3.5
I was attracted by a non-linear narrative, a Sri Lankan setting, and a small press doing climate-change spec fic.

Non-linear engages me like a puzzle (not a hard one in this case--trust the narrative and let it piece itself together), and can be uniquely effective in escalating plot. I think the structure was this novella's strength.

Given the several groups of people we follow, though, characters didn't get a lot of room.

The stand off/battle between an out-of-place colonial mansion and the forest it intrudes on with its presiding spirit--both evocatively described--was nicely complex.

3.5

A German filmmaker is in Sri Lanka making a documentary about climate change and finds an abandoned colonial mansion where locals say some kids went missing during the Civil War in this mind bending horror novella.

Throughout the book we cut to different groups of people who have lived in the house, including those missing children. I liked hearing their different stories; however, there was not much difference in the character's voices despite coming from different regions of Sri Lanka and, in the case of the filmmakers, being from a completely different continent.

I did like that the novella wasn't told linearly and the way the threads came together in the end. I also thought he commentary on colonialism and climate change was really unique, in that I haven't seen it down in this particular way before.

I appreciated that the author acknowledged that while he has been living in Sri Lanka for many years, he is still drawing on folklore that is not from his culture.

A pretty good story about climate change. A different take from others I have. It was interesting to read. The author wrote well. It wasn't very long however and I felt it could have made a great longer novel.

I received this book from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The House of Drought takes place in Sri Lanka. A film crew is there making a documentary about climate change and how it is affecting the area when they notice the colonial mansion above. The crew finds people to talk to about the different families who have lived there and hear strange stories about the Dry house and the Sap mother.
I would not call this a haunted house book like the description does. I would say it is a cursed house that has a strange ability. In fact, most of the description is misleading. I expected to read a very different book from what I actually read based on the description. I really liked the premise of the story in the description and wish I got more of that story.
However, the book is still interesting, but it is short. I liked reading about the different people who had lived in the house and what happened to those families. I wish there was more on a couple of the families, but it was still a good story overall.

Nope. This just didn't work for me. There was too much going on throughout the story.

I was fully behind a ghost story that was connected to climate change, but The House of Drought just brought ghosts and climate change into the story and really didn't dive into the how and why they were connected. Why was the house so thirsty? What's with the water? Why bring bottles of water in? Who are all the people and how do they connect? Where do they go and who else is there? These are all questions that frustrated me as I worked my way through the story. I never got any satisfactory answers. I'm still not certain I understood half of what I read.

2.5 Stars

Thank you so much to SFWA and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.

This is the first time I have heard of a writer's group that writes fiction stories strictly about climate change. I find it fascinating and admirable, as it's a situation that the entire world needs to take more seriously. I think on that front this novella was a success, but it falls flat on characterization and storytelling.

The cover and title of this book completely pulled me in. The House of Drought brings up so many questions, and the cover is mysterious and gorgeous. At just over 100 pages this is a very quick read, and I feel like it tries to accomplish too much with too few pages.

This novella is not told in a linear fashion, with different timelines jumping in at different moments. There are five different perspectives, and each time we encounter a new perspective we are told the end of their story first, and then work our way back up to that. With so many perspectives we are introduced to a ton of characters in a very short amount of time. I did not find this confusing, but that does mean there are a lot of very forgettable characters, which in a book so short potentially feels like wasted space.

Unfortunately, the characters themselves all felt the same. I'm not sure if this was done intentionally, but everyone had the same voice. Even though there were characters from different regions of Sri Lanka, and they all came from different backgrounds, they all spoke with exactly the same type of speech. This was very noticeable, which is why I question if it was actually intentional. I did not know until the author's bio at the end, but he's actually a German who has been living in Sri Lanka for the past several years, so this may be a factor as well.

[The next paragraph has spoilers in the middle that are marked as such]

I definitely feel like this story needs to be fleshed out a bit more to feel whole. The house worked in a contradictory way, with characters out of nowhere completely understanding the house. For example, ***spoiler starts here***how did people just take a bath without the Dry House appearing ? It's shown several times that just setting out a few bowls of water, or pouring a water bottle on the floor is enough to conjure it, so how did anyone do dishes, laundry, or bath here ?***spoiler ends here*** This is just something that I feel should have been broadened on a bit more, so it wouldn't feel like such a huge jump in logic.

Overall this was an ok novella, but the intent behind the story shines a lot brighter than the actual work.

When German documentarians, Bernhard & Julie make their way into the Kandy province of Sri Lanka with the intent to film clips of the devastating effects of climate change on local farmlands, they come across a local folktale whispered amongst farmers. The legend of an entity that floats through the jungle with seeds for eyes & lures children with tenderness; always keeping an eye on the health & wealth of the lands, seeking to protect the nourishment that it requires to prosper. Throughout this novella, a multitude of characters, each with their own dramatic backstories, find their way to the house only to become lost in the horror that befalls the property.

There is always room on my library shelf for a book that requires me to research topics. Though I enjoy stories that lead me down familiar roads, there is something to be said for those that leave me seeking to learn more. This is one such book. Riddled to the brim with folktales & lore, the Sap Mother is an entity that was sprinkled into the story just enough to leave me feeling intrigued yet, I did not feel that enough dedicated detail was given to her or any of the characters to leave me feeling fearful. I wonder if this is due to the length of the book or if it is because the story is being presented in book format, that the intensity of the lore is lost upon me. Should I find myself watching this story unfold, I should think that I would enjoy the film very much.

I am not one to comment on something that I have no knowledge about. I will always do my due diligence in terms of researching materials that were previously outside my realm of understanding. When it came to seeking to understand who the Sap Mother was for locals, especially those in the farmlands of Kandy, I came up empty-handed. It was incessantly difficult to find any information about a Sap Mother, an Anik Amma, or a White Lady in local lore which made the author’s note a bit confusing. There are ample texts dedicated to explaining the phenomenon of The White Lady for different nationalities of people; the concept appears to be quite common amongst humanity. However, I could not find anything specific outside of a couple of quick mentions of general descriptions.

The White Lady is a woman who wanders around luring men to their deaths, essentially. However, after coming up short in terms of specific information regarding this entity I relied heavily on the descriptors given to us in the book. I acknowledge that the author is recounting some of the stories that he has been told & am in no way seeking to claim falsehood when stating that I, personally, could not find information about this entity. Rather, I wonder, why were are given so little.

In the context of the story, the Sap Mother is said to be a protector of the land. Given the level of reliance that the local people have on a generous rain season to ensure that their crops grow, the Sap Mother wanders around taking seeds as payment for guardianship. My first moment of confusion arose when we are being told that the Sap Mother gets her strength from the young, feeding on their life force to sustain her. Does this mean that she kills them or does this mean that she finds joy & sustenance for her tasks, in the presence of children? What leads me to question this is that—perhaps this was the point—the Sap Mother is simultaneously presented as good & evil. She kept a child captive with her during the entirety of his life in the jungle after he ran away from the house that was being barged by mob members. Yet, we are also meant to believe that she is simply angry at the house for rotting the land & sucking it dry from water.

What is the link between the Sap Mother & the House of Drought other than they both inhabit the same place? Why were the children captive within the walls of the house? Who made it so this house held secret rooms? Are we to believe that the Englishman who built the establishment had directed it to be built as such? If not, where do the supernatural aspects of the story come into play when it comes to leading people to be imprisoned within the walls of the House of Drought? Wouldn’t the Sap Mother want to set the children free from a house that was ruining the land she sought to protect?

I understand that this story relies fully on the make-believe aspect of storytelling. For example, everyone who was trapped inside the Drought House would have died within three (3) days, especially if the house was sucking them dry of any/all moisture. I appreciate that not every aspect of an entity of local lore may be completely understood or accurately translated. However, this story would have benefited from more elaboration. Rather than hearing a villager recount some of the stories & experiences that she had, more than twice, we could have seen the characters of the documentarians do personal research. Perhaps they were in the early stages of their project but, seeing as we read about them gathering final clips of the house for the film I think not.

Bernhard & Julie would have added more than a disjointed link to the history of the house had they participated in the research. Seeing them be told by third parties what happened in the house felt a bit boring & I know that’s not a great descriptor but, every flashback to the present time saw me waiting for the next section of explanation about the actual people that lived in the house. With that being said, some editing could have been done to have these pieces of the story flow with more ease. I do not think it necessary to read about every group of people’s impressions of the ‘palace’ especially when each of these was exactly the same, one from the other.

The dialogue grew to feel increasingly disjointed & I cannot pinpoint if this was intended in an attempt to write the English text how someone who spoke another would speak—utilizing intonations, emphasis, etc.—or if the author could have benefited from another editor. As well, I had no reason to believe that the characters held the nationalities that they did. There could have been further German employed to reinforce where the characters were meant to be from. I originally thought that the employment of ‘ja’ in place of ‘yes’ was due to spelling errors & it wasn’t until a German word was used that I understood why this was being done. In cases such as this, it would be positive to have the English book be written in authentic English speech & not adopt the speech patterns of another language. Words can be utilized within the text to confirm who is speaking & what language they are speaking but, to do both feel disjointed.

Ambiguity is generally fine, I actually enjoy it in Horror but, in this case, I was waiting for something catastrophic to happen to lead me to feel enthused about the book. When Hemantha is probably killed by the Sap Mother I can’t help wonder, why? This is meant to be a peaceful being & yet she murders a random person for being inside the house she hates? Is she single-minded or can she intone that these people walked through the forest in which she lives to seek shelter in the house? Did anyone find his body? This leads me to question, again, what the connection between the House of Drought & the Sap Mother is. Is the house evil or is it simply haunted? Is it haunted because of the Sap Mother or is it haunted because the Englishman gave less than 2 cents for the land & the people?

When all is said & done, I enjoyed the thought & motivation behind this story more than I enjoyed the story itself. When Bernhard is captured by the house I didn’t care, I was eager to be done reading. Jasmit’s side quest to release the person who saved her after 20 years felt ridiculous; I’m sure it was difficult for her to return to the house but come on…this person sacrificed themselves in coming to save you, please be better. With some editing, this story would flow very smoothly & ultimately that should be the goal; to have a horror story transition in an effortless fashion through terrors & fears, with bumps in the night & strange light, into the solitary confinement of a man without willpower.

Thank you to NetGalley, Stelliform Press & Dennis Mombauer for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started reading "The House of Drought" and I think that was a beautiful way to dive in. I was instantly pulled into the story and placed into the colonial mansion with the dark and tempting forest just outside the gate. Mr. Mombauer does a wonderful job of drawing the reader in with his descriptions as well as with the characters. I was also very appreciative that he jumped right into the story and used a shifting time frame method in his writing. This enables the story to remain exciting and keeps you reading while also making sure to provide all the necessary and wanted information. The book is also not a long one which, mixed with the fast paced plot, makes for a delightful quick read.

I do however, have two critiques. The first being the multiple points of views that are giving throughout the story. Multiple POV can be hit or miss for me and I found that in this case the story didn't need as many side stories and points of view. There were a few times I was taken aback by the character switch as there is no indication beforehand of the change and as The House of Drought is not a particularly long story there was not much time to get to know the characters whose points of view we were reading from.

My second critique goes in hand with the first and is that there are so many characters introduced in such quick succession that it takes away from the ability to truly bond with the characters of importance such as Jasmit, Narun, Baduka,and Kavith. Just as I would become invested in one's individual story it would be over and focused on another's. While we get to learn about the legends surrounding The Sap Mother, I was expecting more interaction with her which we don't get in the way I had been hoping for. I don't think this would've been as much as a hinderance to the overall story if the book was longer and allowed for more exploration of the characters.

Even with these critiques, though, I truly did enjoy The House of Drought! As I mentioned previously I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Mr. Mombauer or this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by the story he had to tell. I think he mastered the art of showing the reader and not telling. He allows the reader (at least in my case) to learn about another culture without holding their hand and guiding them through. Instead he provides the information they'll need and puts the rest on them to do the work if they have questions. I appreciated that greatly.

I would absolutely recommend this book to those who enjoy short stories based on legends and mysteries.

Read this with a glass of water near by. It is the unholy love child of House of Leaves and Stranger Things, set in a lush tropical place that is being sucked dry by colonialism. The metaphor sang through true, but the novella itself read false, as if it was written by a white man trying to sound like a Sri Lankan. Oh wait...

All in all a good gothic story, if you liked Mexican Gothic this might be up your alley. I enjoyed how the story was told inside out, but I struggle with magical realism as a genre, so it wasn't my favorite.