This book literally took my breath away. It had a little bit of everything that encompasses southern gothic. Atmospheric setting where ghosts and spirits swirl around you. The smell of smoke lingering in the air. It takes part during the 1960s in the south, you better believe there are some race issues that need to be discussed. A family that is light skinned and can pass as white. Getting rid of any relation that is a little bit darker than they are. There is a curse that bounds the Duchon family to their mansion. They are at Jemma's mercy to break the curse that has haunted them for decades. Will they be able to come together and figure out how to escape their bounds?

Jemma has had one intense month. Her boyfriend whom she lives with knocked up another girl. She has been let go from her teaching job and she has nowhere left to go. She has never felt like she has fit in anywhere. Even with her family she has felt like a failure. She craves the love and attention of a family, no matter who the family is. She needs to leave Chicago and have a fresh start. A letter arrives at just the perfect time, allowing her to take a job in New Orleans. She has no idea what she is in for. But what she is met with leaves her mouth hanging open and her mind racing. What will she discover when she goes digging into the Duchon family's past?

I loved this book. I was at the edge of my seat, a chill rolls down my spine, the Duchon family are the definition of nasty. They do not know when or how to stop their disgusting behaviors. I was not surprised that they had a curse set upon them. The why took my breath away. Buckle up you are in for one intense ride. Thank you to Del Sandeen and Berkley Publishing for my gifted copy of this incredible Spooky Season read.

I love a good Southern gothic horror novel. It's been a while since I'd read one, and this definitely hit the spot. Set in the Deep South in the 1960s, this story is full of curses, spirits, and dark family secrets.

The book focuses on 27-year-old Jemma Barker. When the book begins, Jemma's life is coming apart, so when she receives a letter from Honorine Duchon, offering Jemma $300 a month if she moves in with Honorine and her family in New Orleans, Jemma takes her up on the offer. Jemma has no idea who this woman is or how she found her, but she's desperate for money and feels that a change of scenery is exactly what she needs after all she has been through.

From the moment Jemma arrives in New Orleans, everyone she meets warns her to leave rather than stay with the family, and when she arrives at their home, it's abundantly clear that something is off. The family members, who are Black but can pass as white, never leave their house and are all dressed as if it's the 1940s. And where is the child that Jemma assumed she would be tutoring? It's not long before Jemma learns that there is no child, and the family brought her there because they need help with a curse placed on them 28 years ago. A curse that prevents them from leaving their property and claims a family member's life every seven years. Jemma has no idea how the family knows she can see ghosts or why they think she can help break their curse. But as the days pass, Jemma learns dark secrets about this eccentric family - secrets that may threaten her life and her sanity.

The author seamlessly blends elements of horror, suspense, and family drama and does it very well. The Duchon family's complex history, secrets, and the curse that haunts them provide a haunting backdrop for Jemma's journey. Even though I had a few suspicions about some of the characters early on, I loved watching it all come together.

Sandeen's writing is immersive and easily draws readers into 1960s New Orleans. This is still very much a Jim Crow South, and Jemma is exposed to a lot more racism than she experienced in Chicago. It's unsettling and adds an extra layer of danger and frustration to an already tense tale. Not only is there danger in the South, but all of that is amplified further at the Duchon's home with the family's dark secrets. There is a lot of tension and creepiness between these pages.

As far as characters go, this book is filled with several memorable ones. Jemma is a breath of fresh air in a genre that often lacks diverse representation. Not only is she fighting her own secrets, but she's also dealing with the racism of a Jim Crow South and the colorism in the Duchon household. She is strong and driven, and I loved watching her grow. As far as supporting characters go, the Duchon family is the icing on the cake. Honorine and her family are characters you will either love or love to hate. I found myself pitying them one moment and then hating them the next.

I think my only complaint with this one was that I felt the pace was uneven. The author tended to repeat herself a lot - almost as if she didn't trust the reader to remember certain plot points. I also felt like we would get several chapters of intense forward movement, and then things would slow down for a few chapters. I read an advance copy, so maybe some pacing issues were fixed before the final publication. Despite this, I still very much enjoyed the story.

Overall, I found this to be a haunting read that I couldn't put down. It's full of family secrets, curses, and creepy happenings, offering a unique twist on Southern Gothic horror. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a blend of the eerie and the mysterious. If you're a fan of ghost stories, this one is a must-add to your Halloween TBR.

The author's passion shines through in this book. It explored some very intriguing themes. However, I didn’t connect with it or the characters like I wanted to. That's a reflection of me as a reader and not the book! It has great potential to appeal to other spooky/thriller readers and I encourage others to try it out! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book.

First of all, this is an OUTSTANDING debut novel. I am so impressed by the quality of the writing, the storytelling, the character development, the scene setting and the atmosphere in this book.

This is a beautifully spun historical southern gothic filled with family drama, lies, curses and spirits. We follow Jemma, whose life has just imploded after she loses her job and discovers her partner has been cheating. She is offered a job in New Orleans that seems too good to be true, but she jumps at the opportunity to start fresh and immediately accepts. When she arrives, she realizes that the job is not at all what she was expecting, and neither is the family that she was employed to work for.

We've got lots of characters, from Jemma to the Duchon family, as well as some of my favorite (and the most likable characters) Dennis, Magdalene and Agnes. I loved watching the relationships between everyone grow and change, and I especially loved watching Jemma embrace herself and find herself again.

The social commentary is exceptional, with an emphasis on colorism and racism and it really put a spotlight on the harsh realities of life in the '60s in the south.

While this book is marketed as a horror, I felt that it was a little bit tame when it comes down to it, and I wish that there had been a bit more spook, gore or terror involved. That said, this is still an incredible read and I think it holds a ton of appeal for many different readers, especially considering the important themes that are tackled within its pages.

HIGHLY recommend this one! Del Sandeen is an author to keep your eye on!

I feel like for the past two weeks all I have read is holiday ARC’s so I needed a break and something a little more on tune with the spooky season reads, this book delivered!

If I had to just some of this book with a line, it would be “it was all about the vibes”. The vibes were just so good. Books like this make me love the gothic genre. I am a sucker for it, and always chasing the high that books like this one give me. There is just something about it that I love so much.

This book had such a great plot, and it had a nice amount of history in it. I have read enough history to know stories similar to this book played out in real life (okay not some aspects – it is fiction) but if you’ve read any books dealing with colorism then it will be familiar to the themes that this book is built on. I think that this book did the history justice.

There are so many lies in this book, so much deception and on so many levels. Don’t hear gothic and think boring, this book is anything but and will keep you engaged and interested from the start.

"In this Southern Gothic horror debut, a young Black woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth: They're under a curse, and they think she can break it.

In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago - and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans, she accepts, thinking it is her chance to start over.

But Jemma discovers that the Duchon family isn't what it seems. Light enough to pass as white, the Black family members look down on brown-skinned Jemma. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan, from haughty grandmother Honorine to beautiful yet inscrutable cousin Fosette. And soon the shocking truth comes out: The Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma has the power to break it.

As Jemma wrestles with the gift she's run from all her life, she unravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons. Secrets that stretch back over a century. Secrets that bind her to their fate if she fails."

The real question is, why did Jemma think there'd be less spirits in New Orleans?

A carefully woven mystery full of ghosts, lies, and a cruel past, this story gets his depth from its carefully crafted sense of place and the real history beneath the fiction's surface. I loved the way the unraveling of the central mystery is so tightly intertwined with the mystery of Jemma's own life.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A southern gothic novel about a light skinned family who despised their darker relatives and caused a curse to be leveled on the family.

3 stars

Maybe a bit too much horror for me? Lots of heavy themes that I probably should have been in a different headspace in order to deal with. Overall not a bad book, but maybe I would have rated higher if I was in a different mood entirely.

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley for a pre-release copy of This Cursed House. Below is my honest review.

Now that was a fun debut novel! I'm a big fan of gothic horror, and This Cursed House delivered. Was it perfect? No. There were some places where the story felt like it was hitting the same beat a few times in repetition, and during the first few chapters, the repeated use of "hazel eye" descriptions pulled me out of the story a bit. But it was a great novel nonetheless. I wanted to know what was going on, and hung on to every word in hopes of figuring it out, craving just another supernatural moment.

This book also made me feel very uncomfortable, but in a good way. As a white person, it's sometimes easy to forget the historical systemic issues surrounding race, and how that celebration of whiteness and devaluation of blackness even affected how lighter-skinned Black people treated darker-skinned ones. While being set in the past, this novel did a great job of reminding us that while some things might have gotten better, we still have a long way to go in repairing the damage caused by racism and slavery.

All in all, a great read, and I look forward to Del Sandeen's next book! Definitely recommended for fans of Southern gothic horror (light horror, really).

Jemma Baker leavers her life in Chicago for a mysterious job in New Orleans. When she arrives at the Douchon estate, she realizes that not all is as it seems. After some time with the family, they make her aware that they are cursed and they believe she is the only one who can break it as it was her mother who cursed them. As family secrets are revealed, Jemma must figure out how to break the curse before someone else dies.

I forgot how slow gothic horror could be. Despite taking place in 1962, this follows the path of a decent southern gothic story. This beginning is slow to build which almost made me stop reading but a bit over the 55% mark is where the action starts. The ending lagged for me and just when I thought it would end, there was still 30% to get through. I don't read many books about cursed families so this was something new. This will definitely be a hit for people who like a slower horror story. This would be a perfect fit for an Aardvark Book Club pick for October.

I was hoping for something on the spookier side so this one wasn’t for me. I’m sure someone will love it though!

This was such a sad and haunting story about a woman who accepts a position working for a well-to-do but, unbeknownst to her, cursed family. The family believes she can undo the curse placed on their family as our main character has always been able to see and speak to spirits/ghosts. Our main character uncovers family secrets and ghosts of the past, both literally and figuratively.

This was a perfect blend of historical fiction and light horror. This would be a great read for someone who is looking to dip their toes into the horror genre. There were moments of scares/“horror” but it’s more horrific in that parts of this story could very well have happened during this time period. There were great conversations about racism, colorism, and internalized racism. Overall an intriguing and powerful read.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Jemma is plagued by restless spirits, since childhood she's had the burden of being able to see those who have died and been unable to pass on- and the place she's headed is a hotbed of spiritual activity. She's on her way to New Orleans to take up a tutoring position with a wealthy family. The hot weather is not the only thing that intensifies as she travels further south: she thought being a black woman in 1962 Chicago was hard, but in The South the racist treatment she gets is on another level. Dazzled by the pay she's been promised, and fleeing a toxic relationship back home, Jemma's determined to make this new life work. Although she is surprised to find this wealthy family that hired her is African American, their colorism and antiquated ways of talking about race are no less hard to deal with. The work they have in mind for her is nothing like what she thought. This family has been bound with a terrible curse which has been hanging over them for decades and they have brought in Jemma to break the spell. This southern gothic is as much a mystery as it is a dark tale of the horrors of slavery. The reader accompanies Jemma as she digs into a family history full of drama, racism, colorism, violence and murder. The author chooses the darkest of settings for this horror story to great effect. This novel is rich and atmospheric, full of horror and steeped in historic prejudice.

A 4.5 star review. I love the southern gothic style that this story portrays. Set in the 60s when racism was still prevalent. This story tells a woman’s journey from Chicago to New Orleans. Basically feeling like her life has hit rock bottom, until she gets a mysterious job offer. Well she is hit with lies and deception right from the beginning. She must unravel a curse that was put in the family 27 years before. A bit of a slow burn, but it will have you hooked just trying to figure out the lies and deception. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a gothic style of writing. Not a thriller or horror but a good read regardless.
A debut novel, but I can’t wait to read the next novel Del Sandeen come up with.
Thank you NetGalley and Berkley publishing for the ARC

I don’t read a lot of Southern Gothic but this one sounded interesting because of the 1960s setting. I really like the main character Jemma. And the book was atmospheric with just enough creepiness. The book was hard to put down.

When Jemma Barker is offered a job working for the Duchon family in New Orleans, she thinks her luck has changed. She recently lost everything. Her father, her boyfriend, her job and she has no reason to stay in Chicago. This could be the fresh start that she so desperately needs.
But this family had selfish reasons for reaching out to Jemma. There are no children, and they did not hire her to be a tutor. The matriarch, Honorine, believes that Jemma is the only person who can break the curse that is keeping her family prisoner. They cannot leave their house and every seven years; a family member dies a gruesome death. How can this family think that Jemma can help them? All will be revealed in this creepy Gothic tale.
I must admit to yelling at Jemma more than once. She had something this family desperately needed, yet she still took an awful lot of their abuse. I would have been like bye-bye until you write me a big fat check and learn some manners!
I hope that doesn’t sound like I didn’t enjoy this book, because I did. I just hated seeing Jemma hurting. The Duchon family honestly didn’t deserve her help or sympathy. This was a slow burn that had me guessing what was really going on with this family as I furiously flipped pages. I couldn’t believe that this was a debut.

This Cursed House is a grippy Southern gothic with horror elements. In 1960s Chicago, Jemma, a young black woman with a special ability to see spirits, escapes her broken life to work for a New Orleans family for a substantial salary to start over.

But when she arrives, she finds out that her ‘position’ is nebulous and that the Duchy family has brought her to their house hoping she can break the family’s curse which doesn’t allow them to leave—and kills someone every year.

The secrets unfold slowly keeping the pages turning as the stunning and shocking—and sinister reveals are made.

It’s hard not to give spoilers as there are so many! But readers will enjoy the rollout of the family history from all the angles and the reveals of the mysterious past as Jemma has to embrace her gift and her past while learning about herself and her own family’s history. Always a fan of a Gothic, I loved the setting of this book, and the time period which is of change in itself.

Lovely writing.
Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for allowing me to read this advanced copy for an unbiased book review

A young woman in Chicago is lured by the prospect of a tutoring job to an old Southern mansion . Once there however she discovers that the job is not that of tutor at all and the family is horrid to her. She is connected to them in a way she didn’t expect and is there really just to break a curse that her mother placed on them at her birth. Horrible people but the story is a good dark, mysterious tale of voodoo, curses, and what happens when cousins marry cousins too many times. My thanks to the publisher for the advance copy.

"This Cursed House," a Southern Gothic horror novel by Del Sandeen, follows Jemma Barker, a young Black woman who leaves her life in 1960s Chicago to work for a mysterious family in New Orleans. Ignoring local warnings about the plantation, Jemma becomes ensnared in a chilling and atmospheric ghost story. The novel explores themes of generational curses, family scandals, and the supernatural.

Overall, "This Cursed House" is a remarkable debut that promises much for Del Sandeen's future works. It is a must-read for fans of gothic horror and those who appreciate stories that delve into the darker aspects of family and history. The novel's strengths far outweigh its minor weaknesses, making it a compelling and thought-provoking read.