"A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth.

Robert Reid moved his family to Scotland's Outer Hebrides in the 1990s, driven by hope, craving safety and community, and hiding a terrible secret. But despite his best efforts to fit in, Robert is always seen as an outsider. And as the legendary and violent Hebridean storms rage around him, he begins to unravel, believing his fate on the remote island of Kilmeray cannot be escaped.

For her entire life, Maggie MacKay has sensed something was wrong with her. When Maggie was five years old, she announced that a man on Kilmeray - a place she'd never visited - had been murdered. Her unfounded claim drew media attention and turned the locals against each other, creating rifts that never mended.

Nearly twenty years later, Maggie is determined to find out what really happened, and what the islanders are hiding. But when she begins to receive ominous threats, Maggie is forced to consider how much she is willing to risk to discover the horrifying truth.

Unnerving, enthralling, and filled with Gothic suspense, The Blackhouse is a spectacularly sinister tale readers won't soon forget."

Because I know you're like me and need to know if she did know about a man on Kilmeray being murdered!

A digital ARC of this book was provided to me by NetGalley and Scribner. The opinions are my own and freely given.

Maggie goes back to the Isle of Kilmeray, where at the age of 5 she causes a big scene with some wild accusations. Now she is investigating her claims by telling the locals she is writing a story. Many of the locals who were there the first time she was there are not happy with her reopening old wounds.

I had a very hard time following the characters. I couldn't remember who some of them were husband, wife, daughter. These chapters are very long. The story is from Maggie's POV but there are chapters that are from Robert's POV years ago. These chapters, although I know they were setting up the story, didn't hold my attention. I didn't have a problem with Maggie, she had a few unresolved issues. But as much as I tried to like Charlie, I had a hard time because it always seemed like he was lying or hiding something. I really didn't care for any of the islanders. For what this book was, I think it was a good story, but a little too long. You really don't find out anything until about 75% of the way through it. It isn't a "happy" ending so much as a resolution of Maggie's feelings towards herself. I didn't feel the epilogue really finished or wrapped up the story. Thank you NetGalley, Scribner and Carole Johnstone.

2.7 Stars
One Liner: Atmospheric, but the rest doesn’t live up

Robert Reid moved to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland with his wife and son. He is an outsider and has a terrible secret to hide. Though Robert craves the security of a village community, his own fears prevent him from becoming one of the villagers. Soon, things go out of his control, and he has to pay the price.
Maggie MacKay was five when she declared that she was a dead man from the remote island of Kilmeray. She claims that he didn’t drown but was murdered by one of the villagers. Two decades later, Maggie goes back to the village to find out what really happened in the past. It’s not easy, as the locals don’t want to talk to her, and someone is determined to drive her out. What’s more, Maggie is still a nervous wreck and doesn’t know what to believe.
Can Maggie find the truth? What will it do to her?
The story comes from the first-person POV of Maggie and Robert in a dual timeline.

What I Like:
The story is set in a fictional village (based on a real setting) in Scotland. The rugged cliffs, crashing Atlantic waves, and scattered homes come alive on the pages.
The mood is dark, brooding, sinister, and uncomfortable almost throughout. It also has triggers (see at the end), which add to the mood (but also ruin the setting).
Charlie is a wonderfully layered character and vital to the plot’s progress. He is one of the most well-written side characters I’ve read.
Maggie’s mother is another intriguing character in the book. She is a passive yet constant presence in the book. But… (continued in the next section)
The theme of the small community sticking together and the conflicts between the villagers are well done. It establishes the strength and weaknesses of being a local community.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
The pacing is slow. While this is expected in the beginning, the narrative never really picks up speed. I resorted to speed-reading once I began to lose interest.
Maggie and Robert are the voices of the book. Yet, both failed to make me feel anything for them. Maggie was a tad better, but Robert’s arc was left unexplored, with a few aspects being repeated throughout the book. If a reader likes a side character more than the MCs, it is rather telling.
Maggie suffers from mental illness and is recovering from a breakdown. Yet, she jumps into insta-lust-love with Sexy Will, the local farmer. Will is actually a kind-hearted guy, but the focus isn’t on his attributes. I’m not sure how romance made the book better. Friendship would have worked just the same (or even better).
Kelly is a bright, cheerful character, possibly someone to lighten up the dark mood. However, she only managed to annoy me most of the time.
The book also relies on Norse mythology, but only to the extent of pushing a character over the edge of sanity. I didn’t particularly like this. There’s a lot more to pagan cultures than superstitions, sacrifices, or dark magic.
Finally, the ending; there’s a twist (or several), but the final one dilutes what the plot has been building until then. I don’t fall into the majority category that likes the ending. For me, it looks like a final twist to surprise the readers and a convenient way to conclude the plot.

To summarize, The Blackhouse is a slow atmospheric novel with a strong setting. Read the other reviews before you decide.
Thank you, NetGalley and Scribner, for the eARC. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

A remote village. A deadly secret. An outsider who knows the truth.

Maggie has gone her entire life feeling like something is wrong. When she was just five years old she announced she was a man who had been murdered on Kilmeray. She’d never been there, but she was certain she was him. After going there with her mom and being chased out of town, she’s back twenty years later. As more pieces of the puzzle come to light, could Maggie be telling the truth? Is she really reincarnated?

What worked for me: The setting. I want to go to Scotland after reading this one. The author did a fantastic, wonderful job of describing it. I also enjoyed the main character, and really felt I connected with her.

What didn’t work for me: The pacing. It was super slow and drawn out. Also, while I get this is a book set in Scotland, the number of new terms to me was egregious. I spent have the time googling some of them, and some I’m still unsure what they are. I even went as far as asking my Scottish friend. There were also a ton of characters. It’s based in a small town, and it seemed everyone in town was in the book.

Overall, if you’re looking for an atmospheric slow burn of a book then this one would work for you and its out January 3rd, which I’m told is very soon. I’d like to extend my thanks to the publisher, Thomas & Mercer, Scribner, and @netgalley for my e-arc in exchange for this honest review.

Thank you so much to Net Galley, the publisher, and author for providing this book for my review. I am a bit new to Gothic thrillers, but I have decided I very much enjoy them. This is definitely one of those wonderful atmospheric and spooky gothic thrillers. A young girl imagined she had been a man in a past life and was murdered by someone still living on the island. All grown up, that woman is back on the island. I have never read anything like this book. This book was so interesting and kept me invested the entire time. I can’t wait to read more by this author. Thank you again to Net Galley, the publisher, and author for providing this book for my review.

Maggie Mackay has been haunted her entire life. No matter what she does, she can’t shake the sense that something is wrong with her. (She is bipolar but that's neither here nor there.)
When she was 5 years old, without proof, Maggie announced that someone in the remote village of Blairmore in the Outer Hebrides had murdered a local man, sparking a media storm. Her mother dragged her to the island w/ a documentary filmmaker, however, the locals were never forthcoming and made it out to be a hoax.
Now, Maggie is determined to discover what really happened and what the villagers are hiding. (Because of course they're hiding something!) But everyone has secrets, and some are better left alone.
I enjoyed this novel, except for the ending, which I won't give away. I just found it very unsatisfying. Yes, all the loose ends are tied up but I needed Maggie and Will to be together. But I get why they couldn't. I'm just left a bit bereft for them.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this e-arc.*

The setting was really the only good thing about the book and it wasn't good enough to carry the story. It was slow and boring and I didn't care about anything going on and I think the synopsis should have mentioned the possible reincarnation part of the plot.

I struggle with slow books, even ones that are well written. I felt as if I were on the island and could not get off as everyone and their brother made an appearance. Maggie came to town; she’s welcomed by some, and she’s greeted with hostility by others. The pub is the meeting/social spot for all but will the villagers be social when she begins asking questions?

Maggie and her mother visited Scotland’s Outer Hebrides after a young Maggie said she was Andrew MacNeil, a dead man. Nothing ever came of this visit, but the villagers remembered. People living in small town/villages always remember!

Twenty years later, Maggie comes back to Outer Hebrides looking for answers. Why do I hear Jack Nicholson shouting "You can't handle the truth!"? But the truth is what she seeks. But there are those with secrets, who can't handle Maggie learning them.

This book is told in two timelines (the 1990's and the present) with the POV of Maggie and Robert.

The atmosphere in this book was spectacular. I thought the author did a fantastic job of setting the stage and I felt as if I had been transported there. But sadly, I struggled with the slowness of the book, and I found that I just didn't love this book. While there were parts that I enjoyed, the rest just bogged things down for me. Others are enjoying this book more than I did, so please read their reviews.

Well written and atmospheric.

I read and absolutely loved this author's dark debut "Mirrorland" and was thrilled to receive an ARC of her sophomore book "The Blackhouse".

Set in a small Irish island, this highly atmospheric novel immerses its audience in a whodunnit mystery with an unreliable narrator, a non-linear timeline and supernatural undertones.

Our protagonist, Maggie, grew up with a mother who was convinced that both she and Maggie were special/gifted. At a young age, Maggie was convinced that she lived a past life as a man named Andrew MacNeil who was murdered. Rather than try to dissuade her, Maggie's mom brought her to the island where Maggie said he died with a producer in hopes of cashing in on the story. The islanders were not welcoming of the intrusion or accusations and Maggie and her mom left empty handed.

Years later Maggie has been sorting through memories of the past trying to make sense of her life. She's also working to overcome severe mental health issues which were exacerbated upon her mother's death. Unable to let go of Andrew without knowing the truth, Maggie decides to return to the island and conduct her own investigation.

The author did a phenomenal job introducing the readers to island life. She carefully created a mentally ill character with realistic attributes- I believe she conducted a fair amount of research to nail this character.

Maggie's investigation had a fair amount of questioning people who did not want to volunteer information which gave us more of a slow burn... at times a little too slow. All in all I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to Carole Johnstone's next novel!

Review to be posted on Goodreads, Amazon, Bookstagram and Barnes and Noble.

This was an exciting book and thought it was well written. The author did a great job with the characters. 4 star read!

The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

A huge thank you to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for the eARC. This one is coming out in January.

This was a slow-burn gothic thriller set on an island in Scotland. The dichotomies in the themes kept the story going - insider or outsider, well or unwell, truth or lie, there or not there, her or him.

The pace was slow. However, I was interested enough that I never thought about putting the book down. I wanted to see where this was going, and the payoff was big. The ending was worth all the build up.

This was also another novel where the setting doubled as a character. The world the author crafted brought the reader right into the creepy, atmospheric island. Sometimes the Norse descriptions pulled me out of the book, but overall I was right there on that island.

Lastly, the characters were aplenty, which required patience at the beginning. Our main character could be considered an unreliable narrator. The island community were both welcoming and unwelcoming. I wanted more connection with the characters including the main character. I never really felt like I knew them, but I still enjoyed the read.

Overall, stay with this slow-paced gothic thriller for a great payoff. It’s complicated, dark, and atmospheric with sprinklings of paranormal.

I'll admit up front that I struggled with this atmospheric twisty novel in the beginning because I had a hard time keeping the residents of Kilmeray straight. Maggie, who as a child declared that she was Andrew Reid, who was murdered, has come back to the island to get answers. She's struggled, a lot, with her mental health, especially since the death of her mother. In chapters that pop up periodically, Robert, a sheep farmer on the island with a tragic past, tells his story, one which also seems to incorporate madness. Maggie doesn't understand why the residents of the island are so spooked by her nor does she understand why someone has left mummified ravens outside the door of the Blockhouse, which she's renting. She finds first attraction and then more (it gets steamy) with Will, the stepson of Euan, who owns most of the island. The secrets unfold slowly as Maggie digs for answers about her own past. It's incredibly atmospheric (and creepy in spots) with the weather, appropriately, serving as an additional character. There are multiple surprises (no spoilers) at the end- I suspected one but not the others (always a good sign). Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. The patient reader will be well rewarded.

The Blackhouse by Carole Johnstone is a very slow burn story about Maggie MacKay and Robert Reid. When Maggie is five years old, she announces that she is a man named Andrew MacNeil and that she was murdered in a small village on an island in the Outer Hebrides. Her mother takes her to the island along with a documentary film maker to investigate Maggie’s claims. Now Maggie is an adult whose mother has just passed, and she is wondering what is real and what isn’t, as she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I will say I found the first two-thirds of the story very slow but interesting enough to keep reading to see what happens. The last third of the book had me flying through pages to find out. The ending was a bit odd for me, so I am only giving this book three stars as it was entertaining enough to read but overall felt a little bit flat to me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scriber for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest opinion.

What the heck was this book suppose to be about? I read the whole thing and I am still not sure what the plot was. I thought this book was pretty boring too. Also, did not really get to the thriller part of this book until like 80% of the book. I did enjoy the setting of this book. But yeah this one was just not for me. The main character thought she was another person the whole time. It was just so weird. This was a bad thriller. Unsure why it has a lot of good ratings. I would not suggest this one.

I loved this story, and I adore Maggie and her character. It’s so wonderful to read a new idea and I highly recommend this book!

From a young age, Maggie was sure she was someone else, a man from Kilmeray. Her insistence gains national attention, allowing her mother takes her there to prove Maggie is who she says she is. But, unfortunately, they leave disappointed, as no such man exists. Over the years, some memories have faded, but still, Kilmeray stays in her mind. So when her mother dies, she heads back to Blairmore, to the community that didn’t want them there and a past riddled with secrets.

I was on a blog tour for Johnstone’s previous release, Mirrorland, and adored the book. So I’m pleased to say that she did not disappoint with The Blackhouse.

This book is so atmospheric, you’re completely immersed in the setting. The inhabitants don’t want Maggie there, and they’re shady as heck, making it hard for her to know who to trust. She’s bipolar and scared that some of the shady happenings are due to herself, and not her surroundings. The multi-layered storyline has varying timelines that weave Maggie and Robert together across the years. Books that take place in such small towns don’t always unfold at a breakneck speed, which suits the book perfectly.

If you read multiple books at once, I recommend saving time and temporarily abandoning the others because you won’t want to put this down. The atmosphere, the shady characters, the creeptacular setting, and history, with the mystery element, come together beautifully. This is such a fun and addicting read.

The Blackhouse is an atmospheric, slow burn gothic mystery. The story is set perfectly in this isolated, turbulent island. The author really has a knack for creating a sense of place really makes the book so creepy, and so impossible to put down.

The characters were well-drawn, and I enjoyed how each twist in the plot left me further from figuring things out. It is an original, clever thriller that readers will really enjoy! I can't wait to recommend this to mystery readers looking for something a little new!

Thank you to Scribner, NetGalley and the author, Carole Johnstone for the e-ARC of this novel.

It isn't often that a book leaves me speechless but The Blackhouse certainly did. I got lost in the author's descriptions of the setting, the characters and the incredibly interesting premise of this novel. This novel had so many elements - a murder mystery, personal battles with mental illness, elements that felt supernatural and sometimes creepy, and heartwarming/heart-wrenching characters and relationships. I absolutely LOVED it and it may be one of my top reads of 2022.

When she was five years old, Maggie MacKay announced that she was actually a man named Andrew MacNeil, who had been murdered on the island of Kilmeray in Scotland's Outer Hebrides years earlier. Now, more than 20 years after she first visited with her mother and a documentary filmmaker in tow, Maggie has returned to Kilmeray after being released from a psychiatric hospital. She's determined to investigate the source of her childhood claims -- and to uncover the secrets she's convinced the inhabitants of the insular island village are hiding.

Told from two points of view on two timelines, and exploring themes of mental health, destructive secrets, regret, and the ramifications of a guilty conscience, The Blackhouse is a slow-burning Gothic mystery, rich with atmosphere and steeped in Norse mythology. Carole Johnstone's evocative descriptions completely transported me to the wildness and isolation of the Outer Hebrides, where the seas and storms are violent and the nights are pitch-black. The Blackhouse is an incredibly well-written book, with thoughtful meditations on family, forgiveness, and self-discovery, as well as a few tense, sinister scenes that will stick with me.

However, despite the rich atmosphere and strong, insightful writing, I found reading The Blackhouse to be mostly tedious. I had difficulty keeping all of the secondary characters straight, and the 1990s timeline, which heavily featured the fishing industry and sheep-farming, barely held my interest. The mystery at the center of the story is compelling, and the supernatural element is well-integrated -- but the plot is convoluted and unnecessarily protracted, so by the time I got to the end of the book I was more confused than anything.

Neither The Blackhouse nor Johnstone's first novel, Mirrorland, worked for me as a whole, but specific things about each of them really struck a chord with me: evocative atmosphere, thoughtful and compassionate writing, a dark fairy tale feel, fascinating imagery, interesting characters. Maybe the third time will be the charm and her next book will hit all the marks. I'm intrigued enough by the way her mind works to give it a try.

"Mirrorland" was one of the best books I read last year, so when I saw that Carole Johnstone had released a new book, I knew I had to drop everything and read it. There is no sophomore slump for this author! "The Blackhouse" was absolutely phenomenal and cemented Ms. Johnstone as one of my favorite authors. It's the kind of book that makes the reader want to take a day off from work to read it cover to cover in one sitting...and that is exactly what I did! The author's writing really made the story come alive to me; it created such vivid pictures in my mind that it felt more like watching a movie than reading a book. Her words created such a tense and dreary atmosphere, I could feel the heavy ocean air pressing down on my chest while reading. Parts of this book sent actual shivers down my spine! The characters were entirely believable and well developed. I love psychological thrillers with paranormal elements, and this book hit every mark for me. I believe "The Blackhouse" will be considered one of the best horror novels for 2023!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced digital copy of this tremendous book, in exchange for my honest review.