Book Review:
Title: The House of Last Resort
Author: Christopher Golden
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/3 stars

Tommy and Kate Puglisi are an American couple who decide to move to Becchina, a small town on a hilltop in Italy. Hoping to revitalize the area with a younger generation, Tommy and Kate are focused on getting fellow young friend couples to make the move as well. Especially when the mayor of Becchina makes the offer to sell abandoned homes in the area for just a single euro. To take this offer, you must live there for at least five years. Does this not sound suspicious? Hmmmm......🤔.

Fortunately, Tommy does have family in the area, his grandparents. Although, they don't quite give the welcoming arms like you'd expect, once they find out where the young couple are living. His grandmother is especially upset, which Kate can't help but take personally. Although they soon hear whispers around town about the house they're living in, "la casa dell'ultima risorsa"- the house of the last resort. This house has a history-a haunted history, and Tommy and Kate will soon be living in terror and wondering if that one euro deal was really worth it.

I was definitely into the creep factor surrounding this home - the catacombs, the hidden chapel, but eventually, it just seemed to go on and on for too long. I was a little bored. Overall, not too shabby.

Published: January 30th, 2024

Thank you, @netgalley and @stmartinspress, for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Christopher Golden’s “The House of Last Resort” is a gripping horror novel that offers a chilling and immersive experience. The story unfolds in a decaying mansion with a dark, sinister past, and Golden’s atmospheric writing excels at creating a palpable sense of dread. The plot is engaging, with well-developed characters who each contribute to the unfolding mystery. While the narrative occasionally follows familiar horror tropes, the author’s skillful storytelling and eerie settings keep the suspense high. The pacing is steady, though some moments may feel drawn out. Golden’s ability to blend psychological and supernatural horror makes for a captivating read, though a bit more originality could have elevated it to a five-star level. Overall, “The House of Last Resort” is a solid, entertaining horror novel that will satisfy fans of the genre and keep readers eagerly turning pages.

I struggled with this book. Despite the story begin intriguing, I was couldn't connect with it like I had hoped for. The feel of this book was lacking for me. Another issue I had was I felt like the book took forever to get going. I much prefer faster paced reads that are action packed from begging to end. I felt like all of this is very subjective and the likability of this book would depend on the unique taste of each reader. I tend to enjoy going into books blind without reading the synopsis but if you find the synopsis intriguing then I'd suggest giving to book a shot.

What can I say, I really love this author...but really hated this story. It seemed a bit immature and I found plenty of plot holes in it. The cover was epic and gives a good horror vibe, but that's all it does.

I started this book expecting creepy house in Italy, or a haunted house kind of scary. Unfortunately for me I am starting to think Christopher Golden's adult horror is not for me. They always seem a little younger oriented in the way of understanding the characters. Very dimple, and kind of immature. If you like horror novels I would still give this one a chance. You might vibe really well with this author.

The House of Last Resort” recounts the journey of Tommy and Kate Puglisi, an American couple who acquire a run-down property in the Italian town of Becchina for just one euro. In an ambitious endeavor to rejuvenate the fading village, the local municipality extends this opportunity to anyone willing to commit to permanent residency for at least five years and contribute to necessary repairs. Tommy and Kate eagerly embrace their new adventure, only to discover that the house they purchased harbors a dark history. Once owned by the Church, it is rumored to have hosted exorcisms and other occult rituals in its past. As they settle in, strange noises and unexplained occurrences lead Tommy and Kate to believe that a malevolent presence lingers within the walls. I won’t delve into further plot details, as I believe readers derive the most enjoyment from discovering these stories independently. However, I must highlight that the book’s Sicilian setting captivated me. The author skillfully breathed life into it through vivid descriptions. #netgalley #the house of last resort

Mini synopsis: Tommy & Kate make a major life change by moving to Italy on a once in a lifetime deal. One euro & you get a grand home in an Italian village? Sound too good to be true? Maybe it is 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wanted to love this I really did! I mean the setup was so fascinating and the Italy setting was the perfect place! I’ve liked a little religious horror before but I didn’t like this and I’m sad! I think where this fell flat for me was in its pacing. The beginning was soooooo slow. I mean i was about 40/50% in before anything happened. I was bored! 😩 AND THEN! Whiplash! So so so so much happened in the last third that it was too much to take in. I think if the build works for you this pacing won’t be an issue but I found it jarring. I will say, this book is creepy & gross. It does ALOT with rats & I hate that so much 🙅🏻‍♀️ there were a lot of characters that I couldn’t keep straight either, but that’s probably a me problem! If you do choose to pick this up, try the audiobook! The two narrators were fantastic!

This was a fun atmospheric read that had a really cool premise with moving to a different country to buy a house. I thoroughly enjoyed the setting of where this took place and how well the author described the city, village, people, and right down to the food. This started off really well, but there was some things that bothered me and wish that it was executed a bit differently. overall I did enjoy the book though!

This one is an atmospheric horror novel that follows Tommy and Kate as they move to the fictional town of Becchina in Sicily, lured by the promise of a grand old house for just one Euro. This seemingly perfect opportunity quickly turns into a nightmare as they uncover the dark history of their new home, known to locals as "La casa dell’ultima risorsa" or "the house of the last resort."

Golden's descriptions of Sicily are vivid and immersive, making the setting a significant highlight of the book. The decaying mansion, hidden chapel, and eerie catacombs add to the novel's haunting atmosphere. However, the story unfolds slowly, with the real tension building up only in the last third of the book. While this gradual buildup creates a sense of foreboding, some readers might find the pacing too slow.

The characters, Tommy and Kate, are central to the narrative, but their development feels somewhat lacking. Their "American savior" mentality can be irritating, as they quickly assume they know best how to restore the ancient catacombs and integrate into the local community. Despite these flaws, the supernatural elements, particularly the scenes involving Kate and the eerie occurrences in the house, deliver the desired creepiness.

The ending is both shocking and satisfying, tying together the mysteries surrounding the house. However, the novel leaves some questions about the house's history unanswered, maintaining a veil of mystery that some readers may appreciate while others might find frustrating.

Read if you like:
Travelling to new places
Haunted houses
Slow burn
Shocking endings

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting one for me. I really liked this idea of buying up cheap houses to bring life back into the area in Italy. I loved the creepiness of the additional room and the catacombs but I just felt like it went off to a wierd place that I just didn't love and it kind of lost me. I enjoyed the first 60% of the book but really had to push through to finish. I wanted something a little mkre - but I am not sure what. It just wasn't for me.

I really wanted to like this book – I LOVED the synopsis and concept of the novel. Unfortunately, for me it was a slow start and really didn’t get going until I was 60% through the book. By then I had spent the majority of the time invested and decided to finish it. For me the book had a lot of potential, but could have been executed better.

I am going to try another of this authors books (All Hallows) as I have heard good things about it.

I want to thank NetGalley, Christopher Golden and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are honest, my own and left voluntarily.

Golden masterfully builds suspense, gradually immersing readers in an atmosphere of dread. The once-charming Becchina takes on a sinister aura as the couple delves deeper into the house's past. The author's vivid descriptions of the decaying mansion and the surrounding Italian countryside create a palpable sense of isolation and unease.

"A forty-minute drive from the volcanic Mount Etna, Becchina should have been alive.
Instead, it was the corpse of a town that didn’t even realize it was already dead.

"A low scritching noise caught his attention, and he swung the flashlight beam down to the right, where the natural tunnel and the man-made wall formed a dark and jagged corner. Tiny, putrid-yellow eyes glittered in the shadows.
“Jesus Christ!” Tommy hissed, jerking backward in revulsion as the flashlight beam illuminated the foot-long rat crouched in that corner.
Silent, twitching, the rat stared brazenly up at him, unafraid. It watched him with apparent disdain, as if to let Tommy know that he was the intruder here, not the rat."

A deal that is too good to believe. Ownership of an abandoned hilltop house in a Sicilian town (Becchina, a made-up town, - buh-kee-na) for a single euro, as long as you agree to live there for five years and invest 50K euros fixing it up. What could possibly go wrong? Tommy and Kate Puglisi see this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A chance for a much better future than they could ever afford in Boston.

"The world seemed to be unraveling every day. American culture seemed to be rotting from the inside out, manipulated by an amoral oligarchy whose worst enemy was young people who didn’t want to play their game, and Kate and Tommy were happy to be counted in that category. The irony had not been lost on them, that the nineteenth and twentieth centuries had been defined by people leaving the so-called Old World to seek their fortunes in the New World, and now she and Tommy were doing the opposite, seeking new life in the Old World. But they both believed that earlier generations had it right—a slower life, a smaller circle, a focus on home."

That Tommy's family had come from Becchina gave it an additional draw, a chance to spend time with his grandparents, whom he loved and very much wanted to see lot of in their final years. The importance of that is magnified by the fact that both of Tommy’s parents are dead. Tommy and Kate are on extended time off from work, so can attend to getting things fixed up before returning to their jobs, remote jobs, which allows them the freedom to live anywhere. And they do not yet have children.

Of course the house comes with some unadvertised extras. The book opens with::
"The rats are like fingers.
No. That’s not right. Fingers can reach out, can grasp and extend. The rats are not like fingers at all. They are periscopes, like those on submarines, each able to give its captain only a limited view of the world above. From their place below, among the dead, the lost ones can see only as far as the rats can see. But they are patient, and so they wait. And they let the rats run."

Uh oh. Squatters. Toss in being within commuting distance of Mount Etna to shake things up. Oh, and that lady down the hill who is always staring daggers at them whenever they pass by. And the family, who is warm and welcoming but not altogether forthright about the history of the town or the house. On the other hand, there is a group of other new arrivals, lured by the same opportunity. They call themselves <i>The Imports</i>. It’s fun seeing Tommy reconnect with <i>famiglia</i>. He and Kate slowly get to know the town and some of its residents, make friends, and come up with a plan to boost the local economy. Can-do Yanks in action.

But <i>things</i> keep happening. Kate thinks she sees someone in the house, but did she really? A tremor arrives soon after they do. There is a part of the house that the R/E agent somehow managed to overlook when showing the place. A door that was locked, but then is mysteriously open. Golden makes generous use of Gothic fiction features (see abbreviated list in EXTRA STUFF) to give you chills.

Tommy and Kate are actually a happy couple. Many horror books use spectral events as manifestations of underlying relationship problems. Not the case here. This is also not a case in which better-off sorts gentrify an old area, forcing out the locals. Instead, they are trying to save, replenish, and reconstruct, infusing new life into a withered, crumbling, forgotten town. The houses <i>The Imports</i> bought were already abandoned. The newbies are looking to build up not just the houses they occupy but the community as well. So, the dark forces here are not cutouts for obvious social criticism. They are pretty much straight up malignancy coming at you in sundry ways. One way is our visceral reaction to vermin.

The rats that feature in the opening lines persist throughout, gaining in their power to induce fear and loathing. It was a specific choice. In the Book Nook interview, Golden talks about how he believes we mortals have a race-memory fear of rats, the result of plagues that wiped large portions of humanity from the planet multiple times, akin to the natural fear most of us have of snakes, from the days when they were in our immediate environment and posed a mortal threat. Rats give us the creeps.

What you get in <i>The House of Last Resort</i> is a likable pair in peril, with a plentiful supply of scary, a cauldron of creepy, and a shipload of shivers. If you think <i>your</i> basement is a mess, you have no idea. There are nifty twists, some local color and action aplenty to keep you turning the pages. Depending on your susceptibility to such books, you may get a sleepless night or two out of this one. A fun read, a pure entertainment, uncluttered by larger sociopolitical concerns, a fabulous summer read. But probably a bad idea to take this along if you plan to visit Sicily.

"A voice crying out. Tommy frowned, wondering if that had been a dream or if it had been what woke him.
The wind gusted, rattling the window in its frame. He listened to see if the cry would come again but heard nothing beyond the sighs and creaks of the old house."

Review posted - 04/05/24

Publication date – 01/30/24

I was really enjoying this book until about 60% of the way in. I loved the idea of a home at the edge of a cliff, a couple out of their element in a mostly unfamiliar country, a locked door element, and all of the seemingly paranormal happenings. But, when suddenly the book took a turn and the “big reveal” happened and the reason for these paranormal happenings was revealed it kind of killed all of it for me. The reason was so stupid and just didn’t make sense and was anti-climactic.

"The House of Last Resort" by Christopher Golden is a chilling horror novel that blends a haunted house story with demonic possession. When American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi purchase an abandoned home in the crumbling Italian town of Becchina for just one Euro, they think they've found the perfect romantic adventure. But from the moment they move in, strange occurrences and a dark history begin to unfold.

Golden skillfully builds an atmosphere of dread as the couple discovers hidden rooms, unexplained noises, and a disturbing connection between their house and the Catholic Church's history of exorcisms. The revelation that the home was used by priests to hide away supposedly possessed people, many of whom died there, is deeply unsettling.

The story is told from both Tommy and Kate's perspectives, though Tommy's family ties to the town make him the central character. While some readers may find the young couple hard to connect with, Golden's clever premise and creepy setting keep the pages turning.

The ending provides a moderately satisfying conclusion, though it leaves some room for interpretation. Golden's vivid descriptions of the haunted house and the town's dark catacombs are highlights, and the novel's blend of gorgeous Italian setting and artfully grotesque horror is sure to appeal to fans of the author's previous works.

Overall, "The House of Last Resort" is a fresh and frightening addition to the haunted house genre, with a unique twist on demonic possession that will leave readers unsettled long after the final page.

The small, Italian town of Becchina is one of many trying to revitalize. So when American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi get the opportunity to purchase a home for 1 Euro as long as they live there for five years and work to help bring some tourism back to the area, it sounds like the opportunity of a lifetime.

Tommy’s grandparents even live there, and they see it as an opportunity to spend the couple’s golden years with them. As they settle in, however, a shadow seems to hover over them, and Tommy’s grandmother is furious when she discovers exactly which house they bought. Everyone in town seems to know the house’s dark history, and when the couple finally find out, they agree it might be an interesting tourism angle. That is, until maybe the stories are true, and maybe that dark history is about to rise up.

I enjoyed this book. It had a nice slow burn that actually built to something, yet it wasn’t such a slow build in tension that I lost interest. It was an interesting angle on the haunted house story, the haunted history of the Catholic Church, and people’s belief in the supernatural.

It was a quick, entertaining read, and I’d definitely pick up another book by Christopher Golden.

I went into this novel with a heavier horror expectation that did not match the creepy, environmental slow burn that Golden built throughout the story. I genuinely enjoyed the way it was written, and I will definitely recommend it to those who don't quite like full horror novels.
Would I have made many of the same mistakes Tommy and Kate made throughout this novel? Yes.
If I got a house in Italy for a euro, I too would overlook many haunted attributes in an attempt to live out my Italian countryside dreams.
Being the hypocrite I am, I think their denial of the spooky going-ons of their house made this a bit more of a frustrating read than it needed to be. I also understand that if they moved out as soon as something ghosty happened, there wouldn't be a book. I just found the ring around a bit overdone.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, especially the religious horror aspects. This was my first Christopher Golden novel and I look forward to delving into his other books.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Christopher Golden for providing this ARC in return for an honest review.

This was a slow burn but worth the wait. I wish things picked up a little sooner but overall I still enjoyed this one.

I so really wanted to love this one, but I just never really connected with it.

Moving to Italy with a program to help you buy a house sounds perfect. Maybe the demons and the back story were just out of my wheelhouse and it's really just me and not the book. That mixed with the very slow burn just had me wishing for a little more.

Terrifying! Golden truly never disappoints. The House of Last Resort was no departure from his usual horrifying, exciting, rip-rousing fun. I absolutely TORE through this. Couldn’t put it down. Can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.