Oh my.  How do I review this book without giving away all the secrets and twists.  I'll start by saying that I loved this book.  It was dark and different than anything I've read before.



Most of the book is told by Roan.  Roan's father died and she was to be a ward of a doctor she never met or even heard of.  He lived on a mountain in a place called The Mill House.  Roan felt weird things right away while walking to the home.  Three wards were arriving that night.  The other two were Emma and her brother Seamus who was in a wheelchair.  It took awhile before the doctor showed up, so the wards became acquainted with each other, the help, and the house.  Mrs. Goode was the main help in the house.  Then there was Jenny and Andrew.  Plus, Rapley, a young man that Roan met the night she arrived.  He stayed outside most of the time.  We find out that he's the adopted son of the doctor.



Strange things happen in this house.  Roan had been conjuring since she was a young child.  At night, she could see a ram watching her from outside, calling to her.  Jenny tells them a story about the house's dark history.  According to legend, a couple, John and Hermione, built the house.  People started disappearing, including their own children.  Hermione was accused of being a witch and they burned her to death for it.  



Hermione has a voice in the book in diary entries.  We see little bit and pieces of her life and how John changed.  He became violent.  He was obsessed with building this mill into a mountain where water wasn't really expected to be found.



Our third pov is from Zoey.  This is modern time.  Most of Zoey's story is told in notes and video footage.  It made me think of The Blair Witch while reading it.  She and her best friend, Pole, make the trip to the mill house.  Zoey's dad was obsessed with the stories.  But they didn't really find any information while researching it.  Zoey's dad taught her magic, but it came at a price.  Zoey's dad lost memories.  One day he decided to visit the house.  He made it back, but was violent and had no memories of his life.  So Zoey was determined to go there and figure out the mystery for her dad.  She felt the darkness on/in the mountain right away.  She found letters from someone named Roan and a diary from someone named Hermione.  There were carvings in the wall of one room.  Little crosses everywhere.  Zoey can feel that they're not alone.  While there, Pole started to change.  They meet a girl there, Len, that tries to help Zoey end the darkness.  



There stories throughout the book start to overlap and things all start to make sense.  We know early on that a man made a pact with the devil for immortality.  But he needs souls to feed the devil to keep on living.  Many lives were taken in this house throughout the years and the mountain itself seems to be alive.  It devours people.



That's pretty much all I can share.  I was sucked into this story right away.  I loved the darkness.  The earc didn't have all the artwork/designs, so I cannot wait to see those in the finished book.



Warnings for deaths, body parts, cutting (blood magic), incest, horrible things said about lesbians, sex, language, torture (water and branding), dark magic, and abuse.  There are probably more that I'm forgetting.  It's a dark book, so just be prepared for that going in.



I gave this book 5 stars.  Thank you to the publisher for sending me an earc through netgalley for review.