Meek young adult Freya is trying to figure her life out in the wake of her larger than life wild sister Stella's mysterious death. She finds her self inexorably drawn to Byrne House (the house itself is one of the main characters) in the seaside town of Bligh a stones throw from the location of Stella's apparent cliff jump suicide . In a drunken stupor she finds a painting in the house that looks like Stella. We later meet Cory the neurotic "artist" son and his fatally ill mother Diana living in run down Byrne House. An odd romance- (if you can call it that) ensues between Cory and Freya. The story is eerily told and reminded me of nightmares that I had after watching Hitchcock's Psycho...weird mother/son relationship included! I mean how many clues do you need before you get out! Trigger warnings for controlling codependent relationships.
Well, written with excellent dialogue. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking a gothic psychological Thrill!

*Thank you to NetGalley, Elizabeth Brooks and Tin House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously posted on https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/the-whispering-house/

The Whispering House is a gothic suspense whose principal character is a house: Byrne Hall. Likened to “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle,” the house has a grand facade and beautiful, well-kept gardens. But enter the house and there is no mistaking how different it is. Byrne Hall is empty of most furniture, the wallpaper is peeling off the walls, and the floor tiles are popping up. Dust and broken things are everywhere.

Freya and her father, a renowned art critic for the London Times, are attending a wedding of a distant cousin at Byrne Hall. Upon arrival they realize that Freya’s sister, the loquacious and coquettish Stella, committed suicide very near this spot. Though all signs indicate “stay out,” Freya enters the hall, hoping for a respite from the overwhelming heat. There she discovers a painting of Stella in the front room, torn to pieces, and put back together like a mosaic. Up until now, her sister’s suicide has remained a mystery. But after seeing that painting, Freya is determined to find out what happened.

Once back home, Freya decides to return to Bligh to see if she can get some answers. Once she arrives, she encounters Cory, a childlike man who asks to draw her. She meets him again once she is in Byrne Hall. He is the son of Diana, a now frail and ailing woman who was once a very famous artist. Diana is now reliant on her son to care for her. She immediately warns Freya of Stella, however, cannot finish her thoughts when Cory arrives. Her voice is heard throughout The Whispering House as “She – Diana – had become the whispering voice of the house. No, more than that, she had become its mind and soul.”

With Cory’s invitation to stay at Byrne Hall and Freya’s desire to find out what really happened to Stella, they fall into an uneasy and complicated relationship, fraught with cruelty and possessiveness. Cory believes he has inherited an amazing talent for drawing and seeks Freya’s help to set up an art show in Byrne Hall, asking her if she can invite her father to review the show for the London Times. Despite her misgivings about his possessiveness, Freya basks in his constant attention and adoration, and is eager for a respite from her boring life in London. Almost too late, she realizes she has fallen into a trap Cory has set, and the plans she puts in place for her escape bring The Whispering House to its shocking conclusion.

Elizabeth Brooks is a genius at creating atmospheres and locations that haunt the reader. With the constant rain and the darkness of Byrne Hall, we are constantly looking around every corner with goosebumps, waiting for something new to come out and scare us. As all the pieces of the puzzle come together at the end, the reader is increasingly aware of a devastating end, with Byrne Hall crumbling all around them.

The Whispering House tells the story of Freya Lyell, who returns to the scene of her sister's suicide 5 years later for a cousin's wedding, and gets sucked into the house and family at Byrne House. Those who loved Mexican Gothic or Rebecca will also enjoy this book. I enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first half--Freya makes a series of irrational decisions that would have worked if there was some kind of supernatural element to the house/family or she was being drugged or something, but it turned out that was not the case, so we are just meant to believe that Freya makes these choices because she is swept up by love or the scenario? In the second half, Freya seems to come to her senses, and the plot gets moving again.

While I did eventually enjoy the plot of this book- I went into it expecting something else. I wanted Blackbeard+Jane Eyre+We Have Always Lived In A Castle. This....this is not that.

This is about obsession, about love, about grief. It's a good story - but is slow paced.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is sort of a modern gothic complete with a compelling house. While attending a wedding, Freya ventures into an “off limits” house and finds a portrait of her dead sister. Freya who trying to move past her sister’s death, becomes obsessed with discovering more about this and returns to the house. Uh oh! Play the creepy music and let the story unfold.

I have always believed that I didn’t like Gothic stories. Elizabeth Brooks has just proven me wrong. The Whispering House has it all - secluded mysterious lavish mansion, damsel in distress, dashing knight in silver armor. Yet it felt fresh, relevant and disturbing. A great read and a change of mind. That’s what a well written story does.

The premise of the book was what grabbed my attention - a girl's sister's suicide haunts her during her quest for answers - and made me decide to ask to read a pre-pub edition. However, the story was a bit disappointing. While I read it though and didn't struggle too much to do so, it was just a meh read. It didn't grab me and was not as exciting as I wanted it to be. I thought with a dead sister's ghost looming over the main character, that there may be some good twists and turns through the story. This unfortunately, did not happen.

An interesting story rife with Gothic themes, including a giant mansion in the countryside that seems to embody an eerily human-like presence. While the pacing of the plot really picked up toward the end, I found the story to be a bit slow and a few of the characters unrelatable. I didn’t understand many of the main character’s Freya’s actions and motivations, which was at times frustrating. However, the sense of place in The Whispering House is certainly atmospheric and dark, and I would recommend to anyone looking for a haunting book to pick up in the wintertime.

Thanks to Tin House and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Lush, gothic and atmospheric writing. The whispering house, which is actually called Byrne
Hall, is a real presence in this story, a character in it
In this story, there’s a young woman named Freya. She’s in her 20s and she is
haunted by the death of her sister. She died five years prior, she died by suicide, and
she died near this house where Freya’s cousin had the nerve to host his wedding
reception. So when the story opens, Freya says I never would have seen the house, she
never would have revisited the place, except her cousin got married here, so she and
her dad are dealing with all their ghosts. This story takes Freya into very terrifying places that she may or may not be able to extricate herself from. And while I was reading, I really wasn’t sure how it was going to
go down. But the descriptions of the house itself are wonderful and they may give you the
goosebumps. It really is like a character in the story. Slowly Freya feels compelled to
return. It’s clear to her that the house has secrets. It’s a very eerie,
unsettling atmospheric mystery and contemporary British literary fiction.

I'm giving this book 2 Stars because it was written well but I did not like the story. I recommend reading it because what I don't love you may love!!

The Whispering House by Elizabeth Brooks is a dark brooding novel of obsessive love, family intrigue and mysterious deaths. In the first scene, the reader is immediately introduced to the house, Byrne Hall. The 300 year-old Queen Anne style house is perched near the cliffs with a view of the sea. It has a beautiful façade and overlooks its expansive grounds that are used for wedding receptions. We learn early on that behind the lovely façade is a dilapidated decaying structure, much like its owner. Diana Byrne, a once beautiful and wealthy art collector, is dying and lives there as a recluse with her twenty-something son Cory. The first chapter also introduces the protagonist Freya, a 23 year-old bridesmaid in the current wedding, and her father, the art editor for a London newspaper; they also live together as they try to cope with the death of Freya’s older sister, Stella, 5 years ago. Coincidentally, Stella’s death was presumed a suicide and her body was found at the base of the cliffs less than a mile from Byrne Hall.
When Freya meets Cory Byrne, she fantasizes about starting a new Bohemian idyll, living with him while she writes poetry and he pursues his art. Both of them are not quite fully realized adults. They each pursue their fantasies and art without considering the consequences of their immature behavior.
Freya’s father is an intelligent but distant man who gives her practical advice but seems removed from deeper feelings. Cory’s mother Diana has been delusional for many years as she talks to the house, listens to the house, and believes she has become “its mind and soul.” She is overprotective of Cory and very obviously does not want him to become involved with Freya or any other woman. She considers him her “boy-child.”
In true gothic style, the atmosphere is heavy and most of the action is set in the house, a dark dwelling with long corridors, little furniture and a labyrinth of rooms. The reader is left clue after clue as the story unfolds and truths are revealed. The denouement is dramatic and satisfying, in Bronte-esque fashion.
While the characters were limited in number, their problems were many and most were deeply flawed. These flaws added depth to the dark atmosphere and foreshadowing of the characters’ actions. Diana’s dreams are, to me, the heart of the story itself, although she remains a shadowy mysterious figure through most of the book.
The story is written in alternating time periods, 2005-2009, and 2015, the present, and I liked that literary device. I also appreciated hearing the characters’ voices, as the author inserts their points of view in different chapters. It kept me interested as their personalities and histories were revealed. I especially liked Ms. Brooks’ descriptive writing. She chooses her words wisely; she captures and presents the reader with clear engaging imagery, whether it is visual, auditory or sensory.
This novel is a suitably dark suspenseful story with intelligent writing. It was a pleasure to read on a cold rainy evening by the fire.

Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Freya is a young woman who has lost her sister to suicide (or was it?) and in the effort to find out the truth, finds love. The book begins with Freya travelling to Byrne Hall in order to find out what occurred in the last few days of her sister, Stella's life.
She meets Cory, the heir to the manor, and artist, and they fall madly in love.
However, things to do not last forever.
This book was a page-turner for sure. I enjoyed the time jumps between Freya, Cory's mother Diana, and Stella (in her last few days) to help flesh out the plot. The character arc for Freya was great, although I found the engagement subplot to be a little contrived and perhaps too soon. However, the story did not suffer much for it, because it was a very good edge-of-your-seat thriller from beginning to end.
I would definitely read this again, Brooks has written yet another good, quick read that I really enjoyed and I hope you will too.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Probably 3.5 stars--somewhere between liked and really liked.

A creepy gothic! My favorite!

The narrator of this tale, Freya, is fragile and dreamy. She's also suffering from PTSD (though I don't think she knows it.) She's often passive, usually lost in her own head, and frankly, a bit weird. (For example, in chapter one, she walks into a house that isn't hers, wanders around a bit, then LIES DOWN ON THE FLOOR and GOES TO SLEEP!) This sort of bizarre behavior might be out of place in any other genre, but gothic heroines get a pass.

There is a real darkness here--not from the Whispering House (though it does stand as a brooding, menacing figure in this book), but from the people Freya meets. I feared for her quite a bit.

No spoilers, but I think a few of the plot elements were a bit too contrived. Other than that, I really enjoyed this sinister gothic tale.

I received this review copy from the publisher on NetGalley. Thanks for the opportunity to read and review; I appreciate it!

A slow burn Gothic suspense; dark atmospheric tale. The premise was promising but the execution could have been a bit better in terms of pacing and engaging characters. Character driven which can be problematic for the reader if they are not drawn in by the characters. While the secrets of the story are ultimately revealed, the slow pacing of the story is distracting

The whispering house is a compelling gothic thriller. The book is set in a grand old house called Byrne Hall. Once it was a glorious place, but it had fallen on hard times and no longer retained its former glory. Now it is rented out for wedding receptions but only in the grounds and the guests are requested not to enter the house.

Freya’s sister, Stella, plunged to her death five years ago near Byrne Hall.
Freya encounters the house as a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding. She happens to go inside and finds a portrait of her dead sister. Freya constantly misses her sister. She’s had a hard time accepting her death. Therefore she is intrigued and wants to get to the bottom of this mystery and revisits Byrne Hall again.

Diana Byrne and her son Cory are the mysterious and reclusive owners of the house. Freya finds that she has a certain chemistry with Cory. Diana is very sick and Cory looks after his mother. They are very close.

Freya wants to find out the secrets of Byrne Hall and what happened to her sister. Her relationship with Cory is also burgeoning, but there is something which is not quite right about the whole situation.

Stella’s life is revealed to us in flashbacks and it is interesting to get to know her in this way.

All in all an enjoyable gothic tale. It is a suspenseful novel with an unsettling and dark atmosphere.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advance reader’s copy for an honest review.

This novel was a "did not finish" for me. I stuck it through to the halfway point, but the slow pacing and the lack of really engaging characters were frustrating.

The Whispering House is a creepy character driven novel which reveals its secrets ever so slowly, so slowly in fact that there are times when nothing much seems to happen.
I wouldn't necessarily call this a thriller.
But the story was good! The characters were ok.
Overall not bad for quick read.

I received an advance copy of, The Whispering House, by Elizabeth Brooks. I did not like this book or the characters at all, especially Cory and Freya.

4.5 Stars

Tin House has put out some amazing titles this year, and next year is looking just as good. As soon as I read the blurb for The Whispering House, I knew I had to request it. I was thrilled to be approved and quickly dove in.

Five years after the death of her older sister, Freya returns to Byrne Hall as a wedding guest. Unnerved by the proximity to where her sister was found, she sneaks inside the sprawling house for some privacy and believes she finds a picture of Stella. Back home and restless, she decides to return to Byrne to question the residents, for closure or answers, she's not sure, but she knows she has to do it. The trip, however, becomes much more than a weekend away, and soon Freya finds herself enamored with Cory Byrne. What follows is a journey through love, obsession, and the toxicity of control.

I really enjoyed this book.

To me, this was gothic psychological suspense at its finest. First, we get a family clinging to the vestiges of generational wealth, having sold their belongings but hiding their disparity behind the façade of a large and eerie manor by the sea. We also get Freya, who embodies a gothic heroine in all her glory: she's the object of Cory's affection, his muse, put on a pedestal and lauded for her beauty. She's also searching, becoming increasingly suspicious of Cory and his past, determined to unearth his secrets--balancing her desire to learn with the growing fear that she's trapped in Byrne Hall.

What I liked best about Freya, however, was the expert weaving of tone and atmosphere Brooks accomplished through her character. At times, Freya truly feels like a damsel in distress. She could've stepped right out of the 19th century in a lavish gown and delicate sensibilities. She's cut off from the rest of the world. She spends her days walking the grounds looking for artistic inspiration. Languishing over pen-and-paper letters. Her diction is ethereal and elevated to match Cory's own embodiment of a tortured, but rich, artist. When she begins to question the trajectory of their speedy courtship, however, she becomes more of a modern woman. She thinks for herself. She chooses her own clothes. She uses technology and changes her speech patterns. Brooks did a wonderful job emphasizing the duality of Freya's position, and the depth in which she realizes she's become trapped by Cory.

There is also the underlying mystery of what happened to Stella, and while that drives Freya, it doesn't feel like the sole focus here. Instead, I would say The Whispering House is a story about love and obsession of all kinds, and the consequences of indulging in our deepest desires for too long. I did find the plot to be somewhat predictable, although well-paced and engrossing. I finished this in a single read, and I think many readers will do the same. Brooks' writing is crisp, layered, and insightful.

Overall, The Whispering House is one you won't want to miss. A slow-burn gothic suspense out in March, add this to your TBR now.

Big thanks to Tin House and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

Some dwellings talk to you, call your name (or possibly call you names), some places whisper. The latter usually makes you think of gothic fiction and I suppose this is a sort of modern take on it, a neogothic tale of a young woman who comes to stay in a place she doesn’t belong and gets trapped there.
But wait, let’s rewind and start at the beginning…at the beginning there were too sisters, an impulsive impetuous mercurial Stella and a diligent pragmatic slightly younger Freya. And then Stella disappeared, one of her many disappearances, but this one actually ended with her tragic death, a body discovered by the sea, apparent suicide. Freya and her dad go on with their muddling sheltered existence until one day they attend a wedding at a posh but dilapidated estate of Byrne family, which is right near where Stella’s body was found. What’s more, once there, Freya stumbles upon a portrait that looks suspiciously like her sister.
Aha, interesting you say, while steepling your fingers, interesting. But soon again, all suspicions are cast aside, once Freya encounters the dreamy Cory, Cory Byrne to be precise, the inheritor of the estate (such as it is, with most possessions sold and now getting buy mainly on weddings and events income), who lives there with his overprotective and now dying mother. Cory is an artist who becomes obsessed with Freya, she is his perfect muse, and so after a whirlwind romance, she stays there with him, leaving her job and her life behind, and now their days are dedicated to her trying to write and him trying to draw her, over and over again.
It sounds impossibly romantic and soon enough becomes impossible to endure, Cory’s claustrophobic affections and Byrne family secrets get to be too much and here is where the story diverges from a proper gothic to the extent that the female protagonist actually asserts her own agency, refusing to be a mere victim of her circumstances. Yey, go modern times, very progressive and all that. So it becomes a battle of wills, in a way, finally getting dramatic and thrilling after a long while of…well, dreamy stupidity attributable to a typical 23 year old, or at least it’s a convenient excuse for some of Freya’s behavior.
The love story is kind of tedious, it seems mainly driven by Cory’s artistic ambitions, which are kind of just sad, but then again frustrated artists can be dangerous. Remember this one guy named Adolf who got rejected from a Vienna art academy? Well, this isn’t nearly as dramatic or world changing, but it’s never a good thing when one’s ambitious outpace their talent.
So there you have it, a neogothic romance that twists in the end with some mystery elements. To be fair, the latter are very easy to figure out, the list of suspects is at any time just two and it’s made reasonably obvious which one of the two it might be. So you’re not in for huge surprises and you only really get to (somewhat) whiteknuckle it at the end, but nevertheless it was a pretty entertaining ride. The writing was very engaging and did a good job of drawing you in when the characters didn’t and sure they might not have been the most engaging of likeable of characters, but they don’t have to be with this sort of a story, they just have to be very mysterious and British (withholding, proper, reserved, etc.) and somewhat sinister with potential for some evil doing.
The book reads quickly and entertains plenty. Pretty good for a debut, really. Not a typical suspense thriller with a female protagonist that’s so popular these days, more along the lines of a drama with a crime or few thrown in. Fans of dark psychological fiction might enjoy this one. Thanks Netgalley.