These Fleeting Shadows

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Author: Kate Alice Marshall
Series:
Series #:
Genre: horror, mystery/thriller
Age Group: young adult
ARC?: yes

The Haunting of Hill House meets Knives Out in a bid for an inheritance that will leave Helen Vaughan either rich…or dead.

Helen Vaughan doesn’t know why she and her mother left their ancestral home at Harrowstone Hall, called Harrow, or why they haven’t spoken to their extended family since. So when her grandfather dies, she’s shocked to learn that he has left everything—the house, the grounds, and the money—to her. The inheritance comes with one condition: she must stay on the grounds of Harrow for one full year, or she’ll be left with nothing.

There is more at stake than money. For as long as she can remember, Harrow has haunted Helen’s dreams—and now those dreams have become a waking nightmare. Helen knows that if she is going to survive the year, she needs to uncover the secrets of Harrow. Why is the house built like a labyrinth? What is digging the holes that appear in the woods each night?And why does the house itself seem to be making her sick?

With each twisted revelation, Helen questions what she knows about Harrow, her family, and even herself. She no longer wonders if she wants to leave…but if she can.

Review

I so wanted to like this book, it sounded like the perfect horror/mystery book. I’ve enjoyed other YA horror books, so I went into this one with an open mind. Yet…something about it just didn’t work for me overall.

I loved the book Hill House, and I’ve never seen Knives Out (so I can’t say how it compared to that), but I felt that the book was a tad bit…boring? I liked Helen, just felt that as a reader I wasn’t invested with her. What I did like was her relationship with Bryony. It was a bit of an insta-love romance, but I liked it anyways.

I even liked the atmosphere of the book. At times it felt a little campy and reminiscent of the original Dark Shadows TV show, but I liked that aspect of it.

There is a weird connection with the house and ghosts — and those are things I absolutely adore in books. I am still not sure how I felt about them in this book.

I think one of the issues I was having was with the writing style of this book. It just didn’t jive with me. I felt some aspects of the dialogue were stilted, and just awkward to read.

I liked Desmond a lot in this book and how he was helping Helen. Some of their interactions were really amusing.

There was a twist I wasn’t expecting; and I did enjoy that part. It kept me reading until the end of the book!

The book was good and I think it is going to appeal to a lot of people, it just didn’t end up being the best book for me.

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