I want to start out by saying damn Josh Malerman can write. He has easily become one of my favorite authors after reading Unbury Carol, Birdbox, and now A House at the Bottom of a Lake. This beautifully mastered story had me on the edge of my seat nearly the entire time. How many books can you actually say you loved the House more than the characters? If you said none, then look no further, because this story will blow your mind.

One thing I really loved about this book was the atmosphere it created for the reader. I felt like I was right next to Amelia and James exploring this creepy underwater masterpiece. Parts of this story gave me actual goosebumps because I had no idea what could be lurking around the next corner and not to mention all of this takes place underwater! TERRIFYING! I also really enjoyed the mystery around it all and that I honestly had no idea where the story was going.

Sadly the ending was a huge issue for me. I really didn't understand it and wished it had ended differently. I'm also not a huge fan of ambiguous endings. I want the author to lay it out for me. That's the main issue I had with it. If you are into that type of thing this book is right up your ally.

Overall I gave this book 4.5 Stars because I loved absolutely everything about it till the ending. It gave me the creeps and I believe that is such an important thing in a horror novel.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for this gifted copy for an honest review.

I adore this book. It is so strange and weird. Josh Malerman does an incredible job creating an eerie atmosphere. This is definitely not for everyone. It is VERY different but if you like unique strange little stories than I highly recommend it .

*Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey for providing me with a free digital arc in exchange for an honest review."

Synopsis: The story begins: young lovers, anxious to connect, agree to a first date., thinking outside of the box.
At seventeen years old, James and Amelia can feel the rest of their lives beginning. They have got this summer and this summer alone to experience the extraordinary.
But they didn’t expect to find it in a house at the bottom of a lake.
It house is cold and dark, but it’s also their own.
Yet how to explain the furnishings? The upkeep? The icy sense of something living there still?
And the suction sounds?
Caution be damned, until being carefree becomes dangerous. For the teens must decide: swim deeper into the house—all the while falling deeper in love--or return to the surface, to safety, to sanity?
Whatever they do, they will never be able to turn their backs on what they discovered together. And what they learned:
Just because a house is empty, doesn’t mean nobody’s home.

Review: As someone who doesn't live too far from an actual town under a reservoir I instantly wanted to read this. I'm not sure if that gave me too high of expectations but I know how creepy it is to know people once lived in the structures that are now submerged. It has it's own haunting nature but coupled with the eeriness that accompanies being underwater I was expecting to be scared out of my skin. There were times when I was genuinely creeped out but towards the end I was just a bit confused. In retrospect it is kind of a cool story because you can take what you want from it. It is at heart the story of two teenagers navigating their feelings for each other and expectations for the future. The house is a symbol of that as they explore deeper and deeper into the house things get more and more serious between them. The ending feels very open ended though and I've thought about it a lot since I finished reading and even while writing this review. I think it's possible to come to multiple conclusions about what happens to James and Amelia and that's kind of cool. Based on that I think this would make a good book club choice.

ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

What does one do when they find a mysterious house? Explore it, of course!

James and Amelia are a couple of seventeen-year-old kids who go canoeing on their first date. While exploring a secluded lake, they find what appears to be house sitting on the bottom.. Intrigued, the two teens start to explore and try to uncover the secrets of both the house and their budding attraction.

A House at the Bottom of the Lake is a short and starkly written tale filled with symbolism. Malerman expertly creates an atmosphere filled with equal parts dread and excitement. Like the characters, I found myself wanting to solve the mysteries of the house, yet terrified of what may lay behind the next closed door.

I savored the creepy vibe that pervaded and weaved itself throughout the narrative, and I really enjoyed watching the teens' experience falling in love for the first time amid the strange discovery of the house

Initially, I disliked the ending of the book, but the more I thought about it, the more I changed my mind; I think it fits with the eerie, fantastical feeling of the story as a whole.

I found this book to be refreshingly weird and touching.
what I liked:
I loved the feel in the beginning of the book. I loved how the lake was described. I loved how i could feel the thoughts and feelings of the two teens. It made me want to root for them both and to see good things happen between them. I could relate to what they were going through and the insecurties even. I loved how it was written. I also loved the tensions and fears leading up to the plot. When it got to the part of discovering the house. I felt what an interesting thing to find. I was drawn into it.

what I did not like so much:
I think what turned me off a little in this book was the parts that seemed to not make any sense like if they were swimming in water how did they walk on the bottom in the mud. This seemed to clear up as I learned that things in the house did not do what they were suppose to either. Later as things come about in the house I was kinda disappointed. I liked it either to go magical fantasy or real literally and the plot seemed to do neither instead it went to a metaphor or allegory style. I did not like that as much. It left me a little confused especially towards the end.

overall:
I still liked this book a lot. I had to go back and think on it a little but I liked it and felt the emotions throughout it. I felt it was creative and pulls at the feelings.

This book was not for me. I struggled with the writing. I guess I went into it expecting more since he was the author of Bird Box (which I haven't read). If this is his normal writing style then I won't be reading it.

This novella was an excellent piece of subtle horror fiction. The strangeness of the house beneath the water combined with the sense that someone or something would appear from the murky house, behind a door, or suddenly in a room, was enough to keep me on edge and creeped out. Josh Malerman worked masterfully with the elements of the creepy-murky-lake theme, the something-physically-amiss-to-be-unsettling theme, the underwater-anything-could-go-wrong theme ... I love an unsettling yet non-flashy horror, and this was very good. Malerman's mind clearly works in wonderfully, creatively creepy ways and I can't wait for more of his imagination to reveal itself.

This short book is definitely creepy. It starts out sweet with two teenagers on a date in a canoe on a beautiful hidden lake. They discover a huge two story house underneath the water. They become obsessed exploring the house with scuba gear but the more they visit they less they want to be above the water in the real world. Something is very odd about the house and there are scenes that are very chilling. Could someone or something be in the house with them?

I had heard of A House at the Bottom of a Lake several years ago, after the initial buzz surrounding Bird Box. I loved Bird Box, but knew that this one was very different, and rather difficult to get a hold of. So now that it's getting its proper release, I jumped at the opportunity to read it. And I've heard that this one is weird and polarizing, but I like weird and polarizing. And I liked this. Yes, it is absolutely a book that is not for everyone. But if you enjoy magical realism and books that are horror-but-not-quite-horror, you would enjoy this. It doesn't wrap up neatly, and you may finish it with more questions than when you started, but Malerman is a talented writer and it's worthwhile just to live in his prose for a while.

In this spooky novella, two teenagers found a house at the bottom of a lake on their first date. This is my first time reading by this author and i was very excited to read this novella.
There are so many things that I like about this book, the atmosphere of being underwater in an unusual place was absolutely terrifying. If you're claustrohpic and scared of deep waters like me i recommend you to grab this creepy and magical book right now.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine
Del Rey for this arc in exchange for an honest review

This was a fun and quick read about two teenagers finding a house at the bottom of a lake on their first date. The house's existence seems impossible and there are no clues as to how it ended up in the lake or why. As they explore more of the strange house they fall in love.

Great spooky atmosphere with the underwater house. The story is a nice mix of adventure and the awkwardness of first dates and love. However, this book raises a lot of questions and answers none of them. It left me wanting a longer story with some explanation to the house. It felt like the plot and story were set up, but let unfinished.

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for an honest view.

I *loved* Malerman's Bird Box. Seriously, it was one of the best books I read in 2015, and I've even refused to watch the movie, ignoring my love for Sandra Bullock, because the book was so good that I didn't want to see a movie ruin the story.

That led me to have very high expectations for the rest of the books he has published. Those expectations were so high that I haven't found myself willing to pick any one of them up because I didn't know if they'd live up to Bird Box. So when I saw this one on Netgalley (I guess they're re-releasing it?), I decided it was time to take a chance.

Sadly, this one didn't live up to my expectations. In Bird Box, not being able to "see" along with Malorie really amped up the tension. It felt like Malerman was trying to re-use that idea in this one, and it fell flat. In Bird Box, we never got an explanation for WHY the events were happening. In this one, we never got an explanation at all. Just some wacky ending that explains nothing and makes little sense and never seeing past the "maybe."

I guess my disappointment is evident, but if you're going to read a Malerman, my suggestion would be Bird Box. This one was a letdown, so I can't recommend it.

The story itself was decent and I enjoyed the intrigue and the premise, but I was just left wanting more on every level. More depth to the characters, more story, more explanation. It just didn’t seem developed enough for me to really enjoy.

Meh.
This novella was just okay. I am glad it wasn’t any longer. It was just enough to push me through to the end which I didn’t even understand.

Unexplored old houses fascinate me whether they are in a swamp or at the bottom of one, so when I read the premise for this one I did have to pick it up, despite teenage romances being one of my least favorite things to read about.

A House at the Bottom of a Lake was well written and fast paced, and kept my attention. While novellas often struggle with not being long enough, I feel like this one was just right. While I had my doubts about it, I thought it was a pretty solid read by this author and while I didn't exactly find it spooky, I enjoyed the premise a great deal.

Two seventeen year olds go out on a first date canoeing and discover the eponymous structure. A place that doesn’t seem to obey any known laws of known physics, casually ignores gravity and eludes all explanation. A place as magical as first love itself. And so their summer romance proceeds to unfold above and below the waters, inextricably linked to the mysterious subaquatic abode. And that’s probably all I can say about the plot without giving things away. It’s a lovely story, really, Malerman sets a certain mood and a tone and maintains them throughout. It’s shadowy story, murky, uncertain, strange, beguiling. The two leads are engaging, especially considering their youth. Though technically this can be considered YA, it’s more along the lines of all age appropriate. It’s certainly on the darker side of things and may not be suitable for some younger audiences, but it doesn’t insult the intelligence of the older audiences either. It reads very well, an eerily atmospheric tale of a strange place that shouldn’t exist and yet…it’s an intriguing concept, it almost seems like a work of art or dream inspired, in fact the excellent cover of the book creates a mood just as much as the writing. Not enough of a concept for a proper length book and the author was definitely aware of it, at 118 pages it comes out just right for maybe as many minutes of entertainment. Shorter would have worked too, longer…probably not. Just right as is. A nice dark read. Not a ride…more like a midnight swim in the stygian waters among its secrets. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

I'm not sure what I just read. Is this really the same author that wrote Bird Box? Short, weird, and the ending made no sense.

This is a story about curiosity.

Reading this was such a surreal genre defying experience. There were frightening elements, but primarily it’s about the mixed bags of discovery & longing. There was a romance element, but it felt like it was more about the melancholy aspects of first loves- like inevitable endings. Overall, this was a lovely strange little story.

Thank you Netgalley & Random House Publishing Group for this e-Arc! This review will be published on goodreads & will remain posted indefinitely.

As a huge fan of Bird Box, I was beyond excited to get my hands on a publication by Josh Malerman. And... what did I just read! This novella was weird, charismatic and somewhat sexy within the magical realism vibe.

Two teenagers, Amelia and James, are on a romantic first date: canoeing on the lakes. And all is well until the find a creepy abandoned house literally at the bottom of one of the lakes. Of course, they decide they're going to mess around.

Let's just say this was absolutely mysterious, totally weird and not obvious - the best I can do is say that fans of "I'm Thinking of Ending Things" by Iain Reid will love this one in a sense that when you finish, you still aren't sure what happened and are likely going to search the internet for answers. That being said, it's not a horror, so don't be put off by this categorization.

This book is not for everyone, but if you like weird books like I do, "A House at the Bottom of the Lake" is just incredible.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Not a huge fan of cliffhangers but a interesting read with a clever concept. Wish it was a bit longer.