Thanks, NetGalley,

Overall, I enjoyed the book and have to remind myself that I can't hold it to the same standard as an adult horror novel. I despised the ending but the writing was good and I enjoyed the storyline. Preston referenced Scream a few times and that is the vibe I got from this book..."The call is coming from inside the house!" I would definitely recommend this book to YA readers but I wouldn't recommend it to adults..


Penny's trying to forget about her ex, Nash. His father was arrested for the brutal murder of four teenagers on Devil's Night last year. Penny's parents have forbidden her to have anything to do with Nash or his family. It's hard not to think of what happened as spooky season gets underway--but she's trying.

That stops when she goes to the Halloween store with her friends to find a costume. What she finds instead is ripped from a horror movie: a girl from school bleeding out on the floor of a dressing room. Stabbed.

Is a copycat killer on the loose? The adults are saying no. But Penny knows better.

The plot was interesting, if the characters were a bit stupid. My main complaint here is that it was clear that this is someone British trying to write American teens. Some research about speech patterns would go a long way

I swear if Preston ever decided to switch to adult or New Adult horror stories that she would put a lot of authors out of business. Her stories have a way to pull you in and hold you there for ransom. Until the story is done. I loved the characters of this one man was it crazy! This is coming out at a great time for spooky season.

This is a typical teen slasher with a typical Preston atypical ending.
I'll probably forget about it in a couple of days.
I read the whole book, so it gets 3 stars.

If you have ever read a Natasha Preston book, you will love this one. If you're looking for a good haunting and a good scare with a few jumps, this book is for you. While reading I could tell this was a Natasha Preston book and it fits in with her theme of fright night with twists and mystery and an unknown, with you wishing for more.

A year ago, their town was devastated by a serial killer that killed four teenagers. The killer was later discovered to be Penny's boyfriend's father who is now serving time in prison. Everything has changed, but when the murders start again and they're happening closer to home, the town starts to blame the original killer's children, but Penny knows it can't be him. Is it a copy cat or did the FBI arrest the wrong person? Penny and her friends will do anything to prove that the killer is not Nash, but will the killer make their identity known?

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the free copy of The Haunting by Natasha Preston in exchange for my honest review.

4.5 stars!!! Oh my goodness! Again, Natasha Preston does not miss. This may have taken the top as one of my favorites. I didn’t not see the twist coming, and it ended beautifully, well I mean as beautiful as a thriller/horror book can end!
You are not going to want to miss this.
When a serial killer is already in jail how are people dying again a year later?

Another thriller from Preston and, as usual, it'ios perfect for fans of the Scream franchise. One year ago at Halloween, Penny's town was rocked by the murders of 5 teenagers. It turned out that her boyfriend's dad had murdered them all and was sent away to prison. In the past year, Penny hasn't been able to talk to or see her boyfriend, Nash. But when new murders start happening, the town isn't sure if there's a copycat afoot or if they didn't catch the right person to begin with. My students are going to love this one.

My daughter (16) read and loved this book by Preston. I know that it will be a popular read with my students who devour her novels. I don't love to be scared but my daughter assures me it was the right amount of scary to make her nervous and stressed. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

I started off a big fan of Natasha Preston's work, but recently I am starting to dislike her more and more. Seriously, someone needs to tell her that readers are NOT into the abrupt cliffhanger endings that she so thoroughly enjoys writing. The only way it would work is if there was a sequel planned for readers to have closure.

I really liked the premise of this book, but I felt like a lot of the back story was missing. It almost felt like this book was the sequel and that there should have been a book prior to this that centered around the murders from the previous year. I would have really enjoyed more character development to be able to connect with them more.

Overall this was a solid read from Natasha Preston, but she is starting to have more fumbles with the ending of her stories than Brett Favre.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for my advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own

I am a huge fan of all of Natasha Prestons books. She is the queen of thrillers. Really can not go wrong with any of her books and The Haunting was great. Girl breaks up with her boyfriend because her boyfriends dad turned out to be a serial killer, then after boyfriends dad is locked up and it is a year later, people start dying again. Was the dad actually a serial? Is her ex boyfriend now following in his dads footsteps? Or did they never actually catch the killer and they arrested the wrong guy?

I really wanted to like The Haunting. The premise was interesting, if a little generic, but I’ve seen authors take basic premises that have been done before and turn them into something great.

Unfortunately, that’s not what I can say about this book. Also unfortunately, a lot of my issues are at the end of the book and are spoilers. I’ll just generally say: I found the ending abrupt and unsatisfying. I don’t think the choice of who the killer turned out to be was good and I think any twists related to it weren’t well foreshadowed.

One thing I can say without spoilers is that I wasn’t fond of the main character, Penny. She’s kind of self-absorbed and hypocritical.

This was a quick read and I was interested in finding out who the killer was so it kept my attention at least.

This is my first book by Natasha Preston but I will be reading all of her backlist. I love a good YA mystery/thriller and this didn’t disappoint! Penny and her friends are reliving a nightmare when their friends start being killed, one year after her boyfriends father was sent to prison after his killing spree. This book had me doubting all of Penny's friends at some point and it was quiet and ending. Loved!

As someone who isn't really a fan of Natasha Preston, this one was actually pretty fun. I enjoyed the Halloween setting and the nods/references to classic slasher and horror movies.

Dialogue and writing were meh, and the premise was definitely not unique, but it was still a good time anyway

If you're looking for a fun Halloween slasher in book form this fall, this will be a good pick for that!

I thought I would give this book a chance after not liking Natasha Preston’s last book The Island and I’m glad I did as I enjoyed The Haunting. but I wish it had a better ending.

Natasha Preston is like the M. Night Shyamalan of the writing world. Her stories have SO. MUCH. POTENTIAL. And then she fumbles the ending every. single. time. After feeling frustrated with The Island, I gave The Haunting a try... and was just as angry.

Penny's town had 5 murders last Halloween season, and while the killer is behind bars, this year brings more murder. The town is on edge, no one knows who to trust, and the race is on to find the killer before more victims are taken.

The premise is great. Much of the story works well... but the ending was enough to ruin the reading experience for me.

Overall: 3 stars

I'll tell my students about: alcohol, language, trauma, murder, gore, violence

**Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Delacorte Press for the free ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.**

I absolutely love all of Natasha Preston's young adult novels and "The Haunting" has to be my all time favorite!!

This author does a great job at the thriller/mysteries/horror, genre, and this book is no different. Over the course of this book, I had at least 10 different theories of who was behind the murders, and they were all wrong! It’s Halloween again, one year after , Penny’s boyfriends father killed five people. But he’s in jail, and the killing has started again. As the race to try to figure out who is behind these new killings, the body count just keeps getting higher. You really will not see the killer coming.

Clearly written by someone British about American teens. There are words an phrases that would never be spoken by an American teenager. It honestly drives me crazy. It wouldn't be that hard to look up and find out. The ending is abrupt and doesn't give any closure. If there isn't a sequel to explain it then I'm not really sure what the book was for.

Perfect for fans of the Scream movies! Penny and Nash had a good thing going…until the day his dad was arrested for going on a killing spree that left 5 teens dead! It is one year later and it seems to be happening again! Is Nash to blame this time? Was he to blame last time?

My rather unoriginal issue with this is that all figures of authority are hastily written, poorly drawn, bumbling idiots. All parents, guardians, and law enforcement exist only as a foil to juxtapose against the next ridiculously irresponsible or blatantly stupid thing the teenager is about to do. The people in this town deserve one another, if only in a social darwinism kind of way.