3.5
Tommy and Kate move to a small town in Italy wanting to restart their life a little. But after only a few nights they realize the house is not all it seems to be.

This was an interesting on but it felt a little unbalanced. I loved the setting and the descriptions of the town and people in it. You get that eerie atmospheric setting really well. I also liked Tommy and Kate. I liked how they just jumped into this new life and looked at into all of the weird things they kept hearing and seeing. The beginning was a bit too slow though. But, once you got going, you really really got going. My heart was pounding for several scenes!

All in all, this was a good horror book that has an incredible setting.

Thank you to the author, publisher for the gifted copy. My reviews are always honest.

Rating this book is so hard for me. I STRUGGLED to get through the first half. Nothing interesting happened, I was so bored…..but the second half of the book was INCREDIBLE. It was everything I wanted this book to be. If you can handle the slowest of slow burns for the first half, 1000% read this because the payoff is worth it. So 3 stars? 4? I truly don’t know. First half, 1. Second half, a solid 5.

Thank you to NetGalley, Christopher Golden and St Martin’s Press for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

This one is a bit slow to start, but once you get into this one - it’s creepy and twisty and I flew through it! I did not take those twists coming and I loved the entire idea of this novel!

2.5 STARS - I was pulled into this book based on its enticing blurb. A couple takes advantage of a too good to be true deal and buys an Italian mansion for one Euro in a remote Italian village. The only caveat is that they must live in the house for five years and renovate it. But the home has its own secrets and a dark history.

Golden provides a beautiful yet haunting setting in the small Italian town. There is a sense of foreboding, and the sinister atmosphere was my favourite part of the book, but the story takes quite awhile to get into the house's secrets. One plot point that that irked me is how Americans Kate and Tom move to the small town to get away from the busyness of American culture only to immediately want to turn the quaint town into a tourist destination without talking to the locals.

This is a very slow burn read with creepy elements (that felt a bit absurd at times), but not nearly as scary as what I (a self-proclaimed wuss) imagined a horror book would be. And while the ending had high energy, the tension was often disjointed, and the plot lagged in the middle with a lot of internal dialogue which caused me to put down the book a few times. I think this book would fare better as a short story.

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to St Martin's Press for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This book is for anyone who’s a fan of The Exorcist or movies like that. This book reads like a movie in the way the reader is engaged throughout drawn into the lives of the main characters as they embark on a new journey of living in Italy and renovating the house they bought. When Kate and Tommy soon discover their new house has a dark past they think of it as unique history but when they learn how closely it ties to Tommy’s family that’s when things start to change.

This is a quick reading book and I think anyone who enjoys the horror genre will definitely enjoy this.


Thank you @stmartinspress and @netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

I received a complimentary egalley of THE HOUSE OF LAST RESORT by Christopher Golden thanks to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley.

THE HOUSE OF LAST RESORT is set in Italy in a small town that is slowly fading away as the young move to bigger or more populated cities and the remaining population ages. The town of Becchina is trying to fight this attrition by offering homes for the steal of a deal price of one Euro to anyone who moves there and stays for five years. Americans Tommy and Kate can’t pass up such an opportunity, especially since Tommy has family living there and fond memories of visiting as a child.

When Tommy and Kate arrive, their new home is hit by an earthquake which seems and ominous start, made worse when Tommy’s Nonna arrives and is clearly mad and scared when she sees the new home they’re moving into. Still, Tommy and Kate are excited for their new start in a new home. When they discover an undisclosed annex on the house, it begins to raise questions about the former owners and the former uses of the place they now call home.

This book had so many buzz words for me and I was excited to read it. The Italian setting was done well and I enjoyed the glimpses of the new home Tommy and Kate create. Still, I found the setup to the actual horror elements to take too long to get to. I did like the premise of bringing different people together and the excitement that these “imports” had for rejuvenating Becchina, but there is a lot of time spent on the relationships and family drama that didn’t fully hold my attention.

The horror elements are well done and I did enjoy quite a bit of those, but it doesn’t really take off until you’re about halfway into the book and even then, the pacing was a bit uneven for me. There were some twists to the story that I didn’t expect, especially not having read the full synopsis (which I think gives a lot more away than I would have wanted to know).

For a relatively short book, this one took me a while to get to because I found it fairly easy to put down. Still, I would read more from this author in the future as there were parts that I did really enjoy.

Christopher Golden is truly a master of his craft. An incredible book. Highly recommend this book and his other wonderful works.

I wanted to love The House if Last Resort, but I had a hard time getting into the story. I did like the setting.

The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden had me hooked from the synopsis. A haunted house in Italy, what better setting could you ask for? I loved how much detail went into building the Sicilian town of Becchina so that the reader could visualize the multiple locations.
I felt that the story started out strong, but lost some momentum in the middle. However, I could not put the book down in the final 25%. The ending had me sitting on the edge of my seat.
Some of the dialogue was a bit cheesy and felt unnatural. Overall, I really enjoyed this creative take on a 'haunted house' and would like to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an advance copy in return for my honest review.

So first off, in the beginning of the book they stated, how the main characters put their happiness and the quality of their lives above work. That absolutely resonates with me! I value my time and experiences over money and working, unfortunately I have to work to have experiences but man this book gets me already! Then BAM. Scary! There was a lot of scene setting which I think lost people love especially when you’re setting a scene in a beautiful country like Italy, specifically Sicily, for this one. I’m not a huge fan. A little is fine with me, I start to get lost and bored without some dialogue. But I really liked this book the characters were so relatable and the story was just awesome! Definitely recommend this one!!!

I really wanted to love this book as much as I loved Road of Bones, but sadly, I struggled with this one. For me, I like a faster paced book, and this one is definitely on a slower scale.

There is a creepiness about the book, which kept me intrigued and wanting to see what was going to happen next, but it still fell a little flat for me.

I do see a lot of people truly loving this one. I look forward to the next from this author!

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author, for the advanced copy!

My thanks to St. Martin's Press, Christopher Golden and Netgalley.
Well, honestly I've never been at a loss to describe a Golden book. Yet, here I am.
I can't fault Christopher too much. Truth is that the thought of demons seems a bit ridiculous. I've never been a fan of this trope, and the few times I was? Well, that was because they scared the ever loving shit outta me! This? This was not Lisa Noell having any type of shit scared outta her. This was mostly just me being annoyed as all hell that I was spending this much time reading a book that I hated, written by a man whose books I've always loved! So, there ya' have it.
Love the author. Hated the story!
Still, me hating is still a worthy read. 2 1/2 stars, rounded up.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC!

This was my second read by Christopher and I really enjoy how he writes his story’s. This was a very creepy tale and I loved the setting in Italy!

My only complaint was I felt the ending with Tommy was a bit rushed, but I still liked how Golden ended the story and I wanted more.

Wow, this book was exactly what I want from a suspense horror book. I read it all in one sitting and absolutely couldn't stop, even tho it meant delaying going to bed. I'm filled with nerves now, especially with that ending!

For my first book of 2024 I decided to go with The House of Last Resort which releases January 30th 2024. Thanks to St. Martin's for offering me a review copy. The premise is fantastic: US couple moves to Italy to start a new life and buy an old mansion, that strangely appears to be haunted. It's a gothic horror fan's dream come true.

The atmosphere Christopher Golden created is not as spooky as I wanted but the writing is superb. He wrote these characters completely. By that I mean they're so fully formed that I feel like I know them. The pace is extremely slow. Half the novel is set up for the ending and what an ending that was. Ok it was a little unbelievable but I still liked the book. Demon/Monster books are my favorite horror subgere. If you have a problem with rats this book will give you chills. Overall a decent read especially if you enjoy gothic hauntings, mummies or possessions.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy.

I really enjoyed this book! It took a bit to get going, but Golden did a great job of inserting enough mystery leading up to the action-packed second half of the novel. And that final act was absolutely bonkers!

Fact: I enjoyed Christopher Golden's work back when he was writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer tie-in novels (like 25...years ago...I don't wanna talk about it) but had never picked up any of his original work. That one's on me, because I really liked this! I feel like I run across a new article on cnn.com like once a year about some Italian town offering houses for a dollar if anyone would just for the love of god move there, and this book is about a couple who take up that offer.

What could have been a daydream wish fulfillment moment becomes a nightmare as it turns out their vast multistory house has some wild-ass secrets hidden behind closed doors. This is a nice slow burn creeping horror that kept on surprising me once it got going, all anchored by a very well-drawn married couple. The back quarter or so goes NUTS, leading to a very satisfying ending. Vivid, unexpected, and engaging, I really enjoyed this book and will be looking into more of Golden's work.

My thanks to St Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

When Tommy and Kate got the urge to move, they were not merely interested in a different zip code, they were looking for new lives in a place that was more relaxed and picturesque than what they’d become accustomed to in Boston. They moved away from Massachusetts altogether, leaving behind their circle of friends and immediate families, and ventured to Becchina, a small Italian hill town. Tommy’s extended family lives here. However, the price point of the move is what makes the whole thing worthwhile. Local governance leapt into the one euro program, a way to incentivize new blood into occupying older, empty houses. Originally looking at a smaller place, Tommy and Kate were surprised when they lucked into a brand-new listing for a far larger house. It has a lovely view. It might even have a ghost or two. And what they will soon learn is that the place has a chilling history ...

Unfortunately, their house is a place that hosted some bad things, and some of those old evils might still be flitting around within, imprinted upon the stones, held in check behind a swollen door, or otherwise buried in dark places where the dead and the rats are always waiting. Can they uncover the secret of their house’s haunting, or will they succumb to the sinister force lurking there?

At first brush, Christopher Golden’s The House of Last Resort reads kind of like a mashup of Under the Tuscan Sun and “The Rats in the Walls,” a blend of Americans moving to a new country, learning the local quirks and customs, restoring a large, lovely home and finding their place while also grappling with their new home’s ugly past, vermin that seem to be more than mere animals, and plenty of grim specters of old rituals gone awry and the madness that enacted them in the first place.

As the plot rolls along, there are other horror fiction elements that show up to fill out the edges and expand upon the creepiness through doses of real-world horrors. This does not manifest as simply as a gratuitous black gloved killer wrenched from a giallo film, of course. Instead, Golden weaves in excesses and oppressions from familiar institutions, and finds some niches to add in secret corners to history. This mythology building is clever and well done, a testament to Golden’s creativity and gift for the macabre.

The author balances the day-to-day work of a couple far from their comfort zones with mounting dark fantasy elements with the ease of a master. One of Golden’s greatest strengths as a writer is in composing characters we want to read more about. The House of Last Resort is peopled with well-drawn, sympathetic people we really do not want to see suffer even though we enjoy seeing them face threats to body and soul. Tommy and Kate might argue from time to time, but they are a functional family, kind people who recognize each other’s flaws and strengths. Even the other characters, including Tommy’s family, the fellow ex-pats, and a local priest, seem to be genuine, giving sorts. They might withhold information that is too painful or too charged with local superstition, but there is little malice to them (at least at first). The initial malefic elements are instead found in the strange powers at play both in the house and in the catacombs themselves. That is where the darkness dwells, and it is potent stuff indeed. In time, some of those we have come to trust will reveal hidden secrets, but there are no moustache twirling villains here.

The supernatural horror elements play with familiar tropes.

The vermin Tommy and Kate encounter while setting up their house seems to be rather malicious and intelligent. Willful little bastards who defy all attempts to remove their presences ... Sometimes a rat is just a rat, but here they may well be the manifestation of a darker presence. They are but one such manifestation.

The ghostly elements, shadows and sounds without apparent sources, banging doors, locked rooms with sinister, almost palpable atmospheres, bouts of unexplained sleepwalking, and more contribute to the novel’s weirdness factor. However, Golden is a savvy enough writer to let those horror parts connect with his people. After all, it’s characters readers will fear for; jump scares and horror movie tricks don’t work as well on the printed page.

Golden’s writing style is conversational, invisible. He is not as interested in showy wordplay (ala Ray Bradbury or Dean Koontz) as he is in the style of craft exemplified by Richard Matheson or Stephen King. This author tells his story through engaging dialogue, brief but memorable descriptions, and a good sense of both action and pace. The chapters never overstay their welcome, and the story’s plot builds nicely toward a page turner finale which finds our characters in danger from both natural and unnatural sources.

The House of Last Resort is a fine balance of cheery family getting used to a new location as well as a brooding but steadily mounting horror novel. It is a supernatural thriller yarn that eschews all too familiar villains in favor of mood, spooky history, and a steadily mounting set of stakes. It’s a page turner in the best sense, an engaging story well told, and a yarn that moves to a conclusion that feels perfect for all that has come before. Golden’s newest read is a good ‘un.
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Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Part of me thinks I should stop bothering with horror books, because my standards are so high. This falls into that category, unfortunately.

Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the ARC of this book. all opinions are my own.
Due to the current SMP boycott, I will not post my thoughts on this story until the concerns are addressed. At that time, I will be happy to post my full review.