Short synopsis: Harry gets a job cleaning the house of a famous horror movie director. The house is filled with trinkets from previous movies, that she’s responsible for dusting, when she hears a knocking on the wall of the forbidden room.

My thoughts: I love a good Haunted House book, and this one really worked for me. I loved the flashbacks into the earlier lives of both Harry and Javier, and seeing what brought them to where they are today.

Harry was such a GREAT mother! I loved how she worked so hard to try and make a good life for Gabe, and he was such a good kid full of respect for his mom.

I guessed part of the main twist in the book, but the ride was such a fun one to be on! I did most of the book on audio and the narrator “killed” it! She helped create such a great atmosphere to really bring the story (and monsters) to life!

Read if you love:
- Horror movies
- Memorabilia and trinkets
- Hollywood and the actor scene
- Paranormal aspects
- Great moms

This book wasn't for me. It started out strong I was intrigued by Harry and her job as a cleaning woman in a big creepy house. The rest of the book just dragged on with nothing happening. I struggled picking up the book, and then everything happened in the very last two chapters. Everything wrapped up nicely in the end but the pacing of the book ws way too slow for me.

I received a gifted eARC and audiobook of THE HOUSE THAT HORROR BUILT by Christina Henry for an honest review. Thank you to @BerkleyPub and @PRHAudio!

THE HOUSE THAT HORROR BUILT follows Harry, a single mother struggling to make ends meet. Both she and her son are big horror movie fans, so when she gets the opportunity to work cleaning house for the famous horror director Javier Castillo, it seems like an opportunity she can't pass up. Javier's past is a bit murky after family tragedy took him out of the spotlight. He's also a bit eccentric, but Harry can work with it to ensure she can pay her bills.

What starts as a somewhat regular cleaning job starts to get creepy when she starts hearing noises and seeing things move that shouldn't. There's one costume in particular which has always seemed a bit off to her. As Javier gets more wrapped up in Harry's and her son's lives and more things go awry, Harry must seek to uncover the secrets of the house built by horror.

I have enjoyed Christina Henry's books in the past and the premise of this was so interesting. I think I went in with perhaps too high of an expectation. It was overall a fun book and I think the author had a lot of interesting concepts going on. I do think that going in expecting just a fun time and not super creepiness will help a lot with this one! I felt like I was reading about creepy moments more than feeling the creepiness myself. The gothic nature of the house was interesting and I think that the reveals about Javier's past were well laid out.

Thanks to NetGalley & Berkley Pub for the arc!

When I dove into this one, I was expecting it to read like a horror movie. I mean the house of a reclusive horror film director filled with mementos from all his movies? Something awful and frightening is bound to happen. Even though it wasn’t as horror-filled as I wanted it to be, it wasn’t a bad read. I feel like this book could be a good one to read if you are slowly getting into the horror genre.

The plot was easy to follow and the characters were easy to hate or love. The beginning and end were good, but the middle seemed to drag on for me. There were paranormal aspects to the story, but to me it was so repetitive having almost the same scenario happen over and over. I was hoping for more horror props to cause problems.

Thank you, NetGalley and Berkley Pub, for my free book for review.

As the novel unfolds gradually, I became acquainted with the protagonist, Harry. I gained insight into her formative years and the origins of her passion for the horror genre through her avid consumption of Fangoria magazines and Stephen King novels. This fervent interest created significant discord within her conservative Christian family, ultimately prompting her to flee her home at the age of seventeen. Delving into her life as a single parent, I witnessed a stark contrast to her upbringing, as she and her son formed a deep bond over their mutual love for horror.

Furthermore, the enigmatic house, Bright Horses, with its rich history and a room brimming with horror props cherished by the director, cast an eerie atmosphere over the story. The gradual emergence of disquieting sounds from a locked room served to tickle my curiosity, adding to the palpable sense of foreboding.

The unexpected demise of a guest and the subsequent upheaval in Harry and Gabe's living situation propelled the narrative forward. As the plot unfolded, revelations of possession and insights into the director's troubled past came to light, although the lack of shock value in these developments was notable. The explanation behind the unsettling occurrences in the locked room was attributed to the director's mental state, a trope that felt somewhat overused and predictable.

The ending provided a semblance of closure and justice. While the book had moments of unease, the overall predictability detracted from its impact, despite its moments of eeriness.

This book was definitely a palate cleanser kind of book. While, I wish there was more spookiness throughout… overall, it was easy to get through and entertaining.

If you want to have…
👻 Spooky Vibes
👭Multiple POVs
🕰️Dual timelines

This one may be for you!

I enjoyed this spooky unsettling read! If you love gothic mansion that's possibly haunted thrillers, you will eat this one up. I like the paranormal aspect and how quickly the main characters accepted it because it was the house of a famous horror movie screenwriter/director. I liked how the character study of Harry, a single mom who is barely holding it together financially. It shows why she made the choices she did and really made me think about how different circumstances impact the trajectory of your life. This was a great read with a really surprising and crazy ending. I'd highly recommend this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for my copy of this ARC which releases on 5/14/24.

Thank you so much Berkley Pub for the advance copy of this book!

This book will be out on May 14th, 2024.

I was drawn to this book as it had the Hollywood adjacent theme as our main character Harry works for recluse horror movie director Javier Castillo. This book is told from dual timelines and dual POVs with the present being told only from Harry's POV.

It is hard to describe what all was happening in this book without giving things away but the premise of the book focuses on Harry who cleans the house of Javier and started noticing that things weren't always what they seem. She starts to notice a costumes/props moving and hearing noises. And then after a death of an actress at the house, her fear and suspicions of the home began to accelerate.

The book just builds and builds until it all unfolds in the last couple of chapters. I won't say I was surprised by all the revelations but I also did not see some of it coming. But then the book just ended. I would love to have seen what ended up happening with Harry and Gabe.

I love the relationship between Harry and Gabe. She is all he has and I just love how Gabe really admires his mom.

I paired my reading with the audio and I thought the narrator Lisa Flanagan did such a great job as Harry and all the characters. She especially nailed down Harry's son Gabriel and his tween voice.

If you are looking to give horror a try, I think this would be a good intro to the genre. This wasn’t gory and just a little creepy.

This was my second book by this author, the first was Near the Bone which I absolutely loved. This book starts off very strong giving us as the reader a good sense of who Harry is and giving us reason to root for her. A single mother working hard to provide a good life for her son. As the story progresses, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for something to happen. However, once things started to occur it was short lived. I felt every time there was a major plot point, it was quickly over and we were back in Harry’s head rather than experiencing the fear/intensity of the moment. I found this book to be far more character driven than plot driven, which I don’t mind if the plot is also entertaining, but unfortunately it wasn’t because it was too much telling and not enough showing.

What I did like was the characters. I thought they had real life in them and I was rooting for Harry throughout.

This book unfortunately wasn’t for me, but I have faith that this author has other great books.

A huge thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!

Haunted houses and the Gothic have long worked hand in hand to provide many unique, isolated settings in which darkness thrives. But what goes into making a house so haunted? This seems to be the question asked by Christina Henry, one that her novel, The House That Horror Built, seems to partially answer. Single mother Harry Adams takes a rather unconventional job to make ends meet following the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. She adores her teen son Gabe, a boy who enjoys the same horror movies and franchises as his mother. Harry’s job should be perfect given her love of horror as she is hired to clean the home of Javier Castillo, a renowned horror movie director. Yet, she can’t shake the odd feeling in Javier’s large home that is filled with replicas, models, and costumes of movies past. Could it simply be Mr. Castillo’s questionable past or is something even more sinister lurking within the walls of his Chicago mansion?

Harry and Gabe’s connection with Javier, and subsequently his home, comes with many interesting dynamics. First and foremost, Christina Henry devotes much of this story to demonstrating the vast differences and inequalities between the poor and the wealthy. Harry is a mother who would do anything to provide for her son resulting in her taking a job that isn’t exactly ideal. Javier is terse, seemingly cold, and simply odd. Spending her days cleaning his home may allow her to hang around cool props and memorabilia, but Javier’s strict, unusual rules make for a tense work environment on top of the otherworldly eeriness of all those costumes. The sociological and economic gaps between Javier and Harry are exemplified time and time again, adding to this already alienated feeling that exists within Javier’s home.

So, how did Javier end up a reclusive, wealthy, morally ambiguous old man? The House That Horror Built utilizes split timelines to demonstrate both Harry and Javier’s past while events of the present unfold. While this works very well to develop these characters further, I couldn’t help but feel as though Harry, Javier, and Gabe felt slightly underdeveloped. At times, Harry felt like a caricature of the over-protective mom who struggled to see fault in her son’s ways going to extreme lengths to provide a better life for him. The same can be said of Javier who is ultimately defined by his love of movies and desire to create in conjunction with his mysterious, terse manner. Despite how much time we spend with these characters, I couldn’t help but want a little more, especially towards the end of the novel.

Speaking of the novel’s conclusion, the events that transpire happen suddenly and at break-neck speed despite the slow-burn tone established for the majority of the story. These pacing issues were made very evident when I reached the last page thinking, “There’s gotta be more, right?” Make no mistake, something feels amiss within the walls of Javier’s home from the start of the novel, but traction doesn’t gain until nearly 90% of its completion. Again here, I simply wanted more.

The House That Horror Built is still a very entertaining read packed with many horror movie references, a love of film-making, and some genuine frights. While the character work felt slightly surface level, a true sense of unease is established in Javier Castillo’s home, a feeling that only grows as the novel progresses, albeit rather slowly then all too quickly. The aspects that make this novel work stem from the idea of horror itself and how the genre brings creative folks together, for better or worse. Christina Henry gives us a rather disjointed explanation as to how a house such as Javier Castillo’s can exist, a house built upon the success of his horror.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Pub for the eARC of this book. Also to PRH Audio for the listening copy!**

So, wow. I have quite a few of this author’s books on my TBR list and I’m really hoping that I just chose the wrong book to start with. The House That Horror Built has an amazing premise and the cover caught my attention months ago before I even considered requesting it.

As a horror fan and lover of scary movies - I was so excited for a book about an elusive producer that lived in a potentially haunted mansion. Unfortunately, the characters in this one were so drab and this book suffered so much from telling instead of showing.

I kept reading and reading, just knowing that something scary - or anything at all - would happen soon. It never really did and I found myself incredibly bored with this one. It also got to the point that I was rolling my eyes anytime Harry talked about the role of mother and the need to protect her son from adult problems.

I’m giving a generous 3 stars because the details of the mansion were immersive and I liked the concept. Hoping for more from this author’s others books.

The House that Horror Built is an atmospheric, paranormal horror story that's centered around a mystery. I really liked the main character Harry as well as the strong relationship she had with her son Gabe. There was a huge twist in one that completely blindsided me which I loved!

I found this one impossible to put down! This is my third read by Christina Henry (I've also read Alice and Good Girls Don’t Die) and I can't wait to see what she writes in the future as well as reading more of her backlist.

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry will be available on May 14!

This wasn’t a bad book, but it definitely wasn’t my cup of tea.

This is about a single mother named Harry who works part-time cleaning the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director. I really connected with her as a character and enjoyed her backstory. She has always been a fan of horror, but her overly religious family tried to stomp the “satanic urges” out of her when she was a teen and she ultimately ran away, fell in love, got pregnant, then had to raise her son alone.

After the pandemic hit (yes, covid, I wasn’t super into that as a plot point) she found herself desperate for a job and cleaning the house of a famous horror movie director. Things are tough for her and her son, and she has always struggled, but now things are getting worse AND the house is spooky AF. She hears weird noises from a locked bedroom and the horror movie props in the house may or may not be moving on their own. 😱 What could she possibly be hearing? Her boss lives alone! Is she going mad?

This book was very slowwwww. Lots of character development, dialogue, and chapters bouncing from past to present timelines regarding Harry’s backstory and her boss’s backstory. This story was a love letter to horror enthusiasts and parts of it did creep me out. I loved the writing and the descriptions and the (minimal) spooky scenes, but this left a lot to be desired.

I never really knew where this story was going until basically 80%. I’d describe this as mostly character driven and minimal plot. The ending just wasn’t great, sadly. I didn’t dislike this, but I don’t recommend it, either. I much prefer this author’s last book, Good Girl’s Don’t Die. 🤷🏼‍♀️ either way, I didn’t DNF for a reason. The writing was strong enough to maintain my interest, even if the story itself didn’t do anything for me.

Thank you NetGalley & Berkley for the ARC & finished copy in exchange for my honest review!

This book was a perfectly written gothic paranormal horror story that had me wanting more!!
Harry is a single mom working as a house cleaner at Graystone Chicago mansion, "Bright Horses." She lost her job in a restaurant during the pandemic and considers herself lucky to have found work in a mansion, she cleans terrifying costumes and props related to horror movies. The mansion is owned by Javier Castillo, a renowned horror filmmaker. Harry is film enthusiast, she found the strength in horror stories and films to escape her difficult childhood. Shes raising her fourteen-year-old gifted son, Gabe. Their facing the risk of eviction from their affordable apartment due to the latest gentrification project.
Javier Castillo has decided a secluded life that is surrounded by the artifacts of his art is perfect for him, since his son Michael was involved in a murder and disappeared along with beloved his wife/ Michael’s mother. Javier is lonely he’s use to the life of people around him while he was famous. After hearing about Harry's son, he invites them to dinner to get to know Gabriel better.
The more Harry cleans she hears noises like “help me.” She starts seeing things that she know couldn’t possibly be real, but are they? Then when a death on the property happens , and Harry begins to realize there is more going on than , and when it soon becomes obvious it can’t be ignored anymore everyone’s life is at risk.

This one was just dull overall. I DNFed at 20%. It just felt like it was lacking any horror elements at all. The writing quality was good but this was a very boring book.

Christina Henry is delightful as always! I completely enjoy her horror novels and this one is no exception.
Harry Adams is a single mother who works cleaning the mansion of a famous reclusive horror movie director. Javier Castillo is a tragic figure, who's wife and son mysteriously disappeared after his son, Michael, was accused of murder. Mr. Castillo's house is full of horror relics and memorabilia from his movies. And the home, Bright Horses, seems to be haunted. Harry tries to keep her head down and just work, but soon Mr. Castillo's secrets become too obvious to ignore.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for this e-arc.*

Harry loves two things: her son and horror movies. So taking a job cleaning a gothic mansion for movie director Javier Castillo is a no-brainer. She keeps her head down and does her job. Until she hears noises, voices calling for help, and realizes things might not be as they seem.

This started out so strong, but I found the suspense element a bit lacking. I did like it, but it didn't wow me.

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry is a gothic paranormal horror story with an edge of mystery behind it. I would warn for those that want nothing to do with pandemic books that this one is set in the time of the pandemic but that plays only a small part of the set up of the story.

Harry Adams grew up with a horror movie obsession and now as an adult still appreciates the genre the most. After losing her job due to the pandemic Harry applies to work for the famous horror-movie director Javier Castillo cleaning his home where Javier has pretty much isolated himself since his wife and son’s disappearance.

With a boss like Javier who values nothing more than his own privacy Harry keeps to herself and does her work quietly and efficiently until the day she thinks she hears a voice from one of Javier’s rooms. After that moment each time Harry comes to clean something feels more and more off in the lonely old mansion but Harry tells herself it’s just the old creepy movie memorabilia and nothing more.

The House That Horror Built isn’t the first book I’ve read from author Christina Henry so I went in knowing her brand of horror before picking this up. When finished with this one I think it probably is my least favorite I’ve read so far though which was unfortunate. Still a solid horror novel that flew right by I was just left with wanting a bit more to it especially since the “twist” to the story seemed extremely obvious to me early on. Overall I rated this one at three and a half stars, totally solid rating for some but low for this particular author for me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The nitty-gritty: A haunted house full of secrets takes center stage in Christina Henry's latest, a fun but uneven thriller.

Christina Henry always comes up with interesting story ideas, and I look forward to reading all of her new books. The House That Horror Built is a haunted house story that revolves around a horror director and his house cleaner, and while it did have some very creepy moments, it wasn’t the tense page turner I was hoping for. Instead, Henry focuses more on her characters and tackles themes like homelessness and abuse, which added nice layers to the story but didn’t make up for the lack of excitement, unfortunately.

Harry and her fourteen-year-old son Gabe live in Chicago and are trying to stay afloat in the middle of the Covid pandemic. Harry lost her waitress job when all the restaurants closed down, but luckily she was able to get a house cleaning job working for a reclusive film director named Javier Castillo, making just enough money to hang onto their small apartment. Mr. Castillo lives in a huge mansion called Bright Horses, and Harry goes three days a week to clean and dust Mr. Castillo’s hundreds of horror movie props. Although Harry is a huge horror movie buff herself, being around Castillo’s creepy masks and costumes is a little unsettling. Still, she’ll do anything to keep their apartment, which is close to Gabe’s school.

One day while’s she’s cleaning one of the upstairs rooms, Harry hears—or think she hears—a voice in the next room crying “Help me!” She brushes it off as her imagination, because Mr. Castillo lives alone, and he doesn’t seem like the type of person to keep someone locked up in a bedroom. But later when she’s dusting a costume from Mr. Castillo’s most famous movie, A Messenger From Hell, Harry swears she sees the eyes of the mask follow her. And was that the monster’s claws reaching for her neck? Harry’s not sure what happened, but she senses an otherworldly presence in the house that may be trying to tell her something. 

This was a mixed bag for me, mostly because I wanted the plot to focus more on the haunting at Bright Horses. Most of the story is told through Harry’s point of view, and Harry is the only one who seems to notice that things aren’t quite right in the house. She spends most of her working time cleaning right alongside Mr. Castillo, but he never seems to hear or see anything. I did like these moments, and the spookiness of the incidents was subtle enough to make you wonder whether Harry is actually experiencing them or not. Unfortunately, these scenes are interspersed with chapter after chapter of Harry’s struggles to survive during the pandemic: her apartment building is being sold and they have to move out; her part time job with Mr. Castillo barely pays enough for rent and food, and moving would mean taking Gabe away from his school, not to mention she certainly doesn’t have money to pay a moving company or even produce first and last month’s rent at a new place. It was all very depressing, and as I’m not a big fan of pandemic stories, I was a little disappointed that Henry spent so much time on this.

Later in the story, there’s quite a bit of page time spent on a subplot involving the paparazzi, after a terrible incident at Bright Horses puts Javier Castillo in the spotlight. Harry is forced to dodge rude reporters and even alter her route home in order to keep them at bay, and I didn’t think it added much to the story.

What did work for me were Harry’s and Castillo’s flashback chapters, which added depth to both the story and the characters. Harry grew up with strict, religious parents who wouldn’t let her do anything. When she discovers a love of horror movies at a young age, Harry begins to sneak around and tries to hide her obsession from her parents, but eventually they find her hidden Fangoria magazines and Stephen King books, forcing Harry to run away from home before she can graduate from high school. Harry spends many years homeless, gets pregnant by accident, and finally pulls herself out of her misery in order to support her baby. But it’s a tough road and it’s still tough for her many years later. We also get to see Castillo’s rise to fame, from the first Godzilla movie he saw as a young boy that made him want to make his own movies, to the recent scandal involving his son Michael and his wife Lena. I almost liked these glimpses into the past more than the action taking place in the present.

To be honest, not a lot happens until the last chapter, when everything happens all at once. This is what I was waiting for, when Henry finally reveals what’s behind the voices Harry hears and the spooky costume. I can’t say I was that surprised, as I sort of figured out what was going on early in the story, but I did love the final reveal, I just wanted more suspense and build up to it.

This wasn’t my favorite Christina Henry book, but I’m still glad I read it. 

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry offers a captivating exploration of the monsters we admire and the monsters we invent. This intriguing novel left me pondering the true nature of their favorite horror creators and the secrets they may be hiding.