This book had an interesting premise…Emily, an artist, is hired by a famous horror author to paint a book cover that will inspire his next novel, a Southern Gothic, but doesn’t tell her husband about the deal. She finds a house that she finds both compelling and unsettling that she thinks will be a perfect fit. The husband, seeing her paint this house over and over again, thinks she loves it and purchases it for their growing family. And, naturally, a haunting ensues. Maybe not the most original premise, but an interesting one.

Unfortunately the execution did not follow through for me on this one. The characters are all pretty one-dimensional, and the husband, Miles, is downright despicable (fat-shaming his pregnant wife, gaslighting her regularly throughout the entire book, being homophobic toward a gay realtor, I could go on and on). The majority of the conflict in this novel was due to a husband and wife who just wouldn’t communicate with each other, and that was very frustrating as a reader. There was also way too much emphasis on graphic depictions of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth and not enough emphasis on the actual haunting; I’m still confused about some aspects of the story. While this did have some slightly creepy haunted house-type moments, I was expecting a southern gothic and instead got a pregnancy body horror with unlikable characters and an ultimately unsatisfying conclusion.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

while i love a good haunted house story, this one didn't quite live up to expectations. i did enjoy the different points of view in each chapter between the husband and wife, along with the being dropped into the ending at the beginning, however, i wish there was more explanation of the house and the ghosts because nothing seemed to ever get confirmed or explored thoroughly. while that can be a really good mystery sell for a book, in this one it only left me with zero answers and explanations and therefore made the read seem a little empty in my opinion.

overall this book was a fun read but ultimately a little disappointing.

Subversive, chilling, and a lot of fun. really enjoyable as someone who reads a LOT of horror, enjoy the voice and the way tropes are explored

Emily is looking at a house as inspiration for a commission for book cover art. However, when she has a medical emergency there, her husband thinks she was trying to buy the house. She felt creeped out by the house in reality but can’t really tell him that. Things continue to go wrong though especially after their baby is born.

I don’t know what it was about this one, but it just wasn’t for me. I thought the premise seemed spooky and interesting, but the writing didn’t give me the creepy vibes I wanted.

What do you do when your husband buys a potentially haunted house for you and your unborn child because you’ve been painting pictures of it non-stop? If you're Emily Lawrence, you go ahead and move in because you cannot tell him the real reason you've been painting the house. Of course, if you’re Miles Lawrence, you hadn’t even consulted your wife before making the down payment so I support everyone is at fault. Miscommunication runs deep in this household.

Houses are often the subject of horror stories, our author E.V. Knight even mentions that in the novel. Of course, that means if you're going to write another one, you have to make sure you're bringing something fresh to the table. Unfortunately, Knight has not done that.

I won’t spoil the “twist” for anyone who does end up picking up this novel, but I will say that Knight’s head was in the right place. They have chosen a plot that could work with some workshopping. The real fault of the novel lies in the characters and the prose.

Miles is completely oblivious to the feelings of those around him, and also oddly homophobic? (For anyone who HAS read this, I’m still trying to figure out why that scene is necessary.) Emily is your classic postpartum, potentially unreliable, narrator. Monica is nothing but a foil, and Coop is beyond annoying. Rhett/Remi might be the only character I felt any compassion for, but I still didn’t understand why the dual name thing was added.
On top of the two-dimensional characters, Knight’s prose is underdeveloped. Much of the dialogue is incredibly cliché and juvenile. It is not that it is bad, per se, it just does not feel professional.

Overall, the book is gratuitous with elements that have little bearing on the plot, and scant with the things that matter. However, I did read it in only a couple hours, so maybe there is something there, even if it’s not that Knight intended.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for the ARC. The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel is out 9/12/24.

"There's something off about the house...as if it's hiding a dark secret. That's why artist, Emily Lawrence thinks it's the perfect subject for a cover commissioned by a famous horror author. But that's her little secret. Her husband, Miles, can only assume the house she is constantly sketching is her dream home. So, when Emily is sidelined by an unexpected, high-risk pregnancy, he buys it thinking it'll be perfect for their growing family.

Immediately, Emily begins to hear voices and senses a child's presence. Is the house haunted or is it stress getting to Emily? Her husband certainly thinks it's all in her head. A traumatic delivery leaves Emily convinced something is terribly wrong. Miles must navigate his wife's delicate state, and care for their newborn son, while returning to work. It's a tenuous situation - then the baby disappears."

I love the concept, it reminds me of a story my Dad used to tell me when he was publishing Mike Norman and Beth Scott's Haunted Heartland.

Horror is one of my most favorite genres but it's also the genre I struggle with the most. The quality of most horror novels is sorely lacking. It's like anyone thinks they can sit down to do it. You can't.

This book, sadly, falls into that category. 😞

Pros: Great cover and title. Cons: Everything else.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for my complimentary copy.

The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel has a lot of promise. I love a good haunted house, and the bleak vibe of the book is perfect as we enter spooky season. The setting was eerie and unsettling in the best way.
I think a lot of the potential of this book ended up being overshadowed by the fact that the two main characters are really unlikeable and seemingly unable to have a simple conversation with each other. Miles is a gaslighting chauvinist that made me roll my eyes and want to put down the book at times, while Emily is seriously lacking a spine.
Despite not liking the characters, this was a great book to start off the Halloween Horror season.
This may not be the best book for those who have a history of traumatic pregnancies or PPD/PPA.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Publishing for the ARC!

I received an ecopy of this novel for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

I tore through this book so fast! While the main characters were fairly unlikeable, I found myself unable to turn away from the storyline. Miles' chapters were a little slower for me, mostly because I simply did not like him. He had no redeeming qualities to me, except that he loved his baby. Rating 3.5 stars, rounded up.

TW: traumatic birth, surprise pregnancy, miscarriage scare, death of a child, gaslighting, emergency hysterectomy, postpartum depression.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for an eARC of this book!

I had seen this pop up in a suggested ad for me and was immediately interested. I was so excited to get to get the ARC. It did not disappoint!! This book had me hooked from beginning to end. It reminded me of a 80’s-90’s Stephen King movie. I could see everything in my head so vividly as I read. I truly don’t remember if there were trigger warnings at the beginning of the book, but if there isn’t there should be as there’s child abuse and death of an infant.

Such a spooky and haunting book without gore or anything over the top! Truly chilling!

I'll start with what I liked about this novel. The premise was interesting; I love a good Southern Gothic. My absolute dream is to live in a 200 year old house with its own cemetery, preferably nowhere near a swamp. At times, the story provided an atmospheric feeling of oppression, but mostly barely made it to midly uncomfortable. I love creepy toys, and the toys that play a recurring role in this story do manage to be unsettling (even if they are a cliche).
However, I'm afraid there were a lot more things I didn't like. I realize there's nothing new under the sun, and haunted house stories tend to be rather formulaic. That being said, every character situation, plot progressing event, felt plucked straight out of the Stereotype Handbook for Authors (tm). Miles is the typical "smart guy": excruciating logical, boring, condescending, and emotionally stunted. He weirds rationality like a club to the point that his rationalization is completely illogical. His constant waffling from "my wife is crazy" to " I'll be more supportive" is horribly repetitive and frankly, boring. Not to mention his homophobia. Emily, likewise, is a caricature artist. Self-absorbed, flighty, and very easily influenced. She absolutely let's her husband treat her poorly, infantilizing her and patronizing her throughout the story. Her arc is absolutely predictable, including her postpartum depression and initial difficulties bonding with the baby. Monica, Miles' twin sister, is basically there to tell Miles how to adult and act as the middle ground between the two. Cooper Yancy is unbearable. Cam is just a cardboard cutout of a non binary individual. And the house is every house, in every story, ever written. This entire story hinges on a married couple never telling each other anything for any reason, at any point, even when it is blindingly obvious that it would resolve the problem. Knight took my least favorite trope, miscommunication, and made it the pivotal plot point of this entire story. I definitely feel that with further refinement and character building, this would be a pretty good story. It's definitely entertaining if you can shut off your mind and go with the flow. This is perfect for those who don't actually like to be scared , they can be comforted by the predictability.

A husband and wife with a baby on the way move into a "dream home"—but is it really a dream? Was it ever? This novel captures the essence of every parent's deepest fears. As a parent of a 2-year-old, I can honestly say that EV Knight has tapped into the darkest corners of my mind, pulling out the very nightmares that haunt every mother—the ones we keep locked away in the depths of our souls.

From the very first page, this novel had me completely hooked. I found myself stealing every spare moment to read—whether I was making lunch, on work breaks, walking somewhere, or even in the shower—I had to know what would happen next. It’s been a long time since a book has pulled me in like this one did. By the end, I was left picking my jaw up off the floor, staring into the abyss as I reflected on what I had just read.

Having experienced postpartum depression, I deeply appreciated how EV Knight weaved that aspect into a haunted house horror story. It was done tastefully, without being over the top, making it all too easy to step into the protagonist’s shoes. This novel will stick with me for a long time creeping in from the corner of my mind to remind me to check on my son, or give him a hug… or maybe avoid Alexa?!

Trigger warning: This can be a tough read if you have little ones or struggle with horror involving children. But I made it through—and I might just hold my son a little tighter and longer for the next while.

I really enjoyed this novel. It was creepy and unsettling. It was a tough read as it dealt with motherhood, birth trauma, and infant loss. Haunted houses and cursed houses are my favorite type of books and this one definitely had me on edge.

Rating rounded up from 2.5 stars.

I was initially drawn to this book by the concept and - you guessed it - the cover. And while there is plenty to enjoy here (the enigmatic Cooper Yancy, the exploration of motherhood, the subversion of the haunted house subgenre), there are some tonal disagreements and confounding decisions by the protagonists that made it difficult to fully hook me into the eerie world the author crafts.

When Emily is commissioned by horror legend Cooper Yancy to paint the cover of his forthcoming Southern Gothic Horror book (which, she learns, will also serve as the inspiration for his writing), she decamps to Savannah until inspiration strikes. Her husband Miles misconstrues her focus and ambition as an obsession with the home, so he buys it for her as a surprise. Terrible things ensue as this dream house turns their lives into a living nightmare.

As other readers have noted, Miles' chauvinism is almost comical, and most of the problems these characters face could have been avoided with a bare minimum level of communication. If the intention was to portray Miles as a gaslighting misogynist, the book doesn't really dive into that enough for it to factor into the broader development of the characters or story. There are moments where I read this as a domestic satire and others where it hemmed closer to a southern gothic horror. Personally, these varying aspects never quite congealed into a whole, making for an occasionally impenetrable, albeit enjoyable, read.

That said, the writing is compelling and the pages practically turn themselves.

Thank you to NetGalley and RDS Press for the ARC.

I absolutely loved this book! I couldn’t put it down. It is the perfect haunted house novel. I was drawn into the story right away and needed to know what was going to happen next. The author did a great job creating the eerie haunted house atmosphere. I was not a fan of the husband. I felt like he was such an oblivious doofus. And the famous author “Coop” seemed completely just self centered and concerned solely with getting his cover/story, nevermind what Emily was going through to get it for him. The end was so sad/tragic but it is a horror book, not a fluffy rom com

This book was a roller coaster! I always love a book with a haunted, creepy house, but this was on another level. The main male character, Miles, was honestly one of the most annoying characters I’ve ever read about. He was almost the real villain in the book without giving too much away. I loved the book though!

Too annoying characters and too much repetitiveness for me to enjoy, The premise had so much potential and the writing style is OK but it needs a lot of editing to be a book that captures the reader. Thanks for the chance to read it in an exchange for a honest review.

The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel by EV Knight offers an intriguing premise that draws you in with the promise of chills and psychological suspense. The story revolves around a classic haunted house setup, with a blend of eerie atmosphere and mysterious happenings that initially seem poised to deliver a memorable horror experience.

However, while the book has its moments of tension and some genuinely unsettling scenes, the overall execution feels somewhat underwhelming. The plot unfolds predictably, and the characters, though interesting at first, don’t quite develop in ways that feel impactful or fully realized. The scares are there, but they don’t always land with the intensity that you might expect from a horror novel.

That said, Knight’s writing is solid, and there are glimpses of creativity that show potential. For readers looking for a light, quick read with a few spooky elements, The House on the Cover of a Horror Novel might still be an enjoyable choice. But for those hoping for something more profound or terrifying, it might not fully satisfy.

Thank you to Raw Dog Screaming Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

2.5.. giving a generous round up to a 3⭐

A huge thank you to NetGalley for the arc!

I was so intrigued by the premise of this book. A famous author reaches out to an artist asking her to paint him something to inspire a Southern Gothic horror novel - if she succeeds in being his muse, he will split the money with her 50/50. After months of searching, Emily finds the perfect inspiration in an old Victorian home abutting a swamp. After seeing the paintings of the house Emily has created, her husband goes and buys said home as a surprise because he believes she's fallen in love with it (she hasn't). Strange things begin the moment she steps foot in the home, and continue until the end.

Her husband, Miles, is a stereotypical chauvinist who as far as I can tell, doesn't even like his wife? He spends a lot of time insulting and gaslighting her and not in an "ooh this is interesting and tense" way. Their relationship felt very surface level. They seem to dislike each other but the story never really clues us in as to why that might be, other than Miles is obnoxious.

A lot of the internal monologue surrounding her pregnancy and post partum woes felt clunky. Miles POV of the situation was unbearable to read at times.

I did quite enjoy the spooky elements of the story. The "haunting" that makes us wonder if this is post partum psychosis or an actual haunting. The end absolutely was heart wrenching!

Overall, the book could benefit from a few additional heavy rounds of edits, bringing it from mediocre to fantastic - a really fun take on a haunted house novel.

Well, I just read the line, "His balls grew a little with that come-back." and I think that's about enough for me!

This author is addicted to the hyphen for reasons mysterious to me. Imagine a world where people paid editors.