This is a story about an evil house, possession and destruction. It centers on the Saban family – Trent, Rita, and their young son, Milo. After Trent’s fiasco at work, the Sabans decided to start a new life somewhere and ended up buying a fixer-upper in an isolated neighbourhood. This house needs a lot of repair and Trent seeks some assistance and advise from a YouTuber known as Handyman Hank. This is where all craziness begins, and it is a wild ride till the end!

The story building is slow but chilling. There are quite a bit of gory details which could be triggering to some readers. I liked the setting, and the plot was okay for me. However, some parts did feel quite repetitive, and you do have to keep going because the twist was shocking and not something I expected!

I am still unsure how I feel about this book. There were parts that I liked and disliked equally. Regardless, I am glad that I’ve read this book.

Pub. Date: August 8th, 2023

***Thank you Simon & Schuster Canada for this gifted reading copy. All opinions expressed are my own.***

I had high hopes for this one and it did not disappoint.

I am usually not a big fan of haunted house stories. I personally just find them all so similar, but this was such an original take and I was hooked.

The Handyman Method made me feel uncomfortable (as Cutter does), a little sad, it gave me a good chuckle from time to time, and it shocked me with some added twists I did not see coming.

DNF at 5% after the first chapter. Absolutely not for me - a terrible main character and not good writing.

This one gave me major House Of Leaves vibes.

This was enjoyable, but not my favourite. I have a couple other Nick Cutter books on my TBR and I’m hoping they’re a little more exciting.

I will say, Trent’s slow descent into madness was eerie & sometimes I needed the lights on to read.

If you liked House Of Leaves, I would for sure give this one a try. It may be just the ‘haunted house’ story you need!

I requested a digital copy in order to sample the prose on my phone (since I don't have a eReader) before requesting a physical copy for review. My review will be based on the physical ARC I read (if I qualify)

[arc review]
Thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
The Handyman Method releases August 8, 2023

The Saban’s, a family of three, have moved into an unfinished development community.
In what should have been a seemingly brand new and perfect build, the Saban’s were already faced with cracks in the walls of their home on day one.
Trent then turns to the internet and takes DIY advice from a YouTube channel called “The Handyman Method”, and this later feeds his newfound hobby.

This is told in multi-pov from the father, mother, and son.

It was hard to distinguish what exactly was going on… if the grounds that their house was on were haunted, or if there was some sort of toxic chemical that was messing with their state of minds? Plus the added element of the technology, how it was somehow tailored specifically to them and reaching out through videos, sometimes even playing themselves without even actually having been hit “play”.

An interesting story if you’re into the horror genre or if you’re a big fan of going to Home Depot.
There’s some really great imagery used.
I think this would have been much more interesting though had we seen Rita’s betrayal from the start (which, reading the acknowledgments makes sense because the wife and son were a secondary addition and it definitely came across that way).

cw: physical abuse, body horror, death of a pet turtle

First and foremost, I'll say that The Handyman Method reads like a horror movie - albeit one that drags on at times. Cutter's imagery is easily the novel's best (and most sickening) selling point. This is especially true for Morty the Turtle's untimely death. On that note, I want to give a huge warning to those sensitive to animal death, because The Handyman Method features one of the most extensive and sickening animal deaths I've ever read. For some, this might add to the horror and tone of the novel; for others, it might be the point where you DNF the book.

A day after finishing The Handyman Method, I'm still unsure of what happened. I mean, I know what happened, but the why and how are a bit fuzzy. I would have loved it if there was more lore included on how Handyman Hank and the agreement started and continued throughout the different generations of Rita's family. We get tidbits of information, but I feel like there could have been more.

And then that ending. Is Handyman Hank just... out in the world now? And Trent, Rita, and Milo are just going about their daily lives as if they didn't just unleash this monster - well, we don't know exactly what it is, but for simplicity's sake, we'll call it a monster - into the world? It was certainly a dramatic ending but it delivered little satisfaction to me as a reader. The climax with Trent sacrificing himself willingly to the house and then Rita breaking the deal to save him happened so close to the end of the novel that it felt as if I were left hanging.

If you're a fan of horror, I think there's plenty to love about The Handyman Method; the detailed and horrific imagery, the unique 'monster', and instances of dark humour, to name a few. But if you're squeamish, don't like similes/metaphors to insects, and dislike the horror genre, maybe sit this one out.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of The Handyman Method to review. All thoughts are my own and are not influenced by any third party. #TheHandymanMethod #NetGalley

A deeply unsettling story of a man and his family moving into an almost finished new house to start a new life. But shortly after arriving the family begins acting erratically and the house begins to sink, everything goes off the rails.
An extremely gruesome tale, this story will be a favorite for many!
Please find attached my more detailed, but spoiler free review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cxRQ

Serious creep factor reading this. Gruesome and chaotic throughout. A house slowly sinking and a family becoming unhinged while they try to navigate thRough their new realities. Classic horror at its finest.

Thank you a NetGalley for this arc

DNF - I struggled to get into this one which is a bummer because I have heard so many positive things about the author's work. I might try again later & may give the audiobook a shot (when/if it comes out) but for now, I'm leaving this off.

This did not feel truly unique until you get to the last third of the book and you understand what is actually happening. Good for fans of Hill House or Home before dark, while the premise overlaps the writing style is very immersive. Fairly graphic and does contain gore.

5 stars (that taste of peppermint and cotton candy)

First and Foremost, thank you to the Netgalley and Simon and Schuster Canada for providing a digital copy of this title in advance of its official release for an unbiased review.

This story begins as these types of stories do: a family (Trent & Rita - Lawyers, Milo the son with eccentric leanings and family pet, Morty the Turtle) pulls into the driveway of a newly developed house to begin a new life. Upon this arrival, you immediately get a sense that there is something not right with the family: wife is not terribly excited about the house, resists her husband's clumsy attempts to take her over the threshold. And the child is not too excited either. It is as if the circumstances upon which this family arroved on Dunsany estates was not normal.

Oh and the house is a fixer-upper as well. - no grass, and a crack in a wall. There are no neighbours (it is a lone plot - the first of a housing development grabbed at an excellent price) there are creepy structures and decrepit effigies out in the forest, slowly rotting, awaiting the bulldozer for when the rest of the housing is ready to be built. And from the developer - promises upon promises that the little perfections in the house are not that big of a deal (and their grass guy will be around in a few weeks once things have settled).

But that's okay: papa Trent, who is on administrative leave from his legal firm, will use this time to fix up the house himself (LIKE A MAN SHOULD BE ABLE TO FOR HIS FAMILY), using DIY Youtube videos from a channel hosted by Handyman Hank (THE BEST ADVICE ON HOME REPAIR AND MANY OTHER TOPICS CONCERNING BEING A MAN IN THIS MODERN TIMES). Trent's obsession with home repair is egged on by the Youtuber Hank (who seems to be speaking directly to him), while his family around him also start to deal with their own dissociations with this new life in this strange plot of land.

And it is here that you get a sense that not only are things not right with the family and the house, but that they are also about to get very wrong.

While Nick Cutter's horror catelogue has not been 100% hits with me (thinking about The Acolyte), I can totally appreciate that they take the reader on paths not often previously tread upon. In the case of The Handyman Method, it is a haunted house story, but with extra Lego pieces and electrical components fused into it to make this story feel more creepy. As for Sullivan - I have not had the chance to sample his wares yet - but I definetly will be looking into his catalogue soon!

Together, however, these authors pen a story that is creepy in a way that persists after you close the book and go out into the sunny outdoors. It is wonderfully gruesome as well. If you were to catching me reading this out in public, my rictus grimace may have you worried that there is something terrible going in my life, but no - it is simply a reaction to elements of the story.

There are a lot of previous horror inspirations in Sullivan and Cutter's The Handyman Method. Some are quite obvious as they offer tribute to the narrative forebearers.

As I’ve said before, the best thing about horror is how open-ended it is as a genre. Authors are free to interpret its meaning any way they choose, and the results mean that we receive books all over the spectrum. From ghost stories and haunted houses, to torture, to slashers, to children’s horror and so forth, there’s lots for everybody who’s interested. Hell, it almost seems like there are sub-genres on top of sub-genres, even if there aren’t that many. This is why I get so excited about new horror books, because I never know what to expect.

After reading through Craig Davidson’s Saturday Night Ghost Club, which was excellent, I decided to start The Handyman Method. That’s his next, and upcoming, book with Andrew F. Sullivan as co-author. However, unlike the former novel, this one carries one of his pen names that may be very familiar to you: Nick Cutter, aka. the author of The Troop, Little Heaven and more. If you haven’t heard of him before, he’s a pretty popular horror novelist, especially within the online community.

The Handyman Method is a dark, disturbing and very well written haunted house story, which borrows from some of the greats like Amityville Horror. It centres upon the Saban family, which consists of thirty-somethings Trent and Rita, as well as their young son, Milo. Together, they’ve bought and moved into a brand new home. It’s the first of its kind in the development, which the builders say will be completed in a couple of years, so everything around them is barren outside of some foundations. Hell, their lawn doesn’t even have any sod or grass on it. It’s just dirt!

Upon moving into what should be a beautiful new home, Trent discovers that there’s a crack in their walk-in closet in the master bedroom. He gets angry, like anyone would, but decides to fix it himself because he thinks the builders are incompetent and may not get to it soon enough. This begins a downward spiral in which Trent begins to see issues everywhere and starts to get fixated on being the required handyman to his own new build home.

From the start, Trent relies on how-to-videos on YouTube, and also becomes obsessed with those made by a burly and misogynistic man named Hank. Handyman Hank seems to upload new videos all the time, and there’s always one for the task at hand so that’s all Trent watches. Then, he becomes unable to do anything without listening to Hank, who has a lot to say about women, the youth of today, how a man should live and all of those things. It plays on Trent’s sanity, as does everything else going on.

You may be thinking: Why would I want to read a book about a man doing DIY home improvement? Because it’s a great book, and one of the best novels I’ve read in some time, not to mention a new personal favourite. Trent’s decent, and what his family goes through upon moving into this new home hooked me from start to finish and didn’t let go. There’s a lot here for folks who like haunted houses, descents into madness, family horror and the unknown, and it’s all really well done. That is, despite the fact that its main character is a man’s man who goes to Home Depot every day and buys tons of tools.

I grew up in a family where doing things yourself was the way to go, and I have a very handy father. I wasn’t born with a hammer in my hand, though, and am the least handy person around or close to it. Despite this, I really enjoyed my second Nick Cutter novel and will recommend it to many people.

This review will now come to a close, because I can’t think of much more to say without spoiling things and already worry that I’ve gone too far. Just know that The Handyman Method isn’t some boring home improvement book, and that it is the ‘Book of Terror’ advertised on the cover. It’s also a very well written novel, and one of the best horror stories I’ve ever read. Check it out when it drops in August!

This review is based on a copy of the book that we were provided with. Thank you to NetGalley, Gallery Press and Simon and Schuster. Receiving a free copy did not sway my opinion.

This book has the most twisty turny plot I’ve read to date. It’s starts off with just a normal semi-dysfunctional family but it quickly devolves into the most chilling, mind breaking story. It’s a book where you know what’s going on but you also have no clue what’s happening. Mystery after mystery. Creepy event after creepy event. This story keeps you wondering and guessing to the last sentence. This book kept me on the edge of my seat and I must say I think I’ll be avoiding YouTube for awhile after reading this. This story gets into your head and you feel what the characters are going through, you’ll cringe and shudder and hide your face and you’ll keep reading. A great book for someone just getting into the horror genre for sure.

Ok, so I went into this completely biased because I have loved all of Nick Cutter's novels. This story, while not my favourite of his books, is definitely a solid addition. The co-writer definitely added some new flavour to the mix and I thoroughly enjoyed the weird and wild journey this story took me on. Not for the faint-hearted, there is plenty of violence and body horror, but the story is still solid and it doesn't feel gratuitous. There are strong Lovecraftian existential horror vibes, with nods to several other famous authors and stories, but this still feels fresh and left me suitably creeped out at the end.

Trent, Rita and their son Milo arrive at their new home located in their new suspiciously unfinished subdivision and while getting settled, it isn't long before they uncover shoddy workmanship throughout their property. Driven to fix it himself, Trent tackles the work head on. However, as the work becomes increasingly complicated, it takes a toll on Trent's psyche. And what's going on with their son Milo and his troubling obsession with a specific YouTube channel? Is Rita hiding something from her husband and son that threatens to destroy their family?

I rarely inject profanity into my reviews, but Nick Cutter and Andrew F. Sullivan's THE HANDYMAN METHOD is one seriously fucked up book. Given that I've read nearly everything Craig Davidson has released under his Nick Cutter pseudonym, you would think I'd be used to a certain level of horror and depravity, but I was wrong. THE HANDYMAN METHOD goes to places I did not expect and brought to the surface a twisted type of dread that left me reeling.

In using seemingly "haunted" YouTube videos as the main driver of the novel's terror, they add a level of uneasiness that propelled the novel to a new level of creepiness. The way the videos and those in them warped the minds of the characters in the book felt completely original and something I honestly can't remember reading in another story. At least not in recent memory.

There are not many books that leave me feeling truly unsettled and uncomfortable, but this is absolutely one of them. There are a few moments where I felt like events went a little too far, but that's the whole point of the horror genre and why it has so many fans, writers and admirers. Cutter is known for pushing his readers to their absolute limits, so be forewarned that this story navigates into some pretty dark territory.

THE HANDYMAN METHOD is scheduled for release on August 8th, 2023.

Fair Warning: This book contains one of the more insane depictions of animal death I've experienced in quite some time. For those familiar with what Cutter presented in his novel The Troop, this may not be a surprise. However, this one scene in particular went on for so long reaching a point where I felt sick and needed to put the book down and walk away. Honestly, that may be a selling point for some people, but I thought it was worth letting people know what they're getting into with this one.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC. I love Nick Cutter and I was so excited to read this latest book. Sadly this book is doing nothing for me. It feels like an absolute chore to get through and I hate the main character Trent, making it very hard to connect with him. This is a DNF for me.

This book was incredibly well written and the premise was good in theory. The one problem I had was the author's made the main character Trent so easy to hate. I hated him with every atom in my body (which clearly says something good about the writing), but the story falls short because I wanted nothing more than to see him suffer and for this reason I found the book a little long to get through.
I highly recommend the read, if for nothing other than hatting on Trent.
It was a fun read with tons of spooky elements, it takes you think twice at what secrets are hidden in your house.

Absolutely horrifying! I am a regular horror book reader and this was by far the scariest, most disturbing book I’ve read in a long time. It gave me The Shining vibes, but amped way up. There were some parts that I actually had to skim. Other parts, I had to almost skip over completely because they were so disturbing.

Most horror novels take some time to get scary as the scene is set and the characters are introduced. This was not the case with this one. I made the mistake of starting it before bed thinking it would take some to time get scary and I was very mistaken. Every scene set me on edge, until some parts were more than I could handle. It kept me reading, however, because I just had to know how it was going to end! In short, I loved it!

Thank you so much Net Galley and Simon and Schuster Canada for sharing an ARC with me.

As with all horror, if you have any concerns make sure to check for trigger warnings.