This was a unique take on the home invasion trope. It was unsettling and dark. I think this novel would have benefited with 50-75 pages cut. A more extreme novella would have made this novel more intense. But it was still something I will think of often.

“What is your motivation?”

Anybody Home? is about a home invasion told by the point of view of a seasoned invader who is training and directing a new generation of ambitious home invaders.

First of all, let me just say that this book is TERRIFYING. I love horror books and I'm not one that is easily scared but my goodness this is the stuff of nightmares. I had to stop a few times because I was feeling literally sick (I'm not exaggerating). One could say it's part of the fun, though it's quite disturbing. Please check the trigger warnings before picking this one up!

Here's what I really enjoyed about Anybody Home?:
- the narrative is quite unique: the story is told in a second person perspective, which I usually do not like, but it worked perfectly in this setting. Also it's from the POV of the bad guys, which I found exciting, but also very shocking and unsettling;
- the tension, which is present since the very beginning, grows and grows without giving the reader a break. I thought it was well built and goes well with the fast pace of the story and the overall distress.

What didn't work for me:
- the invaders and the family members don't have names, there's invader #1, invader #2... and victim #1, victim #2 etc. While I understand the reason behind this choice, it was a bit confusing at times;
- at some point (like 60% in), the story starts becoming repetitive, especially the constant questions asked to the reader which, ironically enough, made me disconnect from the book.

Overall I'd say that Anybody Home? is a pretty unique horror experience. It's dark, disturbing and truly scary: will you feel safe in your own home after reading this book? If home invaders don't scare you, then this book is definitely for you, and if they do scare you... maybe don't read this when you're home alone.
4 stars.

* I'd like to thank Michael J. Seidlinger, CLASH Books and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Would have loved if there were names! Concept was great but it took away from the experience that I was confused about who was who.

What came first, the home or the desire to invade?
A seasoned invader with multiple home invasions under their belt recounts their dark victories while offering tutelage to a new generation of ambitious home invaders eager to make their mark on the annals of criminal history. From initial canvasing to home entry, the reader is complicit in every strangling and shattered window. The fear is inescapable.
Examining the sanctuary of the home and one of the horror genre's most frightening tropes, Anybody Home? points the camera lens onto the quiet suburbs and its unsuspecting abodes, any of which are potential stages for an invader ambitious enough to make it the scene of the next big crime sensation. Who knows? Their performance just might make it to the silver screen.

This is a thrilling and gripping read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and found myself second guessing every thought I had continuously.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I was provided an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. This is my own honest voluntary review.

If you're an enthusiast of extreme planning and also love being scared, this is the book for you! A chilling and excessively detailed fictional account of a home invasion told through the POV of the perpetrator(s) is just the unique perspective needed in the horror genre! The entire plot is quite disturbing, and if readers are triggered by sexual assault, gore, and harm to children, they may want to skip this book. In true crime, books, films, and television, it's interesting to learn the levels of planning some criminals go to, and this is the first time I have read as such so comprehensively. The layers of psychological mind games are plentiful here. I found myself imagining such characters as Jigsaw from the Saw franchise, Hannibal Lecter, and the degenerates from the 2008 film The Strangers as I read through the careful development and execution of the crimes that were to be committed. While this book will definitely make you rethink safety and security precautions in your home (and life), I found the amount of organization to be so daunting, that the sheer anticipation of action was a bit too much and left me a little bored (let's get on with the crime already!). However, this is in no way a deterrent against someone from reading. This book will stick with me awhile, and I will recommend for anyone seeking a horrifying psychological rollercoaster!

4.5/5 Stars

This book is unlike ANY I've read before.

Home-Invasion stories are always the ones that scare me the most: from The Strangers to When A Stranger Calls; from The Last House on the Left to Hush; etc.

Seidlinger does such an incredible job at putting the reader IN the story. This novel is written in the 2nd-person perspective, so that, alone, puts the reader within the pages as the nameless "you." However, this is taken even further with the one-sided conversations of our "Director" that is guiding us through the home-invasion. Seidlinger uses the method to further put the reader in the mindset of the home-invader that is leading the charge on this specific night. When our "Director" asks a question of the lead invader, we, as the readers, have to fill in the gaps in the dialogue; therefore, WE are having this conversation... it's our own opinions, biases, beliefs, etc. that lead us to the inferred dialogue. This writing tactic was so MASTERFULLY done throughout the entire novel.

While reading Anybody Home?, I was reminded of another horror novel that I adored: Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. Now, this novel isn't about the supernatural/paranormal (which is odd because Amityville was the one claiming to be real); however, both of these books are written in a very cold, observational, and objective manner. There was no room for fantastical storytelling or beautiful prose... it was straight to the point. Even when describing the gore, it stated what happened clearly and didn't go into too much detail about the aesthetics of it. This is part of the reason I deducted half a star; I liked the cold, bystander type of storytelling because it is what best fits the story itself, but there were some aspects of it that I feel kept the story from being THAT MUCH BETTER!

One aspect of this writing that warranted my half-star deduction was the use of "filler names," so the characters were just called Invaders 1-5, The Voice, The Director, and Victims 1-4. Again, I understand the appeal of this because it further allows the reader to imagine themselves in ANY of these roles... they remain nameless for a reason; however, it slowed the pace of the novel for me. I feel like this is because, as readers, we see a word as a whole rather than ACTUALLY reading and sounding out that word each time we read it. In other novels, this works because the characters have names that are different, but, in this book, we couldn't just look at "Invader" and move on because there are 5 invaders... but we also couldn't just look at the number of that invader (1-5) because the victims were also numbered. I don't know... this might be nit-picky, but I continued to get frustrated at the pacing while reading the novel (because it is so short, and I felt like it was taking me FOREVER to get through it). Again, I 100% understand why Seidlinger did it this way... and, to an extent, it was successful in achieving what he wanted, but I felt that it was at the cost of other important elements of the story.

Another reason for the deducted star is the lack of description; however, again... I understand why it is this way! Seidlinger seems to want the reader to fill in the blanks throughout this novel in many different ways, the gore being one of those ways. He describes EXACTLY what happens... but there isn't much detail added for the reader to FULLY take in the scene being described. Though I understand wanting the audience to create their own descriptions within their mind to, again, put them in the shoes of the invaders, I still would've really liked to read Seidlinger's descriptions of these events taking place... creating a full atmosphere for the reader to take it all in.

Aside from those 2, very nit-picky reasons (behind which I can see the reasoning), this book is PHENOMENAL! It's an incredibly innovative and dark novel that uses masterful techniques to propel the gut-wrenching narrative of a family's night of horrors during a home invasion. DEFINITELY read this book at your earliest convenience; this would ESPECIALLY be a great October read. Also, if you enjoy The Strangers movie, then you will love this; I GUARANTEE IT!

Anybody Home? offers a fresh take on the home invasion trope: viewing the crime through the lens of the invader(s). There’s a lot to plan, a lot you have to pray goes correctly—home invasion is no walk in the park. You are one of them, the intruders: watching, studying, invading. You are complicit in the crime. While the victim’s names are never revealed, you KNOW them, what they’re all like. The brutality you inflict is slow, planned, sadistic. Turning family members on one another by revealing secrets, inflicting pain, true pain. You’re doing great, the cults are gonna love it. Remember to ensure the performance is top notch. Entertainment is the goal. Protect the performance, get the footage, vanish without a trace.

Anybody Home? is told from a second person point of view, making YOU, the reader, part of the story [𝘾𝙍𝙄𝙈𝙀]. Second person is a rare way to tell a story and dare I say, a risk. I prefer to observe, piece together, and analyze as I read rather than play an active role in the narrative. I applaud the originality but, because of my reading preferences this aspect didn’t fully work for me.

Detachment and anonymity come through heavily within the narrative, as the reader never learns names of victims, intruders, or the cults. I understand why, as this could happen to anyone [𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉 𝙔𝙊𝙐, 𝙔𝙀𝙎 𝙔𝙊𝙐] but, the depersonalization formed a disconnect between myself and the characters: it made it hard to truly care about what happened to them because I didn’t feel like I knew them.

This book did SCARE me. When I was home alone I found myself double checking locked doors, thinking of ways to switch up my daily routines, and gasping when the ice maker dropped fresh cubes. It seeped into my cranium in a big way!

With that being said, because of the overall detachment of characters and the second person voice, it was hard for me to wholly enjoy. That’s not to say this isn’t a wonderfully written & frightening novel, it just didn’t work for me personally. When I finished my first thought was “Oop other people are going to LOVE THIS.”

Thank you @clashbooks for an ARC of this title for review 💖.

“It’s all a blissful, boring illusion of suburbia and civility until the first stranger’s footstep on hardwood floor at midnight.”
Home invasion. Coming to the realization that there are people in your house who are going to do harm to you and your family. For no real reason. They don’t want your money. They are there for the thrill, the performance.
This book isn’t about the victims though, this uniquely told how-to-guide is about the planning and the execution. Told from an experienced participant to a newbie.
This is a book that I did not want to highlight or take notes on because it felt like I was writing down tips on how to pull off a successful invasion.
Full of electricity and suspense with an overwhelming sense of wrongness; like you are witnessing something horrifying and are unable to do anything about it. This is not something you want to read alone or at night
“Fear has become the only feeling they know. It’s better than feeling pain.”

As a big fan of everything horror, including the extreme and graphic in nature, I tried or hoped Anybody Home would be the type of Jack Ketchum or Ed Lee in your face roller coaster, sadly it wasn’t. A lot of the dialogue meant to create suspense became redundant and the scenes of violence were predictable and fell flat. As I finished the book I couldn’t help but be reminded of such movies as Hostel, Scream, and the Saw series, but unfortunately not as good.

This novel is creepy AF. I really hope none of the home invaders in this story exist, but that's the thing that makes this so terrifying: they probably do. Seidlinger's Anybody Home? has no named narrator, no named characters at all, no named locale, and no loci in time; the events in this slim, punchy novel could happen anywhere and to anyone. That's what makes it a successful horror story. Seidlinger lets the reader's imagination do the work -- some of the work -- for him.

Some. The heavy lifting is done by Seidlinger. The prose is sparse, but accurate like a puncture to the jugular. A hanging question, a sentence left unfinished -- the words in this novel function like a silent slice of a knife through air; they elicit a spurt or an arc of blood as desired. Seidlinger delivers enough to elicit pain, but not enough to kill; reader, you'll live to read on. You'll be compelled to read on to deliver yourself from the suspense.

Anybody Home? is about a home invasion, a carefully planned crime and its implementation. The story is told from the interior perspective of the mastermind of this crime.

Despite the facelessness of the narrator, the protagonist in this tale is not a mystery to the reader. This is, I think, part of Seidlinger's brilliance. The reader is treated to the full landscape of insanity in the narrator's head; what you're not sure of is who they are talking to and what the relationship is between the narrator and the others of their kind. This unreliable narrator adds to the sensation of dis-ease; the further the reader gets into the book and into the narrator's head, the more infectious the madness becomes. Things start to make sense. You can't help but respect the madness a bit. In fact, it does not feel quite so mad. There's a logic -- even a sense of justice or nobility -- to the plan the narrator has in mind. Almost.

Reader, you might begin to wonder if the madman is the hero here. But that feels squeamish; you can't quite reconcile the deontological unfairness of this cruel act with some kind of enlightenment. You can't quite call the ending "happy", but you might be tempted to ponder on it. You might creep yourself out a bit when you realize your own moral compass may not point true north... Maybe.

Anybody Home?
Michael J. Seidlinger

- [ ] Starts off as a “how-to” instruction manual of sorts
- [ ] When I began reading the very first parts it’s feels like the movies “The Strangers” and “Sinister” combined
- [ ] You are reading from the view of the ones committing the crimes unlike normal where you’re reading from the victim’s perspective
- [ ] Suddenly you realize you unknowingly are now part of a “ceremony” in some way and carry on
- [ ] The book makes you feel uneasy and unsecured in your own skin
- [ ] As the book says, “You can’t help but keep going, like a reader that can’t help but turn the pages, craving the next scene.”
- [ ] You become every aspect of the “performance”, many books do not phase me, but the ones that can happen in real life stick with me as this is
- [ ] As you read your heart beats and literally feel like you’re there and you’re involved in what’s happening
- [ ] You soon become one of the “monsters” and all of the events of the next few days unfold
- [ ] Reading you feel you are now never safe in your home and no home is safe, period
- [ ] The writing is unlike anything I’ve read. You have conversations within your head and you genuinely become part of this book
- [ ] I feel dirty saying I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I did
- [ ] Definitely a must read, one of kind, thought provoking book

I was super excited for this one, it sounded like the perfect kind of read for me, especially having been compared to Funny Games, one of my all time favourite films, however, I was left feeling underwhelmed.

There were some great moments in this one and several times I thought I had found the moment I was going to fall in love with this chilling tale, but that feeling was never fully established.

I think I had a problem with the way it was written mainly. I felt completely disconnected to the story, and I honestly think that may have been the point, but it didn’t work for what I wanted from this kind of story. In Funny Games, there is the side of me that longs for the family to escape and there is the other, darker side of me, that’s so entranced by the intruders I can’t wait to see what horrors are to come next. In Anybody Home I felt a complete lack of remorse for the victims and irritated by the intruders.

I unfortunately didn’t find the story particularly compelling or frightening at any point. For a short book, it took me a long time to get through because nothing about it was drawing me back each time I put it down.

The writing itself was fine, I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was good or bad, just somewhere in the middle. The disconnectedness of the story and writing left several moments feel quite flat. Not to mention there was a whole load of repetition that began to really get on my nerves. In a novel that’s 258 pages long, the word “performance” was mentioned 226 times and the word “camera” was mentioned 230 times!! I could happily not read those words in books again for a very long time.

I feel like all I’ve done is drag this book in this review, but look it wasn’t awful and there is clearly an audience for it, it’s just one of those books that wasn’t for me personally.

“Forget the camera because the camera’s not going to forget you.”*

In two separate incidents, a group of home invaders stalk and kill families. They aim to make the victims inflict harm on each other in order to persuade the invaders to spare their lives. Almost every horrific moment is captured on camera to be shared with those who revel in human pain and suffering.

The second person perspective cast the reader in the role of a first time leader of a team of home invaders. A first person mentor periodically asked the leader to explore their motivation, which was a question in my mind throughout the story—what motivated someone to become a sadistic killer. Fame appeared to be a factor as the goal was to record the stalking and kills and gain the esteem of the “cultists,” which at times appeared to be a formal group and others a role we each play in society as voyeurs of tragedy.

Suspense was created by references to “the spoilage” where things begin to fall apart and the invaders must go off script and improvise. While the pacing moved like a bullet train for the majority of the novel, steam was lost a bit at about the seventy-five percent mark as the focus moved away for a bit from the second person character. The momentum then picked back up to drive the story home.

This novel had my adrenaline pumping, made me suspicious of strangers, and made me cautiously peer outside multiple times. The insidiousness of the stalking and personal violation was nothing short of terrifying as was the idea that someone would be capable of inflicting such pain and torture on a family, particularly after finding out at least one of the invaders was female.

I read this book in less than 24 hours because it felt as though if I put it down, I’d be leaving the family in a state of torture.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to Clash books for providing an Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley.

*Please note that my review is based on uncorrected text.

This is hands down my favorite home invasion story I have ever read. This book has done what no other home invasion story has captured. I genuinely do not want to give too much away. But if this book sounds interesting to you in the slightest, I highly encourage you to pick it up.

Anybody Home? by Michael J. Seidlunger was a terrifying book about one of my biggest fears. I believe your home is your sanctuary and reading about how easy it is for someone to choose your home at random to invade gave me nightmares.

Let's make one thing clear, this is not a story for you to get attached to the characters. This story is purely intended to make you question the safety of your own home and it hits the mark perfectly. I loved this book. The way the author writes, keeping the characters faceless and nameless, only adds to the sinister feeling this story gives off. I now fear that someone is lurking in my attic waiting for the right moment to come down and attack me. So thanks for that new fear.

I highly recommend this book for fans of horror that wants something different and realistically terrifying.

I usually shy away from home invasion horror, but this one is unique. Dark. Disturbing. But riveting. A credit to the horror genre.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for review.

Did not finish book. Stopped at just under 30%

This book needs serious editing before publication; typos, misused words, words missing from the text and so many run on sentences.

This book structurally has a lot of issues, mainly with it being repetitive and too long for it’s own good. The point of view through Invader 1 is a hinderance to the story overall because we are refused any names for him or his partner in crime. This leads to confusion when the only description we get of his Partner is “he” or “him” while surrounded by multiple other unnamed male characters.

Not only is the structure and formatting just poorly handled but I found the book boring as well. I was dragging myself through the pages and felt myself rolling my eyes. As another reviewer put it, “We get it, it’s a performance, there’s cameras!”

The constant conversation with the reader as well was annoying and repetitive. Stop asking us questions, stop asking us if we’re enjoying the thrill! Just stop. It gives the book a juvenile feeling.

I simply couldn’t sit through another page and wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.

“𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝?
𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐣𝐨𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐖𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝.”

Anybody Home? is an original tale of home invasion that will make you paranoid about being home alone.

How easily these people make it seem to break in. The random chance that it’ll happen to you.

Immediately, you have the most eerie sense upon your skin. And are hammered with the fact that this isn’t JUST a home invasion, but it is a performance.

You’re entire house has been cased, and most likely…someone is in your closet.

This is the ultimate manual for breaking into a house, and committing senseless murder.

With that said, the narration of this book gave me a headache. We get it, it’s a performance. We get it, there’s cameras. WE GET IT, THE CULTS WILL GO WILD. Annoying.

And ultimately, that’s what put the nail in the coffin for me. You’re boring, your performance…it failed. If I had to hear about this one more time, I’d gouge my own eyes out.

DNF @34%

Home invasion has always been one of my favorite subgenres of horror simply because it is a common real fear that we all experience at some point in our lives.

Have you ever considered how safe you are home? Have you ever felt scared after hearing weird noises in your home? Did you ever think that a stranger could simply break in and change your life forever in a matter of minutes?

This was such a different experience as a reader. The horror in this book felt so real, so close to home. A perfect exploration of a home invasion story that will have you hooked, terrified and disgusted all at the same time.

We follow a group of people that are experts in home invasions and we have the displeasure to follow them in their daily job.

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC to review.

3 stars!

I was really engaged in the story at first with how this is written. It is literally a guide how to do an home invasion and you as the reader are being some what guided on what to do, how to do something, what to say, what to reply with.

The characters within the story aren’t given any names despite victim 1, victim 2, etc and the invaders are simply known as invader 1, invader 2, etc

It’s a disturbing read as you are given a more deeper and in-depth look into the preparation of a home invasion, the planning, the reasoning, which in this case is just because which what’s makes it terrifying.