Reviews

The House Next Door by Darcy Coates

tarshka's review

dark medium-paced

3.0

It was alright. It was interesting to have a doll customizer as a main character. As a doll customizer myself (re-rooting, re-painting, sewing but only from patterns I bought), it was dull the story went with the generic idea of "factory dolls are ugly and garish, doll customizer turns them into 'normal and real' looking people". My issues with that are a can of worms, and not that important to the story, so I won't go into it. But if you are into doll customizing, it might be interesting.

Cats:

They are fine, nothing bad happens to them. I was worried.

kaymacb's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

rebelkiss's review

5.0

Wow

Fantastic as always. I didn’t see the twist. Had me holding my breath and determined to finish the book (finally did at 3am)

j_emerson18's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

sanna1014's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

jullkz's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

bnadams's review

mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

mehsi's review

5.0

What will you do when you live next to a haunted house and someone new and seemingly kind moves in?

So, this is my second Darcy Coates book in two days, and my third in a week. :P Yep, I just adore Darcy Coates, she writes some amazing horror books.

The story was creepy, right from the beginning it was haunting. The family shooting and running away like mad? The feeling of an oppressive house that is finally sleeping once more. The arrival of Anna and all the things that happened when she moved in, and not even to mention the whole ending? Yeah, this book was a creepfest. And I am so delighted, especially after reading Carrow House which took ages to finally get a bit scary. I could use some good horror. And a very active haunted house is perfection. The ghost, Helen, was just terrifying as hell. Popping up at random places, playing her piano, appearing in mirrors/glass, and then later she became even more terrifying.

I loved to see Jo and Anna get friends, though at times it didn't feel like they were friends. Mostly with how Anna acted (which may have to do with a certain ghost). At times it was quite awkward with Jo wanting to go say hi to Anna but she knew Anna wouldn't want it. But in the end they are quite good friends, and it is thanks to Jo that x and y happen.

Jo's cousin? Lukas? Eh, I am not too sure how I felt about him. He seemed very eh towards Jo (she even made remarks about it quite often), and then very friendly towards Anna. I get that he probably just had a weird way of showing his love, but still, I would have liked him to be a bit friendlier.

I do think it was a shame that nothing was done with the doll at Jo's house. We do get some hints that there is something going on with it, like how it kept falling over. It would have been fun that part of the haunting was now in Jo's house. And one could say it was just the house extending his claws into other parts of the street, but that doesn't happen until much later in the book. Jo gets the doll soon after Anna's arrival, and at that point the house is not that active yet.

Raul? What a terrible, terrible guy. I can imagine Anna having to flee away from him and find a safe haven. What she had to go through is terrible. And if one has to pick between a haunted building with a ghost (seemingly passive at the beginning) or an abusive boyfriend? I would also go for the ghost.

Spoiler

Raul and his untimely ending? Welp, I knew as soon as he found out where Anna lived that this wasn't going to be pretty. Hello, we have a ghost who, everyone thinks, was abused in her living days and committed suicide to get the hell away. And yep, it was pretty frightening at first, but then the problem was solved. Sorry Raul, you should have just run away and stayed away.

Then there was what happens afterwards which struck me weird until we get some explanation.

Spoiler

Namely that no one in the street minds the blood or the dead body and even encourages our girls to bury the dude under the tree in the backyard. The girls weren't even thinking it was a bad idea to do so. Yes, I get that the police may have thought it odd and may have thought the girls were suspicious, but burying a dead guy in the yard is far worse. But then later there are more things happening that are strange, and then we learn it is all the house and its inhabitant spreading its claws over the whole street.

Also it would have been nice if we had known earlier why Jo never does a drop of work. Why she is seemingly always home with her 3 cats. It took up to almost the ending before we knew why she is just sitting at home doing nothing at all. Oh, bake, yes, but nothing else.

The ending? The revelation about our ghost? Ohhhhh boooooyyyy, I definitely didn't see it coming and I was so surprised.

Mm, what more? Oh, of course, when they added cameras to the mix (and what happened during that time) but also when they got a medium. Those parts just had to me on the edge of my chair.

Big creepy plus points to the cover.

All in all, I could probably continue on for a bit about the book as it was really amazing and great and creepy and spooky, but I will keep it at this and close by saying that you all should read it. Now!

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

nataliereadz's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

leeniebell's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.75