First Thoughts: Creepy Creepy Creepy!
Mood While Reading: Busy as heck!
Song: Freaking Me Out by Ava Max

Thank you to {partners] Berkley Publishing and PRH Audio for granting me access to this title for review!

This book had me creeped out enough that I kept lights on the night I finished it. In all fairness, I spook easily! My imagination often gets the best of me!

Margaret is determined to stay in her dream home that she has made perfection with her husband, Hal. One big caveat, the house has its own agenda. The walls bleed, ghosts of vicious murders haunt the house, birds run into the windows, but Margaret remains undeterred to stay. The walls bleed? She will wash them. The ghosts haunt the house? She will befriend them. The birds hit the windows? She'll take down the bird feeders. it's their fourth September in the house and Margaret feels equipped for this year's month of amplified weirdness. Hal, not so much.
He wants out.

When Margaret's daughter's incessant calls keep coming, Margaret knows she has to face her. Her daughter is worried, because she hasn't heard from Hal. Margaret is forced to tell her he left and she hasn't heard from him since. Appalled, Katherine insists on coming to stay with Margaret until they figure out where Hal. is.

This book has some real nuanced themes that emerge over time. Domestic violence and alcoholism are explored in detail as the book progresses. If concerned, I recommend reading the trigger warnings.

I absolutely loved the inclusion of the different ghosts and how they work with or against sweet Margaret. I truly loved her character. I found her endearing, a bit naive at times, often out of touch, and always surprising. Her layers made her a multifaceted character who I wanted to see happy in the end. The relationships are all complex mired by their difficult histories.

If you're looking for a creepy read to add before October ends, give this one a try!

Thank you to Berkeley & Netgalley for the advanced reading copy!

This was such a fun read. Spooky yet funny thanks to Margaret (our main character), who is now living in a haunted house with children pointing to the basement door saying “he’s down there”. The September House is the perfect October read! An entertaining mix of creepy and haunting yet hilarious.

Snuck this one in just in time on September 30th!

I made the mistake of reading the Grady Hendrix blurb before starting this and the “darkly funny” comment had me hooked. And things were a little morbidly funny …. at first. I was also completely vibulating with the house. Plenty of bleeding walls and creepy dead kids and barfing up flies.

And I’m all for authors writing what they want to write, but I’m also for readers being allowed whatever reaction they have as well. When I signed up for a haunted house story I was thrown a bit for a loop that it had a subplot regarding domestic violence. I’m not a reader who needs content or trigger warnings, but I am one who doesn’t appreciate a bait and switch - especially when the switch is such heavy subject matter when I’m just trying to get my Amityville on.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, NetGalley!

This book was spooky and atmospheric! I love stories where an object acts as one of the main characters, and the house in this story stole the show!

The cast of characters, both dead and alive, were enjoyable and creepy. The author did not shy away from the grotesque with her vivid and sometimes nausea inducing descriptions!

This is the perfect book to read during spooky season and beyond! I am very interested to see what the author comes up with next!

Another great book to add to your #spookyseason TBR! This debut gives all the haunted house vibes I want while also making me laugh at times.
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Every September Margaret’s house comes alive. The ghosts hang out more, the shrieking starts and the walls bleed. She’s not overly concerned. It’s just one month and if she follows the rules the ghosts stay out of her way….for the most part. Plus, her house is so gorgeous. Have you seen the wood floors. They are the original wood! But when her adult daughter won’t stop calling looking for her father, who disappeared there’s no way she can avoid a visit from her daughter, in September. This book took a turn which surprised me! The audio was so well done really capturing how not concerned Margaret was about the ghosts and the rising panic of her daughter as they searched for her father.

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Huge thank you to @berkleypub @berittalksbooks @thephdivabooks @dg_reads @prhaudio and @netgalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
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One of the best books I have read this year. Definitely a must read for mystery and horror readers. I had no clue where this was going until the reveal. Some of the characters I absolutely hated but completely felt Margaret's struggles and
her strength as a mother and a protector.

This is such an intriguing genre defying novel and not at all what I thought it was going to be. It has elements of horror, thrillers, dark comedy, and general fiction with a side of empathy for the less fortunate characters and their circumstances. The ending was possibly a little over the top, but it worked and I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I listened to the thoroughly enjoyable audiobook, narrated expertly by Kimberly Farr, and I highly recommend it.

"The September House" by Carissa Orlando is a haunting and atmospheric debut novel that delves into the complexities of a haunted house, a strained marriage, and the secrets that bind them together. With its eerie atmosphere, multifaceted characters, and a narrative that keeps readers on edge, this book offers a unique take on the haunted house genre.

The story centers around Margaret and her husband Hal, who purchase a large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street at an unusually affordable price. Little do they know, their dream home comes with a chilling history of hauntings. The hauntings, which intensify every September, create an unsettling atmosphere within the house. Despite the paranormal activity, Margaret is determined to stay and claim the house as her own.

Carissa Orlando's writing skillfully builds an eerie and unsettling atmosphere, with the house itself becoming a character in its own right. The descriptions of the hauntings and the house's ominous presence are vivid, setting the stage for a suspenseful and chilling narrative.

The characters, particularly Margaret, are well-developed and layered. Margaret's determination to stay in the house despite the terrifying occurrences showcases her resilience and complexity. Her relationship with Hal is central to the story, and their strained marriage adds depth to the narrative.

As the story unfolds, the tension builds, and readers are drawn into the mystery surrounding the house and its dark secrets. The novel cleverly explores themes of family, love, and the lengths one is willing to go to in order to protect those they care about.

While "The September House" offers a fresh take on the haunted house genre, there are moments when the pacing feels slightly uneven. Some readers may also find the conclusion to be open-ended and ambiguous, leaving questions unanswered.

In conclusion, "The September House" is a compelling debut novel that blends elements of horror, family drama, and suspense. Carissa Orlando's evocative writing and skillful character development make this a haunting and thought-provoking read. If you enjoy stories that explore the psychological and emotional impact of a haunted house, as well as the bonds of marriage and family, "The September House" is worth delving into.

The September House by Carissa Orlando is a clever, spooky, darkly satisfying romp through a nightmarish haunted house. From the first sentence, Margaret draws us into her surreal home life. With an Adams-Family-esque deadpan delivery, she brings the reader along as she prepares to deal with the onslaught of September—the most gruesome month in her particularly gruesome haunted house. Still, she tells herself, all she has to do is manage the house and its occupants while her daughter visits: keep everyone and everything spinning as they should. Follow the rules. The house has a lot of rules, and so did Hal, her husband. In fact, she says, “I can’t tell you how I knew it, but I had a feeling that the house and Hal had the same sorts of feelings about my leaving.”

Things get even more complicated when Hal goes missing, and then when Margaret’s daughter, Katherine arrives for a visit—in September, of all months. Still, Margaret tells herself, she just has to follow the rules. Margaret has come to understand that, more than anything else: “There are rules to these things. Everything is survivable.”

This book has layers that reveal themselves to the reader like images taking shape on a hot mug. Yes, this is a haunted-house story; and it is also a story about women, and marriages, and children, and unexpected allies, and the strength that women and mothers have when all strength seems to be gone.

Read this book, and you’ll still be thinking about it long afterward.

Two facts you must know about THE SEPTEMBER HOUSE before you open the first page:

1) It will repeatedly frighten the living daylights out of you!
2) Triggers triggers triggers. I went in not knowing. I still found the book superb, but I wished I had had a forewarning. It gets pretty extreme [forget pretty, it is over-the-top]. Not just that: it's the nature of the "extreme." So for fair play, cautionary notes will follow.

A Haunted House: many of us have read (and/or watched) this trope ad infinitum. But author Carissa Orlando erases the maxim "There's nothing new under the sun." Well, here is something new. The house, its "inhabitants," the living couple who after a lifetime discover "our home," the author's treatment of mental health issues and viewpoints around that [see the author's bio], are absolutely stunning. As much as I enjoyed the entirety, the denouement (which is rather extensive and multi-sectioned) blew me away!

Read this novel! But read with a strong heart and stomach!!

Cautions:
1) profanity and obscenity
2) fatalities
3) domestic violence and abuse
4) Narcissism
5) gasligting
6) Mental Disorder
7) Alcoholism
8) Fire
9) Bones
10) Birds, Flies, Ants
11) Dismemberment etc.
12) Murders
13) Torture
14) Superstition
15) Family Dysfunction
16) Grief, Sorrow, Depression
17) Injuries/Death Children
18) Supernatural
19) Blood

Oh, my, goodness. This book is going to reside in my top ten for the year!

Margaret has found her dream home, and when things go crazy during September, well, she has found a way to deal with them. There are rules after all. Hal, her husband, is not quite as thrilled with the September events, but throughout the first three years, they learn ways to manage - until Hal has had enough. He is determined to leave, and wants Margaret to leave with him, but she refuses. There is something about the house, something that draws her back, unwilling to let her go too far away.

Master Vale, the Pranksters, Fredericka, everything with the house calls to her, and she is determined to keep her house, no matter what.

This book, sigh, was fantastic. I was not ready for it to be finished. I wanted more. The book just refused to let you walk away (there are rules after all), and this is easily a "once you start, you will not stop" read.

As September comes to a close, I couldn’t think of a better book to review and post about today. This book was SO GOOD!! It was one of the goriest, creepiest, and haunted books I’ve read in a long time and I couldn’t get enough! As I flipped between print and audio, this book had my skin crawling! The writing was so detailed and the use of an unreliable narrator worked really well. The various characters and overall storyline sucks you in as you try to figure out what is happening in the house and what Margaret is willing to do to hide secrets about the house to others. Loved it!

I know I wouldn’t last even a few hours in this house, so read at your own risk! If you are looking for a perfect spooky season read, this might be the book for you! Thank you for the free book @berkleypub #berkley #berkleypartner and to @prhaudio for access to the audiobook version of this novel, I really loved the narration #prhaudio #prhainfluencer

When I first started this book I wasn’t in the right mood, so I put it on hold and came back to it later which was the best thing I did! I really thought I knew where this story was headed and I was so wrong! As for me I did have some issues with the different chapter lengths which was messing up my flow, so I ended up switching to the audiobook and that did the trick! This book also reminded me of the movie The Haunting which is a favorite of mine.

The walls bleed...

The house was built in 1882 and owned by a well-respected family. In present day, Margaret Hartman, our main narrator lives there with her husband Hal while their only child, Katherine is at college.

The beautiful cobalt Victorian with wrap around porch and turret was the dream home they always wanted and the couple eagerly moved there in May. When September arrives, they realize that the house drips blood down its walls and is very much haunted. Ghosts, suicidal birds, screams! Margaret feigns nonchalance at the horror after all, it only happens in September. After four years, Hal has had enough and left. Katherine comes home to look for him.

Autumn is here and The September House was a great one to kick start this year's spooky season! The September House was light horror for me with some humor. From the description, I really thought it would be scarier. I read this one but mostly listened to the audiobook and enjoyed Kimberly Farr's perfect narration although Katherine comes off as super annoying.

I like the eerie and gothic vibes. The mystery and twist were good as well, a great debut!
3.5⭐

TW: Abuse

Thank you Berkley for the DRC.

Many thanks to my friends at @berkleypub and @prhaudio for the #gifted copies of this book.

What would you do if your dream house suddenly shifted into a thing of true horror?

September is officially here. Many of my friends have already turned into pumpkins and are craving all things spooky.

Queue this unique haunted house debut. You’ll find no cutesy fall decor here.

Instead, each September, this house comes alive in the most disturbing and terrifying ways. The walls bleed and sink drains clog with fresh flesh. There’s a polite, tea-making housemaid, but part of her head is missing. And the nine-year-old boy has fangs that leaves scars. Beware.

Reminiscent of Grady Hendrix, September House starts spooky season off with plenty of gore and ick.

The main character, Margaret, was my favorite part of the book. Bold and brazen, she was a force. Where most would flee the terror, Margaret stood firm, undaunted and determined to keep what was hers.

This was a slower read for me, though many reviewers have mentioned the opposite. It’s also important to note that I had a few qualms with the plotline, particularly the one focused on abuse.

But this book proves that there’s no reason to wait until October to be properly spooked! This haunting officially begins in September.

🎧 I had both print and audio versions of this book and found myself grabbing for the audio most often. The narration by Kimberly Farr well portrayed Margaret and brought her voice to life.

This was FANTASTIC. I enjoyed every second of reading it. It was creepy, it was scary, and there were great twists sprinkled throughout. I thought I knew what would happen, then I was wrong! So I shifted my ideas around, and I was wrong again!! I cannot believe it’s a debut. It’s just so much fun. Plenty of emotion packed in here among all the scares, but also there is levity. Especially with one character: Fredricka.

DO NOT miss this one, guys!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

This was one of the best horror endings I’ve read! I love what the author did with the characters and how terrifying the situation got. I will say from the initial pacing, I was caught off guard. You start wondering how reliable the narrator is, but then it twists and you’re on a train going full-steam ahead. Highly recommend this for someone wanting a story with a great ending!

The September House by Carissa Orlando mainly follows Margaret as she deals with the myriad of paranormal idiosyncrasies in the Victorian house she purchased with her husband Hal. After her husband goes missing, Margaret's daughter comes to help find him, but Margaret must try to hide the paranormal aspects of the house from her daughter during September of all months -- when all of the hauntings are at their worst.

I loved the dead-pan way that this story is narrated. Margaret talks about the horrors in the house as if they are mundane -- she has had time to get used to them, of course, and has come up with many rules to follow in order to best survive them, especially in September. The narration style brings a lightness and humor to the otherwise heavy, spooky occurrences.

I loved some of the paranormal characters that inhabit the house. I thought Orlando did a great job making each ghost unique in their own ways.

I did think this story went significantly darker into some "real" (as opposed to paranormal) subjects than I expected going in, and I do think that you should look up trigger warnings if you need to. These parts of the story caught me off guard a little bit as the story went on.

I thought this book was beautifully written and clearly had a bit of a deeper meaning amongst the horror elements. I was surprised to see this is a debut, and I look forward to seeing what else Orlando will write in the future!

Overall, this was a solid spooky read with some real-life horror, some paranormal horror, some gore, and a spectacularly haunted house. It felt original and fresh, and I would definitely recommend it!

The September House by Carissa Orlando is a fantastic haunted house story. It is bit on the gory side for my taste, but it serves a purpose. I believed the unbelievable experience that the protagonist was living through and was curious to see how Orlando would manage a satisfying ending. I saw it going a couple of different ways, but not the way it actually went.

One of the strengths of the novel is its dark humor. Less skilled writers overplay humor until it becomes cringe-worthy or numbing. The dark humor in The September House is well done and oddly relatable. What exhausted woman wouldn't mind the help of a ghost housekeeper who never complains and always has a cup of tea ready, even if her head has been cleaved by an axe?

I also appreciated the real-world challenges like alcoholism, abuse, and strained relationships. Sometimes haunted house stories can get so myopic that the world disappears (which can be good when it is intentional), but Orlando manages to keep this story firmly grounded in the real world, as odd as that sounds. As one of the characters says, "What I think is so neat about horror movies . . . is that they shine a light on what we think is scary. Not just ghosts and demons, but what we find really scary.”

Although things get very gory toward the end, it was a satisfying ending for me with a good message. This is a twisty, original tale that hangs tight. It's Orlando's debut novel, and I can't wait to see what she does next.

This was the perfect read for spooky season! I loved the way this all unfolded. I listened to the audio as well and the narration was perfect! I really liked the main character and I loved how the house was sort of its own character. I really loved this one and highly recommend, especially the audio, for anyone looking for a good mystery/thriller.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. Opinions are my own.