The Whispering House

4.5 Stars

Tin House has put out some amazing titles this year, and next year is looking just as good. As soon as I read the blurb for The Whispering House, I knew I had to request it. I was thrilled to be approved and quickly dove in.

Five years after the death of her older sister, Freya returns to Byrne Hall as a wedding guest. Unnerved by the proximity to where her sister was found, she sneaks inside the sprawling house for some privacy and believes she finds a picture of Stella. Back home and restless, she decides to return to Byrne to question the residents, for closure or answers, she's not sure, but she knows she has to do it. The trip, however, becomes much more than a weekend away, and soon Freya finds herself enamored with Cory Byrne. What follows is a journey through love, obsession, and the toxicity of control.

I really enjoyed this book.

To me, this was gothic psychological suspense at its finest. First, we get a family clinging to the vestiges of generational wealth, having sold their belongings but hiding their disparity behind the façade of a large and eerie manor by the sea. We also get Freya, who embodies a gothic heroine in all her glory: she's the object of Cory's affection, his muse, put on a pedestal and lauded for her beauty. She's also searching, becoming increasingly suspicious of Cory and his past, determined to unearth his secrets--balancing her desire to learn with the growing fear that she's trapped in Byrne Hall.

What I liked best about Freya, however, was the expert weaving of tone and atmosphere Brooks accomplished through her character. At times, Freya truly feels like a damsel in distress. She could've stepped right out of the 19th century in a lavish gown and delicate sensibilities. She's cut off from the rest of the world. She spends her days walking the grounds looking for artistic inspiration. Languishing over pen-and-paper letters. Her diction is ethereal and elevated to match Cory's own embodiment of a tortured, but rich, artist. When she begins to question the trajectory of their speedy courtship, however, she becomes more of a modern woman. She thinks for herself. She chooses her own clothes. She uses technology and changes her speech patterns. Brooks did a wonderful job emphasizing the duality of Freya's position, and the depth in which she realizes she's become trapped by Cory.

There is also the underlying mystery of what happened to Stella, and while that drives Freya, it doesn't feel like the sole focus here. Instead, I would say The Whispering House is a story about love and obsession of all kinds, and the consequences of indulging in our deepest desires for too long. I did find the plot to be somewhat predictable, although well-paced and engrossing. I finished this in a single read, and I think many readers will do the same. Brooks' writing is crisp, layered, and insightful.

Overall, The Whispering House is one you won't want to miss. A slow-burn gothic suspense out in March, add this to your TBR now.

Big thanks to Tin House and NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for honest review consideration.

The Whispering House by Elizabeth Brooks is a dark brooding novel of obsessive love, family intrigue and mysterious deaths. In the first scene, the reader is immediately introduced to the house, Byrne Hall. The 300 year-old Queen Anne style house is perched near the cliffs with a view of the sea. It has a beautiful façade and overlooks its expansive grounds that are used for wedding receptions. We learn early on that behind the lovely façade is a dilapidated decaying structure, much like its owner. Diana Byrne, a once beautiful and wealthy art collector, is dying and lives there as a recluse with her twenty-something son Cory. The first chapter also introduces the protagonist Freya, a 23 year-old bridesmaid in the current wedding, and her father, the art editor for a London newspaper; they also live together as they try to cope with the death of Freya’s older sister, Stella, 5 years ago. Coincidentally, Stella’s death was presumed a suicide and her body was found at the base of the cliffs less than a mile from Byrne Hall.
When Freya meets Cory Byrne, she fantasizes about starting a new Bohemian idyll, living with him while she writes poetry and he pursues his art. Both of them are not quite fully realized adults. They each pursue their fantasies and art without considering the consequences of their immature behavior.
Freya’s father is an intelligent but distant man who gives her practical advice but seems removed from deeper feelings. Cory’s mother Diana has been delusional for many years as she talks to the house, listens to the house, and believes she has become “its mind and soul.” She is overprotective of Cory and very obviously does not want him to become involved with Freya or any other woman. She considers him her “boy-child.”
In true gothic style, the atmosphere is heavy and most of the action is set in the house, a dark dwelling with long corridors, little furniture and a labyrinth of rooms. The reader is left clue after clue as the story unfolds and truths are revealed. The denouement is dramatic and satisfying, in Bronte-esque fashion.
While the characters were limited in number, their problems were many and most were deeply flawed. These flaws added depth to the dark atmosphere and foreshadowing of the characters’ actions. Diana’s dreams are, to me, the heart of the story itself, although she remains a shadowy mysterious figure through most of the book.
The story is written in alternating time periods, 2005-2009, and 2015, the present, and I liked that literary device. I also appreciated hearing the characters’ voices, as the author inserts their points of view in different chapters. It kept me interested as their personalities and histories were revealed. I especially liked Ms. Brooks’ descriptive writing. She chooses her words wisely; she captures and presents the reader with clear engaging imagery, whether it is visual, auditory or sensory.
This novel is a suitably dark suspenseful story with intelligent writing. It was a pleasure to read on a cold rainy evening by the fire.

Thank you to Tin House and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Lush, gothic and atmospheric writing. The whispering house, which is actually called Byrne
Hall, is a real presence in this story, a character in it
In this story, there’s a young woman named Freya. She’s in her 20s and she is
haunted by the death of her sister. She died five years prior, she died by suicide, and
she died near this house where Freya’s cousin had the nerve to host his wedding
reception. So when the story opens, Freya says I never would have seen the house, she
never would have revisited the place, except her cousin got married here, so she and
her dad are dealing with all their ghosts. This story takes Freya into very terrifying places that she may or may not be able to extricate herself from. And while I was reading, I really wasn’t sure how it was going to
go down. But the descriptions of the house itself are wonderful and they may give you the
goosebumps. It really is like a character in the story. Slowly Freya feels compelled to
return. It’s clear to her that the house has secrets. It’s a very eerie,
unsettling atmospheric mystery and contemporary British literary fiction.

What a surprisingly delightful little book! Going into this without any expectations, I found myself tearing through the pages. The strength of this thriller is in its ambiguity and the exquisite tension that develops as we start to piece together the story.

The narrative is told through the eyes of Freya, a young woman struggling in the aftermath of the deaths of both her mother and sister. She moves through her life as if sleepwalking; days and nights begin to blur. She questions and struggles to grasp onto reality. In the beginning of the book, she even falls asleep in an unlikely setting, like sleeping beauty, unable to control her own fate. Part of what I loved most is how the author so masterfully places us into the world of Freya, writing in a way that captures her experience, as disrupted as that may be.

Freya is no great heroine. We don't want our daughters to grow up like her. We don't want our friends to find themselves in her situation. But Freya is lost. She is untethered and slowly unravels. She feels ineffectual, unable to take her life in her own hands. She makes terrible decisions. This is us at the horror movie, screaming "don't go in there." But she does anyways because she has no other counsel than her own misguided instinct. All we can do is sit back and watch.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this lovely little book.