Reader Score
83%
83% of readers
recommend this book
A woman is determined to stay in her dream home even after it becomes a haunted nightmare in this compulsively readable, twisty, and layered debut novel.
When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street--for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price--they couldn't believe they finally had a home of their own. Then they discovered the hauntings. Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.
Margaret is not most people.
Margaret is staying. It's her house. But after four years Hal can't take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly. Now, he's not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine--who knows nothing about the hauntings--arrives, intent on looking for her missing father. To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.
Emily Hughes is a writer specialized in horror literature
The September House by Carissa Orlando (9/5): a woman who loves her house so fervently that she’s learned to live with the many, MANY ghosts who live there too… except maybe the thing in the basement. very clever/deliberate in how it reveals information https://t.co/zoxMBYv0vZ
"It draws you in with a pleasantly wry sense of humor, then it gradually turns terrifying in completely unexpected ways. For the first third of the book, I was excitedly thinking of everyone to whom I’d recommend it. Then by about halfway through when it started getting really scary..."
Clay McLeod Chapman is an author.
Spending my morning in Carissa Orlando’s THE SEPTEMBER HOUSE. This novel hits shelves in, surprise, September. I think folks who dig the sardonic edge of Rachel Harrison, the heartfelt humor-horror of Grady Hendrix & a dab of T. Kingfisher will get a kick out of this. @BerkleyPub https://t.co/qgwBmGvxp8
"Why run from a haunted house when you can stay and ignore the ghosts? Just when you thought you'd seen everything a haunted house novel could do, The September House comes along and delivers an eerie, darkly funny, and emotionally grounded book about the ghosts that haunt houses and marriages."
- Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House
"This utterly original haunted house tale is a joy."
- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Margaret is a delightfully well drawn protagonist, sturdy, unflappable, and often dryly funny, but as the narrative unfurls, we learn that the reasons for her strictly regimented behavior are neither simple nor pleasant...The September House is a surprising, engaging debut."
- Vulture.com (Best Books of 2023)
"A rich and wholly satisfying haunted house novel about dark family secrets and patterns of destruction. It will charm you and terrify you and break your heart, often within the same sentence. An exhilarating debut."
- Rachel Harrison, National Bestselling author of Such Sharp Teeth and Cackle
"The metaphor is layered and at times heartbreaking, as secrets held by both a house and a family come to light with terrifying poignancy in this wonderfully eerie debut."
- Library Journal (starred review)
"Every once in a while, a story comes along that fully upends a genre in the most beautiful way, essentially reinventing the notion of what's possible within that genre. Now, author Carissa Orlando, a horror enthusiast, has written that very story."
- Shondaland.com
"A genre-blending masterpiece that is part horror, part complex psychological suspense, and part dark humor, all of it tied together with beautiful prose. It creeped me out in the best possible way."
- Jesse Q. Sutanto, national bestselling author of I'm Not Done with You Yet
"The September House is a riveting adventure that will grab you by the ankles and drag you down into the pitch-black basement you've been warned to avoid."
- Bookpage
"Simply outstanding. What starts as a slyly funny story about a mild-mannered woman and her very haunted house turns into a chilling examination of abuse and resilience. Somehow, Orlando has crafted a tale that is both macabre and triumphant.
- Mallory O'Meara, National bestselling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon
"Orlando's debut is a ghostly psychological tale of victims of unrestrained violence and murder...Offer this to fans of spooky haunted-house tales like Grady Hendrix's How to Sell a Haunted House (2023)."
- Booklist
"Peel back The Yellow Wallpaper, check out of The Overlook, and say farewell to Hill House... There's a new haunted house on the market and Carissa Orlando is the realtor of our nightmares. You'll never want to leave once you start reading."
- Clay McLeod Chapman, Author of Ghost Eaters