A neighborhood with a tragic, horrific past, it shouldn't exist, yet it does. It exists but on the peripheral, while everyone wants to study the how and why, 3 young women just want the nightmare to end. Their past is quite literally haunting them, everything there has stayed exactly the same and when two of the 3 travel back to set things right they begin to realize that this neighborhood is a force unlike any other, it wants to have them home and it will consume until it has them too.

An absolute mind-blowing, hauntingly moving experience. A grief fueled, creepy as hell, heartfelt gut punch. Kiste brings readers into a horrific masterpiece of a read that you won't be able to forget.

Talitha, Brett & Grace were college age when they escaped Velkwood before it slipped beyond the veil.

For 20 years everyone from serious researchers to ghost hunters and conspiracy theorists have investigated the phenomenon and hounded the three girls for interviews.

Talitha left behind her mom & 8 year old sister. She’s spent 20 years bouncing from job to job, meaningless relationships, avoiding life & love … all while that Velkwood vicinity is stuck in time.

One day a cute researcher convinces a hesitant Talitha to cross the veil and find out once & for all what happened as only the three girls who escaped can pierce the veil.

Will the girls be able to put an end to the haunting or will they want to stay with their loved ones? This story is a Victorian creep fest and very thought provoking.

Choices need to be made by these three women. Their past secrets unwind as the story progresses.

There are secrets, a significant haunting, creepiness & a forbidden sapphic romance that’s a significant subplot which leads to a satisfying ending.

I apologize for the delay in reviewing this story, getting me to read vs listen has been a challenge as 2024 has been so so busy.

Thank you NetGalley & Saga Press, this is a good book to add to an October TBR! 4.5 stars.

This was really interesting. I don't think that I've read anything quite like this. I found the characters to be relatable and felt invested in their progression through the book.

I’ve been a devoted fan of Gwendolyn Kiste’s since I first cracked open AND HER SMILE WILL UNTETHER THE UNIVERSE a couple years ago. That collection broke me open, stirred up my insides, and remade me into a brand new story-witness. While THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD marches to a wholly different beat than that collection, it has the same soul-thumping percussive result. What a wondrous, dark, strange, lovely and lovING story of horror and heart. Kiste never disappoints; I don’t think she could if she tried. Highly recommended!

Have y’all seen the movie Annihilation with Natalie Portman? She’s a scientist exploring a quarantine zone where things don’t work the same as outside the bubble. This book is that, but with ghosts and secrets! I really enjoyed this twist to a traditional haunted house. I also appreciated the metaphors for a closed off community protecting the wrong members. The girls who survive are all compelling in their own ways, and the reveals pull you along in a way that will have you finishing this book before you know it.

The Haunting of Velkwood is an eerie take on dealing with childhood trauma. Enjoyed the writing, but the characters seemed immature (perhaps by design).

What a fabulous read!

This was so sad and so eerie.

Definitely a unique haunting story and one what will bring tears to your eyes more than once.

I loved our characters and wanted them happy - even when I knew there was only sadness in store for some.

Surprisingly fast paced and I simply didn't want to put it down!

I loved the character of Velkwood Street and what its creeping presence added to the atmosphere of this novel. Definitely has the eerie, "something's not right here" vibe that I like in a spooky story. 3.8 for me

A haunting literary horror about a group of girls who try to return to their neighborhood that turned into a ghost town seemingly overnight 20 years ago. This book was well written, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me. The overall tone actually made me a bit queasy which some horror lovers may enjoy. I didn’t like the reveal of what happened to the town and wish it had been something a bit more exciting. We do get to know the characters throughout flashbacks and internal thoughts of the main character, but I didn’t feel connected to any of them in the way I like to in books. I do think many horror lovers would enjoy this book, it just wasn’t what I was looking for.

“You’ll be my ghost now.”

Talitha and her best friends always dreamed of escaping Velkwood, the street they all grew up on. Overnight their street becomes an actual ghost town and nobody else makes it out alive. 20 years later, researchers still don’t know what happened and nobody can enter the street. Except Talitha, Brett and Grace.

The Haunting of Velkwood is a ghost story and a unique take on haunted houses, but so much more than that. It’s a story about grief and how despite how much you may want to, you can’t change the past. This book is atmospheric and beautifully written. While it’s not your traditionally scary story, there is plenty of mystery and spooky bits. This is a book I’d definitely recommend reading this fall.

Thank you to Saga Press and NetGalley for a review copy.

Thanks to Saga Press and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for my review.

All of us have experienced some type of grief in our lives, but what if there was an actual physical manifestation of the darkest parts of our childhood that never disappears. This is what Talitha Velkwood experiences after her neighborhood becomes a ghost town. Literally.

The Haunting of Velkwood is an eerie tale of grief, shame, regret, and how they can haunt you no matter how long it's been or how far you go.

This book was a little bit of a slow read at first, but before I knew it, I was slamming through this, trying to figure out what was going to happen. Seeing the secrets of this 'idyllic' neighborhood unfold was horrifying and entrancing in equal measure, almost like a car wreck you know is coming, but can't stop. There is talk of childhood SA, but nothing graphic. This made it hard to read at times, but even more so how it was a poorly hidden secret of the neighborhood that everyone turned a blind eye to, even Brett's mother.

I enjoyed how Kiste portrayed Grace, Talitha, and Brett as how many people deal with grief in their lives; either they never leave it behind (Grace), they never look back (Brett), or they're stuck between wanting to go back and wanting to move forward (Talitha).

This is a really great read that when I was done I had to sit back and sit on it for a day or two to let everything sink in. This was one of the most unique ghost stories that I've read in a very long time and love it.

THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD – by Gwendolyn Kiste

‘“Thank you for meeting with me,” he says at last, and flashes me that crooked smile again. . . . He tells me his name is Jack, and on reflex, I introduce myself, even though we’ve already been over this. He knows my name, knows everything about me. The whole world does. When you survive a tragedy like mine, privacy is suddenly a luxury you can’t afford.’

LOVE the supernatural element in the book and the mystery surrounding Velkwood, though a bit of a slow burn, overall I enjoyed the story and that ending—My Heart!

Recommend!

Thank you, NetGalley and Saga Press (Simon & Schuster), for providing me with an eBook of THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD at the request of an honest review.

I absolutely adored this book! It took me a bit longer to get around to reading it than it should have, but I’m so glad that I fit it in now.

Three girls—two of whom wanted to leave Velkwood—reunite 20 years later in an attempt to fix the past. Will they have to own up to what they did so many years ago? Or is it the ghosts of the neighborhood that should finally do the right thing?

I don’t want to say much more, as spoilers would really ruin this book. Definitely read it, though!

I had just been talking with someone about books that find new ways of reinventing the haunted house trope and wow— did VELKWOOD ever! Wildly inventive with a fun mystery to solve!

For years, documentaries and investigations took place in the Velkwood Vicinity where homes disappeared behind a veil that only three survivors could enter. Twenty years after Velkwood disappeared, Talitha has avoided it all. Her mother and sister disappeared, and she’s just been drifting ever since. When a researcher finds her and offers to pay her to go back, to enter the vicinity, Talitha accepts, claiming she’s only doing it for the money. Talitha, her best friend Brett, and Grace escaped twenty years ago, and no one knows what happened that night. Talitha returns, seeking answers and closure.

The summary told me I’d like this because I’m a fan of Yellowjackets, and it wasn’t wrong. It’s a weird premise, but I was willing to suspend belief in order to dive into Talitha’s world. I wanted to know what happened at Velkwood and if it was possible to save those still there. I wasn’t overly invested in the characters, but I did like them, and I think the book was satisfying enough with delivering on the premise. Occult, paranormal stuff is my jam, especially such stories about women.

This book is a spooky treat. It follows Talitha who is being asked by a researcher to go back to her home street. A street that is known to be haunted by the day everything changed for her and her friends Brett, and Grace. She must return to face her past. As usual, I do not like to dwell too much on plot bc I want you to read it unknowingly but I’ll say everything I loved about this book. If you’re a fan of Hill House or Bly Manor then you will thoroughly enjoy this one. It has ghosts, mystery, and suspense. The story touches on many topics such as abuse, homophobia, and the bystander effect. This was a pretty quick read and I am looking forward to more work from Kiste!

This was a decent horror that felt more literary than anything. I loved the idea of a haunted neighborhood and time being manipulated whenever our main character was there. The writing in this was very descriptive and haunting.

While I enjoyed the book for the most part I found parts of it predictable and it wasn't as scary as I hoped. The romantic elements in this were interesting but a bit too surface level for my tastes.

I wish that we would have seen more of the 3 characters together and got a more detailed depiction of what happened in their pasts.

Overall, this was a solid story and I could definitely see myself reading more from this author.

《 thanks to Netgalley and Saga Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 》

The Haunting of Velkwood is a scary, haunting, engrossing, and evocative meditation on history, memory, and tragedy; family, love, and friendship; identification, understanding, and acceptance; and truth, choice, and accountability. It is a novel and refreshing perspective on the suburban gothic. It is an incredible achievement that readers will love and consume. It is a compelling and unforgettable story that genuinely moves and enthralls.

3.5 stars. I liked this book, but it wasn't the horror novel I was expecting. It was more sad than scary. The story was good, but it was about people being haunted by their pasts more so than a real ghost story. I mean, there were ghosts, but it just didn't have the spookiness I was looking for. If you're looking for a very unique love story though, this is a good choice.

The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste had an intriguing premise that was not fully realized. I honestly don't have much to say about it because the book felt unfinished and somewhat haphazard. There were several times when a character abruptly changed their mind with no indication of a good reason other than it served the plot of the story. Also, the author couldn't settle on a genre. Is it scifi? Mystery? Supernatural? Something else? The lack of focus was distracting and didn't feel purposeful, just lazy.