I ended up tearing through this in the space of a few days, as I was lucky enough to have a week off and to be able to spend it reading a ton. It felt like there was a bit too much going on at times, but the way all the plot threads end up converging ends up being incredibly well done. I will freely admit that the twist towards the back of the book with one of the daughters caught me off guard, but it ends up reinforcing what we've already seen of the father, and ends up explaining more of what's going on. This is a hell of a gothic novel that looks at the power that hate and resentment can have, specifically in the context of a creepy haunted house. This is also a black author and a black family at the center of all the goings on. Definitely worth a read when this comes out in February.

I loved this. A creepy gothic horror story very reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House. I definitely evoked a feeling of claustrophobic dread. I had never heard of the term "spite house" but it makes perfect sense for a spite house to be the focus of this story.

When I first started reading Spite House, I had a hard time getting interested in the fleeing family, Eric, Dess, and Stacy. I wondered if I'd picked the wrong story to read. As soon as they got to the mansion of the mysterious 80-year-old women, things really picked up. I got to the point where I was thinking, "I'll read one more chapter," and then going on and reading four or five more chapters. In other words, Spite House turned into a real page turner.

Horror, some magic realism, curses that follow families through generations, and a father and two daughter who really care about each other. Nothing is as it seems. It looks like the family is running from one thing, maybe a crime. Instead, they're running from something weird and miraculous into something even weirder. and possibly deadly.

Several interesting and strong women characters in addition to the Ross family.

Thanks to Tor and Netgalley for allowing me to read and review an eARC of Spite House.

What is going on between the covers

Eric Ross is on the run from a mysterious past with his two daughters. He takes on a well-paying job as a caretaker of Masson House, but there is a hook: the house is haunted. His job is really to find proof of paranormal activity and the secrets it holds that haunt the owner. It could also hold secrets to his past.

Setting

The Masson house is notorious for being one of the most haunted places in Texas. The house is built out of spite with its four-story bizarre design adjacent to an orphanage.


Brenda’s two cents

I loved how Johnny Compton used the haunted house trope as a spite house, giving the trope a fresh spin. The house is brought to life vividly, creating a sense of dread, danger, and foreboding that provokes fear.

There is a dark, tragic history that opens the door to see the effect social evils have on people, adding layers to the story. However, the characters tell us the history instead of in flashbacks that show us what happens. The history and motivations create a chilling, compelling ghost revenge story, but the suspense and tension are lost in the telling.

Every horror or supernatural thriller needs some drama to drive the story forward; however, the story here gets bogged down with too much going on, slowing down the pace. I loved the ghostly presents and their motivations, and I enjoyed the twists that surprised me, but the end got too busy, overcomplicating the story. I wondered if some of my questions were answered or if I had just missed something.

Overall I loved the elements of anger ghosts, social evils, and a creepy spiteful house filled with secrets.

Do I recommend it? Yes!

A different take on the haunted house trope. But definitely a good read. Will be looking for this author to keep putting out solid horror for years to come.

I've read quite a few haunted house books recently (Kill Creek, The Hacienda, What Moves The Dead) before Johnny Compton's book, The Spite House, but based on the hype I've seen for it on Bookstagram, I was expecting a lot. It does have some cool things going for it. Its central characters are a black family (a father and his two daughters). The Spite House itself sounds menacing (its skinny structure resting atop a hill) looking down an abandoned orphanage. Then, there are an abundance of mysteries (some which go unexplained that I can't really reveal here because it would spoil some things.

However, the book never got as creepy as I wanted. It's a shame because the book showed real promise in its earliest chapters, but then it got overburdened by multiple character perspectives. Some of those perspectives felt unnecessary like we could gleam information from their interactions rather than getting their POV. It was just too much. Also, the way the house came to be haunted just felt convenient and underwhelming.

I will say the book's closing line is excellent. But it's not enough to redeem the book's weaker points. I was really hoping for more from The Spite House, but it's ultimately just OK.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5. Fear Nerd says, "Check it out!"

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

Spoilers ahead. I will not reveal anything big - most of the review vaguely alludes to plot, structure, and characters.

---

I love a haunted house story. When a setting is as much a character as the people in the story, I know I'll like where things are going. The Spite House, by far, was the most interesting character in this book. By far, the story of the house is the best part of this book, making me sort of wish we were following the house rather than the main character. Eric was...fine, but uninteresting to me. The start of the book dragged to the point I almost DNF'd, which is why I'm giving this 3.5. Once things kick into gear, the story is fantastic, with a good sense of Literary Gothicness. I just wanted more of the house itself.

---

Again, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Spite House is the perfect read for anyone who likes atmospheric, creepy horror stories. Eric arrives with his two daughters to help investigated what is believed to be a malevolent, haunted house. He and his daughters are on the run from something and have little choice but to take this job which will change their lives forever.

I usually hesitate with haunted house books because it can get a bit predictable, but I was really interested in this one. It's a bit of a different spin on it. I liked the concept and it had me invested pretty quickly. I'm not totally sure how I feel about the ending. It fell a little flat for me after how much I'd enjoyed the rest of the book. Overall, I did really like this one, though.

I thought this was interesting. I'm a huge fan of the gothic, the spooky and the haunted. I thought that the initial premise was interesting--man on the run wit his daughters, finding an opportunity to hide/escape by living in this haunted place and documenting all the weird goings on. However, I do think the middle bit sagged a bit, and I wasn't fond of the ending. For the bang that this story started with, I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the pay off, but I bet there are people who will enjoy this thoroughly!

I love haunted houses - they're so incredibly compelling and interesting to me, and they never feel over-done. The setup of this novel is so great, it's interesting and a bit spooky, but it pretty quickly starts to fall flat. This isn't because the writing is subpar, Compton is clearly competent, something just doesn't quite click between the plot and the haunted aspect of the home. Still pretty good, but falls a bit flat.

I was really excited by a good old fashioned haunted house story. This one drew me in from the beginning. Eric is on the run for a mysterious reason with his two daughters. They come across an opportunity to live in a house and log any sort of paranormal activity. Everything was very exciting in the beginning but got pretty boring in the middle. I found the ending to be anticlimactic as well. Not bad, but I had higher hopes with how into it I was in the beginning. I’d still say I’d give it four stars though. 3 stars definitely isn’t enough.

On the run from his past, Eric, and his two daughters, are desperate for cash when he comes across an ad that says he could get paid good money to stay in a house. However, there’s a catch. The house is haunted and the owner needs someone to prove the paranormal activity. Eric is eager to take the job, not just because his family needs the money, but also because he has secrets and questions that need to be answered. Can staying in the spite house help him? Or will he and his family be devoured by it first?

I really enjoyed this book! It built SUSPENSE okay?? There were so many secrets! I stayed very intrigued throughout this book, I had to know what was going on! I also loved the characters, which is rare for me in horror books. I wanted the whole family to be safe and I even cared about side characters. I enjoyed the writing, I highlighted so many good quotes in this book. I always love Black gothic books, and this one was no different.

I spent most of this book thinking I’d give it 5 stars, but I did have a couple of problems that kept it from being a 5 star read. Firstly, I found it hard to picture the house, specifically the “floating” hallway. I’m not sure if it’s just me or if it wasn’t explained well enough, but the layout of the house and layout of the whole property confused me. I think the book could benefit from having a map or some type of imagery showing the layout of the house and the whole property. And the second problem I had was with the ending. I was left with questions and it felt incomplete to me. There was a big mystery of the book that was left unsolved. I think that was purposeful, but it made the story feel unfinished.

I really liked this book and definitely recommend it to anyone who loves horror! I’ll be looking forward to seeing more from this author in the future!

Thank you Macmillan-Tor/Forge and NetGallley for this arc. All opinions are my own.

TW: war and cancer mentioned, child death, child neglect, suicide

Atmospheric, tangled history,haunting, a curse, this should have had it all. Fell flat about midway and never really seemed to gain its momentum. The end is a jumbled together mess. It was an OK read, not terrible, just had higher hopes.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

"A spite house is a building constructed or substantially modified to irritate neighbors or any party with land stakes. Because long-term occupation is not the primary purpose of these houses, they frequently sport strange and impractical structures." - Wikipedia

A spite house stands like an eyesore on a hill almost too steep to hold it. Rumors have that people go into it and disappear, almost as if they were gobbled up by the house. For Eric and his daughters though, it is the means to a life that will allow them relative safety and control.

I enjoyed the story well enough. I wanted to know more about the Ross family and only wished that maybe the answers were given slightly sooner than they were. That is more my issue than with the writing and made me want to read on. I cared for the father Eric and found his character relatable. The only thing that I found to really drag was that the information that was given earlier on was repeated multiple times and I found that towards the end I skimmed over a few passages only because it was something I had already read and understood about the characters.

The Spite House is a creepy, atmospheric ghost story that follows Eric Ross and his two daughters as they flee everything; wife, job, house and a mysterious past. They end up in a small Texas town where Eric answers an ad to stay in an to stay and document the occurrences in a supposedly haunted house. With an unbelievable payday and a chance for answers, he jumps at the opportunity. But sometimes the dead don’t stay dead.

This one was creepy the whole way through and did a good job of not giving away all its secrets early. The Spite House is a solid ghost story and I’d definitely recommend.
4⭐️

Now I know what a Spite House is. I had never heard of one before. You learn something new every day. Eric Ross is on the run with his two daughters, Dess and Stacy. Readers are left wondering what they were running from and why. Don't worry, eventually you will find out. Looking for money and wanting to come to terms with his past, Eric accepts a job living in the Masson House in Degener, Texas. It has a past and is considered the most haunted house in Texas. The owner wants documented proof of paranormal activity in the house.

The ad and the house call to Eric for many reasons but is he fully prepared to live there with his daughters?

This book does have a Gothic feel to it, and I love a good, haunted house story. I was invested in the story and wanting to learn more. Although I enjoyed this, I was left with questions and feel like I must have missed a few things. A lot happens in the end, and I found I wanted more clarification on them.

The Spite House is a story about a father and his two daughters who move into a haunted house. The first third of this story had me intrigued and hooked. I loved the trope of this family moving into the haunted house so the father can record and note his experiences.

Unfortunately, that’s where my love for this book ended. This book felt very disjointed and quickly became more about other characters, who I honestly didn’t care about. I kept wishing the story would return to the family but I found myself reading more and more chapters from other perspectives. I think this book would have benefitted from having fewer perspectives and perhaps a smaller cast of characters.

The writing lacked the descriptiveness that I needed to picture the characters, the atmosphere, and even the house. All I knew about the house was that it was… thin? The spookiest haunted house stories have really descriptive imagery about the house, in my opinion. And there just wasn’t enough spookiness overall.

So while I enjoyed some of the book, and really appreciate the social commentary and Black characters (more of this is needed in the horror genre!), I found most of it to be disappointing.

Spite House, the debut novel from Johnny Compton, is a very complex story. There are a lot of well-developed characters, and each of them has secrets, and stories, things they are keeping to themselves and things they want to share. And, of course, there’s that house.

Eric and his two daughters, Dess and Stacy, are running from something. That something is not shared with readers until far into the book, but it causes issues wherever they go. They are loosely aiming to reach Eric’s childhood home, a place he feels he needs to return to – a placed with unfinished business. Money is a problem, though, and finding work while living out of a car and a string of cheap motels, particularly for a black man traveling with two children, no mother in sight is a bigger problem. Things are not looking good, and they spend most of their time looking over their shoulders, checking to be sure no one is on their trail.
Then Eric finds an advertisement. All they need to do is spend time in The Masson House, a purportedly haunted home with a long and jaded past, write down everything that happens, and report back to the owner. The money is incredibly generous, which makes Eric suspicious, but despite that, he applies, and he gets the job.

What follows is a dizzying ride down first one plot line, and then another, as the house, the ruins of a nearby orphanage, the owner, and his own memories spiral and close in on Eric. Everyone has an agenda, and none of them are pleasant. Can Eric survive long enough to satisfy the home’s owner, Eunice? Will either of them find the answers they so desperately seek?

For those answers you’ll have to get a copy and enter The Spite House but be warned. It has a tendency not to let you go…

This is a spine tingling story that pushes a man's love for his daughters to horrifying lengths.

This might be described as a "haunted house" novel but the Spite House is much more menacing, twice as evil, and wants to be fed. The mystery surrounding the family who moves in for a big payday is every bit as intriguing as the history of this strange house. I love how the author gave so much life to these characters and didn't treat them as simply fodder for the horrors to come. You feel a connection with them and makes what happens much more horrifying and emotional.

I love this story and am looking forward to reviewing it for my Horror Reads YouTube channel. Definitely recommend this!