister comes back to live at the family home.
Seeing a faceless boy in the hall, she starts to place the house and families history together by glimpses into the past.
This story will have you on the edge of your seat and so chilling not for the faint of heart. Soo good and definitely recommend if you are interested in a good Gothic story!

You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Sam Wakefield is 'one of those Wakefields', she is attached to her ancestral home that lies in the swamp outside of the town of Shadydale. The townspeople stay away from Wakefield Manor because it is said that the ghosts of the past walk it's halls; that there a swamp witch that lives on the grounds, and that one could get lost in it's labyrinthine halls, built by one of Sam's 'mad' ancestors. It is no place for children, that much is for sure. So when Sam's sister, Elizabeth, shows up on the Manor's doorstep in the middle of the night, heavily pregnant, and vowing that she's left her husband Donovan, Sam is more than a little worried. It is only after Elizabeth comes to stay at the Manor, that Sam begins to see a new spirit, one that should not be, one that she should not be able to see, and one that should not be able to interact with her. She thinks she knows who the new spirit is, and if she is correct, she has a lot to worry about. A worry that makes her focus on the locked door, the one room in the house that her mother, Agnes, says has always been locked. Could the faceless boy who likes to threaten and torture animals, who hurts little girls, and who wanders the halls wielding a knife be connected to this locked room? Sam is running out of time to solve the mysteries of Wakefield Manor, and she may soon learn that some rooms, should remain locked...


I was pretty excited for my review request of this book to be accepted. It is said to be written in the vein of Shirley Jackson, Gothic horror at it's finest, and is likened to We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which is written by the late, great Shirley Jackson herself. I'm yet to read this story of hers, but I have read The Haunting of Hill House, and I found it to be incredibly creepy and eerie, especially for the time that it was written. So, hence my excitement.

I won't say that I was disappointed in this book, but it did take me a hell of a long time to read something that was less than 300 pages. Granted, I've had a lot of things happening in my personal life, between moving house, working a lot, society losing it's mind and some personal family things, I haven't had a whole lot of time for reading. So maybe this was the issue? I do feel that at times it felt like the story was stuck in the mud, and that there wasn't a whole lot happening. This is very descriptive, maybe too much so for my liking. However, Kaplan does a fantastic job at building atmosphere and I definitely got the creep vibes several times. So much so, that on the first night in the new house, I thought it a good idea NOT to read this one before bed, lest I wake up freaking out because, you know, new house, new house sounds, strange room, all that jazz. So it definitely gets a big point for the creep factor. There was some very unsettling circumstances in this book and I was here for it. However, here is where I will insert a trigger warning; there is cruelty to animals in this book in the form of a bird, and frogs. I for one can't handle animal cruelty in books, so I like to make it very clear to other readers who may suffer from the same thing. I know that it's incredibly annoying for me when it says there is some animal cruelty in a book, however that's the extent of it. I won't go into details. It's unsettling and I just skimmed over those parts, and unfortunately, I don't feel that they could have been left out because it really sets up the character of the faceless boy that Sam begins to see around Wakefield Manor.

The cast of characters were okay, rather dry, Sam I felt was like a blank canvas that didn't really have a personality, though she did obviously suffer from some form of anxiety or paranoia, this was honestly the only stand out thing about her character. Donovan was the most expressive, and I'll add another trigger in here for domestic violence, and I'm going to leave it at that. Otherwise the characters were very meh for me, and I'll probably forget them after not too long.

As said earlier the creep factor was definitely here and I applaud Kaplan for this. The author did a fantastic job of building up the atmosphere of Wakefield Manor, so much so, that it almost felt like a living entity, a character all of it's own, which is very remnant of Shirley Jackson. Kaplan is very adept at the craft of writing, and I am interested in checking out some other works in the future. The author did a fantastic job of building up the eeriness and making you feel cut off and alone, just like the characters at one point.

The pacing left a little to be desired. As said above, at times it felt like not a lot was happening at all. There was a couple of instances where I was interrupted in my reading, and when I came back to the page and began reading again, I found that I had skipped a few paragraphs, and to be honest, I didn't bother going back up because nothing new had been divulged and nothing had actually happened, it was like I had picked up right where I left off.

All in all, this was a good horror story and I really felt the creep factor. Kaplan did a fantastic job and I'm definitely interested in reading more by this author. If you love a good literary, Gothic horror, similar to that of Shirley Jackson, give this one a go, you won't be disappointed.

This book sounded right up my alley. I typically love horror stories. However, it was a bit too slow for me and hard to follow. There was too much going on with the memories, present, and future. If someone likes a slow burn horror, this may be for them.

Superlative ghost story that throws the genre rule book out the window

If you’re on the hunt for a haunted house story from the top drawer, then look to further than Jo Kaplan’s It Will Just Be Us which ticks just about every box. This particular subgenre is a very crowded marketplace, but this novel is so clever, effortlessly atmospheric, it deserves to find a wide audience beyond the traditional horror crowd. It’s broody, twisty, weaves lies and half-truths within the context of a very convincing first person narrative, which you will want to trust, but can never quite be sure whether you’re being sold a tall-tale or are part of a delusion.

I read a lot of haunted house stories and am probably harder to please than most reviewers and one of the first features I look out for is the location, it’s crucial to the story, and how it is described plays a big part to the atmosphere of the story. I’m interested in the colour of the wallpaper; tell me if its peeling? How many bedrooms are there? Are the doors locked? I demand details. I want to be able to feel the presence of this house surrounding around me in its mysteries, and for this Jo Kaplin scores a monster 10/10 as Wakefield Manor is one of the finest creations I’ve stumbled upon in a while. It is a monstrous creation which is vividly brought to life and described entirely through the eyes of Samantha Wakefield, the youngest of two daughters who live alone with their semi-hermit mother in the decrepit family home which is in badly need or repair. I love the fact that three people can rattle around the house for days and never bump into each other and be very comfortable with it. The Wakefield clan are not exactly a normal family, and that’s part of the fun.

It Will Just Be Us has an outstanding opening which is guaranteed to suck you in from the first page. Samantha’s unhealthy interest in a room, which she has only ever known to be locked, will soon have you reading between the lines looking for the true reasons. Why will her mother not give her a satisfactory reason why no key exists? Her mother is a mass of contradictions, who speaks in riddles, uses tarot cards and has effectively dropped out of society since the death of Sam’s father some years earlier, another enticing strand connected to the wider story. The plot continually revolves around this room and Sam’s fascination with it and the reader is pulled along.

The story effortlessly moves through time-periods and although it never explicitly says, Sam is probably aged around thirty in the present tense storyline, but as she narrates it moves backwards to her teenage years and earlier, with a deliberately jarring train of thought. The reader has the impression she is telling her story, or a confession, to an unknown figure in the room. This comes across as both very intimate and fragmented, at various times you’ll be hanging on Sam’s every word. You’ll also be following the story very closely, just in case she contradicts herself, or drops an extra clue, it’s that kind of book. As the plot moves on Sam gives lots of hints about herself and after a very vague opening, you’ll be eager as the gaps are slowly filled in, often giving lightbulb moments for things she might have hinted at earlier in the story.

Ghosts play a big part in It Will Just Be Us, but the plot cleverly bucks what you might find in the traditional haunted house tale by avoiding all clichés as Sam is not scared of ghosts at all, as she sees them all the time and they are part of her daily life. This house is full of ghosts from different periods, portrayed almost as memories, many of which are dead relatives. Some wander randomly, others appear connected to certain rooms, but the core of the story revolves around the appearance of a new ghost Sam begins to see which acts slightly different to all the apparitions. This little boy can most definitely see her and is not at all friendly. This is a very clever development as the familiar ghostly presences move from benign to something darker and the way in which this major part of the plot plays out is superb with some great shrouding of the later developments.

The family part of the story was also convincing, and the arrival of temperamental heavily pregnant elder sister Elizabeth gives both the reader and Sam a welcome change of pace. Without Elizabeth the novel may have become too heavily reliant on one character and after a terrible argument with her husband she returns to the family home and Sam reflects upon their childhood together and time away from the house. Keep a close eye on what Elizabeth says as it has a bearing on whether you believe Sam to be an unreliable narrator or not.

My only minor gripe of It Will Just Be Us was that it was relatively one paced. By the time I reached 80% on my Kindle I was expecting it to move up a gear, it did not really do that, and although it has a very satisfying ending, it took slightly too long getting there. I would not particularly call it a scary novel, but the introduction of the boy gave the story an edge and there was a scene where she watches the child ghost pick apart an injured bird which gives a fair indication that this ghost is of a different ilk from all the others.

It Will Just Be Us was a very stylish and original ghost story and although it may be a tad quiet for some tastes, if you’re a fan of thoughtful and atmospheric supernatural tales with a convincing narrative then you can’t go wrong. Highly recommended.

⚜Book Review⚜
📘 It Will Just Be Us By Jo Kaplan @joannapary
❇ I could not put this book down. Read it in 2 sittings. If it wasn't for life, It wouldn't have taken me that long.
❇ It's full of constant suspense. Constantly wanting to know what's next and if suspicions are right.
❇ The great thing is....the ending. Jo doesn't let you off easy or happy. It is fantastic writing on her part! Best book I've read in a while...Highly Reccomend 👏🖤
❇ Publication date August 11th 2020
📚 Thank you to @netgalley for the ARC!!
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