Damn, this was refreshing. It has been so long since I've read a proper haunted house story and my hat is off to Jo Kaplan. This plot has a great mix of suspense, thrills, and even just a dash of horror. When I finished, I actually shivered. This one definitely oozes a creepy feeling. While the main plot follows a very solid arc, I liked the spin off explanation of past family members and the gruesome things that happened to them. It's clear that Kaplan spent a lot of time in the details without being overbearing.

I will warn that Sam sometimes dives off the deep end on a philosophical detour, but I personally enjoyed it. It made me think about my own life and how I felt about the subjects she would muse upon. This insight into Sam's mind just made the story that much more real and fleshed out, making you feel as if you were in her shoes. 
Seriously, pick this up for your spooky fall read, you won't regret it.

I thought this was a creepy unsettling read. I really liked the writing. I love the idea of the house remembering all of the bad things that happened there and regurgitates it back out. This was a slow burn of a read and I would of liked it to be more fast pace. Besides that it was great.

Thank you Netgalley, author/publisher for allowing me to read this!

Horror is not my usual genre. I'm easily spooked and it is far too easy for me to believe a horror story has come true in my home. This book gave me many sleepless nights and I'm still jumping when I turn fast and see a shadow out of the corner of my eye. It's definitely a scary, creepy, totally blow your socks off horror story.

This book has a varied cast of characters, all of them just a little off normal and tuned into the static of the house their family has lived in for many generations. The house itself is definitely a character in this story of two sisters living in the family home with their mother and the ghosts of their ancestors. As you might expect, these ghosts have a definite influence on what happens in the house.

Jo Kaplan has done an excellent job of scaring this wimp, now it's your turn to see what you can see.

Through the winding halls and endless closed doors of Wakefield Manor, the sprawling house built in its enormity by Mad Catherine Wakefield, is full of ghosts. Generations of Wakefield spirits roam its three floors, showing you snippets of memories past. That is just the way of the house and the current inhabitants, Samantha Wakefield and her mother Agnes are so completely used to it that watching these flickering moments have just become part of their normal everyday life. Besides, these were their ancestors so there is no fear… in the daylight hours anyway.

When Sam’s sister, Elizabeth bangs on the door one night in the middle of a storm, her hair and clothes soaked and her belly protruding, they bring her inside. She is very vague with details, but announces that she has left her husband, Donovan and is moving back home to finish out her pregnancy.

With Lizzie in the house now, Sam is telling us, through her haphazard way, what is going on in the house and in their lives now as well as bits of interspersed information about the past, like her tumultuous relationship with her sister and her mother, what growing up in this house was like, and all of the stories she has pieced together about the manor’s and surrounding swamp land’s history through the reel of the house’s memories she has seen in all her years of living here.

When Sam becomes plagued by the visage of a cruel young boy who seems to love tormenting animals and people alike, she begins to feel the new shift in the house, a shift that is brought on by the arrival of her sister and her unborn son, Julian.

There are so many depths to this story and the history Jo Kaplan has created surrounding it. The immense swamplands on the back of the property hold so many strange and terrifying myths. Rich in history, these lands once held liberated slaves who took to the swamplands for a safe place to live out their stolen freedom. But the swamp has it’s own scary tales. These mingle with lore of the old house until it as all tangled together like the vines that snake from the acrid swamp marshes.

This was everything I look for in a horror novel. It was truly scary. I read it in the middle of the night, in the dark of my bedroom and found myself actually scared. Like didn't want to leave the safety of my bed and didn't dare go right to sleep afterward for fear of having nightmares.

The one great thing about the horror genre is that it is the one genre where you do not need a happy ending. You almost come to expect the ending to be unsatisfactory. This book ended just the way I wanted it to, honestly, the way I could already tell it was going to. Samantha was a great narrator, even though she was not always trustworthy or straightforward. You are being told the story from her mouth, from her perception and she isn’t always a great judge of character. This was absolutely wonderful and I will recommend this book to horror lovers and people looking for a fully comprehensive haunting tale.

Reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, It Will Just Be Us, is an even more wonderfully perfect creepy haunted mansion story.

Sam has returned home to live with her mother in the old family mansion. Her pregnant sister, Elizabeth, soon returns home to live as well after leaving her husband. Sam and her mother are especially tuned into the mansion and the memories of it's past residents; however, Sam realizes she also has a gift of seeing the future residents as well. As she tries to change the future she sees, she doesn't seem to realize that you can't really change fate no matter how hard you try.

This book gave me all the creeps and had me second guessing reading at night. Excellent horror novel!

i received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Faulkner once said “The past is never dead. It isn't even past.” That quote couldn't be more fitting for Jo Kaplan's debut novel It Will Just Be Us. The novel is an eerie southern gothic tale set on a rambling mansion that borders a Virginia swamp.

Not only do Sam, her mother and her pregnant sister Elizabeth inhabit Wakefield, but it's also filled with holographic memories on an infinite loop. Or are they ghosts? Maybe something in between, because every room is filled with people who have lived (and died) in the centuries-old monstrosity, including their younger selves. At one point Sam's mother asks her if she wants to see what she's about to do forever. Bad enough to say or do something stupid – unendurable to have to, quite literally, live with it for the rest of your life – or longer. As I'm sure you can guess, this isn't a house filled with Hallmark-style memories either. There's also the fact that the house is a being in itself, remaking its doors and tunnels and locked rooms as it sees fit. Then the future turns up in the guise of a faceless boy.

Many readers have compared this book to Shirley Jackson's novels and there are lots of similarities, especially in terms of the plot. Kaplan and Jackson's writing styles struck me as very different, however. Sam's first-person narration is twisted, dense, overwrought and it reminded me more of “The Yellow Wallpaper” or “A Rose for Emily.” This worked for me because it emphasized the idea that Sam's perceptions are less than reliable and may well be deteriorating. I never really figured out if she's crazy or not, even at the end of the book. And speaking of the ending, I really liked that as well. I got a little lost in the imagery – as if I couldn't get out of the book in the same way the characters are trapped in the house - so it took me a while to finish. I flew through the last section though, because it's deliciously, disturbingly twisted.

If you're into gothic horror, you'll probably like this one. On a side note, I came across an interview with Kaplan where she mentions that Wakefield mansion is partly based on the Winchester Mystery House in California. I listened to a podcast on Winchester's history not too long ago and kept thinking of it as I read. There's an equally bizarre, real-life tale attached to it and the house is almost as strange as Wakefield – it's got more than 200 rooms, 10,000 windows, plus lots of trapdoors, secret passageways and spyholes. If you google it, you can even take a virtual tour. I'm a little too creeped out to do that today, but an in-person visit is now on my horror bucket list.

Much thanks to Crooked Lane Books and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this one. It was perfectly creepy and I have to say --- that ending!!!!!! Oh man, it was so twisted and good.

Sam Wakefield has moved back into her childhood home along with her pregnant sister Elizabeth who wants to escape her husband. This house has been with the family ever since it was built and the spirits are still living within the walls and swamp. Sam and her mother Agnes are able to see the spirits along with recreation of the memories. Of course the memories are not happy ones. Things start to go awry once Sam starts seeing the future and sees that her nephew may become a crazed psychotic individual. Sam will need to figure out how to prevent this from happening and to keep everyone safe.

Oooh this book is pretty crazy. This haunted house concept is awesome. The rooms and corridors change shape and size with no rhyme or reason. The ghosts are not friendly and nor are the memories that are replayed. Pretty much every relative has had some gruesome death and it looks like that luck is going to keep continuing down the line.

I wish this book had a little more fast pace and I had a little difficulty following what was happening. Otherwise this book was very spooky and wasn't like any other horror book I have read.

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!!!

It Will Just Be Us
Sam Wakefield's lives in her ancestral home- a sweeping, ramshackle mansion on the edge of the Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia. Like the boy in the Sixth Sense, Sam sees dead people, but unlike him, Sam sees "echoes in time," small snippets of the past as if she's watching them unfold in front of her. They've always been ancestors she's always known about, but she begins seeing a mysterious new ghost coinciding with the return of her pregnant sister Elizabeth. Sam knows the new ghost is connected to her sister and the mysterious locked room they've never been allowed to enter.
I have always enjoyed the Southern Gothic genre, and "It Will Just Be Us" hit all the marks of a classic Southern Gothic. You've got your family of weirdos, you've got a decaying house full of ghosts and secrets, you've got your sinister events... there's even a swamp witch.
It's almost easy to forget that "It Will Just Be Us" takes place in the present. There's no internet and cell phones are rarely mentioned. I was swept up in it and didn't think of it while I was reading, but the absence of such modern amenities really helped set the mood. I mean, sure, you could just use the laptop to go on ancestry websites to find out what happened to Great Great Great Aunt Hester, but without WiFi, you have to just go into the living room and wait for her to walk by.
I couldn't help but see similarities between "It Will Just Be Us" and some other horror novels I've also enjoyed. I saw aspects of Shirley Jackson's "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," especially in the way the Wakefields were treated any time they were in town. I also saw several similarities in "House of Leaves" with the labyrinthine houses containing impossible rooms that change based on the day.
I'm sure the "echoes in time" are not new in themselves, but I really liked the way they were presented here, as a regular occurrence for everyone in the house rather than some special gift.
The ever changing room, topped off with a creepy ghost kid, and some not so supernatural horror mixed in makes this one perfect for a summer night. I will admit that the first 20% was slow for me and with all the other books I'm currently reading, it took 2-3 days to get that far. Once I hit around 21%, I finished the rest of it in a matter of hours.
4.5/5
*I received a copy from Netgalley in exchange for my review.

I'm always on the look out for a good, atmospheric gothic horror novel and It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan checked almost all the right boxes for me. I mean, it's got decaying mansions, ghosts of crazy ancestors and everything. To keep it simple, this novel is quite a ride that puts you through the nerve-grating wringer right with the cast. The unsettling twists and turns will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very end. If you're a fan of Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House and The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, I have a feeling you'll want to give this new release a try.

Loved this book! I found it to be genuinely scary and creepy at times. Loved the concept of time and memories being the haunting entity in the haunted house. Definitely a haunted house story with a difference. The author done well to develop the characters and delve into the complex relationships between them and their pasts. Nice little twist at the end left me amazed by the writing! Loved it! Would recommend to anyone who is a fan of 'the silent companions'.

This book is really hard to rate. On the one hand it’s a chillingly atmospheric tale about a house built on legend-laden swampland. On the other… it’s positively drowning in purple prose.

I was initially convinced this book was going to be a one-star read for me. I found the prose to be hyperbolic and melodramatic, which pulled me out of its (honestly pretty dark and awesome) worldbuilding.

Descriptions are overwrought, points belaboured. Mixed metaphors abound. It made for an absolutely maddening reading experience—until the purple prose began to give way around the halfway mark, and I found myself totally spooked. (I am happy to report that the faceless boy scared the bejesus out of me.)

As Sam grows more and more desperate to stop him, this unborn menace, she also becomes less and less sure that she can. What caused him to be this way? Is it even possible to undo the future? These questions also play out for the others who make up Wakefield Manor's tragic history—a family of freed slaves. A cruel landowner. A Cherokee man. Sam's dead father. And the Swamp Witch. All of them tied up in different times, but the same haunted space.

I just finished It Will Just Be Us by Jo Kaplan. It is everything a scary ghost story should be and more! A spooky, haunted house, ghosts from the past reliving moments, glimpses into the future, a frightening swamp witch and a murderous teenager! Plus other spooky characters that make this story fantastic. If you like ghost stories then you're going to love this book!

One of the creepiest books I’ve read in a long time. Wakefield is a decrepit mansion haunted by ghosts and memories. Sam and Elizabeth thought that they had left it behind, but they both ended up returning to live with their mother. Wakefield shows them echoes of the past, not only their own but also going back generations. Those ghosts are pictures of misery and pain, but they can’t hurt the living. Or can they? The faceless apparition of a boy doing deeply disturbing things will make your skin crawl (as an animal lover, I had to “look away” during some paragraphs). The fact that Elizabeth is very pregnant doesn’t help. The whole novel reminded me a little of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but way more disturbing. Wakefield is so well fleshed out that I could picture every corridor, every room and every door in my head. And the ending… well, I fear it will chase me in my nightmares.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Crooked Lane Books!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. It is currently set to be published in August 2020.

"It Will Just Be Us" is a slow-burn horror novel full of deliciously gothic atmospheres and a profoundly disturbing imagery.
It tackles the "haunted house" subgenre from a brand new perspective: the otherwordly "presences" haunting the house are not actual spectres, but memories made visible (and audible) by the house itself. In this way, people both dead and still alive can be seen roaming the hallways and the courtyard of Wakefield Manor, in a ghostly overlapping of generations spanning centuries of family history.
It reminded me a bit of "The Witching Hour" by Anne Rice, even though the Wakefield family saga in "It Will Just Be Us" is condensed in little over 200 pages, whereas the Mayfair family saga in "The Witching Hour" is almost 1000 pages.
Reading "It Will Just Be Us", I was captivated by the highly original concept, by the opulent writing style and by the excellent symbolism. I was also impressed by how the author manages to deal with difficult subjects such as gender-based violence and racism without ever becoming pedantic.
For a horror fan, this novel is a very satisfying story, starting with the unforgettable character-establishing scene in which the villain makes his first appearance (not for the faint-hearted to read), the chilling vibe that permeates all the narration and the author's magnificent use of language.
I must say, the ending had become predictable from a certain point onwards, but this didn't detract from my reading experience, rather it gave me the horrific, ineluctable feeling of a lucid nightmare, in which you know where this is all going, but you are unable to do anything about it.
As a downside, I found pretty much all the characters dislikable (with the exception of Constance and Meriday, who have been dead for centuries by the time the story begins and are fairly secondary characters). I think making all the characters this unlikable was a deliberate choice the author made, and this choice can make sense, because their common nastiness fits the narration just fine. Still, I would have enjoyed the reading better if at least one character had felt more relatable.
Overall, a really interesting debut horror novel by a promising new author. I would like very much to read more books by Jo Kaplan.

I received an e-book ARC of It Will Just Be Us from NetGalley and the publisher Crooked Lane in return for my honest review, which follows below. I thank both for this opportunity.

I rated this 5 stars.
I chose this rating for a few reasons. One: after finishing this novel, I knew I would have to own a copy when it’s released. So I added to a book wish list that will give a wonderful reminder when I can buy it. Two: I am recommending this book for anyone that likes Gothic, swampy, haunted house horror, family horror, and that feeling after reading a book so good you’re not sure what to do with yourself except sit there and whisper expletives under your breath for an unknown amount of time. Three: I kept stopping to tell my husband, who does not like horror, how I would love to tell him the whole plot in extreme detail so he could appreciate how much this book rocked. But I didn’t because I respect our separate interests.

The description of the family home brought to mind the Winchester house, a wild growth of wood and glass spiraling up and out from the original plans of the house. In my minds eye I kept thinking of the fading opulence of the house in Crimson Peak, a loved home that needed some care more than an erratically constructed, guilt fueled attempt at redemption. As the story progressed I felt that the home was sprawling, and maybe the rooms were confusing in their layout, but that was the choice of the house, not the builders.

There are within these cavernous walls, ghosts. But not the kind to interact with, more like seeing memories playing out again. If it happened on the property you may see it, from your own childhood or from relatives many generations past. I have lived in houses where the doors would close or open on their own, dishes would fall from the closed cabinets, and once a dead radio turned on full volume at the dead of night. But seeing people long dead, or visions of you as a child running through the halls; I’m not sure how I would handle that. But Samantha (Sam) and Elizabeth grew in this environment, while their mother was struggling with alcoholism after the death of their father.

When they are adults and moved out, separate circumstances bring them back to their family home, living with their mother. Elizabeth is pregnant with her first child. A child that Sam becomes convinced she sees visions of in the house. Which should be impossible if he has not been born yet, right?

The amount of detail that the author put into this book is astounding. If you were given a tidbit of information, she has a purpose for it. I loved the pacing, the building tension; the last fourth of the book I realized I was grinding my teeth. Everything was coming together, not that I had any clue until it was written out for me; but there it was, zipping up so neat and clean and I’m clenching my jaw. I had to keep opening my mouth like a fish so I wouldn’t hurt myself, but I kept getting engrossed in the book and forgetting again.

This book has so many stories besides the one happening in the current time with Sam as the narrator, but the author does not drop or waste a single one. I can not praise this book enough, I loved every part of it.

For fans of gothic horror/suspense, be sure to check this one out when it's released in mid-August!  There are ghosts of the past, present, and future (including a very creepy boy with no face) residing in a labyrinthine mansion, family drama, a haunted history, and some psychological mind warps, perfect fodder for a good gothic tale.  I was completely drawn into the story (when I finish a chapter by saying "What the ****?!!" out loud and having my husband question my sanity, then you know it's a keeper).

CW: Multiple graphic descriptions of sui/cide and someone hanging themself

have mixed feelings about this, honestly. I loved the horror aspect of it but there were parts of it I felt like just dragged on, or were unnecessary. I relationships between the characters frustrated me more than anything, especially Sam and Elizabeth, and their alcoholic mother. I liked the idea of the house, and of the swamp. It was an alright book, but it just left me feeling frustrated and like nothing was resolved at all

If you loved Shirley Jackson or the Netflix series, Haunting of Hill House, then this story is for you! I love how the author adored We Have Always Lived in a Castle and wrote this story based on it. Truly this is demon child of the Omen and We Have Always Lived in a Castle. Maybe a dash of Conjuring for good measure...

Besides amazing storytelling, the one thing that won me over was Jo Kaplan's ability to break the 4th Wall so seamlessly. By her doing that, you have to question her sanity. These ghost that she sees, these memories being handed to her, are they to be believed? Is she?

I LOVE ghost stories--not just the jump scare sort of stories but ones that hit a little closer to home. These ghosts have a purpose. The climax will keep you on the edge of your seat, wishing for more light (despite the fact you have probably already turned on every light in the house).

I recommend you read this in the daylight and should you see a ghost, don't forget to say hello. They will remember. They always remember.....

Sammatha Wakefield also known as Sam is home. Her married, pregnant sister Elizabeth has come home to get away from her husband. She is staying as she wants to decide what to do about her husband. Sam continues her teaching at the nearby college but comes home everyday after work. Sam And her sister Elizabeth played together and were best friends. Sam would get Elizabeth to go out to the swamp with her to play but Elizabeth didn’t like it. There was a rumor of a witch that lived in the swamp. Their mother told them not to play in the swamp. Elizabeth’s husband comes to the house insisting on seeing his wife. Elizabeth doesn’t want to se him. Elizabeth and her husband do talk and he ends up staying for the night sleeping in a separate bedroom. Why? Meanwhile Sam has experience several scenes of the past and perhaps future of the house. The house is haunted but not in a normal way. There are ghosts from the past Sam sees and knows who they are but there are some she has no idea who those ghosts are. Will Sam learn who they are? Does Elizabeth have her baby? What will her husband do?

This is a creepy and chilling book to read. The author has Sam be the narrator of the story which engaged me even more. The story is a well-told story. The writing is is a creative blend of suspense and horror that is truly different. It is mesmerizing!
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