This is a sad story about grieving the loss of a child(ren) and the dark depths someone might go to in their grief. The story involves the paranormal but I did not find it particularly scary. I wish I had read the Author's Note before reading the book as I was not aware of the real world historical connections to the characters and the White House. It all would have felt a bit creepier and scarier had I been aware of the happenings reported there. I also 'liked' the book better having learned about how closely the events in the book were knitted with historical records.

The book has a period feel to it in character mannerisms and dialogue and the storyline keeps you moving through the book to see how the issues are resolved. This was different that previous books by Pyper but suits the timeline.

'Bennie wished to be like his father so much it shamed Franklin that hew as not a better man.'

'It allowed him to believe a second longer in the power of pretending.'

"Didn't you see? I'm going to be tall." And he did see it. The height waiting inside the child.


Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for allowing me to read an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I have always loved a good old-fashioned spooky ghost story, so it takes a lot to get under my skin, but The Residence did just that. It’s the story of Franklin Pierce who became the President of the United States in 1853, but the start of his term was overshadowed by the tragic death of his son, Bennie, who was then said to haunt the White House, putting everyone within in danger. Right from the beginning the atmosphere was such that I felt continually creeped out and unsettled, which is exactly how a good horror story is supposed to make me react. What I love about Andrew Pyper’s writing is that there are always underlying themes and messages as well that keep my mind working throughout the story. The Residence is so much more than just a ghost story! I’m never sure whether I’m “getting it” exactly the way I’m supposed to when I read one of Pyper’s books, but I guess everyone takes away something different, and I always find his books very powerful. One of the interesting aspects of The Residence is that it is based on true stories from the history of the White House, so I even found myself Googling Pierce’s presidency to further my knowledge about that point in history.

For me, reading one of Pyper’s books is like sitting around a campfire, on the edge of my seat, listening to a friend tell a story. I can’t really say that I became attached to any of the characters honestly, but I could truly feel Franklin and Jane’s pain over the loss of their son and how adrift they felt in the aftermath. So, it wasn’t really the characters themselves that kept me entranced, but rather the mood and the setting, as well as the complex psychological trauma they both went through. Pyper is so skilled at putting words together in such a magical way, and his descriptions are done so well, that I felt like I was right there in the White House and often found myself looking around to see if there was anything in the shadows around me. It has been a long time since I have been this delightfully creeped out by a book.

What really made this book hit the mark for me were all the underlying themes. Obviously, the story clearly deals with grief and what it does to people, and how they would do pretty much anything to have one more moment with their lost loved ones, but I found that Pyper was also making a statement about the state of our world in the past and now. He made me think about how self-centred our society can be and how we need to look outside of ourselves at the horrors that are going on around us. That the power that comes from division is wrong, and that we need to come together and support everyone in the world no matter what race, religion, or sexual orientation they are. Maybe I’m totally off the mark and this is not what Pyper had in mind at all by writing this book, but it’s what I took away from it. Our world and the people in it have not improved much over the years. We are still faced with horrible prejudice and severe mistreatment of certain groups, and we still have leaders who are not necessarily fit for their positions and for having such power. The Residence looks at bravery vs. fear and the boundaries between good and evil, and it points out that like a ghost, the longer we pretend that the issues that are plaguing the world today don’t exist, the more they will demand to be seen. We seem to be forever struggling to be united as a family, a people, a nation, and a world. Basically, the ghosts of our past will keep haunting us until the necessary changes come to pass.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for this early review copy. I highly recommend it!

An interesting historical fiction based on true events regarding the haunted Whitehouse. I didn’t find it a horror so much as a very odd and a somewhat disturbing read. Several emotions are experienced while reading The Residence - sorrow, angst, empathy, curiosity to name a few. I was curious enough to read it and am glad that I did however, it did not have me sitting on the edge of my seat or hiding under the covers.

Delighted to include this novel in the Fall Fiction spotlight of Zoomer magazine’s September/October print issue, as well as on new digital Books hub Club Zed.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.
I wish to thank NetGalley and Simon& Schuster for an advanced electronic copy of The Residence in return for an honest review. Having read Andrew Pyper's terrific Homecoming, a superior thriller with surprising twists, I was anxious to read this new book but had some doubts, thinking the premise was unworkable and preposterous. I feared that a book bringing supernatural hauntings to the White House combined with actual historical persons stretched a premise too far, but I was wrong. By making this a character-driven plot, and basing it on some strange, historic and little known reports, I thought it worked quite well.

I learned that the White House has long been rumoured to be haunted. Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Queen Wilhelmina, staff and guests all claimed seeing ghosts, heard eerie spectral sounds or voices, and felt malevolent presences. First Ladies Mary Todd Lincoln and Jane Pierce actually held seances in the White House in attempts to communicate with their dead sons. Mrs. Pierce, while self-isolating in her room wrote numerous letters to her dead son, Benny, which are still in existence.

The story did deliver for the most part a tale of sustained hopelessness and despair. Early there was such sadness in creepy surroundings overwhelming feelings of fright or suspense. My feeling was one of unease. True terror and action ramped up towards the end.

President Franklin Pierce and his wife had lost two sons. Their surviving son, eleven-year-old Benny, was tragically killed in a train accident. The parents were both devastated. Franklin tried to endure and carry out his presidential duties but never got over the loss. Jane was devastated. She shut herself away in her room and became withdrawn from everyone, including her husband. Her behaviour became quite irrational. Today we would say she suffered from mental illness, but in the story, she is haunted by a malign spirit. Her aunt was brought in to carry out social duties that were the usual role of the First Lady.

I felt that I should be more sympathetic towards Jane, but as she became more haunted and unstable and distanced herself from her devoted, sympathetic husband, I became quite annoyed with her character's behaviour. Much of the dialogue was oblique as they spoke in riddles, not daring to utter what they were truly thinking. His concern for his wife was a distraction from his work.

The story drew me in and finally affected my emotions. It was an exploration of how inconsolable loss and grief preys upon people in different ways and may destroy a marriage. The characters experienced prolonged fright and sadness. The finale was one of terror and became an action-packed thriller. Jane finally showed bravery and determination and fought alongside her husband in an effort to end the spooky apparitions set on destroying them. Do ghosts still dwell within the White House walls?

Thanks to Netgalley and Skybound Books/Gallery Books for the opportunity to read The Residence.

Well, it was certainly topical...
I went in expecting a horror story. It wasn't, not really. It was a sad, slow story about broken but somehow completely unsympathetic people making endless bad choices and suffering the consequences.
There is definitely an audience for stories like this. It was well written and thoughtful, and, as mentioned, topical, with its themes of presidential ineffectualness, slavery and the attempted eradication of America's first peoples, and the seemingly unbridgable divide between political philosophies. Personally, I found it a bit heavy-handed. (And the concept of an evil entity trapped in the White House subtly influencing the decisions of those within strikes me as, I don't know, generous? Or strangely comforting, in a way, because it allows the reader to place blame on a malevolent spirit and not their elected officials, or even themselves for not doing enough to advocate for change.)
Was it scary? No, unless the scary kid trope bothers you. Was it tense? Not really. Since it is partly based in history, the reader knows that there are only so many ways it can end. And I mean, even if they did banish the Thing, we know that it's not going to stop politicians from making decisions with terrible consequences.
But it wasn't just that. The main characters, the President and First Lady, were portrayed as egocentric, largely lacking in empathy, and in the case of the President, spineless and a bit pathetic. It was hard to feel for them. It's hard to feel for a character who begs the universe to take one child instead of another.
It was good writing, and it was a careful study of human weakness, but I can't say that I enjoyed it at all.

This latest by Andrew Pyper really pulled me out of my comfort zone…”Moi” reading a supernatural horror thriller really????

This ghost story based on true events tells the story of a marriage and is set at the most famous building in the world: the White House during the time of President Franklin Pierce’s tenure. Jane his wife was a charming First Ladies and Frank a leader whose inaction set the course toward civil war... a president almost forgotten by historians.

The “Residence” is the story of a couple struggling with the loss of their children especially Ben who was the sole fatality in a bizarre train accident. After the inauguration, the couple were forced to reside in a place of grief. Jane wrote letters to Bennie, pleading for the boy’s return and in the book, he did. There were séances, eccentric behavior, visions, apparitions, all kind of weird stuff the author’s describes. Jane talked to Bennie every day and the ghost of Sir appeared multiple times, a vision in Jane’s mind that started in her childhood days. At first the sightings and exchanges were civil then events became tragic….. All in the haunted house its residents are not permitted to leave…A house with that much history must have some pretty dark secrets…right? We have a truck load of strange behaviour in this novel…

Wasn’t it supposed to be a kind of ghost story to scare us? No, it is simply a bla bla bla sad and depressing story. A dread-filled kind of story or any kind of dark story has to capture your imagination and keep you captive and engrossed to the last page. I was so bored I couldn’t reach the end fast enough. Not saying it is bad it simply did nothing for me. Having read and enjoyed books from this author in the past I was simply disappointed with this one. I guess one cannot please all the time. Well Mr. Pyper you did it, a story creepy for some and for others to leave on the shelf and never open it.

I'll read anything that Andrew Pyper writes, I like his books that much, and while The Residence is a departure from his other novels, I still enjoyed it. Pyper gave himself quite the challenge, setting a supernatural horror in one of the most famous residences in the world and basing characters on real people from history. He pulled off the historical aspects well and I was intrigued with the architectural details of the White House, Neither Franklin Pierce nor his wife Jane are in any way likable but that doesn't detract from the story, which is more achingly sad than straight-up horror. A more nuanced and restrained book than usual but still very gripping in its own way. A reader cannot help but compare what was going on in the White House then to what's happening in the present.