"A desperate woman's plot to frighten her husband out of her life takes a nightmarish turn in a chilling novel of modern horror by a Bram Stoker Award-winning author.

Lainey Taylor is being pushed to the brink by her alcoholic husband, Callum. Prone to hallucinations and erratic behavior, it's only a matter of time before he puts Lainey's life - and that of their daughter, Beatrix - in jeopardy. A divorce and full custody is out of the question. In Callum's words: Over my dead body.

Lainey's sympathetic friend Adelaide has a wild solution. They'll stage a haunting so convincing it will drive Callum out of Lainey's life for good. Nothing too over the top: strange smells, noises in the walls, and flies unleashed along the windowsills. It could work. Considering Callum's alcohol-induced night terrors, he's already close to broken. With each new scare, Lainey is closer to seeing the haunting through to its bitter, freeing end.

But in a house filled with so much rage, resentment, and fear, is it any wonder that Lainey and Adelaide's plan goes horribly wrong? As their fake haunting spirals into something no one can control, Lainey discovers that the only way out of this frightening trap is to join forces with Callum, or die trying."

No, don't join forces with the enemy, run for you life and leave him behind!

How to Fake A Haunting
Christa Carmen
[pub. 10.07.25]
⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for the opportunity to read How to Fake A Haunting.

This one starts off heavy with themes of alcoholism, and Carmen does an excellent job capturing Lainey’s pain living with her alcoholic husband. One line really stuck with me: “When you live with someone day in and day out and they drink like he does? — it’s a slow death, like someone carving out little pieces of you with a spoon instead of a knife.”

From there, Lainey’s friend Adelaide proposes a wild idea: fake a haunting to drive Calum mad, making divorce and full custody easier.

At first, I was hooked, I cared about Lainey and was fully invested. But about halfway through, the story lost me a bit. It wasn’t “bad,” but I found myself disliking almost every character. Adelaide gave me strange vibes from the start, why was she so determined to ruin Lainey’s marriage? And Lainey herself started to feel unhinged, putting more effort into this elaborate “ghost game” than into simply leaving her husband in a realistic way.

Of course, this is fiction, and it’s meant to entertain, not mirror rational choices. And in that sense, it does its job. It’s a compelling read with some eerie moments, but you may find yourself frustrated with the characters along the way.

Overall, a decent read I’d recommend for a lazy weekend — just be prepared to get annoyed at the cast while you turn the pages.

#MustReadThriller #HowToFakeAHaunting #ChristaCarmen #NetGalleyReader #ThrillerBooks #DomesticThriller #PsychThriller #readersoffacebook #SpookyBook

It is very difficult to review this creepy domestic thriller without introducing spoilers, so I won’t be able to say much. All I can definitely say is that it is not your typical ghost story. This is not a creepy old house with cobwebs and spectral ancestors. In essence, it is a modern-day morality tale with a powerful allegory about human relationships.

The haunting in this atmospheric novel has a physicality and invokes a feeling of visceral horror. I thought about it for days after I finished it. Thank you to Christa Carmen for sharing this uniquely creepy novel with me. I definitely recommend it.

I’m sorry, this was a DNF. I love a haunting story, but turns out I am not a fan of mental warfare (deserved or not).

This was a decent read! It kept me interested and it was not your typical who dun it type book

My daughter also enjoyed it!

This was giving all the right vibes for summerween and I loved it a fun horror story that is perfect for the season or any time!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book

I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The story kept me engaged from start to finish and had some moments that really stood out. Overall, it offered an entertaining reading experience.

I really enjoyed this book. The story had me hooked from the beginning and I could not put it down. Definitely recommend.

I loved the first half of this book and then it just go deranged. I enjoyed the book but I felt like the last half needed to be workshopped a little more

Well, this went in a direction I did not expect. I love when that happens.
Lainey needs to protect her daughter Beatrix from her father Callum. Once(maybe) a good husband and father, now alcohol is the mistress he craves. When Lainey’s friend Adelaide comes up with a bizarre idea, well, it just might work. Lainey wants a divorce and full custody of their daughter, but Callum will not agree to those terms.
Enter Adelaide’s idea, a fake haunting. One designed to make Callum fall apart and leave Lainey and Beatrix alone. What starts as a well thought out plan dissolves into, well maybe an actual haunting.
No spoilers here. I felt like I had fallen down the rabbit hole and was never quite sure where the line between reality and supernatural events blurred. Just like the plot pivoted, in the beginning I was laughing at the ghostly antics, then was suddenly saying, what is going on.
Did I predict how it ended? No, I did not. An enjoyable read that worked on a sunny afternoon at the beach.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of How to Fake a Haunting!

I really liked the concept of this one—it felt fairly fresh compared to a lot of supernatural books I’ve read lately. There are definitely some thought-provoking moments tucked into the story, and once I hit the halfway point, I found myself more engaged. The second half moves along much quicker, with a nice dose of eerie atmosphere.

That said, I did struggle a bit with the character development. I never felt like I truly knew the characters before the haunting began, which made it hard to fully invest in their journeys or root for them emotionally. Another challenge for me was the gaslighting element early on. I know, I know—the title literally warns you—but I underestimated how much that would impact my reading experience.

Overall, this was a decent, quick spooky read with a unique premise. I just wish it had a bit more character depth and emotional connection to really pull me in.

This book wanted to be a lot of things: gothic mystery, romantic thriller, paranormal satire, psychological drama. Unfortunately, it never quite committed to any of them - leaving a disjointed, trope-heavy plot and thin character arcs in its wake.

The premise was intriguing enough: a fake haunting business, a spooky old mansion, a mysterious death. But from the start, it felt like Carmen was juggling too many storylines without anchoring them emotionally. The romantic tension was tepid at best, and the so-called haunting? More Scooby-Doo than spine-tingling.

The main character lacked the complexity needed to carry the weight of the story’s themes. The “twists” were predictable, and the ending leaned too heavily on clichés to feel satisfying or earned. It’s one thing to play with genre conventions - it’s another to copy-paste them without nuance.

There are glimmers of good writing here, particularly in some of the eerie setting descriptions and a few moments of sharp dialogue. But overall, the book felt like a mashup of ideas that never found cohesion. A promising concept that got lost somewhere in the fog.

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC!

Fun, spooky, and full of feminine rage. I have to be honest, I didn’t see the book taking the turn that it did (and I’m not sure I really liked it). But it was definitely a unique story. The vibes were great, and this would be a perfect read for a crisp fall evening.

Read if you like: Revenge plots, scary movies, Goodbye Earl

Thanks to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with a digital copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

First off, thank you very much for this eARC that was generously provided by the publisher and author via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So good! This one kept me hooked right from the beginning and had me changing constantly what I thought was going on. So creepy and suspenseful, the vibes of a perfect haunted house story gone wrong! It became completely unhinged the last 25% of the book and I was absolutely loving it. The ending confused me A LITTLE, but it was still a good ending and such a relief after all of the chaos to be honest. Though I kind of was hoping for that horror cinema ending of a small glimpse of something creepy happening at the end that tells you it’s not really over, I still loved it and gave it an easy five stars. Highly recommend!

How to fake an haunting had great atmosphere and uniqueness, I enjoyed reading this novel. I found the pacing to be good and I was eager to find out more. The storyline kept me engaged and the characters were created with a realism, the descriptions really painted a picture as I read.

A woman desperate to get her child away from her alcoholic husband stages a haunting in an attempt to scare him away.

This was a really interesting twist on a haunted house story. The characters felt distinct and relatable, and the depiction of alcoholism was painfully accurate. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out what was happening, and as the main character is questioning her own sanity at times, I was also questioning her reliability as a narrator. Very fun read!

I did find it a bit long. I felt some of the story could have been streamlined or condensed, and as I realized the resolution (and I don’t think this was meant to be hard to figure out, it seemed fairly clear) I still had 20% or so of the book left and couldn’t figure out why it was going to take so long to get to where we clearly needed to go.

The ending was very satisfying though, and overall I very much enjoyed it!

Christa Carmen’s latest novel is shattering! The story breaks in with Lainey and Callum’s toxic relationship. Callum chooses the bottle over his wife, Lainey, and their daughter, Beatrix. But Lainey can’t just leave him. Callum’s family is old-money, and his mother is very influential. Lainey fears a divorce would not only eliminate her husband from her life but also, custody of Beatrix, and her job.
With her best friend Adelaide, Lainey comes up with a plan to stage a haunting. If Callum can believe he’s going crazy from the booze, then any custody or divorce hearings will go smoother – and his mother would have less ground to stand on. Lainey sets ground rules for the haunting, but when these rules start to not get followed, Lainey wonders what Adelaide may really be up to.
Carmen paints the scenes for the reader with her words. From the windshield breaking in the beginning to sitting in the hospital to the tug & pull on Lainey’s heartstrings to do what is right for her family, the reader is instantly immersed in Lainey’s world.
I was drawn right in to this story and routing for Lainey and Beatrix to escape Callum who has no regard for Beatrix’s safety. I felt convinced Adalaide was going to get caught by Callum, but when things started happening that Adelaide didn’t mention to Lainey, it seemed more likely she was going to get away with it. The allegoric ending had me hanging on!
This thriller puts the reader right in the creepy Halloween mood – which is great because it is set to be published in October 2025! Thank you to Christa Carmen, Thomas & Mercer Publishers, & NetGalley for this advanced reader’s copy in exchange for my review!

This book is funny and you are rooting for the main character to divorce her horrible husband the whole way through. And I will say at the same time you can see how complex this marriage is. But your kids come first. There’s a twist a little more than halfway through the book and while there is foreshadowing, it’s still good. This publishes in October, which would be the ideal time to read it. I think all the ploys Lainey and Adelaide come up with were so clever and creative. I wish there would have been some focus on their friendship, just a little bit more. But I liked that they fought and made up and fought and didn't make up, and then eventually did. That felt more like a real friendship. And the relationship between Lainey and her daughter was written to show how much Lainey would do for her. It might have bordered saccharine but I feel the writing was honest.

The plot: Lainey has had enough of her drunk husband and wants a divorce. The problem is she needs him to decide to leave so she can stay in her house with her daughter. There’s no way she can afford to divorce him with his wealthy parents backing him. In comes Lainey’s best friend, Adelaide with a plan to get the drunk out of the house. Play into his drinking and convince him the house is haunted. The plan actually goes better than expected until the final night of the “hauntings” something unexpected happens making Lainey question what is real and what isn’t and the lengths she would go to protect her daughter.

7/10 would recommend.

3.5 Stars

The premise of this book is fairly interesting, a women in an unhappy marriage to the alcoholic son of the most powerful family in town, wants to get out of her marriage and make sure her daughter is safe, so she has to try something a little more unconventional than regular divorce papers. To try to prove that her husbands alcohol problem is a real problem, she decides to fake a house haunting to get him to admit that he needs help.... and then things go off the rails.

I don't want to spoil too much here, but I enjoyed the haunting. There are a couple of really dark points in the story, but that's usually the case with a horror story. There are a lot of characters that I didn't like, but I think that was the point of them, so good job.

Thank you to Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for the ARC! This was atmospheric, creepy, and definitely not your typical haunted house story. I really enjoyed this unique take, and loved the dimensions of the characters. Multiple times throughout the book I found myself frustrated with the main characters for one reason or another, and it was nice to feel like they had some depth. This book also veered into territory I didn't expect it to, and without giving spoilers, touched on grief, loss, and expectation in relationships. I did find the ending to be a bit rushed, but really enjoyed this fast paced, atmospheric haunting. I'll be continuing to think about this one for a while.