Daffodil Franklin has plans for a quiet summer before her freshman year at college, and luckily, she’s found the job that can give her just that: housesitting a mansion for a wealthy couple.

But as the summer progresses and shadows lengthen, Daffodil comes to realize the house is more than it appears. The spacious home seems to close in on her, and as she takes the long road into town, she feels eyes on her the entire way, and something tugging her back.

What Daffodil doesn’t yet realize is that her job comes with a steep price. The house has a long-ago grudge it needs to settle . . . and Daffodil is the key to settling it.

A unique horror story by Andrea Portes

A young woman becomes the caretaker of a professor’s isolated (and slightly creepy) home. I loved the atmosphere of this book and the way Daffodil is fleshed out as a character. Mysterious happenings and gaps in memory have Daffodil second guessing herself — is she imagining it or is there something more sinister going on?

I wanted to like this book but the first 20% was so dry and boring. I didn't care for the writing style and the main character wasn't interesting enough for me. I DNF'd at 24%. It just didn't keep my interest.

This was just not the book for me. I couldn't get past the first 20%. I hated the writing style and out main character's voice. It just did not seem like a well-developed story to me. Also having read only the first quarter of the book I already guessed the "twist" ending which was SUCH a cliché move that is seemed lazy. Pass.
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is not a ghost story, really not a ghost story per say. I was drawn in from the first chapter and knew that Portes' writing wouldn't disappoint. By the end although I did somewhat figure out what happened. I was so involved in the story I didn't even care that I figured it out. And when the ending came I was balling like a baby. This story was light on the creepy ghost factor and more heavy on the mystery portion. Where you are really trying to figure out what in the world is going on as the main character is unreliable and doesn't really know what is going on either. We get small tid bits of her life before coming to this house for the summer. And that just worked to create a better story.

I think readers that love mystery and light paranormal themes will enjoy this one. I know I did! There was almost no romance in this one as well. So readers who shy away from that will find this one perfect for them.

I would not call this book a horror story. If you are expecting scares or American Horror Story vibes you will not find it here. This is a YA novel with an unexpected twist.

Daffodil Franklin is in need of some cash to get her through her first year of college at the prestigious Bryn Mawr. She quickly snaps up a job watching over an old house. As things start to get strange, Daffodil finds herself wondering if it's the house haunting her or the past she is so desperately running from...

This book was fun. Entertaining. Highly predictable (I think I had it all sussed out by the 40% mark). And highly problematic. Now I'll give this at least 2 stars because it was a fun read. But the rest of my review will go under a spoiler tag and that is because I refuse to let this issue slide...For my full review, visit my Goodreads page.

I do not normally give a book a rating of one star, but I am not quite sure as to what I just read. Although I found the stream of conscious writing to be an interesting, creative choice, Portes' chosen writing style did not help with the plot's advancement. I did predict the story's major reveals, but most of the time, I was just confused while I was reading This Is Not a Ghost Story.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me. Many thanks to HarperTeen and NetGalley for the e-ARC! All opinions are my own.

I tried to read this book all the way through, but it was dry and slow in the first 20% and I just found myself straying away from it and onto other things. There were some funny moments, though, and I'm sure this is the right book for someone!

I’m always delighted to read Young Adult horror novels, because my options were so limited in terms of spooky reading material as a teen. If I had been able to read This Is Not a Ghost Story by Andrea Portes as a 15-year-old, I would have been absolutely obsessed with it! It has mystery, suspense, romance, humor, compelling characters, wonderfully paced writing, and a twist that teenage me would have been blown away by. As an adult, however, I felt it fell a bit short in the end. Luckily This Is Not a Ghost Story has some absolutely terrifying moments that are sure to delight and satisfy any horror lover.
Daffodil has taken a summer job house-sitting for a professor while he and his wife go on vacation. He’s having work done on the property, and Daffodil needs to keep an eye on everything. It doesn’t take long for her to notice that something seems very off with the house and the people she encounters, but she’s being paid far too much to back out. Unfortunately for Daffodil, absolutely nothing is as it seems. She will have to face pain and hurt, both physically and emotionally, before she can be freed from this purgatory.
The horror in This Is Not a Ghost Story is rooted in both realistic fears and existential dread, which is why I think it was so effective for me. Portes really leaned into the concept of drawing horror from the known...being left alone with a man who likes to stand a bit too close, a strange woman just appearing in your home, everyday items disappearing on you at an alarming rate. We might have experienced some of these things in our normal life, but they all also become incredibly terrifying when twisted just a bit. Portes also explores strong emotions experienced as a teen. I think we can all recall how intense everything felt when we were young: love, hate, boredom, grief, fear. Portes really leans into the rush of first love, the anger of abandonment, the pain of trauma, and the joy of self-realization. I think most teen readers will see and feel themselves in these characters, and they will be thoroughly sucked in.
This Is Not a Ghost Story is a wonderfully entertaining and truly heartbreaking psychological and paranormal thriller. Portes’ writing is smooth and tight, and her characters are incredibly strong. Daffodil felt so fully realized on the page, and her journey surely will resonate. As mentioned before, the ending didn’t quite hit for me, but I do appreciate the message Portes was communicating. It’s one I have a personal connection to, and the heartbreak of the plot twist did touch me. But unfortunately it felt a bit shoe-horned in. This book is for fans of If I Stay, Looking For Alaska, and We Were Liars.

I’m really conflicted on this one, guys.

On one hand, I was really drawn into the story. It has all the elements of a good, well, ghost story. A young woman seeking to make some extra money before starting college in the fall finds a job housesitting a large, sort-of creepy house, which becomes definitely creepy when weird things start happening: items begin disappearing, Daffodil has weird hallucination/dreams and it appears that a strange creature is trying to get into the house. Meanwhile, Daffodil feels she has no choice but to stay on because she is recovering from a trauma that occurred back home, across the country, and drove her from Nebraska to seek refuge on the East Coast.

I really sailed through the story and enjoyed it, waiting to see what was going to happen.

Until we actually got to the ending. Yeah. Wasn’t a fan. Like, as in, really not a big fan of how that ended at all. It felt rushed and very contrived. And a bit confusing.

So that’s why I’m conflicted about how to rate this one. I did enjoy the first 85 percent of the book and was looking forward to the big finish. It’s just that the big finish wasn’t my cup of tea. I wish the author would have just redone that last part.

However, I did like the character of Daffodil. The author did a great job of creating a witty, fun character that I really enjoyed reading about and that kept me interested in seeing her make it through. I enjoyed her quirks and seeing a really accurate portrayal of someone who struggles with anxiety. That was refreshing.

Overall, go into this one with caution. You may like some things, but you may be very dissatisfied with others.

You can always sign me up for some YA horror especially if it's got some spooky vibes going on the whole time. Some blurbs have said this is like American Horror Story meets There’s Someone Inside Your House and I can absolutely see that! It had me on the edge of my seat and I just found myself totally drawn into this world and the characters. The vibes and the aesthetic going on here are so good! I did not know for sure what was going to happen when I started this. Based on the title, I obviously expected a good ghost story. But what I got was so much more! Check this one out!

Daffodil Franklin is spending the summer before she starts college running from her problems and housesitting a house that may or may not be hunted. From the beginning to the end, it is almost as if we’re sitting on a conversation with Daffodil, and the storytelling style really gave me The Twisted One Vibes. There are a few spooky moments, but this one overall did not win me over. Still, I enjoyed the unique tale and the upbeat ending. Thanks to HarperTeen and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC.
This IS a ghost story! Just not the sort we have come to expect. Daffodil needs money to pay for college and gets a seemingly sweet deal to housesit a mansion for an elderly couple. Creepy and unexpected occurrences follow. I would recommend to teens looking for a light but creepy tale.

Scheduled to post 2/2/21.

Where did I stop? 21% in

Why? So this is compared to Madeleine Roux and Danielle Vega. From what I read, it's nothing like those two authors that I've read of theirs. I feel like the story being pitched to me in the blurb is a completely different story than what I was getting between the pages. The cavalier attitude of the MC just entirely dissolved anything scary or creepy attempting to build in the story. The voice itself was just really hard for me to get behind. I pretty much hated the way it came across. It took a minute for anything even remotely creepy to start coming into play, and I was trying to hold out to see if the voice would change at all, but it didn't. It just watered down the entire story and I couldn't stand to read anymore of it

This Is Not a Ghost Story is a book that desperately wants to make sure the reader never knows what's going on. For the most part, this is fine - it is essentially a haunted house story, and feeling off-kilter is definitely part of the atmosphere overall. However, the further into the story we get, the more it starts to feel like a betrayal when the story veers wildly from the rails we thought we were on. Daffodil, our protagonist, is staying the summer in an old, giant house where weird things happen. This in itself is a solid premise: the house is clearly haunted in some way, and Daffodil's exploration of the house's history and revealing of the haunt would have been a satisfying journey. Portes wants to dig into deeper meat, which is also fine; ghosts have a long history of being used as metaphor. Where I started to have a problem was in the endgame, when a plot twist meant to make you rethink the book you just read just served to make me feel like I had been lied to.

A strange story with a lackluster resolution. I was hopeful for more details as to the nightmare world Daffodil was living in.

First, let me say that this plot is more unsettling than truly frightening. The tone is one of wrongness rather than fear. The set-up is standard horror fare - a teen on her own for the first time, running from her past, spending the summer alone in an isolated mansion. It should come as no surprise that practically as soon as the homeowner leaves weird things start to happen, things that suggest a haunting or a curse, especially once we learn that the house was the site of a tragedy. There is a point about halfway through the novel where there were enough questions, enough possibilities, that I was really into the book. It was only when Portes really committed to the truth of the events, when things took a particularly strange turn, that I began to be less invested. Events stopped making sense. I found them less unsettling and more tiresome. It's certainly a unique approach to the plot but it simply did not land with me.

While I'm sure this book will find a large audience, it wasn't the right fit for me.

It's written from the POV of our seventeen year old protagonist Daffodil, who speaks to the reader and tells her story. There's an authenticity to her voice as she sometimes rambles, sometimes fumbles, sometimes repeats herself. While that is realistic to the character, it's a tad overwhelming at times as a reader who doesn't naturally gravitate toward fiction written for younger audiences. Although, I do believe teenager horror fans would find this type of voice entertaining and relatable.

The plot is a little hard to talk about without giving anything away. At first, I wasn't sure where it was leading me. I didn't get a clear picture until about 2/3rds into the story, and it made for a fun twist. The flip side to this- it took 2/3rds of the book for me to really get invested, and while the ending had a enjoyable unexpectedness to it, there was a large part that left me disappointed.

Overall, this wasn't for me, but I do think a younger audience would enjoy.

This is Not a Ghost Story by Andrea Portes is the tale of a 17 year old girl named Daffodil Turner. She is leaving behind her old life in Nebraska to start her freshman year at Bryn Mawr College. Before she starts college, she decides to take a job house sitting for a professor in an old home in Scarlet Mills, Pennsylvania. She is tasked with watching the house and helping oversee a guesthouse which is under construction. Her closest neighbor is an eccentric older British woman names Penelope Persephone Crisp.
The story is told through Daffodil’s voice and she is clearly a bright and funny girl. She describes herself as a bit eccentric herself and enjoys watching videos of conspiracy theories and listening to podcasts. As she details her experience in the house, she also tells a little bit about her past and her involvement with a boy named Zander Haaf, but there are parts that she doesn’t want to remember about him. After she moves in, there are some strange events that take place, but Daffodil doesn’t believe that she may be living in a house that could be haunted. Is she living in a haunted house, is she haunted by her past, or is there a perfectly rational explanation for what she is experiencing?
I absolutely loved this story. I really liked Daffodil and I loved being inside her head. I enjoyed learning about her and getting her perspective on what was happening in the house. She has social anxiety disorder and I feel that Portes did an excellent job with portraying a character who lives with this every day and how it impacts her life. I definitely recommend this book!