"The Farmhouse" delivers authentic supernatural tension but struggles with pacing issues. Chelsea Conradt successfully creates an unsettling atmosphere through disturbing elements like the mysteriously relocating barn and the haunting presence of Emily's mother's music drifting across abandoned fields. The isolated Nebraska farmhouse provides an ideal backdrop for this haunted tale, and Conradt demonstrates skill in building atmospheric dread.

Unfortunately, the narrative progression feels unnecessarily drawn out. The story spends excessive time cycling through repetitive scenes of Emily discovering unsettling phenomena while her husband Josh dismisses her experiences as grief-induced delusions. Their relationship dynamic becomes increasingly frustrating, with Josh's dismissive behavior undermining rather than enhancing the tension. The plot doesn't gain significant momentum until the final quarter, making the journey feel needlessly extended.

Despite these shortcomings, Conradt's atmospheric writing shows considerable promise for future works. When the supernatural elements finally intersect with the farm's dark history, the resolution proves satisfying. As a debut novel, "The Farmhouse" demonstrates potential but would have benefited from tighter editorial control. Horror enthusiasts who appreciate slow-burn narratives may find enough to enjoy, though readers seeking more immediate thrills might find their patience tested.

I’ll be honest—I struggled a bit with The Farmhouse. The pacing felt slow at times, and the paranormal elements didn’t quite deliver the level of creepiness I was hoping for. That said, this isn’t a critique of the writing itself. Chelsea Conradt does a fantastic job crafting an atmospheric Nebraska farm setting, and the characters are layered, flawed, and deeply human.

While the book leans more toward character-driven suspense than traditional thriller, Conradt weaves in meaningful themes, particularly around sexism and the weight of societal expectations. These elements felt powerful and timely, though I did find the relationship between Emily and Josh somewhat frustrating. As someone who’s single, I may not fully connect with the intricacies of a long-term partnership, but Emily’s reliance on Josh’s opinions occasionally felt at odds with the feminist undertones of the narrative.

The conclusion also felt a bit rushed given the slower buildup, and I was left wanting a more balanced resolution.

If you’re looking for a fast-paced, twisty thriller, this may not be the best fit. But if you enjoy a slow-burn psychological story that explores themes of identity, sanity, and the pressures women face, The Farmhouse offers a thought-provoking and atmospheric read.

I'm a huge fan of unreliable narrator and this was recommended to me by Lish McBride, so I was pretty eager to get to it.

I liked Emily. She has a lot going on and is trying to make her way in this new version of her world. The layering of the grief, sleeplessness, and caffeine overload really helped to keep me wondering if it was really happening or all in her head. I will say all of the men in this story are complete asshats and need to be kicked repeatedly.

Plot wise, it's a bit of a slow and repetitive meandering towards the build up and reveal. The setting is eerie (seriously, corn is the worst) and Chelsea does a good job of setting the tone and once it gets going, it's a ride. I did want a little more from the ending as it felt slightly rushed; however, it was a satisfying conclusion.

Overall, for me this was a good and spooky debut and I look forward to Chelsea's future books.

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**

The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt is a debut thriller set in rural Nebraska. Hoping for a new beginning after her mother’s death, Emily Hauk moves into an old farmhouse with her husband, Josh. But their dream home quickly turns into a nightmare when Emily learns that every woman who lived there before her died mysteriously. As strange events unfold—like eerie noises and a barn that seems to shift—Emily is left to face the dark presence alone, with Josh refusing to believe her. She must uncover the truth before she becomes the next victim.

While I wanted to love this book and the premise really intrigued me, it unfortunately just fell flat for me. The book felt extremely long winded, and could have been at least a hundred pages shorter. The build-up to get to the climactic point of the book took too long, and it dragged in parts and struggled to hold my attention until the last 20% of the book. I don't regret reading it and thought it was a pretty good story overall, but it was just an average thriller for me that could have been improved by cutting out a lot of the detail.

This was a DNF for me. I could not get into the story. I felt like the repetiveness and the overused trope of hysterical wife was over done. I loved the premise for the book. Just not for me.

The Farmhouse starts off with an eerie atmosphere that pulls you in. Emily and her husband Josh move from California to the middle of nowhere Nebraska they just purchased. It doesn’t take long before weird things start happening that only Emily seems to notice. With a little digging Emily finds out the women who have previously lived in this house all seem to wind up dead. Could Emily be next?

I loved the creepy vibes of The Farmhouse. As a debut novel I felt the setting and atmosphere was well executed. I was able to stay engaged in the story, needing to know what comes next.

Personally the biggest flaw for me, and what brought my rating down to 3 stars was the non-believing husband trope. It was a bit excessive throughout and the constant making the wife feel delulu overpowered what could have been a great plot.

I still feel like The Farmhouse is worth recommending and I can’t wait to see what Chelsea Conradt has in store next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC opportunity. This is an honest and voluntary review.

Emily and Josh decide it's time for a fresh start, so the leave San Francisco and buy a farm in Nebraska. Emily starts to discover things that are just not right. She swears the barn is moving, the farm hand has a body in his truck and she hears music and screams in the middle of the night. Josh ignores her concerns and tells her she needs to sleep. Emily starts to learn about their new homes history and discovers that the previous owner died after her daughter went missing. As she learns more about the past, she experiences more terrifying situations, until Josh is forced to believe her.
This book was a bit of a slow read and it seemed to take awhile for the story to get moving, once it did, it was great.

This one was pretty good although for whatever reason it felt like it took me a long time to read. I didn’t love how the paranormal aspect was written but other than that it was a solid read!

** Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the digital ARC.

Shew, what a ride! This book totally gives off "What Lies Beneath" vibes and I'm here for it!

This book is about a couple moving from the city to Nebraska to get away from everybody and everything after the wife's mother passes. This was to be their fresh start in a secluded farm house. But things turn out to be not as ideal as she had hoped. While her husband is asleep or away on work, Emily has some strange experiences. Her husband, Josh, blames it all on her not taking her sleeping meds. She's hearing a voice, seeing things, believes the barn on the farm is moving around the property, and that a light keeps coming on in the window of the barn and playing her mother's favorite music. Is this all in her head, or are strange things happening on their farm? Is that why is was so easy for buy the farm?

I feel like I can't get too into this without spoiling the book, and I personally like reviews without spoilers. If you enjoyed the movie, "What Lies Beneath" and you enjoy creepy, ghosts, murder mystery, and trying to figure out if the narrator is reliable... this is the book for you!

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because it provided all the stuff I need for a creepy house book. I would highly recommend this book to anybody that's also a fan of creepy house books. It was an easy read. The characters were interesting, although I felt they could have been more fleshed out. Overall, it's a great read and I look forward to more books by this author.

“The Farmhouse” was a good read. It was a slow burn, not really picking up until about 70%. Once it picked up, it was creepy and suspenseful. I enjoyed Emily’s character as a whole but Josh was insufferable. He was the absolute worst.

Overall, the book was decent for a debut.

The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt has such an intriguing premise; the story follows a woman named Emily whose mother dies right before Emily moves to a farmhouse in Nebraska with her husband Josh. The move offers a fresh start for both Emily and Josh but they have unknowingly moved into a farmhouse that has a haunting history; every woman who has lived on the farm in the past died. Emily starts to dig into the farmhouse's past shortly after her and Josh move in and learns more about its history and the women who died there.

I typically love thriller books, especially those with a creepy setting like this one, but for some reason I could not really get into this book. The beginning was slow and I found myself feeling confused at times as to exactly what was happening in the book based on the main character's narration. I really thought I was going to love this book and was excited to read it but it did not live up to my expectations and was a let down for me. I did not connect to the main character (Emily) and found myself not really caring about what was going to happen in the story. I wish this book worked for me but unfortunately it didn't. It also felt too long and I think a lot of pages could have been cut from the end of the book because it made the story drag on for longer than it needed to.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Emily and Josh move to their dream farm in Nebraska to enjoy a fresh start in life. Things take a quick turn when Emily begins to see strange things happening at the barn. She soon finds out the daughter of the prior family disappeared from the farm three years prior to them moving in. She also learns that the mother died under mysterious circumstances. Josh doesn't seem bothered, until Emily finds physical proof. Emily is determined to solve what happened to both the girl and her mother.

I was given the opportunity to read this book by NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

The Farmhouse is a creepy haunted house tale. Books about haunted houses is something I’d love to read. So I started to read this blind. Emily and Josh Hawke moved from California to a farmhouse in Nebraska in order to get a fresh start. Even though they thought this will be a good idea, soon after moving in strange things start happening.

From the light coming on in the barn to the barn itself moving from one location to another was super creepy. Look at the jogging minutes of ever you gonna read the book. Sometimes you’ll feel like literally everything around you also is moving around.

I am obsessed with spooky houses. This one was SUPER SPOOKY. I stayed up all night to binge this. I can’t wait to get a physical copy for my library!!!

While I loved the premise of the book,
I feel like it got very repetitive and was waaaay too long.
It could have easily been cut back a hundred pages and would have still remained a cohesive story.

I do really enjoy the cover and the vibe of it, and like I said the synopsis sounded promising!
This just fell flat for me.

Wholly gripping, chilling, and compulsively addictive, The Farmhouse will have you flipping off your clock, brewing another pot, and reading until the wee hours of the morning. We follow the harrowing tale of a woman who, already mourning her larger-than-life late mother, must confront her new home’s dark past before it claims her, despite everyone–including her husband!–hellbent on proving her wrong.

Conradt masterfully crafts a fast-paced, eerie thriller juxtaposed with the simplistic tranquility of farm life where mother-daughter bonds transcend even death, homing in on the importance of trusting your intuition when it seems like the whole world is against you, and ultimately delivering a fantastically feminist, fantastically empowering ending that will lead to an air fist bump to the clever author, some sob-scream-cheering, immediately followed by a speed-dial to your mom.

I couldn’t get into this one—the tone felt off from the start. The “hysterical wife” trope is tired, and here it plays out in frustrating ways: the main character’s fears and instincts are constantly dismissed by her husband, which made the dynamic feel dated and tone-deaf. The tension never really landed for me, and instead of creeping dread, it often just felt overwrought. I kept waiting for a twist or depth that didn’t come.

After Emily's mom died, she and her husband decided to start a new chapter in life by moving to rural nebraska and living on a farm. At first Emily seems to enjoy the new farm-lifestyle but soon she feels like some things are off. For example whenever she tracks how many steps it takes her to get to the barn, the steps vary wildly and the barn seems to move. After Emily found out that several young woman apparently went missing on the farm she starts investigating and soon enough she's the one in danger but no one seems to believe her, not even her own husband...

It took me a while to get through this one but it was worth it in the end. I liked Emily as a character very much and I got so frustrated when no one seemed to believe her. The book build a certain eery surrounding and it made me shiver from time to time. It wasn't a brutally chilling horror novel but it certainly managed to catch me.

Her husband not taking seriously her concerns really drived me mad while reading mostly when more and more darkly things appeared around the farmhouse
The protagonist its smart so this book gets more points to me since i can t stand dumb thrillers protagonists
Loved it

I was very excited for this ARC but unfortunately for me it fell flat. I stopped reading it around the 35% mark. I just could not get into and follow the pacing. This is not to say it was bad, it just wasn't for me.