I went into this book not knowing what to expect. There are so many Haunted House books and one can get burnt out on those quickly. However, this one was much different. I loved how the atmosphere was built and the character development as well. The premise was much different than other haunted house books and I was not disappointed. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a creepy read. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

Secrets Wrapped In A Cursed Shroud

My first experience with author Christopher Golden was The Myth Hunters, and his fantasy world building is masterful. While reading Road of Bones, I discovered that he's also a consummate writer of horror. With The House of Last Resort, he's created another superlative and deeply disturbing book.

Dread crept into me steadily from the moment the young couple arrived at their new home, but by the last chapters, my reading was revved up to breakneck speed. Sicily lends itself to combining many delightful motifs of the horror genre and Golden has used them dexterously to give us yet another haunting and original novel.

Tommy and Kate are very likable, and the strength of their commitment to each other gave their characters charm and integrity. It was nice to read about a married couple who aren't dysfunctional, haven't cheated on each other, and aren't deliberately hiding clandestine secrets from each other.

There's never any guarantee that conditions in the beginning of a book will last until the end, but their happiness together never seemed saccharine or contrived. Their mutual commitment would surely have been tested by their overseas move, lured by a house hunting bargain that they discover can't be easily or cheaply renovated. Those stressors alone could fracture the strongest bond.

But, the endurance of their relationship strengthened my sympathy for them as mounting problems with their new home continued to catch them unaware. However, a hidden force of terrifying malevolence had barely begun to manifest, leading to ordeals where the survival of either seem tenuous at best. And sometimes, survival might not be a good thing.

Thank you so much to Christopher Golden, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the free advance reader's copy of The House of Last Resort. Their gift placed me under no obligation to give a positive review, but my opinion is entirely positive. It's a gem of a horror novel and will be a quality read for anyone who enjoys fiction with demons, exorcisms, catacombs, haunted houses, earthquakes, or historic secrets.

★ ★ ★ ★ //5
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐭
by Christopher Golden

THOUGHTS:

I am a big fan of this author so when I saw he had this book coming out, I was very excited and anxious to read another written by him. Did not disappoint at all. This book cover has all the vibes—the vibrant colors are my favorite and it sets the mood for what’s inside its pages! This book is going to look fabulous when I get a physical copy for my shelf. The characters are well developed and the storyline/plot were well thought through. The idea of moving to a tiny little town and starting over is so fun especially if the house was previously owned by the Vatican & haunted like the one in this book. I love a fun haunted house book. I absolutely loved the creepy aspects throughout the book and I definitely didn’t see some things coming. I was sitting on the edge of my seat the entire time wondering what was going to happen. I enjoyed and was so thankful for all the amazing details the author put into this novel, I felt as though I could imagine this entire book in my head as I read.

You HAVE to read this book if you love :

- Paranormal
- Haunted Houses
- Ghosts
- Exorcisms

Race and put this on your TBR NOW!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martins Press, & the author for the opportunity to read and review this book.

4/5 has the makings of a horror classic.

Recently, I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to read an advance readers copy of The House of Last Resort by New York Times bestselling author Christopher Golden. It’s been an absolutely awesome experience and a great pleasure to be given such an opportunity.

I can see how and why Golden has gotten his accolades, the way he allows the reader to envision the events playing out is artful. High praise to this book, I swear if this doesn’t become a feature film I’ll be surprised. The book comes out January 30th 2024, you will not regret its possession of you.

Millennials Thomas and Kate Puglisi find the rat race of American life impossible to keep up with, and wish to cultivate a growing and fruitful family. After receiving a spam email about homes in Sicily selling for a euro (with certain strings attached) they both jump on the opportunity of a simpler life in the Old World. Incredibly, the town in which the advertisement comes from, is in the hill town his grandparents still live in. After the loss of his own parents, he finds this is a great chance to bond with the paternal side of his family, and maybe gain more perspective of his family.

Little do Kate and Thomas know, they’ve bought a house previously owned by the Vatican. The House of Last Resort, where the Vatican shipped those with overwhelming cases of possession too hard to handle by church exorcists. All information of this house has been withheld by their real estate agent and neighbors, as the come well acquainted with apparitions, strange noises, and a disturbing history of their home.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC . I have read books by Christopher Golden before, and have loved his unique concepts. I am already looking forward to his next book
This is a haunted house tale with it's own unique twist. In Becchina, Italy, an old town with abandoned homes, the mayor has begun selling these abandoned homes for one euro. Tommy and Kate come to Italy to take advantage of this deal, and live closer to Tommy's grandparents. The house comes with more than they expected.
I really loved Golden's characterization of his main characters. The house's backstory was interesting. The first part of the story built the foundation for the fast paced second half.

Heart pounding thriller that left me on the edge of my seat. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one. Definitely one of the best books this year.

3.5 stars rounded down for this one. This was definitely not what I expected! Maybe that’s a good thing? I’m not sure.

Kate and Tommy must have some kind of high-profile remote careers, because they decide to move to Sicily on whim. Sure the houses are marketed at 1 euro a piece to encourage growth and the restoring of prosperity to a town on the brink of disappearing from the map, but still. That’s wild. Once they move into this big 15 room house, they realize something creepy is going on when they discover a locked portion containing mysterious rooms. And Tommy’s grandmother really does not approve of this house in particular. She knows what’s up.

There was just so much going on. Things started hitting the fan at about half way, and it just kept getting crazier from there. I also found that the ending wasn’t very surprising after I found out what was going down.

I haven’t read Golden before (apparently I’m just reading a bunch of new-to-me authors right now), but I enjoyed his writing style. I thought the novel was pretty fast-paced and entertaining. However, the characters were honesty quite annoying at times and not very consistent. I know a story like this isn’t supposed to necessarily be believable (based on the nature of the content), but this book was layered with one utterly unbelievable thing after another making it almost ridiculous. So, I’m not sure how I feel about this.

I’m planning on reading All Hallows around Halloween, maybe that one will redeem this author a bit for me!

A great thank you goes out to Christopher Golden, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I get so burnt out on the haunted house trope at times, but this was actually a really good one. Creepy, suspenseful and full of thrills. A good story worth reading

When Kate and Tom decided to take advantage of the one euro home ownership offer, they were very excited Tom has great memories of going to the little town in Italy where his parents grew up. His family used to visit on and off but the visits abruptly stopped due to Tom’s father and his grandfather having an issue and Tom wants to know what really happened. The couple know the little village is half empty and get even more excited when they see a chance to help tourism and put the little place on the map. They call meeting for all the one euro homeowners to come together to collaborate on all the great things they’ve heard about the new home and to see what ideas the others in the group can come up with but this is where they find out their home is known as the house of last resort. Tom and Kate heard the same thing at his Nonna‘s house but no one would tell the couple what it meant but the other ex-pats have no problem explaining the new homes horrible past. It doesn’t help matters that they’ve already heard a door slam footsteps in Kate has been sleepwalking but when toms grandpa who is suffering from A form of dementia attacts Kate it seems things are getting out of hand but the couple hasn’t seen anything yet. For the most part this was a really good haunted house story but I did not like Kate she acted as if she knew everything and didn’t believe in ghost and that is fine but she also acted like because Tom did he was an idiot. There were other things I didn’t like about Kate and at one point I didn’t like the couple equally but as I would be giving something away I will not put it in my review what I will say if I am being asked whether to recommend this book or not I will say yes yes and yes if you love A haunted house story than The House Of Last Resort is a really good one. The haunting has a great origin story and they really don’t get any better than that the only drawback in my opinion is Kate and her ignorant attitude because I do have more than one example of her know it all personality but I would just put it down to that because ultimately if you read this book you’re getting a great authentic horror story with a minor flaw.. I want to thank Net Galley and Saint Martin’s press for my free art copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

Synopsis (from Netgalley, the provider of the book to review)
******************************************************

The next high-concept horror novel from NYT bestselling author Christopher Golden.

Across Italy, there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild―selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize.

But from the moment they move in, they both feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought. There are rooms in an annex at the back of the house that they didn’t know were there. The place makes strange noises at night, locked doors are suddenly open, and when they go to a family gathering, they’re certain people are whispering about them, and about their house, which one neighbour refers to as The House of Last Resort.

Soon, they learn that the home was owned for generations by the Church, but the real secret, and the true dread, is unlocked when they finally learn what the priests were doing in this house for all those long years…and how many people died in the strange chapel inside. While down in the catacombs beneath Becchina…something stirs.

I am not sure what HIGH-CONCEPT HORROR is, but this is one freaky book --- a dream that becomes a serious nightmare in a country with a fractured system of laws and justice (just ask Meredith Kerchner’s family about that!) Throw in religion, freaky priests and catacombs and I do not recommend that you read this book before bed as it may give your nightmares.

Highly recommended to those who love a good scary read …someone please turn this into a movie or streaming miniseries! #shortbutsweetreviews

Can I make a comment about the cover? I would have preferred, over the nice drawing, a real crumbly old Italian Villa on a seaside cliff...I am sure that there are tonnes of them to photograph!?!?

When Tommy and Kate get the deal of a life time in the form of a one euro home in the tiny half empty town of Becchina in Sicily, they jump at the chance. Who wouldn't? A beautiful house that they never would've been able to afford, the chance to reconnect with grandparents who he hasn't been close with since childhood, and of course, secrets, secrets, and more secrets.

As an avid horror fan I found this book to be a little creepy at parts, but not scary. The majority of the action was limited to the last little bit of the book whereas the rest was mostly renovating and talking about the house, the town, reconnecting with grandparents, which all dragged a little bit with only barely enough creepy instances peppered in to keep my interest.

It is a tribute to Golden's writing that I didn't skip over the bits explaining the history because usually I feel my eyes glazing over anytime anything like that comes up in a book, but he kept it interesting and spooky enough that I stayed actively interested and wanting to know more!

Overall I did enjoy the book! It's not going to be my favorite book of 2023 but I would read other books of his based on this. 3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC, and giving me the chance to read and review it honestly.

Arc from netgalley.

This book was a 2 for me. I felt like the same couple of sentences were repeated over and over again. “We can to Sicily because we wanted something more.” “I wanted this move because..” it took until part 2 of the book before anything solid happened. I was just bored.

Haunted house novels are my favorite sub-genre, so I was really excited to get this one.

Tommy and Kate are thrilled to take part in a program that will allow them to move to a little village in Sicily for dirt cheap. Tommy has fond memories of visiting his grandparents there as a child, despite the mysterious family feud that started years ago. Of course, the house and village are hiding many secrets!

I thought this book was decent. There were a few really creepy scenes. The setting and the back story of the house were intriguing. I did find two of the characters’ actions to be incredibly selfish during one part, to the point of being quite annoyed over it.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the opportunity to get an ARC.

Another classic horror tale from Christopher Golden who always writes relatable characters then sends them into dark jeopardy.

The writing is addictive, the story is clever, in this case a deadly tale of demons and belief all set in sun soaked Italy, a beautiful place which only makes this more disturbing.

Definitely unsettling. Really good I loved it

A lot of fun to read.

Thomas and Kate, an American couple, decide to acquire an abandoned house in Italy for one euro. The house they chose is in Becchina, a little village where Thomas' ancestors and grandparents still live. Their new home holds a few surprises for them.

It's difficult to convey without giving anything away. The story was interesting and enjoyable to me. Thomas and Kate's connection was genuine and convincing. I really liked the author's approach to the "imports" controversy.

This book was genuinely delightful; it wasn't quite a five-star read, but it was enjoyable and fascinating.

Christopher Golden has been a prolific award winning writer with one great book after another. The House of Last Resort continues the streak even if it's not one of his very best. But that's only because he has set the bar so high with some of this previous classics. The plot centers around a young American couple who relocate to Sicily after buying their dream home in a deal too good to be true. There's a reason the deal was so good. Golden does an excellent job of slowly building to the moment when he pulls back the curtain to reveal the full terror our protagonists are confronted with. The final showdown is drawn out a bit too long but, as Golden does so well, the horror is on full display. You'll certainly never look at rats the same way again, I promise. Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the advance reading copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Christopher Golden has great ideas but poor execution in my opinion. I knew him as a young girl in the 90's writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer adaptation books and or novelizations. So I'm not unfamiliar with him. I thank NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me a chance at reading this.

I've read two books of his, one was a Halloween one and the other was Road of Bones. The first one I made it through, the second I gave up on halfway through. So, this one giving me some Satanic vibes and some demonic entity in an old house on the hill... I had to give it a go.

Ladies and gents, made it 60% through this book and nothing was happening. Nothing. At all No possession, no demons, nothing... I mean, the husband's grandfather started yelling at him demonically in English at one point, they heard someone crying, and a couple times rats showed up. ... Other than that, nothing. Mostly it was fixing up the house and talking - endless conversations.

I was really upset. I expected something like The Exorcist but with nothing showing up at 60% through the book, I decided that maybe I put too much faith into this book.

Big thank you NetGalley and to the publisher for the chance to review this book pre-release. I absolutely LOVED this book. I've never been so excited to be nervous, because that's what this book made me! I was constantly jumping out of my skin (in the best way) at all of the jump-scares, and the never-letting-up sinister vibes. I was so happily surprised that I couldn't predict the ending either. Will certainly be adding this one to my bookshelf!! A more formal review will be available on my IG/TikTok and Goodreads.

DNF - This didn't end up being the story for me, though the premise sounded interesting. I wasn't able to engage with the writing style & found the story dragged a bit. That being said, I'm sure many other readers will find much to appreciate in this plot.