The Haunting of Leigh Harker by Darcy Coates ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5
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Leigh is a woman who enjoys her peace and privacy. She got a great job and a beautiful home- all to herself- which is exactly how she likes it. But something is disrupting her solitude…someone dangerous is intruding in her home and she must figure out who it is before it can reach her.
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This book was SO twisty! Every time I thought I had it all figured out @ threw me another curve ball full of spooks and scares and claustrophobic moments. If you love a great ghost story and haunted house situation- this book is for you!!
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Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review prepublication.

Not my favorite one of hers, but a good read nonetheless! I thought it was interesting how she started off the book the way she did. Obviously, it ties in later and you understand the purpose, it just takes a minute to get going because the first few chapters are kinda slow and hard to get into but then it starts picking up and the nitty-gritty stuff begins! Darcy Coates does such a good job at telling a creepy as crap haunting story!

Title: The Haunting of Leigh Harker
Genre: Mystery /thriller
Pub date: September 7th,2021


This book starts off with such a frighteningly haunting experience the reader is instantly sympathetic to the main character, Leigh. The ghostly apparition is so horrifying and realistic.
This experience of reading through the perspective of Leigh makes one get drawn into her world and not stop reading. Darcy Coates’ writing style is elegant and enthralling. Her use of metaphor and imagery makes this book feel like an instant classic haunted house story. The gothic elements are undeniable, the home becomes alive as you read.

I read this is two sittings. It was that engaging and entertaining. The twist is unreal and once that happens you just can’t put it down. I will definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

Parts of this were so scary that I jumped during the daylight hours. There was a sense of dread that was palpable through quite a bit of the novel. There were just a few things towards the conclusion that were too contrived and they pulled me out of the story.

Dacy Coates quickly became one of my favourite horror writers after reading some of her previous books. She’s not kidding around when it comes to scaring the crap out of the readers.

The Haunting of Leigh Harker starts hard and fast and Coats manages to keep up the suspense and the scare during the whole story. It is very rare for me to not be able to read a book in the dark but I couldn’t for the life of me keep reading after night fell.

I loved the whole book and I highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley Poisoned Pen Press for my copy.

Four stars. This was a solid read! It starts off scary as hell, but really develops a heart as it goes along and leaves us with an emotional ending.

We start off with Leigh encountering something in her house, after fifteen years of living peacefully there. The book is permeated by this creeping sense of dread, by our narrator's story unraveling, and this lent it a spookyness more than any jump scare descriptions did.

The plot twist about a third in was not wholly unexpected but made things more interesting, bringing us more into mystery territory at times. I was gripped and had to know what was happening! At times reminiscent of The Fall of the House of Usher, other times super akin to that decade-old horror movie The Apparition, the imagery was fantastic. This includes a scene that'll keep my feet from the edge of the bed for a while.

If I had to note some shortcomings, it'd be firstly some of the icky aspects of the horror that left me wanting to scrub every inch at home to prevent mold. It was also a little intense on the metaphysical, trippy passages at times - there's a reason for this that was cool when you realize why but I'm a fan of clear narration. Also, there's a little detail tacked on to a reveal at the end that I found unnecessarily horrifying.

All in all, this was a sound start to my spooky season reads!

Darcy Coates’s work has a formula to it that always works. This book is mysterious, creepy, and tugs at the heart strings.

I have read many books by Darcy Coates and they usually go down easy. I love a good ghost /gothic horror story. Sadly this was neither of those .

The first 30% or so of the book is all about Leigh, our main character and a very unreliable narrator, who waffles between having anxiety attacks about some sort of intruder (?) presence (?) alien (?) ghost(?) in her house and then reasoning it away. The writing is eerie, no surprise there as Darcy Coates is a pro at all things eerie and suspenseful, but in this book sometimes the scenes got a little too long and the scary moments were so drawn out that the suspense was lost .

I nearly DNF’d this but as I am a “Death before DNF” kind of gal I read some reviews and saw several saying to stick with it and it would pay off. So I trudged through to about 40% when things finally sort of started to make sense.

After 40% some other characters are introduced and we aren’t just stuck in Leigh’s mind. The pace really picked up then and that’s when I started to somewhat enjoy the book. A word of caution, be careful looking at reviews. Watch for spoilers. If you want any enjoyment from this book, you want to go in blindly.

Overall, I would say this is basically a fairly decent ghost story with two really shocking twists.

Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the free copy provided for an honest review.

This one jumps right in! The first third of the book is primarily the protagonist, Leigh, who clearly suffers from anxiety and I would consider an unreliable narrator, waffling between freaking out and rationalizing about “something”, an intruder, in her home. The writing is appropriately eerie, but after a few chapters, being stuck in Leigh’s head was a little too much. If I hadn’t seen another ARC review that told me to wait til 40% before giving up, I would have. Also be careful with looking through reviews, I saw one that spoiled it for me. It really is best not to know too much.

Once I made it to this point, the momentum of the story picked up and I became quite interested in what was happening. I just wish the first third of the book was condensed to a smaller section. While not totally original, I thought the story was creative and the writing atmospheric when not overly drawn out. The narrative creates a vivid visual of a living, breathing house and all the surprise and horror that can entail. I really enjoyed the last half of the book

I’ve enjoyed quite a few of Darcy Coates’ books and this one was a fun read. I didn’t see the main plot twist coming. The character descriptions were well done and I got creeped out a few times. I did think that the book could’ve been shorter, however.

Wow, this was a great horror book. It starts scary and it keeps going that way. I loved it. I can’t wait to pick up more by this author!

✨ARC Review✨

Weird things, unnatural things, downright scary things that make your heart plummet into your stomach are happening in Leigh Harker’s house. Things that would lead one to think a house is haunted perhaps. In a modern ghost story, Leigh is determined to get answers, but to also not leave her home. Are things so bad, that now she’s trapped?

What I Loved:
-The way the book starts! It is intense and gripping! That opening chapter dives right in describing this creepy thing looming over her bed!
-First person, present tense POV
-the locked door under the stairs, strange noises, and objects disappearing
-Things are slow and slightly repetitive after the abrupt beginning, but after about the 30% mark, when you hit the part involving her sister Meg, it starts to get very twisty!
-There are significant shifts that happen with the main character Leigh, they play a key part to understanding the story!

🎧Song: (Don’t Fear) The Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult

It is difficult to say too much with this book without spoiling it. It is noted by the author that this book is designed to be a re-read, so as to catch lots of tiny details the second time! I am not entirely sure I liked the ending, but I feel like I would need to read this one again to fully understand the details now that I have the full story. I guess you could classify it as horror (it is a ghost story but not much gore), but I would also say it’s a psychological thriller with the way it gets into your head and makes you question, especially with the twists! This one will be perfect for the approaching Fall/Halloween season if you are looking for spooky recommendations!

✨Rating✨
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5
Scream Factor: 😱😱/5

A special thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review! The Haunting Of Leigh Harker is out September 7th!

Wow this book just throws you straight into the deep end! As soon as I started this book the horror pretty much starts from the first page! I loved the descriptions in this book. It's very dark and intense horror with brilliantly vivid descriptions. I would have been straight out that house if I had someone constantly lurking outside my door but then there would be no story! This is a very chilling book which I thoroughly enjoyed. Great for all fans of a good haunting story.

This start with a bang.... and fizzles out rather quickly. While a legless entity seems to terrorize Leigh Harker, the story moves at a pace that I grew bored very quickly. While the past history of the house seems to help explain some of the haunting, it doesn't seem to make anything easier to lighten the load of the terror.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

<b>ARC provided by NetGalley for an Honest Review</b>
Since my first Darcy Coates book I've been hooked. The Haunting of Leigh Harker was another winner for me. The book operates more like a mystery, pieces of the story evolving as you read on. I absolutely loved the few twists and turns because they completely blindsided me. ***<spoiler>I never saw Leigh as the one being dead so when that alone was revealed it changed everything for me lol. The questions built up and I wanted answers just as she did. What happened to her? How did she die? Where is her body? Who are all these people 'haunting' her home? Was she even murdered? Just so many questions. I did get a bit confused at one point. I thought Sarah was also dead, having lived in the house ages ago but alas she is not and only returned to the home of her youth later in life. And umm her brother being the 'haunting spirit' and Leigh's killer was something I never saw coming. Even with all the hints dropped I was clueless and completely taken aback by the reveal in the end.</spoiler>*** The book is full of creepy moments and just so many moments that make you question it all and everything you've learned so far in the story. Leigh knows not what's going on in her home. The same home that's been a solace to her for 15+ years and just now suddenly is starting to threaten her very existence. Getting to the bottom of things won't be easy but Leigh is determined to get the facts straight and her life back in order. With the help of an unusual sidekick Leigh and Sarah will slowly piece the past together to break down the reality of what and who is Haunting Leigh Harker.

This novel gripped me with horror from the very first sentence. Coates combines metaphors and grotesque imagery in a way that immediately sets the reader on edge. 

The haunting of Leigh Harker is creepy in part because of its uniqueness. The strange occurrences that are happening in Leigh's house are unlike your typical haunting. I can’t go into specifics without spoilers, but the way that the “something” that appears in her doorway looks and acts is all so peculiar, and because of that, there’s a fresh level of terror associated with it.

All this said, the terror grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. It’s one horrifying scene after another, and there came a point where I became a little numb to it all. I started to notice not-so-minor plot holes. But then, there was the twist. 

I can’t say much about the twist without spoiling everything. But it’s a twist that simultaneously slowed the horror and added a new level of horror. The twist explained away the plot holes that I’d been rigorously making note of. A novel that was once just straight up chills and thrills without much depth beyond that became much more intriguing, the twist adding a layer of mystery to the plot.

Unfortunately, the very final twist wasn’t as good as the twist that happened fairly early on in the novel. It came somewhat out of left field, and wasn’t as well supported by the rest of the storyline. 

All this said, this is a creepy and beautifully written novel, worth reading for the immersive writing style and that first massive, jaw-dropping reveal that forced me stay up all night reading until I reached the last page.

*An ARC of this book was provided to me by Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.*

A mostly good ghost story with a couple big, juicy twists. Some parts were a little repetitive, a little too long-winded, some scary moments that were drawn out to the point that it broke the suspense. A few convoluted details that I still don't really understand, but I was here for a good time and that's what I got. I've read Darcy Coates before and some of her other books are tighter and spookier, but I really appreciated the different point of view and additional murder mystery thrown into this one.

This book was so scary… in a good way! The writing of the first 1/3 of the book was so captivating. Once you find out Leigh is dead, you want to help her figure out why.

Holy Hell. This book was SO great.

It started out in what I thought was a predictable manner; The protagonist of the book haunted by strange sounds and occurrences in her big old house. Then, quite suddenly, the book takes a 90ﾟ turn in a direction that you would least expect.

Without giving too much away, this is unlike any haunted house book you have ever read. Likable, recognizable characters, an unrushed but not too hurried timeline and an ending you will NOT see coming.

This is my 1st Darcy Coates book, and it will not be my last.

Thank you to Netgalley, Darcy Coates, and her publishing company for allowing me the pleasure of reading this ARC. All opinions are my own.

Content warnings: Scary imagery and a bloody murder scene

Right from the first page we start off in the middle of some creepy stuff.. Leigh is in her bedroom when she can feel someone/something watching her.. As she is trying to run and hide from it, it attacks.. She runs from the house and doesn't return until the next day after work.. When strange things keep happening and the police don't seem like they care to really investigate Leigh doesn't know what she is going to do.. She hunkers down in her house, and does her best to stay out of this things way... but you can only hide for so long..

I found that in the beginning when were thrown in the middle of the haunting that Leigh is experiencing I had a hard time connecting to her and what she was going through. Then at the not quite halfway point something is revealed that turned the story completly upsidedown.. and I loved it!! a total, WHAT THE HECK moment, that I totally had no idea was coming. From that point on the things from the beginning that were confusing began to make sense.. I found myself really invested in trying to figure out what was happening with Leigh and her house.. What that sinister presence she has been feeling lately is, and why she feels the most horrible feeling from the door that is always locked.. has been locked for 15 years since she moved in..

I loved what this story did, and now im going to be on the hunt for other stories like this or keep my fingers crossed that Darcy Coats will write more with the same twist this one has.
I don't want to give to much away so I won't say anything else, your just going to have to read this for yourself.!