Evie, her mom, and her brother move into their family home after the divorce of Eveie’s parents. They move from Newyork to a small town called Ravenglass. Unfortunately, the house they are moving into is the talk of the town. Hobbie House is what the visitors call the house, but to the local residents, it is known as the Horror house. Evie begins to see and hear strange things in the house.

Holly Horror was an easy and fun read. Was it groundbreaking? No. However, I still liked the small-town feel of it. While reading Holly Horror, I found it more creepy than scary. Which was ok for me, but if you are looking for Holly Horror to be a scary read. This is not it. The romance in this book was done well. It was sweet. The romance was not rushed or forced when the characters revealed how they felt about each other. Some may call it insta lovey, but I would argue that most teenage high school romances are just that in real life. I want to mention that some of the characters seem like placeholders. The tone of the book also changes. I kept trying to put my finger on what was lacking in the story, but I could not figure out what was off.

The ending was ok. I wonder if all the questions will be answered in the second book. If so, I am interested because so many questions were left unanswered. I rate this book 3 stars, and I will be reading the next book.

Thanks, NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group for providing this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Holly Hobbie went missing 40 years ago. Evie Archer moves into her old house and gets swept up in the mystery, only to find herself going down the same rabbit hole Holly herself went down...

I love when a middle grade book manages to create a spooky environment without all the extras allowed in adult horror. It allows you to become more invested in the story and the characters themselves. The popups with the Patchwork Girl were perfect, and the description of Holly was creepy without being over the top. I loved the allusions to Alice in Wonderland with Schroedinger and the rabbit hole idea, along with the imagery included in the Wonderland scene. Truly a wonderfully weaved tale of horror through the eyes of a teenager.

I did dock it a point though because I felt that Stan seemed too old at times for being ten. For his shenanigans I would have guessed he was at least 13, more like 15, but that would be too close in age to Evie.

This book is the first book I have read by Michelle Jabès Corpora, and it will not be the last. I’m not going to lie I went into this book thinking it was going to be another "paranormal" book that was easily disproven or something that would miss the mark completely. I have been let down by a couple of YA horror stories recently and this book was my last hope in a way and it did not disappoint.

This isn’t a criticism of the horror stories I have read this year, but a lot of horrors rely on the shock factor. This book doesn’t the spookiness of this book starts off slow and starts to smoother you without you realising till it’s too late. This book reminded me of the unease that I felt reding The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich and I loved it. The Dead House has been added to my Halloween rereads for this year thanks to Holly Horror.

When a mother and her two children have nowhere else to go, they move in to a two-hundred-year-old house with a creepy past. What’s the worst that can happen? Oh, wait I know... As Evie settles into her new home, she discovers Holly’s old diary and becomes increasingly fascinated with the mystery surrounding Holly's life and death. You are just begging for trouble from the other side at this point.

Evie's an interesting character She was strong, resilient and is realistic. Poor Evie isn’t having the easiest time as her parents are going through a messy divorce, she is getting used to a new school and new town. However, the new house starts to whisper to Evie’s mind, too quiet for others to hear and starts seeing creepy visions of shadow like figures that no one else sees. I love how Michelle incorporated mental health into her book in a respectful way. Evie realises that the only way to avoid a fate like Holly's is to solve the mystery of Hobbie House.

This book is perfect for the spooky season

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I honestly was drawn to this story for the cover. It is beautiful and creepy. This was a quiet little horror novel with a good cliffhanger ending. I was surprised to see it had a sequel and then was invested for the ending.

This read to me like a middle grade book. The layout and language just didn’t say YA to me. I think this would have been a perfect horror to market to kids. There’s very little violence and supernatural elements to keep it interesting.

I got a lot of Coraline vibes in this book and that’s probably what made me enjoy it more. Evie was a very sympathetic heroine and I really liked the romance that built up between her and Desmond, even though it felt sort of random. I’ll be looking forward to the next book in the series for sure!

It was a good read ! Very good read !
Perfect for people who like ghosts stories or halloween ambience in general !

this book was good! i felt it was on the more juvenile side of ya, but i still had an enjoyable time with this book.

i thought the characters were interesting, and it definitely got spooky at times.
the reason for 3 stars is because i felt like some of the plot fell flat at times. ideas weren’t fully hashed out, and we were left with holes.

i certainly would give it a chance tho!

The cover of this book is extremely unique and really drew me into wanting to read this book. The book starts out without much originality. The parents are divorcing and the children end up with the mother in some location that is creepy and there is a mystery to solve. I very much felt that I was reading a children or middle school book when I started experiencing the dialogue. the interactions are very juvenile throughout and the mother just seemed to always be gone and to never be involved in the events in the home. The characters were very flat and I could not really understand what drew Evie to be interested in her love interest. It seemed more forced than anything due to events from Holly in the past as opposed to anything that has developed. I did end up liking the way the book wrapped up and liked the way it was left open to be a series. I really just wish there would have been more originality. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Atmospheric, spooky, and intense- Holly Horror does not disappoint!

This book snuck up on me and I had not heard of this author or book until Penguin Teen reached out with their list of ARCs. I am thankful I was able to snag a copy, because this was bingable and fun!

This is a wonderful YA paranormal horror for the upcoming spooky season; and I highly recommend it if you enjoy haunted house horror!

Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for the e-arc! I look forward to book two!

Holly Horror by Michelle Jabès Corpora wasn’t originally one of the 2023 books I was anticipating. However, as soon as I read the synopsis, I knew right away it was something I wanted to read. After all, it appeared to have everything I look for in a paranormal horror novel: spooky house, secrets, more secrets, and an eerie history that was far more present than what the characters would’ve liked to admit. My instincts were spot on, because I thoroughly enjoyed this story.

Holly Horror has a somewhat typical beginning with a family moving to a new house under less than ideal circumstances. But “Hobbie House”—nicknamed “Horror House—came with a reputation, and it was one that was entirely earned. Part of my enjoyment of the book was the backstory Corpora wove into the present timeline. There was so much lore to think about as I was reading, and it arrived in well-timed allusions. I often questioned how the nuggets of information about the mystery would come into play later in the story, and it was one of the aspects about Holly Horror that helped gradually build the intensity. On the other side, while I didn’t find anything particularly too scary about the story, the spooky elements invoked a sense of unease, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Evie Archer was going through it in Holly Horror, but, in a general sense, I liked how Corpora built her character. Evie’s backstory really came back to haunt her, in a literal sense—no pun intended. The actions of her mother, the distance between her and her father, and her experiences with not being believed led to more harm than good. It really set her up as a character that would keep secrets, who wouldn’t say when something was wrong, or mention when she was afraid or hurt. She felt that she couldn’t be herself—and it made her susceptible—which was something reflected in the story by the way she handled stressful situations and her personal relationships. So “Hobbie House” wasn’t isolated—the town, Ravenglass, was within walking distance—but the feeling of isolation was something that permeated a large part of the story.

Holly Horror was intense, and that ending was too cruel of a cliffhanger. Luckily, there’s going to be another book in this series, and I’m looking forward to it!

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by the publisher (Penguin Teen) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, thank you!

I think this book is entertaining, and I look forward to seeing where the series goes. It's an intriguing way to resurrect Holly Hobbie, and I think the book is great even for people who are unfamiliar with it. I looked up more information about the classic character along the way. Also, this book gave me Are You Afraid of the Dark vibes, with it's haunted house and creepy toys, which I love. This is one of those tales with a very "teen feels like parents will never understand her" storyline, but it's engrossing because of the dynamics of the mom-daughter relationship, which is fraught with tension, care, and misunderstandings. Throw in a great character in an Aunt Martha, and you've got a lot of good female power happening. I really like that the book is so focused on Evie and her emotional experiences. I also just really want a patchwork dress or coat or something, so can we bring that style back? The brother's name is a distraction - Stan- I know people are named Stan, but should they be? Not really a 10 year old kid feeling name, but perhaps that's because I've been watching Golden Girls lately, so remove your personal associations with the name Stan if you need to.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

I was not expecting to love this book the way I did, but I consumed it in under 24 hours, and I have zero regrets. Other than maybe how scared it made me at night. I really thought that this was going to be another "paranormal" book that was easily explained away by reality, but this book offered so much more than that, and it gave exactly what it was supposed to give!

I absolutely loved Evie and found her to be super relatable, especially with respect to her mental health and having issues with not being believed all the time. She was strong and resilient, but she was also very real. She was the girl next door or the girl I grew up with who this could have easily happened to, and that made the story that much harder to escape from.

The spookiness of this book really started off slow and snuck up on me. There were points where I had to take a breather and remember that I was not about to be killed by ghosts. (I hope). This book was so good at immersing you and taking you on this journey with Evie, and I loved every second of it. I can't wait to see where this story goes from here!

All my spooky girls are going to want to get their hands on this book before fall comes!!

I thought Holly Horror was atmospheric and suitably creepy.
When Evie, her mother, and her younger brother move to Hobbie House they were hoping for a new start. Even with the disappearance of her mother's cousin Holly years before. As soon as they arrive in the house you can feel that the house has a creepy vibe, and the longer Evie is in the house the more she seems to be the target of a sinister force. Right in the beginning there is a scene in the attic that had the hairs on my neck standing straight up. There are a lot of other great creepy scenes, and I loved how Evie tried to solve the mystery of what happened to Holly and what is currently happening to her.

The ending definitely gave some good setup for the next one, which I'm really excited to read.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While this book had some chilling scenes, I found it a bit boring and predictable. It would make a good tv series though!

The vintage horror vibes that this book brings! I highly enjoyed this book. I would recommend this to teens who enjoy horror/mystery/vintage horror movies or vintage things in general.

My rating was flip flopping between a 3 and 4 throughout this book, but overall it's more of a 3. The premise and cover definitely drew me in. The story started off strong and I was really into it but then the pace slowed down. The writing was mostly OK but seemed inconsistent at times. I liked the characters a lot and they were developed well. It's an easy and unique story that was mildly scary - I absolutely expected and wanted more creep factor. We could have used more information on patchwork girl, and more of an explanation as to why things happened like they did. The ending was unexpected! I loved the artwork of the girl in the bonnet at the start of every chapter. I'm glad I read this Holly Horror but it wasn't memorable.

Thank you to NetGalley for offering this title in their catalogue. The opinions expressed above are entirely my own.

After her parents' divorce, Evie and her mother relocate to a small town and move into Hobbie House, or, as the locals call it, Horror House. Evie tries to focus on her family's fresh start, but can't ignore the strange occurences she's experiencing, or what she comes to learn about the house's history.

This was very fun haunted house story. It was an easy, quick read, and touches on some meaningful topics, such as mental health, and processing big life changes while growing up, but doesn't go deep into them. The horror elements were very well done, and I found them to be delighfully scary. I also like that the main character had a unique hobby in sewing, and that it was worked into the plot really well, it gave the book some extra flair for me.

Thank you Penguin Teen for the ARC!

This book was captivating from the beginning, and the cliffhanger at the end of the story was something that I was anticipating because I kept waiting for an answer to that one question I would definitely recommend this book to others and I cannot wait to see what happens next

If you love the kind of creepy stories that set you on edge, that have you looking over your shoulder, unsure if the shadow you just saw from the corner of your eye was always there or suddenly appeared, this is for you.

If you thrive on the story that sends chills up your spine and leaves you feeling unsettled and desperate for the mundane and monotonous reality of everyday life, read this now.

Creepy dolls, voices in the shadows, haunted places, and questioning the truth are all connected on this whirlwind of a story.

What I Loved:

A chilling atmosphere in a quintessential small town. Full of history, mystery, and a whole lot of legend, Ravenglass in the perfect setting.

The cover. It’s beautiful. Giving Gothic vibes and with hidden details the more you look at it. I love the colors, the use of shadow, and that it 100% tells you this is a horror novel.

The secondary characters were just developed enough. Birdie’s diner is magical. The Kims are vibrant and fun characters. The diner itself feels like a homey place full of warmth and love. Aunt Martha is a little like Professor Trelawney in Harry Potter. Quirky, with a bit of a third-eye, and that something that draws you in.

There is serious build up. Not just for the climax of the story but in tension between the characters and internal struggle. Evie is dealing with deep, emotional scarring that she has not processed. She has buried so much, so far down in the well of her heart that when faced with these memories, she fractures. At the heart of this story is healing. Healing from your past, from words left unsaid, and micro everyday wounds that pile up until the weight is too much to bear. Evie wades through these dark and despairing feelings of uncertainty, of guilt, and fear of herself. In a lot of ways, Evie is like Alice in Wonderland but the darker side hidden beneath the bright colors and dizzying sense of joy, where madness and dreams manipulate reality and what’s down is up and up is down. I was truly impressed with how everything came together in the crucial moment for Evie and how her choice was not easy, but something she really had to battle her own demons to make.

Relationships are complex and realistic. Evie’s struggle with having an honest conversation with her mother because she feels betrayed and like she can’t trust herself. How easy it is to notice something wrong and ignore it because you’re so focused on your own issues and how that can lead to devastating consequences. How you can live in the same house and grow so far apart.

Desmond-Evie’s love interest and heir to basically all of Ravenglass. On one hand, he’s a stereotypical popular, high school jock. On the other hand, he’s got all sorts of hidden depth. He’s sweet and thoughtful. He has dreams that don’t align with his family’s expectations. He’s passionate and funny. The few moments he and Evie share are special. There’s a refreshing innocence with how their relationship develops. It’s built more on mental than physical attraction. They’re cute. Desmond truly sees Evie and Evie invites Desmond to be himself.

I was so interested in the Korean references to spirits and those souls that are between living and death. I hope there is more exploration of this in the next book.

Evie can’t trust her perception and neither can the reader. The suspension of reality drives this story home. There are many times that we can’t be sure if Evie is dreaming or what she sees is real. It’s twisted, it’s scary, and adds real fear the longer you dwell on Evie’s experiences.

Thoughts:

As an avid horror fan, I wanted a little more creepy, gory, unsettling moments that leave your hair standing on end. There was quite a bit but it felt almost subdued.

So many things were left unanswered at the end of the story. It’s a cliffhanger, but not for the central plot. Without leaving any spoilers, I hoped for some resolution and while there was serious resolution and growth for the main character, the whole point of Evie’s quest was left wide open. Until the next book.

The mean girl. Even her name is cliché. Kimber. The kind of predictable and catty high school drama was my least favorite part of this book.

Holly Horror is a must read book that should be read at night, in the comfort of your own bed, with a warm drink, and the lights on.

Thank you to PRH and Netgalley for an e-ARC of this book.

So...when is book two coming out? Because that ending!

If you love spooky and horror reads you are going to love this one. It is a perfect fall read and it holds the line between reality and fantasy. The paranormal aspects of this book were excellent, it was a well fleshed out idea that worked for me.

I especially liked the bits of Alice in Wonderland mixed in, it gave it an extra spooky feeling. There were parts of this book that had me gasping and then trembling, because Corpora hit on some of the biggest hitters of haunted house books. I love a good haunted house book and this one delivered.

I adore Evie, she was such a great character to follow in this novel. She is learning secrets about past disappearances while dealing with her own issues. Again, this book relies on unreliability. So you're never quite sure what is true and what isn't.

I liked the side characters in this novel as well, although I did think one plot point was a little unnecessary, but overall, the plot worked so well for me.

I kept reading because I was unable to stop -- I was addicted to it. I was addicted to the moments where I was like "OH MY GOD" and "WHAT NEXt" I was also going NO NO NO because ugh some parts of the book really got me. So spooky and eerie.

It definitely had Haunting of Hill House vibes, and I just really liked this book and am looking forward to the sequel.

Holly Horror was very different for me. I am not used to horror stories, especially those that take pace with young people. There was quite a bit of intrigue and suspense, I felt the author skimmed over the fine points and did not give the detail and attention needed to grow the story much more. I did like what I read and finished the novel but, again, I wished there were more details to make the story really leave a mark.

I as an ARC reader for this book. Thank you NetGalley.