Cassie returns to her hometown and reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, a grieving widower with two children. She quickly trades in her old busy, city life, so the traditional homemaker and mother life but there’s someone from the past who will interrupt.

This one was so different than I was expecting, but not in a bad way. About halfway through it became completely unexpected and I was there for it. It’s hard to really say more without giving anything away! It has real gothic vibes to it and is reminiscent of a modern day Rebecca.

“Like, some people are dog people, or cat people, I’m more like a rat person. I find a dirty little crevice to live in and hoard my treasures there.”

House of Beth comes out 7/15.

This book was haunting, mysterious and at times thriller-like in its twists and turns. It’s overall a very dark story, but it’s relatively short at 240 pages and never felt like it was dragging on into the depths of despair. The writing was eloquent and beautiful… I keep wanting to use the word “hauntingly” again but hold back from being so repetitive. Overall, I highly recommend ‘House of Beth’ and look forward to its release so I can make it a book club pick for my friends and I to dive into and discuss deeper.

This was a wild ride. I don’t want to say much about the plot as I think this is a book best experienced blind.

I loved our very flawed protagonist Cassie. She brought a realness to the story that was so needed during the more ethereal parts of the book. The novel felt a bit like an enjoyable fever dream. The writing was well done and I particularly loved the OCD representation. Highly recommend to readers who like a bit of weirdness to their books.

Intoxicating, gripping, and a story that truly becomes alive and transforms into so much more than I expected.

You follow Cassie who has these intrusive thoughts she is constantly trying to drown out and live a life of her own. She feels she must isolate to keep herself and others safe, from harm and rejection.

I dont want to say to much else about the plot because it truly transforma after this. You have a blend of stories that combine and intervene in such a beautiful way. I wanted to hug this book when I was done eith it, it possibly is my favorite read of the year.

A haunting and seductive tale of a young career woman who slides quickly into the role of stepmother, in a life that may still belong to someone else. Evocative prose, quirky characters and thought provoking questions of agency versus destiny when it comes to making our lives the way we do.

𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐨𝐧 & 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐯𝐢𝐚 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐆𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧

cassie has quickly come into the role of "stepmother" with her new husband Eli and his two kids - left by late wife Beth, who doesn't seem so eager to leave her house, and life, behind.

the gore and horror were TOP NOTCH. I enjoyed Cassie as an FMC and thought her development was really well done (so was her OCD and intrusive thoughts!). I think that some parts were a bit scattered, and some things were thrown in plot-wise that were simply unneeded.

Overall, this was a great read and I crushed it in less than 24 hours. thanks S&S and netgalley for the advanced e-arc! this is going to hit weird girl booksta / booktok like crack in the 80s (and for good reason).

A novel of hauntings made possible through subverted expectations, House of Beth is an illustrious novel that never once falls into previously explored territory. A woman, Cassie, leaves the big city following a breakup and an unfortunate incident at work. Waiting for her is her small hometown in New Jersey and, coincidentally, her high school best friend, Eli, a recent widow. Cassie finds herself slipping into a life she hadn't imagined for herself to rather unusual consequences as the presence of Eli's former wife, Beth, makes herself known.
Now, I know I mentioned that House of Beth is a very original novel in my opening paragraph, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out the connective tissue between this novel and Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca. However, Kerry Cullen invents a nuanced examination with her novel that converses with our societies fixation on "trad wife" culture and the fulfillment of self.
You see, Cullen sets many scenes in which we think we know what will happen next, especially if you've read many an unreliable-female-narrator-type thriller as me.
But, this story unfolds in a completely original way that interrogates ideas of wants, desires, and identity. The stage is set as a cozy, Hallmark style romance only to be met with harsh realities and violence as depicted through Cassie's intrusive thoughts. But again, this story takes its own very original shape.
House of Beth is a very unique novel and a notable debut for these reasons. It's somehow the antithesis of Hallmark holiday movies and Lifetime thrillers alike. And it's so damn unique.

A lyrically mesmerizing, utterly complex novel about the lives we construct, or the ones we choose to inhabit, House of Beth by Kerry Cullen is a notable debut. On the heels of a rather abrupt breakup and a startling occurrence at work, Cassie finds herself headed back home to New Jersey, her father’s now empty home awaiting her with open arms. Her fast-paced city life is immediately severed and replaced with a slower cadence while Cassie wrestles with her own identity and the significant role that her harm OCD impacts her life. In waltzes her former best friend, Eli, a man who has lost himself following the death of his wife and mother of his two children. It’s a tailor-made lifestyle that Cassie falls into, loving Eli, caring for his children, and becoming the homemaker she is expected to be. But soon, the reverberating waves of Eli’s late wife, Beth, are felt by Cassie to unpredictable results.

In many ways, it feels as though House of Beth is the perfectly subverted Hallmark movie plot in novel form. The big-city girl moves back to her hometown and finds love. How cozy? Yet, Kerry Cullen takes this beloved trope and holds it under a microscope, interrogating the conflicts of self that exist for women through the character of Cassie. Who is she really? What does she actually want and is the ease of comfort lasting enough to be sustainable in the long run? And what are the harmful effects of sacrificing yourself for complacency? What really haunts you?

This subversion of cozy expectations takes many forms, yielding a story truly unlike any other. Sure, there is some shared DNA here with Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca, but within Cullen’s modern, realized setting, it feels as though House of Beth takes part in the conversation around current “trad wife” lifestyles. Cassie feels like a timely character who must confront her true needs and desires compared to the comfortability presented to her, the traditional role she “should” follow.

So far, this may sound like a deeply emotional, introspective, but relatively light-hearted affair. And this is where I offer the bleak contrast of mental violence experienced by Cassie through her intrusive thoughts and Beth’s heartbreaking story that slowly unfolds. The juxtaposition of Beth’s sorrow and Cassie’s mental state to the idyllic small town life that so many women aspire to inhabit provides a jarring sense of reality. From Cullen’s poetic prose that describes the most gruesome imagery comes a poignant message of realization and revelation. Despite the things that haunt us (ourselves, the person we wish to be, or the person we used to be) authenticity comes from acknowledgement and acceptance, from shaking hands with the weirdly shaped things that dwell in the corners of our mind who ultimately make us, us.

A dreamlike venture into dark self-interrogation, Kerry Cullen’s House of Beth is an impressive debut that fosters conversations around feminine desires and realities. Cullen expertly paces the plot to leave readers expecting traditional beats of twisted thrillers made popular through untrustworthy female narrators only to completely subvert expectations. It is through this unpredictable journey that an honest conversation begins, a stark look into what it means to be you and only you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for a complimentary early release copy of House of Beth by Kerry Cullen.

House of Beth is a slow paced book plot wise but the story is mainly character driven, I found both Cassie and Beth’s characters to be intriguing, they felt throughly fleshed out. I could really feel for Cassie’s struggles about being more open and vulnerable when it came to her ocd. I could also feel for Beth whose time was cut short just as she was potentially discovering her queer identity.

I had gone into this book thinking it would be more of a lgbt horror novel given the “Cassie hears a voice narrating the houses secrets” but the story does tend to focus more on Cassie’s ocd and the romantic relationships that the characters had. While there are some haunting aspects it doesn't come into focus until 60 percent mark. I liked how the story went about the haunting aspects but I think if it would have kicked in a bit sooner I would have felt a bit better about the characters relationship. There were parts of the story that felt important to be continued but for some reason things would just be skipped over, I had enjoyed my time with these characters but the ending felt rushed and flat. I thought the book could have used an extra chapter or two to wrap things up a bit more nicely.

House of Beth was utterly unique and intriguing. I think it held a lot of potential. The plotlines were amazing but the cast of characters lacked something for me. I wasn’t convinced of any of the relationships outside of Cassie and Lavender. I wish we had an opportunity to get invested in the other characters enough for their choices to make sense. Cassie’s OCD seemed to come and go throughout the novel with little to no explanation. The affair was clunky and awkward. The kids seemed like an afterthought. However, I can’t stop myself from recommending this book because the situation and dynamic between Cassie and Beth was THAT good. That last 1/3 of the story where they interacted stole the show for me.

I went into this one thinking it was a horror book but it was more of an odd romance with paranormal aspects. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t what I expected but besides that it wasn’t a bad story. I liked that the author included the topics of OCD, queerness, and step parenting. Cassie struggled with these on top of trying to fill in Beth’s shoes she left behind.

I ended up giving this three stars because I’m still unsure of how to feel about this one. The ending left me unsatisfied and confused still.

**My thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an advanced reader copy via NetGalley**

3 stars

I liked this title overall, but I have to admit that the middle 50% dragged. The book has an unfinished quality to it, as if it’s still in the draft stage and the story not quite finalized; however, the ideas are interesting and I really enjoyed learning more and more about Beth, the eponymous dead wife whose shoes our protagonist attempts to fill.

The book is about Cassie, a somewhat-stereotypical bisexual disaster whose harm-focused OCD makes it difficult for her to connect with anyone or anything, which leaves her feeling highly detached from the world. She stumbles into a sure-I-guess marriage with a childhood sweetheart who has been recently widowed, trying to raise his kids and keep his house as well as she imagines his late wife, Bethany, must have done. Over the course of her time in Bethany’s house, Beth herself becomes more real to Cassie, and the two eventually begin to communicate across the veil.

The book’s blurb and marketing sold me on the idea of it as a modern <i> Rebecca, </i> but after reading it I think there’s very little actual similarity; a better comparison would be to <i> The Turn of the Screw. </i> Cassie and Beth are in many ways mirroring one another, which gives a refreshingly reciprocal feel to the usual gothic ghostliness. Cassie I found much harder to be interested in than Beth, perhaps because her character is very wishy-washy, a quality that makes the ending feel unsatisfying—because while the ending should feel significant, nothing indicates that Cassie has undergone a significant enough mental change to stick with this decision any more than she has all the other decisions she’s changed her mind about in her life. I also found myself disappointed that Beth’s children, Cassie’s stepchildren, never really developed into full characters and instead felt more like props in Cassie’s story.

Lunch break equals short-read time!

I started House of Beth on the bus in the morning and finished it off while eating. It was intriguing enough, but sort of lost me on certain parts. In the end, I thought it was just a middle-of-the-pack kind of novel.

It's not my thing, the premise is interesting, but unfortunately fell flat for me... It reminded me of Rebecca.

Kerry Cullen’s House of Beth offers a fresh and compelling twist on the ghost story genre, blending elements of gothic mystery with psychological depth. The novel follows Cassie Jackson, a bisexual woman grappling with obsessive-compulsive disorder, who returns to her New Jersey hometown after a traumatic event in New York. There, she reconnects with her high school best friend, Eli, now a widowed father of two. As their relationship deepens, Cassie becomes entangled in the lingering presence of Eli’s late wife, Beth, whose ghost seems to haunt their home and Cassie’s psyche.

Cullen’s portrayal of Cassie’s internal struggles is poignant and evocative, capturing the complexities of identity, grief, and the search for belonging. The narrative’s dual perspectives—Cassie’s and Beth’s—add layers of intrigue and ambiguity, blurring the lines between reality and the supernatural. The atmospheric setting and the gradual revelation of Beth’s story create a hauntingly immersive experience.

However, as the novel progresses, some readers may find the plot’s developments increasingly implausible and disjointed. The introduction of late-stage twists can feel abrupt, detracting from the story’s earlier emotional resonance. Despite these narrative shifts, House of Beth remains a thought-provoking exploration of the boundaries between the living and the dead, and the stories we inherit and create.

*Thank you so much to NetGalley & Simon & Schuster for a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

House Of Beth by Karry Cullen, this is a book about cassiopeia a.k.a. Cass, despite not finishing college she gets a job at a book publishing house but when she finds one of her bosses bleeding and unconscious instead of calling 911 due to her traumatic thoughts she grabbed everything and leaves the building and runs home to Elmwood where she grew up. leaving everything she knew in New York behind. when she first arrives she tries to avoid everyone she knew in high school, even hiding from a classmate Tyler at the local coffee shop but when Eli spots her drinking cider at the local bar she can’t help but want to reconnect with him despite his drunken state. This is when she learns he recently lost his wife no longer goes to church and has two children a boy and a girl. we also learn regardless of her death that also has a voice in the narrative. Soon… Well not soon because it seemed every turn of events took forever to get to the next turn of the events when I first started the book I thought I was reading the wrong book because here she was in New York going to these dingy apartments and or fancy penthouses to parties we learned about her obsessive gore drenched thoughts and I thought as I said this was the wrong book then we go to Elmwood where she sees Eli they reconnect and even though she wants to be with him she is hesitant about meeting his children but soon she meets the children and before you know it her Eli and the kids are a family the only one she didn’t count on being a part of their life was Beth but she was so wrong. About halfway in I knew I didn’t like this book I didn’t like her I thought it was a slug getting from one story point to another but then we have the ghostly ménage à trois, and I really wish I had the actual book so I could throw it at the wall. I was so over this book at that point I found this book although a times interesting I just really thought it was going somewhere else and didn’t like where the author took me. others really enjoyed this book so I would definitely check out other reviews before making a decision about whether to read it by myself didn’t like it but from the rating it seems I am just among us select few. before ending this review I do want to say I didn’t understand that whole thing with lavender confronting chaos at Nessa’s house about her stalker in the next thing I know they’re broken up… To me that made no sense I didn’t get it maybe I missed something IDK I also thought her wanting to reiterate to Eli that she was bisexual to be pointless and unnecessary because when people like each other I don’t see the point in announcing hey I do like you but I also may like girls as well in the future… I just didn’t get that either way you may like this book you may not who knows. #NetGalley, #Simon&Schuster, #TheBlindReviewer, #MyHonestReview,#KerryCullen, #TheHouseOfBeth,

Following an emotionally charged breakup, Cassie flees New York City for her small New Jersey hometown only to fall into a relationship with her childhood best friend. Sound familiar? Though Kerry Cullen's House of Beth mimics a series of classic romance novel tropes, this facade slowly crumbles away into something unexpected and sinister. The novel is artfully designed to subvert expectations, establishing characters as easy stereotypes and then picking away at their surface until the truth is revealed. House of Beth is a sharp commentary on the weaponized helplessness of seemingly innocuous men and the slippery slope of tradwife culture. Although it's difficult to like Carrie at times, she undergoes a memorable and meaningful transformation. Without giving spoilers, this story represents one of the most interesting wlw relationships I've encountered in queer horror fiction.

I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up one of my usual talking points: representations of OCD in fiction. This is one of the ONLY books I've ever read where OCD is used not as a tool to demonize or stereotype in the context of dark fiction, but rather as a brutally honest depiction of a debilitating condition. I was not surprised to read that this is an OwnVoices novel: Cullen's understanding of the disorder, it's emotional consequences, and it's appropriate treatment is one so comprehensive that it has to be lived. I wish a little more attention had been given to the fact that Carrie's particular brand of intrusive fear of harming others isn't necessary a hallmark of all cases, but Cullen nonetheless does a great job of educating the reader on the division between thought and action and the egodystonic nature of OCD intrusive thoughts.

This was a bit slow for me. The story wasn't bad or anything I guess I was just expecting someone more fast paced and scary. This was more of a slow creeping dread and while plenty of people love that it's not my favorite trope.

I wanted to love this so much! However, the author got a major strike within the first 10 pages or so when I noticed a horrifically obvious discrepancy that nearly made me DNF this. One of the main reasons I requested this (thanks, NetGalley!) was because of the promise of a protagonist who lived in a little town “along the Delaware River.” I moved to NYC when I was 17 and then to the UK when I was 34, but I was born and raised literally around the corner from the Delaware River and swam in it (gross, looking back) every summer with my friends. So, it was weird to me when the book named Elwood as the town in question, and I thought, “Huh, never heard of it.” Google Maps to the rescue… and then I realise Elwood is a real town, and that it’s basically literally ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STATE from the Delaware River and closer to the Atlantic Ocean, for God’s sake. WHY! WHY DO THIS?! It enraged me to no end. Either make up a fake town so save me the fury, or, you know, actually PICK A TOWN ON THE DELAWARE RIVER.

Ahem. Anyway - I did soldier on here because I was also promised queer goodness, and I… kind of got it, I guess? Mind you, Cassie did <spoiler>break up with her first ever girlfriend within the first 20 pages or so and then immediately get with - and marry! - a man, surprise surprise</spoiler>, but at the very end of the book, things changed again… sort of. I’m being careful about spoilers here as much as possible, but it’s almost impossible to talk about this book without going into some of the details readers would probably want to discover for themselves. Still, I wouldn’t call <spoiler>Cassie having sex with Beth’s ghost as she possessed her body</spoiler> particularly rewarding, even though I know it was meant to be weirdly hot.

On the plus side, this was a page turner - after a huge reading drought, I did finish it in, like, two nights. Score! On the other hand, it was largely done with a furrowed brow and an, “Oh God, what’s coming next?” feeling. The author tried to cover some serious stuff in this book, like OCD, but the way it was handled I felt was a bit flippant. I wasn’t feeling the <spoiler>overwhelming thoughts of blood and gore Cassie suffered with</spoiler>, not because I don’t think that’s a very real experience for someone with the condition, but because it felt thrown in to make her *DiFfErEnT* in a way that was a bit obnoxious.

That wasn’t the only serious thing that was glossed over, either. The fact that Beth is dead and how that happened is an afterthought (if not predictable) and again, totally blasé and brushed over, like many of the finer details in this book. The result is that I didn’t really care about any of them and thought they were all kinda shitty people who weren’t very interesting or redeemable. I don’t have to like every character in a book - in fact, sometimes one of the most rewarding reading experiences is when you really hate a character! - but I couldn’t even muster that here. I was just… blah. It needed more background, but I was also glad it was relatively short at 240 pages and really didn’t need it to go on any further.

I feel really bad writing reviews like this because I don’t want to insinuate that the book is awful, or that there won’t be reader who really love this. Writing a book is hardcore and worthy of respect, even if it’s not my cup of tea, and I totally appreciate that. I just feel like it had one too many things that needed ironing out for it to be an enjoyable read for me.

This was a good read kind of different because I don’t like ghost stories lol but I got through thank you I will recommend