DNFed due to character being trans being a twist. Descriptions of women and queer people made me uncomfortable, to say the least, and the main character was too unlikable.

Famous paranormal investigator, Eric Thompson is found wandering through life, trying to figure out what comes next. After a horrific incident a couple years ago, he's tried finding a new partner after his old one vanished. We see him deal with a new paranormal entity, ultimately leading him to not having a partner again. When approached by a seemingly innocent and enthusiastic assistant, he's intrigued by their offer of visiting the infamous Morsley Manor. As soon as he arrives, Eric knows this place has seen many different violent creatures in its time. But this experience will prove to be far different from any other paranormal case he's taken in the past.

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I think this book had a lot of spooky elements going for it. The first chapter alone was very intriguing and immediately captivating. From there, things begin to take a turn when we see Eric investigate an old foster home. Some of the descriptions were a bit hard to imagine, as you were imagining things that are other-worldly. While they were creepy in their own right, it was just a little difficult to follow at times. Once we finally get to the nitty gritty of Morsley Manor, things really turn into a horror story. We get so many detailed descriptions of creepy dolls, clowns, etc. It started to remind me of American Horror Story, but in book form. And ultimately, I feel like the author was being very cinematic in the way this story was told, and could easily see this being better suited in visual formats. I was entertained enough to keep reading, but there was no way I was ever going to guess where this story was going to go. And seeing some other reviews say they were dissatisfied by the ending may hold some truth. As it was ended in a bit of an ambiguous way where this almost felt like an introduction to Eric's character and just the beginning of his adventures. It definitely seemed like an opening to possible sequels that surround this character, which I'm not sure if that's what is planned or not. Overall, if you're looking for some wild paranormal, haunted house vibes you may want to give this one a shot.

*Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Rising Action Publishing Co. for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.*

Eric grew up in an orphanage with his best friend Michael, the two were always attached with Eric tending to take the fall for whatever stunts that Michael pulled, but Eric was ok with that, he had a brother and thats all that mattered to him. Which is why after a horrible disaster in the Suicide Forest in Japan that left many in their wake dead Eric is devasted when Michael vanishes from his life. Without him their youtube paranormal investigator channel has fallen to pieces and afer a particularly devasting case involving a little girl that he tried so hard to save his carrier has burned to the ground.

That is until he is approached by Poppy Darling who says she has a propostion for him. Her boss Michelle Snowing has purcased Morsley Manor where all sorts of foul things have taken place. Deaths ranging from children to adult and most recently several missing persons, Michelle has now turned it into a museum and in a bid to bring in more revenue has teamed up with Eric's old producer to film a special of Eric trying to contact the dead. Everything will be paid for and filmed and maybe this will be his big break back into the spotlight.


Maybe though it will just break him. Upon arriving and meeting Michelle he immediately knows that something isn't right. Except its not the feeling of a paranormal wrongness but something else although the paranormal aspect is certainly there as well. This trip will change Eric's life forever for better or worse.

I thoroughly enjoyed #TheHauntingatMorsleyManor by #GeorgeMorrisDe'Ath being released on September 30th 2025.

I would like to thank #Netgalley and #RisingActionPublishing for the chance to read an eArc in return for a fair and honest review.

I had a lot of fun reading this and it's perfect for spooky season. Has a good blend of creepy and spooky vibes, without it feeling too overdone.

A mixture of all kinds of the paranormal and the like: a creepy doll, angry ghosts/spirits/demons, witches, a creepy clown, a haunted house and plenty of creepy crawler's. I thought the plot was well done and I didn't expect the twists.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for an arc copy, all opinions are my own.

DNF'ed at about 36% (but I also read the last few chapters), because this was one of the worst written books I've read in a hot minute and genuinely painful to read. I will not be leaving a star rating due to not completing the book. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

The concept of this book is really strong; I requested it for a reason! One half of a former ghost hunting team going to investigate a spooky house at the behest of an employer who has ulterior and likely nefarious motives is a great premise. I love a good horror novel about paranormal investigators paranormal investigating (Episode Thirteen comes to mind). I even started this novel at the beginning of a 10 day vacation to an isolated house in the English countryside! Before I started, I glanced at the Goodreads page, and I was a bit unsettled by the rating (3.27 at the time of writing). The top reviews mentioned the pacing being a bit off, but I was prepared to muddle through that.

What I was not prepared for was how god-awful the sentence-to-sentence structure of the book was. Because part of this discussion involves prose, note that per the ARC that I got "[any] quotation may be altered or removed in the final version of the book".

The prose leans heavily towards "tell" (as opposed to "show") in a tremendously clunky way. An example from the first chapter:

Eric sensed he was getting closer. His intuition called him in the right direction, guiding him. He suspected that somewhere down the dark, endless tunnels and within the maze, Alice was held hostage, not by a person but by something otherworldly. Eric would enjoy solving the case, yet he hoped for some extra, peculiar detail to make the challenge even greater.

The last sentence is what particularly stuck in my craw. It feels so weirdly matter-of-fact, like a line from a bad fan fiction. It gets the job done, I guess: we know that Eric is a bit arrogant and confident in his skills as a paranormal investigator, but it feels so distant In the previous paragraph, the reader gets some details about how Eric's "ability" (i.e. paranormal sensitivity) manifests, and we know that Eric's spine is cold and that he's sweating despite said cold. The quoted paragraph then feels like a place-holder paragraph, something that you would write in a first draft to come back to later, just so you could maintain the flow of writing. Unfortunately, no one seems to have come back to this spot.

When the prose it not painfully straightforward, it is painful purple. The dream sequences are particularly bad for this. Some examples: "with the curtains drawn back in the realm of dreaming, the veil dropped to reveal grey wooden panels" and "he sat in a tunnel of sapphire and violet mystery, enthralled and unsettled by its shimmering beauty". That latter quote was almost my last straw; we'll get to my actual last straw in a minute.

The structure/pacing of the chunk of Morsley that I did read is not great, to put it mildly. It starts with a prologue about a character that dies at the end of it, Eric doing an investigation gone wrong, extremely confusing and boring dream sequence #1, two year time skip to an interview so we can learn all of Eric's backstory in excruciating detail, extremely confusing and boring dream sequence #2, long interpretation of said dream and exposition, and then FINALLY the inciting incident of Eric meeting with Poppy, the representative of Morsley Manor's owner. Dividing the novel up like this when the prose is so bad does not work. I felt as though I was being dragged around in time and space with no clue when I could settle in and get to know anyone aside from Eric and Michael. It makes it that much harder to become invested in these characters with all the depth of a puddle.

My actual final straw was the weird wrong information that appears scattered throughout. For most of these, you could, charitably, make the argument that because this novel takes place in a fictional world where witches and magical forces are real, such references might be intentional, to demonstrate that this is not meant to be set in "our world". Respectfully, I think that's bullshit. I'm going to pull the moment that made me drop this book for good. When asked what a ghoul is by Poppy, Eric says

"It's a very commercial Halloween term but I believe it's meant to be the spirit of a supposed monster. Though, that could be argued as being a demon anyway. I know in some cultures the word demon is frowned upon, so it may originate from that."

Just from cultural osmosis/the amount of horror media I've consumed, I associated ghouls with eating human flesh and maybe tomb robbing. Just looking at Wikipedia confirmed my suspicions. Calling the word "commercial" feels extra gross because it's creature that comes from Arabic folklore, and the word "ghoul" derives from an Arabic word. I don't think this is meant to make Eric look like an asshole or wrong about the word. The moment doesn't seem to work like that contextually. It's just an incorrect statement that can be fact-checked with the first result on Google that the novel presents as totally accurate. I'm not going to get started on the confident repetition of the 'humans don't use all of their brains' false claim as though it's some brilliant explanation for why some people in this setting can do magic, and I am going to acknowledge my distaste for the mention of "tribal sacrifices" in the Amazon by an unnamed group that eventually "became feral". It's lazy and shows just how much De'Ath leans on tropes without doing anything of interest with them.

I don't feel that I can speak overly much on the incredibly uncomfortable portrayal of a trans woman as a manipulative sadist. This mostly appears in the part of the book that I did not read, hence my reticence, but judging by other reviews, it is just as nasty a portrayal of a trans woman as it appears to be. As someone who has been watching the governments of the country I was born in frothing at the mouth to blame trans people, and particularly trans women, for all of society's ills, I have no patience for this. We do not need more trans women as horror novel antagonists, particularly when they are this flat and stereotypical.

Do not read this book. You can find countless better horror novels out there.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

I did enjoy the plot of this book and the various twists. The spooky vibes are definitely there, and I was pulled into the story.however at times it did feel quite difficult to follow as there were a lot of various aspects layered together.

I really wanted to like this one. In hindsight, the story as a whole wasn’t terrible. But the execution just didn’t hit the mark. The story felt very fragmented and the characters didn’t seem to have much depth. I had a hard time following the story and I kept getting the characters mixed up because none of them really stood out to me. There was some suspense, but I didn’t feel a lot of dread or buildup to those scenes. it seemed to jump around a lot. I think this book had potential for sure, but it just wasn’t for me.

I’m sad to say I’m with some of the other reviewers on this one. It had me hooked because of the title and the cover, and while i was intrigued probably up until a third of the way, I found myself having to push through to the end and even then, I skimmed a lot.

I guess for me there just wasn’t anything special or unique about this, it felt like a typical haunted house horror story and honestly, it wasn’t scary to me. It could be because of the horror I’ve read but I’m at a point where I need something new to pull me in.

Thanks so much to NetGalley for the arc copy of this book.

Thank you to Rising Action Publishing Co. and NetGalley for providing me an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#TheHauntingatMorsleyManor #MorsleyManor #NetGalley #ePub #ARC

<i>Note: Any included quotations may be altered or removed in the final version of the book.</i>

💠RELEASE DATE:
30 Sept 2025

💠CONTENT WARNING / TRIGGERS: 
Violent and gruesome deaths, homicide, clowns, insects/spiders, child death, paranormal-related deaths, distressing imagery, suicide, physical abuse, emotional abuse, gore/blood

💠GEARED TOWARD:
Adults & mature audiences

💠PLOT OVERVIEW:
Eric is an infamous paranormal investigator with the ability to see and sense spirits. When a child's exorcism goes wrong, his partner-in-crime/best friend disappears, leaving Eric and their ghost hunting business in shambles. Present day, Eric yearns to regain his place in the light. A timely offer sends Eric to investigate Morsley Manor, a place shrouded in mystery and countless cases of disappearances. As sinister forces grow in power and deceptions wane trust, Eric must confront the demons in the present and his past - if he wants to make it out alive.

💠PRAISES: 

• There were a few sentences throughout the novel that were both beautifully descriptive and descriptively pleasing.

"...and ribs you could play like a xylophone."

"Centipedes ran like veins through the tunnels of the land..."

I am harshly critical of poor similes & authors' over-reliance on them, but a well-placed simile, such as these, is *chef's kiss.*

• I mean, that brilliant cover art is what reeled me into requesting this ARC in the first place. There are too many books out there with covers that look identical (don't crucify me, but Romantasy is so guilty of this) and it's both boring and unoriginal. This cover? Original. Eye-catching. Cool-looking. EYEBALL. PINK. VISCOUS VIBES. I'm in.

• Not enough (horror) books include CWs/TWs in my opinion. If you don't need them, you're not impacted by their inclusion. The people who DO need them, however, can be severely impacted by their exclusion. De'Ath's consideration to add triggers right in the beginning of the book is commendable. More authors should follow his lead.

💠CRITIQUES:

• I saw a Goodreads review that said, "You can tell a man wrote this." By all the gods above, damn do I ever agree with that. Physicality was prioritized in all De'Ath's imagery of women, especially those who exuded femininity. Repetitive mentions of "manicured nails", "long lashes", and even grabbing a woman by her "thin wrist" plagued these characters' narratives. Women often fell into the shallow graves of stereotypical female tropes - fragile and frightened, desperately in need of a strong male savior (barf); b*tchy and boisterous, whose persona is 100% mean-girl with 0% meaning.

• While I understand I read the uncorrected reader's proof & there will be some errors throughout... I expected some proof of editing. The number of spelling errors ("sceptical"), over-usage of specific words/phrases throughout novel ("nape"; "licked his/her lips"), abundant grammar errors (missing punctuation; extra punctuation), and floater letters (a random letter in the middle of a sentence (either from a mistype or a previous word that was not fully deleted)) gave the impression that no editing was done.

• I'm standing on my little soapbox for this one... A less important example of ignorance is when De'Ath uses "monkey" and "ape" synonymously... A more significant instance is when he uses "non-binary" but means "androgynous." Yeah, those are not the same thing. Not knowing the difference is not the problem; the problem is the lack of effort put forth to learn that difference. If you are representing a marginalized community in literature, especially as a non-member, misrepresenting them is NOT GOOD.

• When an author desires thorough world-building and complex characters, their readers NEED to see some sausage-making. Readers need to see the journey, not just the destination. So much of this story jumped past the intricate details - details that would have added necessary substance to both the world and its characters. For example, the traumatic final night at Morsley Manor ends and we're immediately dragged to a time months later, when a *certain character* finds closure for what they went through there. It seems so... Antithetical to closure. Healing is a long and difficult journey, yet readers are not privy to the guilt, the deep sea of grief, the emotional burdens *this character* faces. It's simply glossed over, discarded in an effort to get from plot-point A to plot-point B. Without establishing meaningful connections & meticulous scene-setting, there will be no genuine interest, no pulling factor, no reason to care whether your characters live or die.

• This coincides with the above point: True immersion is not simply viewing rights. True immersion is throwing readers into the thick of it, handing them a shovel as they fight off evil alongside the protagonist, giving them access to the antagonist's motives and childhood fears. Readers are not the audience, they are the guest performers. They should be treated as accomplices, not spectators. In this story, I never left a bird's eye view. I was not given the chance to get close enough. I could not suspend disbelief because I never left reality.

• Inserting a Trans Character as a Plot Device/for Shock Value... Pretty self-explanatory. It's the year 2025. Trans people are NOT literary mechanisms to further the plot or surprise your readers with a plot twist. AND the fact that the trans character was a narcissistic sociopath who weaponized their 'transness' was the cherry on top of the tone-deaf ally cookie. It left a foul taste in my mouth.

• Endings are our closure, in a way. Think: The euphoria you get when the outro song starts to play in a 2000's RomCom movie and the camera pans up to the sky. Finality is peace. A cliff-hanger is anticipation. An ending that 'JK's' itself back to cannon material is annoying. When I came to what I assumed was the end of the book, I was not expecting another chapter to present itself. And then another... And another... Then, when I finally reach the ACTUAL ending of the story, I'm gobsmacked by an epilogue chapter. You gotta know when to hang up your coat and let things be as they are - stop trying to make 'Fetch' happen (or whatever).

💠REVIEW SUMMARY:
Overall, while the framework of a great story was there, it faltered in its execution. The story lacked substance and immersion, and the whole cast of characters fell flat.
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📚This review will be posted on Amazon on or after the book's release date.📚

I almost did not finish this book, but I modeled through. It wasn't a terrible book but, it also was a little difficult to stick with. The writing was a little over the top with purple pros. A lot of the imagery was if not repetitive, derivative, and cliché. The dream sequences took far too much real estate in the story and didn't really fit in. There were too many different stories happening, they were all supposed to be really one story. There was the haunting of the house, the witches, the best friend that's missing, the girl that died at the beginning, the dreams, The main character's special abilities, the mystery. They all felt like different pieces from different stories that were kind of being thrown together. It made it feel disjointed which was why reading it I didn't feel propelled along in the story, because something new was always being introduced to the story. I wanted to like it because I love a good haunting and if that's all it had been about I probably would've liked it more, but it was trying to be too much with too little

The premise of this novel had a lot of potential: a haunted manor, a protagonist with a sixth sense, and a past marked by tragedy. On paper, the intrigue was strong and could have made for an excellent gothic horror story.

Unfortunately, the execution fell flat for me. Eric as a character lacked consistency and felt rather flat, which made it difficult to connect with him. Michelle’s intentions remained confusing throughout, and many of the other characters lacked depth. The shift into slasher territory was abrupt, and the actress’s sudden descent into violence wasn’t well supported by the narrative.

In addition, the heavy use of dialogue slowed down the pacing and weighed the story down.

Overall, the idea was very promising, but the execution didn’t quite deliver. With stronger character development, tighter writing, and a clearer focus, it could have been much more impactful.

The Haunting at Morsley Manor is an eclectic supernatural horror with all of the creepy creature vibes and iconic weirdness most people want in a horror story. I really do appreciate what this book was trying to do, but I think it would benefit from a rewrite and character redevelopment workshop. Things were just a little too one-dimensional, and even though the first part of the book took its time, the ending felt kind of rushed.

I really enjoy weird horror, so the oddball nature of the book didn't throw me off. I just think it needed to focus on the main plot more. I really did love the campiness and the English manor setting, though! The cover is really cool, and I would buy it just to look good on a shelf.

Thank you to the publishers at Rising Action and NetGalley for sending me an e-ARC!

*3.5
This book follows paranormal investigator Eric and his visit to the famous Morsley Manor, a haunted location that is on every ghost lover’s bucket list. Morsley Manor has a history of torture and murder, and Eric has been tasked by a woman who has turned the house into a museum to perform an investigation of the manor whilst being filmed so that it can be broadcasted and bring attention to it.

The book started off strong and creepy with us immediately being briefly introduced to the manor and the creatures surrounding it. I loved the mentions of different urban legends and haunted locations such as Aokigaraha Forest and Hell’s Gate. I was reading this late at night when a notification went off on my phone and I actually got spooked! Definitely not for those who have a fear of creepy crawlies, clowns and dolls.

I feel that this book is influenced a lot by American Horror Story as there are familiar scenes and similar characters (esp. Roanoke and Freak Show).

The plot twist in the middle wasn’t super climactic and it just didn’t give the impact I wanted it to. I kind of felt a little let down because the first part was going so well but then it got a bit theatrical. I still enjoyed it overall though and definitely give it a good spook rating.

There are trigger warnings at the start but just adding in suicide and domestic abuse as well because they aren’t mentioned.

Thank you to netgalley and Rising Action Publishing for the ARC!

How did this get out of the editing phase? The sentences were so start and stop it was pulling me out of the story on page one. Deeply disappointed

I couldn’t even get past the first chapter. This was so poorly written and just a disaster. I was so into the concept but when the sentence are choppy and the first page is so clunky I can’t get over it something else is wrong

A thin plot, no characterization, and the biggest offense of all, this wasn't scary. By any means. "The Haunting at Morsley Manor" is the husk of a decent horror idea, but one that has been done time and time again. It brought nothing new to the table, seemingly being content with rehashing ideas that have been done far better by other authors. It's a lackluster book that tries to stand out, but ends up standing out in all the wrong ways.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rising Action Publishing Co. for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

1.5 rounded up to 2

I tried so hard to like this book.... I really did. The overall premise was intriguing and some of the lore of the world kept my interest. However, the overall execution of the story was not done in a way that made me want to keep reading.

I was never invested in any character in this book for even a second. To be honest, I HATED the main character. He was not a nice person, and seemed to be written as the "cool dude".

As many other reviewers have pointed out, the way the author described and talked about women and members of the LGBT community was off putting. Why in our year 2025, is being transgender a plot twist???? Also the women were just written to be naive innocent little girls for the main character to save or as conniving manipulative bitches. There is no in between.

The biggest issue that I had was the writing and prose of this novel. This really and truly needs to go through another round of editing before it gets published mainstream. I highlighted many instances in my copy where words were spelled wrong or sentences were not grammatically correct. It also felt like the author did a lot of synonym searches on words to add more flowery language. It ended up just messing up sentences where my thoughts would be "i know what this means... but what??"

Overall this is a book that I wish would have been so much more. It had so much potential, but it fell flat for more.

I had a lot of trouble staying focused with this one. The writing just didn’t work for me, and I had trouble with these characters. They weren’t very likable. I felt like the plot was all over the place.

A story that follows in the tradition of The Haunting of Hill House. George introduces us to Eric, a quirky character that is down on his luck after having lost most of his crew from earlier. He's a paranormal investigator and is hired to go to England to check out Morsley manor. It starts off with a bang and the tension is dead on. There is some middle fatigue, but we are able to stay with Eric and see what he's really made of. If you like spooky houses, tension, and a unique protagonist, this is the book for you.

I just cannot with this one. I don’t have anything nice to say here and am only writing to meet the review character limit

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC.