by Vincent Ralph
Release Date: August 27, 2024
2024 Wednesday Books
Softcover Edition ARC; 320 Pages
ISBN: 978-1250882189
ASIN: B0CQHN5LS2
Audiobook: B0DC173WRL
Genre: Fiction / Horror
Source: Review copy from publisher
2.5 / 5 Stars
Summary
Sixteen-year-old Nate Campbell grew up in the shadow of Murder Road – a street cursed by the vengeful spirit of the Hiding Boy.
Every few years, for nearly six decades, a different house on that street has been the scene of a tragedy.
Nate and his family move to a new town as they try to outrun the curse once and for all. But, when he is pulled into his new friends’ urban legend club, new ghost stories merge with old until there is nowhere left to run.
Every few years, for nearly six decades, a different house on that street has been the scene of a tragedy.
Nate and his family move to a new town as they try to outrun the curse once and for all. But, when he is pulled into his new friends’ urban legend club, new ghost stories merge with old until there is nowhere left to run.
My Thoughts
One House Left had an interesting premise and I was definitely captivated by the lore of the story in the first quarter of the book. Because It was so interesting, I didn’t actually mind that it was slow as I figured it would pick up as the story went along, which is sometimes the case with psychological/horror novels. Unfortunately, the pace never really picked up, took a wild turn in the middle which was quite jarring, and by this point, I just wasn’t invested.
The character development felt quite flat. It had nothing to do with the slow-burn of the story, but sometimes when an author holds too much back to keep a story ‘’mysterious”, they can lose the reader from a case of not enough information to keep them interested, and this is exactly what happened. It left the characters feeling flat, unemotional, and I just couldn’t empathise or connect with any of them. Even the little glimpses into the characters’ backstories don’t really add anything to the story which is really unusual, but I think maybe it was just the way it was done. Or maybe I just didn’t care at that point?
The plot itself had a lot of potential and I did find it intriguing, but the development and the delivery didn’t quite work for me. It wasn’t that it was uninteresting, but when you have flat characters, I just never got emotionally invested into what was happening which lessened the overall tension. And it’s the tension in horror books that makes or breaks the story. And then there’s the twist. I don’t want to mention anything about it as it came out of nowhere, something I thought was interesting, but it would definitely have had an even bigger impact if I was invested in the characters. And the following chapters after the twist blew it for me as well. You can’t have such a jarring thing happening in the middle of the book without a good setup if you want your readers to feel any emotion. I did wonder if the twist would have worked better as the prologue rather than the one that was used.
Verdict
One House Left had a lot of potential, but the delivery and the character development made a good idea turn into a bit of a slog. I did thoroughly enjoy the lore in the first half of the book and the discussions around truth behind the legends and whether one should play around with that stuff, but I wish the story had been tighter and more focused as it seemed to ramble. There were a couple of interesting themes in this book, about family and how far one would go to protect one’s family, but again, it wasn’t clearly developed, which was a shame. Because of the potential however, I would definitely try another book by this author in the future.
The character development felt quite flat. It had nothing to do with the slow-burn of the story, but sometimes when an author holds too much back to keep a story ‘’mysterious”, they can lose the reader from a case of not enough information to keep them interested, and this is exactly what happened. It left the characters feeling flat, unemotional, and I just couldn’t empathise or connect with any of them. Even the little glimpses into the characters’ backstories don’t really add anything to the story which is really unusual, but I think maybe it was just the way it was done. Or maybe I just didn’t care at that point?
The plot itself had a lot of potential and I did find it intriguing, but the development and the delivery didn’t quite work for me. It wasn’t that it was uninteresting, but when you have flat characters, I just never got emotionally invested into what was happening which lessened the overall tension. And it’s the tension in horror books that makes or breaks the story. And then there’s the twist. I don’t want to mention anything about it as it came out of nowhere, something I thought was interesting, but it would definitely have had an even bigger impact if I was invested in the characters. And the following chapters after the twist blew it for me as well. You can’t have such a jarring thing happening in the middle of the book without a good setup if you want your readers to feel any emotion. I did wonder if the twist would have worked better as the prologue rather than the one that was used.
Verdict
One House Left had a lot of potential, but the delivery and the character development made a good idea turn into a bit of a slog. I did thoroughly enjoy the lore in the first half of the book and the discussions around truth behind the legends and whether one should play around with that stuff, but I wish the story had been tighter and more focused as it seemed to ramble. There were a couple of interesting themes in this book, about family and how far one would go to protect one’s family, but again, it wasn’t clearly developed, which was a shame. Because of the potential however, I would definitely try another book by this author in the future.
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