Eerily captivating and kept me guessing as to what was really going on. I love a good mystery and anything along those lines. This starts out like it's going one way but takes a turn in another direction.

I love haunted house books, but this story was waaaay too slow paced. Nothing happened for basically the first 75%. I was bored. Yes, the last 25% was really good, but 25% does not make a great book unfortunately.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! What kept me turning the pages with this one was the mystery—it really held my interest throughout. That said, the pacing was quite slow, and by the time I reached the ending, it didn’t come as much of a surprise. It was a quick read for me, mostly driven by my curiosity to see how things would unfold, though I can see how others might find the slower pace a bit challenging.

The Farm House is a spooky thriller about Emily, who moves with her husband to a remote farmhouse in Nebraska after her mother’s death. What starts as a hopeful new beginning soon turns unsettling as strange occurrences plague their new home. As Emily digs into the farm's dark past, she uncovers terrifying secrets that connect her to a long-forgotten tragedy.

What I really enjoyed about this book was how focused Emily was on helping other women, especially when no one else took their stories seriously. Her determination and compassion made her easy to connect with, and I found myself really rooting for her. I also loved the ending—it was satisfying and brought everything together in a perfect way. The male characters were often frustrating, coming across as dismissive or overly controlling, and while I understand this was intentional, it did make the story frustrating to read at times. Emily also made some questionable decisions—like not using her phone to capture the strange things happening—which made me want to shout at the page. Overall, I’d recommend The Farm House to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers or ghost stories with a twist.

Thank you to the publisher for the arc through NetGalley! All opinions are my own honest opinions.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I really enjoyed the set-up for this book. The creepy farm setting, with the violent undertones and all of the suspicious activity that the main character kept coming across was great. Emily was a compelling character with a solid backstory, and she very much carried the story well. While I was frustrated by the 'woman appears to be crazy and her husband refuses to believe her', one thing that must be said is that the protagonist didn't come across as hysterical, which was certainly a blessing.

The relationship that Emily had with Josh was also a bit weird. There was that polarisation of absolute love and adoration vs absolute disbelief and harshness, and I was left a bit disappointed by the resolution to their story. I thought that the ending was a little bit bizarre as well - without spoiling anything, it just felt like there was a bit of a quick wrap-up to a rather enduring story.

I think this read is well worth it for those seeking out a slow burn gothic horror, but there were definitely a few parts of the story that could have been improved on for that extra kick. It would have also been really interesting to see a bit more of an understanding and active fight from Josh, particularly when it came to scenes like the chicken coop and the barn. I understand what the author was trying to do, I just feel like it was a bit of a case of having seen the story a few too many times before.

The intrigue of this book for me was that I live in Nebraska and grew up on a farm there. So I loved all the very familiar descriptions of the scenery. I knew the town names, the interstate, Runza. This book was too long for the things that happened in it. It felt drawn out and I found myself skimming over a lot of the worrying the FMC did as it was just repetitive. The ending felt abrupt and I wish there was a more shocking twist. I did enjoy wondering if the FMC was losing it or not.

Emily and her husband buy a farmhouse and move to rural Nebraska. Emily discovers that a girl who lived there previously had disappeared. Not long after moving in, Emily begins to see and hear things, but of course no one believes her.

This is a good one for those dabbling in horror because it wasn't too gruesome or horrifying. The heart of the story is a ghost story.

Personally, I am a little over the "husband doesn't believe wife and thinks she is hysterical" trope. This one pretty much entirely centered on Emily seeing, hearing and finding things and her husband telling her she needs more sleep. Even when she finds a tooth and he can't refute that something is going on, the husband still takes sleeping pills at night, so she can't wake him up when weird things are happening.

The book moved quite slowly, and didn't seem to really pick up at any point. It just plodded along through bizarre things happening every so often, and the husband essentially ruffling her hair and saying, "oh you."

I thought the book was fine overall, and probably a decent one for those who like light horror.

I enjoyed this one, but I have to say it was a little too slow-burn for my taste. We follow Emily and her husband, Josh, as they move from San Francisco to Nebraska following the death of Emily's mother. The move is supposed to be their fresh start and a drastic change for both. They've purchased a charming farmhouse and plan to enjoy their newfound space and the quiet country lifestyle. Unfortunately for Emily and Josh, the farmhouse comes with a creepy, dilapidated old barn and some dark secrets.

Once Emily and Josh are moved in, it starts to become apparent, to Emily at least, that their quaint new home might not be so wonderful after all, and the author keeps us guessing if Emily is really experiencing supernatural occurrences or if her fresh grief is clouding her mind and judgment. As these occurrences continue and increase in intensity and frequency, Emily starts questioning everything she knows and begins a quest to find out about her new home's past with shocking results.

The author sustains an eerie feeling throughout the novel, but the meat of the story takes some time to get to. I felt that for the first 60% of the story, I was mostly just reading about Emily's daily runs and her increasingly fraught relationship with Josh, who doesn't believe anything is amiss in their home. However, the book really picked up at about the 70% mark, and from there, I couldn't put it down. I also truly enjoyed how the author explores grief and the ways in which women are disbelieved and gaslit by men, even the ones who claim to love them. That and the author's clean, crisp writing style elevated this from a three to four-star read for me, and I can't wait to see what Ms. Conradt has in store for us next. Thank you to NetGalley, Poisoned Pen Press, and Chelsea Conradt for the arc.

Oh my goodness 😳 This book was right up my alley! It kept me guessing the entire time. Emily was put through so much emotionally and her husband not believing her...ugh...that hurt my heart. I am just glad Emily and Alice got the happy endings they deserved. Poor Blanche, I can't get over that 😢.

⭐️: 2.5

I’m so bummed that this fell flat for me, as I was excited for this book to come out and even more excited when I was able to get an arc. The synopsis of it sounded sooo intriguing, but it just wasn’t it for me. I really did like our FMC, Emily. She was a very realistic character for me, I feel like a lot of what she did and thought is something I would have done lol Her husband irritated me to no endddddd. She was hearing things, seeing things and showing him things that were appearing on their farm and he was the typical “you just need some sleep babe” husband🤦🏻‍♀️ I really did like the supernatural aspect of the story, but that it. It was a little repetitive, I really thought maybe there was going to be some kind of twist that would have made the slow paced story worth it, but sadly no. But you know, for this being a debut novel for the author, it wasn’t that bad. I will be keeping an eye out for future books because she does have a way with storytelling.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the Arc.

This started very good as I loved the secluded farm aspect. As the story went on it started getting a little slow paced and repetitive for me. The ending fell a bit flat to me but I wanted to know what was going on the whole time. I think if you enjoy slow burn thrillers this one would be a good choice for you.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this ARC copy.

After Emily and her husband Josh moved from California to Nebraska into a farmhouse after her mothers passing eerie things start to happen. Emily notices the Barn out back is changing distance from the farmhouse daily , she hears screaming in the night and seeing things. Is she going crazy? Is it the grief of her mothering passing affecting her more than she thought? Or is it the lack of sleep she gets at night because no one seems to believe the things she’s experiencing. What horrible things happened on this farm?

This was a very slow progressing book, it did start to pick up around 70% mark but I felt like this book had so much potential with a creepy farmhouse but the slow pace just didn’t do it for me. It did have very eerie points and jump scares.

Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the ARC
Publication Jun 17, 2025

Now, here's a real mystery: how can an author as clearly talented at Chelsea Conradt write such a bummer of a "thriller"? I love the way Conradt writes -- her sentence structure is gorgeous and unique -- but the story she has chosen to tell here doesn't fit that high skill level.

Normally, I can hang with thrillers forever -- I am the kind of person who loves to skip to the end of a book, read it, and go back to watch it all unfold -- but I simply couldn't care to do that with this one. I didn't care how it ended, but worse yet, I didn't care how it got there.

Okay, this one creeped me out in the best way. It’s got that perfect mix of rural isolation, slow-building dread, and “am I losing my mind or is this really happening?” vibes. Emily and her husband Josh move to a farm in Nebraska hoping for peace and a new start—but of course, things go sideways fast.

From the beginning, there’s this unsettling feeling hanging over everything. Emily starts noticing strange things—a barn that doesn’t seem to stay put, music that shouldn’t be playing, screams in the night. And Josh keeps brushing it off, which just makes it worse. That whole “husband thinks wife is overreacting” trope can be annoying, but here it actually works because it adds to the claustrophobic, no-one-believes-you tension.

The history of the farm is seriously messed up, and the more Emily digs, the more you start to realize this land has seen things. I loved how the horror elements were more eerie than gory—it leans into atmosphere and mystery rather than jump scares.

It did get a little repetitive in the middle—Emily sees something weird, Josh dismisses it, rinse and repeat—but the ending picks up and delivers. If you’re into haunted farmhouse stories with slow-burn suspense and that feeling of being watched when you’re alone? This one will definitely get under your skin. Just… maybe don’t move to Nebraska.

The concept of The Farmhouse was so intriguing to me: A couple, Emily and Jason, moves into a remote farmhouse in Nebraska from California following the passing of Emily's mother. After moving into what seems like a picturesque and quaint home, Emily starts to learn things about the family that lived there before them and how women of the farm kept mysteriously going missing. In the meantime, Emily becomes increasingly suspicious as the barn outside seems to be taunting her, appearing closer and farther away each day and creepy screams are waking her in the night, luring her to the decrepit building. Sounds interesting, right?

I desperately wanted it to be. Unfortunately, for me, this book just fell flat. It seemed overly repetitive, with Emily being paranoid in both sleeping and wakeful states. She was also overly dependent on coffee (and sometimes wine), with a husband, who despite her constant reassurance to the reader that he loves her, seemed to doubt her endlessly. Their dynamic felt a off and all the men in the story were awful, spiteful characters with no respect for women. Overall, the concept was a 10, but the execution wasn't for me.

The Farmhouse by Chelsea Conradt is an eerie, emotionally charged thriller that had me hooked from the first haunting page. Set against the backdrop of a crumbling farmhouse full of secrets, this novel masterfully blends suspense, psychological tension, and the quiet horror of confronting the past.

Conradt’s writing is sharp and immersive, pulling you deep into a world where every creak of the floorboards feels like a warning. The story unravels with perfect pacing—drip-feeding dread and doubt until you’re questioning everything alongside the protagonist. And the farmhouse itself? Practically a character on its own. Isolated, ominous, and dripping with unease.

What I loved most, though, was the emotional depth. This isn’t just a twisty thriller (though it delivers plenty of those!); it’s a story about grief, trauma, and the tangled web of family legacy.

A huge thank-you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. The Farmhouse is the perfect blend of atmospheric suspense and emotional storytelling—I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.

Thank you to Net Galley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. Emily and Josh, a young couple searching for release from urban chaos, as well as Emily’s anxieties brought on by the death of her mother, buy a farm in Nebraska. The farmhouse is renovated and cozy but the barn is rundown and sinister. Finding out what secrets the farm holds kept me reading to the end, but I found some passages repetitious and felt the story could have been tighter. Early on, when Emily sees a strange light in the barn, and hears music, no one believes her. I wondered why she didn’t take a video with her phone as proof. Turns out there are several young women missing in this small community but obvious suspects are never questioned until Emily intervenes. I do love the cover and description of this book.

There was so much promise in the book. I felt like the synopsis was so intriguing that I just couldn’t pass this up. But, I have to say, that I feel like I was disappointed. I feel like the synopsis didn’t really fit the book at all, and was a bit misleading. The writing in this book was excellent, and Conradt did a wonderful job with infusing the book was an insidious, foreboding feeling. She rocked the creepy, small town vibes and the haunted home aspect was perfect. But, I felt that this book was just too long and rambling. The bits that focused in on the haunting and the storyline were excellent, but there was just too much between these scenes to really keep the suspense of the book up. I feel like if there had been some editing and the story had been slimmed down it would have been much better. I also feel like Conradt leaned heavily into the stereotypical husband not believing his wife trope and it just felt very overdone. Overall, this was a somewhat engaging read and the ending was satisfying.

Unfortunately, by the time this one got to the meaty stuff- it was too late. I enjoyed the wit displayed by our main character, but it became grating the more her personality didn't change, if that makes sense? The "relationship" was quite annoying from the beginning. I think the idea of the farmhouse being haunted and that tying into our main character suffering from grief of losing her beloved mother was so cool, and I really did assume that sadness displayed would culminate into something more horrifying. Sadly, I just found myself let down from what I expected to be a much more thrilling premise. The pacing also didn't work for me. I will check out more by this author, and truly do hope her debut does well- I am very sad this one didn't work for me the way I hoped it would. Thanks so much to the publisher and the author for the chance to read an early eARC and give my thoughts!

The FarmHouse by Chelsea Conradt tells the story of Emily and Josh, thirty somethings from San Francisco who purchase a farm in Nebraska to escape the city as well as memories of Emily’s mother’s death. After they arrive, Emily begins to hear voices, find strange items on the farm and sense that the barn itself is moving on a daily basis. Is the farm haunted or is Emily losing her mind? Will her marriage survive this move? Conradt has written an engaging novel with mystery and supernatural elements that keeps you reading until the end! Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the advanced reader’s copy!