Review Detail

What worked: This book had me hooked right at the beginning. I love a good ghostly story but this one is much more! Add a strong Black protagonist with an unwanted ability to see the dead. There's not one, but two stories that run parallel to each other with the hidden horrors both girls need to face.

Readers are first introduced to Brittney who is out to do a new season of her successful Haunted web series. Her plan is to pitch missing Black girls, especially on rumors of what happened in a mansion. Only Kevin, the leader of her company, nixes the idea as being a niche idea. Still, that doesn't stop her from going to investigate what happened ten years previously. Brittney is persistent, even when her controlling mother, who plays a part in the mystery, tries to threaten to cut her off financially.

Daisy's story is in the past which leads up to her going to a mansion that her mother inherited. In this case, Daisy sees dead people and there are lots of them in the mansion. But the story doesn't stop there. Something sinister and evil happened many years ago and not only the dead, but the very house doesn't want anyone to know about it.

Daisy's mother isn't truthful and no matter how much Daisy prods her, she only gets half-truths. I loved how the author digs deep into what happened to Daisy's mother and the horrible secret that not only affects her but Daisy too.

While with her mother, Daisy runs into a local girl named Ivy who isn't all she seems. Ivy has her own place in the mansion. Seems that some of the dead can not only possess someone but harm them as well. These scenes bring a whole different meaning to creepy.

Disturbing images of the secrets of the mansion had a POLTERGEIST and HAUNTING vibe. There's also mention of sexual abuse and the multigenerational trauma that occurs. How secrets and lies damage generations that follow.

More than once I was gasping with the twists and turns in this captivating and outright scary story!

THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR meets POLTERGEIST with chilly, haunting consequences of others' actions and the courage of those who demand the truth even if it could cost their life. Highly recommend.