This quiet horror mystery opens on Clare returning to her hometown after her childhood best friend, Abby, attempted suicide at a local haunted house. In the sleepy town of Sumner’s Mills in upstate New York, the Octagon House sits back in an overgrown section of woods all but forgotten by most of the town. In 1965, a man killed his family not long after moving in and the house has remained empty since. In 1998, Clare and Abby ventured into the house but when they came out again, they were never the same. Now, 20 years later, Abby returned to the Octagon House for reasons unknown and the last thing she said before losing consciousness was Clare's name. Clare never wanted to admit to Abby that she also felt changed after that night in '98 but now that she's back home, there's no denying the pull she feels to the house. Clare's life in Chicago is in pieces so she has plenty of time and need for distraction by investigating what lead Abby to return after so many years. But what Clare assumes started in 1998 may go back farther, past 1965, and to the original construction in 1936.

TW/CW: suicide, miscarriage, domestic violence

This book reminded me so much of Jennifer McMahon's The Drowning Kind (blog review here) - return to a quiet hometown after a tragedy, quiet supernatural horror elements, flashbacks to the past, very atmospheric. However, I did find Fawcett's debut novel to be a little messier in places but with a really solid foundation that kept me turning the pages. While I do think this book technically falls into the supernatural horror genre, it isn't as upfront and bold as it may seem. This certainly has more quiet horror elements and has a very strong themes of friendship and grief. It also, at times, reads more like a general fiction book than a horror book. The cover and synopsis made me think this was going to be much more of a straightforward haunted house type of story which isn't exactly what we got. I do think that may disappoint some readers but I enjoy these types of quiet horror books a lot.

I really enjoyed the multi-timeline elements in this story. I'd say the story is about 60% in the present day timeline, 30% following Clare and Abby in 1998, and the last 10% split between 1965 and 1936. I think having the 1965/1936 timelines was really smart because it let us find out information that Clare would most likely never be able to know from her investigation. It also let the reader into the lives of these past characters and fleshed them out a bit to make them feel real instead of treating them like rumors. The present day timeline is Clare struggling through her own personal trauma as well as her guilt for how she's treated Abby. Clare also spends time reconnecting with some of her other friends who still live in the area and whose daughter might be going down the same dangerous road as Abby. There's also some light mystery elements going on in the present day with Clare trying to figure out why Abby came back to the town. The timeline in 1998, however, did feel a little bloated. I liked how we got to see the events that present day Clare references but I felt there was a lot of extra things that we didn't really need. On paper, I can see how X leads to Y leads to Z in this past timeline, but I think the time and amount of development we get for X, Y, and Z doesn't make sense for the amount of payoff we get. I would have preferred if we kept all the past plot points, but got to them more quickly without a whole lot of extra fluff around them. Because of this slightly bloated narration, I did find myself getting bored at times with this 1998 events even though they directly impact the present day.

I loved the characters and thought Fawcett does an excellent job at matching up characters from past to present. It was the literary equivalent of casting directors finding the perfect child actor to match an adult actor. Obviously, a lot changes between Clare when she is 14 years old in 1998 and now as a 34 year old returning to town. However, the characterization doesn't change so much that the two timelines (child Clare and adult Clare) are unrecognizable. I could 100% see how 14 year old Clare grows up to be adult Clare and both have similar struggles but not exactly identical. I've mentioned before in a few reviews that I'm not the biggest fan of young children in stories, especially when we get their POV. I find it is really hard for me to be completely convinced of the character voice in those moments and the kids either come across as too old or too young. I think Fawcett does a great job at really capturing the essence of being a 14 year old girl and at that weird time where you feel both too childlike but also too adult. I also loved the friend group dynamic and how they were, technically, a group of 4 but they really were more like 2 pairs of friends. I completely remember having a friend group dynamic like that and I think most friend groups in real life act in the same way.

The tension, for me, was really uneven in this story and I think that has more to do with the horror elements often times taking a big step back and the more personal themes coming forward. When the story begins, the reader doesn't have a lot of information about the Octagon House and what connection Clare and Abby have to it. It felt like Fawcett wanted that to be a slower burn reveal where she sprinkled in some breadcrumbs in the story to try and make it sound very ominous. And while it is true that we don't find out exactly what happened until we're well into the book, the breadcrumbs Fawcett was leaving were big enough that I could more or less get the gist of what happened. Once I got that feeling, the more of these vague references we got to the past events were less tension-building and more annoying. Also, as mentioned above, I think we spent too much time in the 1998 timeline following some of the more mundane aspects of the story. There were also times where Clare felt drawn to certain places almost out of her control and I really wished those were built up and escalated as the story progressed. There was so much potential for this to be much creepier than it was, even if Fawcett doesn't go full haunted house with the story.

I did enjoy the horror elements in the story and how they tied the different timelines together. I don't think anyone would be surprised that a supernatural story would have connections to the past and while there might not have been anything super unique about the way the supernatural elements unfolded, they still worked really well. I was a bit worried for a while that we were venturing into the Indian Burial Ground trope but thankfully that was not the case. I do think the horror elements were used more sporadically than I would have liked. I do think the level of horror escalated with Clare's acceptance and realization of what happened in 1998 but it did take her the whole book to get there. I loved how dark the ending got when we finally got to put all the pieces together. Because of how dark the reveal gets, I was expecting the horror/supernatural elements to also be darker or more extreme than they were. I was left with some pretty specific questions by the end that aren't ever answered fully. In that way, the story was left a little open ended, but I think it ended in a way that was appropriate to Clare's journey. She got her answers and sort of shrugged off the rest. I think each reader may have a different interpretation of the events in the ending which will be interesting to see when the book is released. In the moment, I was a bit annoyed that we didn't get more information about the supernatural elements but after thinking it over, I do think the ending was appropriate for Clare's story.

Overall, I enjoyed this quiet horror read. I loved the characters and supernatural elements. The multi-timeline elements worked well, for the most part. The tension was a bit uneven and the ending left me with a few more questions that I would have liked, but this was still a satisfying read and I'd read more from Fawcett in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for the ARC

Expected publication date is February 22, 2022

4.5 stars

Beneath the Stairs by Jennifer Fawcett is a smartly written tale with strong overtones of the supernatural, a suitably gothic thriller vibe, and an undercurrent of tangled family relationships, both healthy and tortured.
The focal point of this story is the Octagon House, a mysterious, dilapidated structure originally built in 1936 in the forest outside Sumner’s Mills, a town in upstate New York. It was constructed by George Sumner as a gift for his wife-to-be and her daughter, but a tragedy occurred and, in the years to come, the house became known as a sinister, haunted entity. The secrets it holds are magnets for the local townspeople, leading to more tragedy and mysterious events.
This story is written in three timelines: 1936, 1998, and present, with a few chapters referencing the deaths of a family in 1965, and the father Ben’s imprisonment for the crimes. The protagonist, Clare, narrates the present from her POV as a young adult and is the character with the most depth. Back in 1998, her teenage friends are typical youths looking for a fun time in a dreary town. Their activity sets up the narrative of Clare’s life, then and now, and her attempt as an adult to solve the mystery of the Octagon House, and to help save the sanity of her traumatized childhood friend, Abby, while overcoming her guilt as a participant in the trauma.
The character development is excellent, and while some of the characters and events have a coming of age vibe, the strong atmospheric writing enriches the older timelines and makes for a suspenseful gothic tale. The Octagon House itself is portrayed as a suitably grim, active character in the narrative. The story was unhurried and well-paced, as it unfolds like layers of an onion, a bit at a time, until the ultimate reveal of the dark secret of the House.
I enthusiastically recommend this book to readers looking for a well-written, atmospheric suspense novel with a good gothic vibe and rich character development.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster/Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my unbiased review.

This was a solid debut by Jennifer Fawcett. It was really atmospheric and I could easily picture the house where these creepy events unfolded. These scenes were definitely my favorite, particularly those in the basement. Basements kind of freak me out anyway but this one takes the cake.

The characters were well-developed as was the relationship between Clare and the others. Overall there are 4 timelines in this one, but it was still really easy to keep track of for me. I loved following along with Clare as she worked through her trauma and investigation of the mysteries of the Octagon House.

My only real gripe about this was the ending. It was a bit anticlimactic in my opinion and other things I won't mention due to spoilers.

This author has great promise and definitely one I will be keeping an eye on! Thanks to @netgalley and @atriabooks for this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

❗️TW- attempts of suicide, graphic miscarriage scene

Spooky, thrills and chills! Story starts with young best friends who enter a local house called Octagon house and have an encounter in the basement that they can’t explain, the mystery of the basement unwinds slowly throughout the story with all questions answered by the end. The basement haunts and grabs these girls from childhood and draws them back in as adults. Easy to read and interesting storyline.

Thanks to Netgalley for my advanced reader copy!!

•Beneath The Stairs-Jennifer Fawcett
•Thriller/Horror/Suspense
•Available February 22nd
•4⭐️/5

“…I’ve learned well how wrong it is to try to cover up frightening things.”

This was one crazy ride! I was on the edge of my seat needing to know what was going to happen next yet a little scared to keep reading while home alone in the dark.
I loved the suspense and the mystery and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. However, I feel like the book left so many things left unresolved and there was no real answers to so many of my questions.

All and all a great read!

Out February 22, 2022! [Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free eARC in exchange for an honest review!]

Rating: 4/5 stars

BENEATH THE STAIRS is a horror/mystery centered on Clare, a young woman who returns home when her childhood best friend attempts suicide in the local haunted house—a place that played an important role in their adolescence and is now threatening the lives and minds of more than one person…including Clare herself.

Let me start by saying this book is GENUINELY creepy. I’m not usually scared by books, but I kept finding myself reading this one late at night and needing to turn the lights on. Overall, I loved the vibe and love when a horror novel can actually live up to its promise of eeriness, so even if that was all this book had to offer (it’s not) I’d be impressed.

In terms of the plot, I found it a little too straightforward in parts and would have liked a bit more mystery/surprise in the ending. But I was pulled in by the characters and found the story (particularly the history of the house and flashbacks to past timelines) gripping for the most part. It also gave me Haunting of Hill House vibes (both the novella and the show) that I REALLY appreciated. In short, a super solid debut you should check out—I’ll be eagerly anticipating whatever Fawcett does next!

Recommended for anyone, but especially those who like: horror literature; ghost stories; Haunting of Hill House.

CW: Suicide/self-harm; mental illness; death of a parent; pregnancy/miscarriage; death of a child; violence; murder; abandonment.

This had me at "fans of Jennifer McMahon, Simone St. James" (haven't read from the other author mentioned). THIS WAS SO GOOD. I was instantly creeped out from the beginning and the feeling carried me through the book. I finished in a couple of days - despite three children, a puppy, full time job (aside from mom duties), and studying for a test - because I had to know what happened!
Honestly, there were so many things that kept me interested I can't really explain. BUT I will say that usually I have a hard time when there is a break of timelines; I either love it or hate it and Fawcett was 100% able to make it work without dragging their pieces.
Definitely looking out for more books by this author!

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

"Go back to the beginning to find the end."

Beneath the Stairs gave me ALL the vibes, especially The Haunting of Hill House vibes. If you have watched The Haunting of Hill House, you will definitely enjoy this book! I was pulled into this terrifying, creepy, suspenseful thriller from the very first page.

I felt so close to Abby and Clare by the end of this book. Both of their characters were so well-developed. I loved the rollercoaster of a ride they put me through visiting the Octagon House. I thought Jennifer Fawcett provided a lot of good history of the small town, Sumner's Mills, and the families that lived in the Octagon House.

I seriously can't believe this is a debut thriller! Jennifer Fawcett is seriously talented. I can't wait to read what she writes next!

This is a must read thriller for 2022!
45./5 stars

I will post to my review to my instagram: @thrillersandcoffee

The premise sounded fantastic, but the writing just wasn't working for me. It felt a bit stilted in the main character's voice, which made it hard for me to truly dive into the story. I'm sure it will work for plenty of others, though.

I loved this book!! Written from various perspectives and timelines, this intricately woven novel was a delight to read from the beginning to end! Slightly ghoulish, and wholeheartedly thrilling, I adored Beneath The Stairs.

Four girls in their early teens hear an urban legend about a strange house in the woods and decide to explore. The basement door seems a bit out of place with the rest of the house, so due to its oddity and that it hides away the basement, it becomes a bit of a focal point for two of the girls. As a joke is played on one of them and she is stuck on the stairs in the basement and then the door won’t open again to let her out, it begins a troublesome adventure for two of them that follows them into adulthood.

The House has sleepily held a connection to the two girls as they can’t decipher what they had seen when they were in the basement, dreams begin that they can’t quite make logical, and the hold the house has just doesn’t seem to fade…

The book was a bit slow building, but the characters were enjoyable which made it interesting getting to know the them. I felt a creepy edge to the book a few chapters in and was intrigued by the back history of the house and of the man who built it. The writing style that jumped back and forth between time periods and different points of view built up that factor even more and had me wanting more and more of the details to understand what hold the house had on certain people. Unfortunately, even though the overall book was very creative and eerie, the ending fell flat. I did enjoy some aspects of resolution for a couple of the characters, but I was wanting more from a historical perspective on the house and the builder. It just wasn’t as divulged as I had hoped. I still enjoyed it overall and look forward to more from the author. Thank you!

Beneath the Stairs is a generational story involving an old abandoned “Octagon House” hidden deep in the woods of Sumner’s Mills where a gruesome crime occurred in 1965. In 1998, four pre-teen girls make a decision that changes two of their lives forever, both experiencing something unspeakably terrifying and sinister in it’s basement. One cannot stop the electrifying pull it has on her.
Always there.
Always waiting.

Clare returns to her hometown two decades later to find out what happened to Abby, who only days before, was found unconscious after attempting suicide in the Octagon House’s basement. She’s now in an induced coma. This haunted house tale gave me goose bumps. Oh and speaking of, did I mention it’s fantastical, supernatural elements (the basement door with a mind of it’s own, that voice pleading “help me..”) Abby had written “go back to the beginning to find the end.” Carefully placed clues send you down a rabbit hole, revealing layer by layer of the houses origin.

Coming of age, childhood trauma, multiple tragedies, mystery and a CREEPY ATMOSPHERE; -it’s all here in this SUPERB DEBUT. Read in one sitting.

Thanks to Atria Books via NetGalley for kindly approving an arc. All opinions are my own.

I struggled with this one. I couldn’t get into it and gave up at the 30% mark. I’m sure it will be a favorite for others but it just wasn’t for me.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a good spooky book, and Beneath the Stairs felt like the one that would get me back into the mindset to start reading this genre again. A house hidden in the woods, where a man murdered his wife and kids years ago? Sounds good to me! It started out feeling creepy right from the start. The atmosphere, the town, the surroundings, it all gave me this feeling like I needed to keep looking over my shoulder.

I wasn’t really a fan of how Ms. Fawcett told the story. Even when the character of Clare is talking in the first person, the way she talked made it almost feel like she was talking in third person, but okay, I dealt with it. Clare has been through a lot in her life, from losing her mother at eight years old, to living through the horrific experience the girls had the first time they visited the Octagon house, to her most recent circumstances. Given all that, she really came across as a morose character to me, so I wasn’t surprised she wanted to go back to the Octagon house and figure out what happened to Abby who apparently spent three days in there, before attempting suicide.

The story is told in past and present chapters, as well as multiple points of view. It really could have been told in a more condensed manner, as large swaths of information just seemed to bog the story down for me. I wanted to move forward and get to the meat and potatoes of the story. Even though the story felt slow, it did keep me engaged and I was excited to get to the climactic ending but when we got to it, it really fell flat for me.

Something else that really bothered me were some of the decisions these characters made along the way. I shook my head a lot. And when the story was finally wrapped up, there were many loose threads that were never cleaned up that I couldn’t get out of my head. I often think about a book long after I’ve finished it and I did this time too, but not because I was reminiscing over what I had read, it was because I was still needing answers to plot points in the story.

Overall, this was an engaging read, albeit a bit slow to start. I commend Ms. Fawcett on this debut novel. I will certainly be keeping my eye on her to see what she has in store for readers next.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with and advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for this advanced kindle copy of Beneath the Stairs!

The premise of this book sounded exciting and different and it did not disappoint. Clare was an easy character to like and I was rooting for her throughout the book. I enjoyed the different perspectives from past characters and residents of the Octagon house and how it all came full circle by connecting. This was a fast read and I finished it in a day. The author did a great job at ensuring the reader stays invested in the story, but dropping hints of what’s to come here and there.

The cover and title drew me in immediately. It presents  questions, "What exactly is beneath the stairs? Where are they going?" Next comes the enticing blurb about the book. Since i was completely hooked, I had to find out what was going on in this story, and what a ride it was!

The author did such a good job of characterization, that much of it took me back to my pre-high-school days. I knew girls like that: the somewhat timid;  the  girl who acts like the leader and does things first; the followers; and the just hanging out, but an integral part of the book.  While they all went into the house that was supposedly haunted, only two of them were affected by it--one more so than the other.

The setting for the house is eery and the author, Jennifer Fawcett, does an excellent job of making sure the reader gets the full effect of that with  the atmospheric  descriptions that causes shivers.  All in all, I found this to be a five star book.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of Beneath the Stairs!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely loved this book & found it difficult to put down. It is such an immersive story, that’s genuinely so creepy at times!
This story is basically about a house, with a not so great background, as all haunted places begin. But this story, has different little details that just really brought out the “creepy” factor for me. I think this book is going to be a big success when it hits the shelves Jan 25!

Thank you to Atria Books and Netgalley for my e-ARC of Beneath the Stairs.

Beneath the Stairs is a multiple POV story, mainly told from Clare’s POV. Clare and Abby were inseparable until one fateful summer drove a wedge so big between them, it’s taken 20 years to find one another again.

An abandoned home in the shape of an octagon was the site of the murder of a family back in the mid 1960s. Then, in 1998, four friends entered the home on a boring summer day and were forever changed. Now, 20 years later, Abby finds herself back at that house and nearly dies. Clare must come back home to Sumner’s Mills and finally put the pieces of octagon house together to solve the mystery of what she and Abby saw that fateful summer day so long ago.

I really wanted to love this one, but the ending was so underwhelming and didn’t answer any of the questions I had. It starts off amazing, with a spooky atmosphere and a haunted basement in a long abandoned house. Instead of ghosts and uncovering a killer though, we are just given a lot of backstory and no real answers about what exactly happened in that house once upon a time. It was all conjecture, and I wanted more finality. Overall, I was hoping for a more paranormal story.

Beneath the Stairs releases February 22nd.

I should not have read this at 11:30 at night... it spooked me at times! I thoroughly enjoyed this story and the characters. It was full of mystery, spookies, and even a bit of a love story. There were times that I felt there were details that weren't needed but overall I was kept engaged and wanting to read. I enjoyed the back and forth timelines with our main character as well as the flashbacks to people that lived in the house before our main character, I thought it added a great spooky/mysterious element. There is a graphic scene that I was not expecting, so just heads up for readers going in!

Twenty years ago, Clare and her friends decided to go visit the Octogan House which was known due to a gruesome crime committed decades earlier. Since then it has sat uninhabited and visited by few. Nothing seemed off except for the weird basement door. When her friend Abby gets stuck down there, she comes back out not quite the same. From then on, things are never the same. But life goes on. Now, twenty years later Clare finds herself returning to her hometown after Abby was found hurt in the Octagon house. In order to try and help Abby, she is going to have to confront a lot about her past that she has tried very hard to forget.

Thank you to Atria & Netgalley for a gifted early copy of this book!

Thank you to Atria Books and Jennifer Fawcett for letting me read Beneath the Stairs early. This one publishes on 2/22/22

I really enjoyed this book! It’s creepy, it’s interesting and the characters are really well developed. The atmosphere in this one is why I love books like this but the ending left me a little disappointed. Overall this one really hooked me in and I recommend it to anyone needing a spooky, atmospheric escape.

Sumner’s Mills holds the eerie Octagon House, a spooky abandoned house hidden deep in the woods. A man killed his family there and the rumors of its stories keep most people away. Except for 13 year old kids trying to prove themselves to each other. When Clare and her bff Abby go exploring they soon find their whole loved changed forever. Twenty years later, adult Clare hears Abby has attempted suicide in the Octagon House and is now in a coma. Clare returns to her roots to try to uncover what actually happened in that house.