I really wanted to love this one since I saw a few other 5 star reviews for this one. To me the writing felt very YA and I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. The mystery/curse wasn’t interesting to me either. You could definitely tell it was a debut novel.

Jemma Barker has little to lose when she accepts a job offer from the Duchon family - she thinks it is to works as a tutor, but soon finds out that the strange family is under a curse, and they believe she is the one who can break it. The atmosphere is charged with mystery and secrets, not to mention the spirits Jemma has been able to see all her life.

The Duchons are light enough to pass as white, and make no secret of looking down on Jemma's darker skin even as they mean to use her for their benefit. There is a deadline looming, and it is all up to Jemma to figure out before another tragedy accurs.

I appreciated that the moment Jemma confronts the family about what they are keeping from her, they come clean and tell her (almost) everything, not because they are good people, because most of them aren't, but because they are afraid of what's coming. There is some editing that could have been done, especially in the middle of the story, but overall this is an impressive debut.

This was very deep south gothic to me. Highly atmospheric with characters that are deeply entwined in a generational curse of race and trauma. Which creates it's own monsters...Got a little bit scattered in the middle, maybe stretching out the storyline more than needed. Overall it was an enjoyable read. #thiscursedhouse #delsandeen #netgalley #goodreads

This was heavy reading in many ways.

So much emotion, discomfort, and horrors to face but it was so well done.

This Southern Gothic is everything you could hope for in a spooky book - New Orleans, old haunted mansion/plantation house, ghosts, and curses.

But none of that is the true horror in this novel.

The real horror is the lasting effects of slavery and racism and how they created generational trauma. The long-lasting effects make people hate themselves for what they are and hate their own because they see in their family members what society has taught them to hate. These people are so filled with self-loathing they take that out on their loved ones.

Racism and societal standards created a family of monsters who do truly horrifying things.

I’ve become quite the fan of gothic horror so I knew I had to read this. It was really good but I thought it was a little too long (of course that’s personal preference but sometimes I felt that the book was lagging) All in all, great and original story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for this ARC. This will be out in October!

4.5 stars

Oh this is the definition of a near perfect gothic novel. The characters were great, the curse, the atmosphere.
The writing really set the tone perfectly.
This is going to be a must have for my physical shelf.

This uses the 1960s element perfectly, and I was hooked from the Southern gothic horror element. The characters were what I was looking for and enjoyed the overall way the world work with this story. It uses the curse perfectly and whether or not it was real. The characters were everything that I was looking for and glad I got to read this. Del Sandeen has a great writing style and can’t wait for more.

I thought that this was a great spooky ready with an interesting storyline. The characters were great, and the dynamics between the characters was intriguing.