A huge thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the eARC!

Haunted houses and the Gothic have long worked hand in hand to provide many unique, isolated settings in which darkness thrives. But what goes into making a house so haunted? This seems to be the question asked by Christina Henry, one that her novel, The House That Horror Built, seems to partially answer. Single mother Harry Adams takes a rather unconventional job to make ends meet following the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic. She adores her teen son Gabe, a boy who enjoys the same horror movies and franchises as his mother. Harry’s job should be perfect given her love of horror as she is hired to clean the home of Javier Castillo, a renowned horror movie director. Yet, she can’t shake the odd feeling in Javier’s large home that is filled with replicas, models, and costumes of movies past. Could it simply be Mr. Castillo’s questionable past or is something even more sinister lurking within the walls of his Chicago mansion?

Harry and Gabe’s connection with Javier, and subsequently his home, comes with many interesting dynamics. First and foremost, Christina Henry devotes much of this story to demonstrating the vast differences and inequalities between the poor and the wealthy. Harry is a mother who would do anything to provide for her son resulting in her taking a job that isn’t exactly ideal. Javier is terse, seemingly cold, and simply odd. Spending her days cleaning his home may allow her to hang around cool props and memorabilia, but Javier’s strict, unusual rules make for a tense work environment on top of the otherworldly eeriness of all those costumes. The sociological and economic gaps between Javier and Harry are exemplified time and time again, adding to this already alienated feeling that exists within Javier’s home.

So, how did Javier end up a reclusive, wealthy, morally ambiguous old man? The House That Horror Built utilizes split timelines to demonstrate both Harry and Javier’s past while events of the present unfold. While this works very well to develop these characters further, I couldn’t help but feel as though Harry, Javier, and Gabe felt slightly underdeveloped. At times, Harry felt like a caricature of the over-protective mom who struggled to see fault in her son’s ways going to extreme lengths to provide a better life for him. The same can be said of Javier who is ultimately defined by his love of movies and desire to create in conjunction with his mysterious, terse manner. Despite how much time we spend with these characters, I couldn’t help but want a little more, especially towards the end of the novel.

Speaking of the novel’s conclusion, the events that transpire happen suddenly and at break-neck speed despite the slow-burn tone established for the majority of the story. These pacing issues were made very evident when I reached the last page thinking, “There’s gotta be more, right?” Make no mistake, something feels amiss within the walls of Javier’s home from the start of the novel, but traction doesn’t gain until nearly 90% of its completion. Again here, I simply wanted more.

The House That Horror Built is still a very entertaining read packed with many horror movie references, a love of film-making, and some genuine frights. While the character work felt slightly surface level, a true sense of unease is established in Javier Castillo’s home, a feeling that only grows as the novel progresses, albeit rather slowly then all too quickly. The aspects that make this novel work stem from the idea of horror itself and how the genre brings creative folks together, for better or worse. Christina Henry gives us a rather disjointed explanation as to how a house such as Javier Castillo’s can exist, a house built upon the success of his horror.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Pub for the eARC of this book. Also to PRH Audio for the listening copy!**

So, wow. I have quite a few of this author’s books on my TBR list and I’m really hoping that I just chose the wrong book to start with. The House That Horror Built has an amazing premise and the cover caught my attention months ago before I even considered requesting it.

As a horror fan and lover of scary movies - I was so excited for a book about an elusive producer that lived in a potentially haunted mansion. Unfortunately, the characters in this one were so drab and this book suffered so much from telling instead of showing.

I kept reading and reading, just knowing that something scary - or anything at all - would happen soon. It never really did and I found myself incredibly bored with this one. It also got to the point that I was rolling my eyes anytime Harry talked about the role of mother and the need to protect her son from adult problems.

I’m giving a generous 3 stars because the details of the mansion were immersive and I liked the concept. Hoping for more from this author’s others books.

The House that Horror Built is an atmospheric, paranormal horror story that's centered around a mystery. I really liked the main character Harry as well as the strong relationship she had with her son Gabe. There was a huge twist in one that completely blindsided me which I loved!

I found this one impossible to put down! This is my third read by Christina Henry (I've also read Alice and Good Girls Don’t Die) and I can't wait to see what she writes in the future as well as reading more of her backlist.

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry will be available on May 14!

This wasn’t a bad book, but it definitely wasn’t my cup of tea.

This is about a single mother named Harry who works part-time cleaning the gothic mansion of a reclusive horror director. I really connected with her as a character and enjoyed her backstory. She has always been a fan of horror, but her overly religious family tried to stomp the “satanic urges” out of her when she was a teen and she ultimately ran away, fell in love, got pregnant, then had to raise her son alone.

After the pandemic hit (yes, covid, I wasn’t super into that as a plot point) she found herself desperate for a job and cleaning the house of a famous horror movie director. Things are tough for her and her son, and she has always struggled, but now things are getting worse AND the house is spooky AF. She hears weird noises from a locked bedroom and the horror movie props in the house may or may not be moving on their own. 😱 What could she possibly be hearing? Her boss lives alone! Is she going mad?

This book was very slowwwww. Lots of character development, dialogue, and chapters bouncing from past to present timelines regarding Harry’s backstory and her boss’s backstory. This story was a love letter to horror enthusiasts and parts of it did creep me out. I loved the writing and the descriptions and the (minimal) spooky scenes, but this left a lot to be desired.

I never really knew where this story was going until basically 80%. I’d describe this as mostly character driven and minimal plot. The ending just wasn’t great, sadly. I didn’t dislike this, but I don’t recommend it, either. I much prefer this author’s last book, Good Girl’s Don’t Die. 🤷🏼‍♀️ either way, I didn’t DNF for a reason. The writing was strong enough to maintain my interest, even if the story itself didn’t do anything for me.

Thank you NetGalley & Berkley for the ARC & finished copy in exchange for my honest review!

This book was a perfectly written gothic paranormal horror story that had me wanting more!!
Harry is a single mom working as a house cleaner at Graystone Chicago mansion, "Bright Horses." She lost her job in a restaurant during the pandemic and considers herself lucky to have found work in a mansion, she cleans terrifying costumes and props related to horror movies. The mansion is owned by Javier Castillo, a renowned horror filmmaker. Harry is film enthusiast, she found the strength in horror stories and films to escape her difficult childhood. Shes raising her fourteen-year-old gifted son, Gabe. Their facing the risk of eviction from their affordable apartment due to the latest gentrification project.
Javier Castillo has decided a secluded life that is surrounded by the artifacts of his art is perfect for him, since his son Michael was involved in a murder and disappeared along with beloved his wife/ Michael’s mother. Javier is lonely he’s use to the life of people around him while he was famous. After hearing about Harry's son, he invites them to dinner to get to know Gabriel better.
The more Harry cleans she hears noises like “help me.” She starts seeing things that she know couldn’t possibly be real, but are they? Then when a death on the property happens , and Harry begins to realize there is more going on than , and when it soon becomes obvious it can’t be ignored anymore everyone’s life is at risk.

This one was just dull overall. I DNFed at 20%. It just felt like it was lacking any horror elements at all. The writing quality was good but this was a very boring book.

Christina Henry is delightful as always! I completely enjoy her horror novels and this one is no exception.
Harry Adams is a single mother who works cleaning the mansion of a famous reclusive horror movie director. Javier Castillo is a tragic figure, who's wife and son mysteriously disappeared after his son, Michael, was accused of murder. Mr. Castillo's house is full of horror relics and memorabilia from his movies. And the home, Bright Horses, seems to be haunted. Harry tries to keep her head down and just work, but soon Mr. Castillo's secrets become too obvious to ignore.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for this e-arc.*

Harry loves two things: her son and horror movies. So taking a job cleaning a gothic mansion for movie director Javier Castillo is a no-brainer. She keeps her head down and does her job. Until she hears noises, voices calling for help, and realizes things might not be as they seem.

This started out so strong, but I found the suspense element a bit lacking. I did like it, but it didn't wow me.

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry is a gothic paranormal horror story with an edge of mystery behind it. I would warn for those that want nothing to do with pandemic books that this one is set in the time of the pandemic but that plays only a small part of the set up of the story.

Harry Adams grew up with a horror movie obsession and now as an adult still appreciates the genre the most. After losing her job due to the pandemic Harry applies to work for the famous horror-movie director Javier Castillo cleaning his home where Javier has pretty much isolated himself since his wife and son’s disappearance.

With a boss like Javier who values nothing more than his own privacy Harry keeps to herself and does her work quietly and efficiently until the day she thinks she hears a voice from one of Javier’s rooms. After that moment each time Harry comes to clean something feels more and more off in the lonely old mansion but Harry tells herself it’s just the old creepy movie memorabilia and nothing more.

The House That Horror Built isn’t the first book I’ve read from author Christina Henry so I went in knowing her brand of horror before picking this up. When finished with this one I think it probably is my least favorite I’ve read so far though which was unfortunate. Still a solid horror novel that flew right by I was just left with wanting a bit more to it especially since the “twist” to the story seemed extremely obvious to me early on. Overall I rated this one at three and a half stars, totally solid rating for some but low for this particular author for me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Christina Henry continues to write enjoyable stories. As a horror fan, it was easy to enjoy the setup of this premise. I wish the story had more of a foreboding tone, but instead made for an easy read.

I found myself disappointed by the ending which just missed the mark in my mind. It was one of those cases, where I read the ending and then had to reread it because it felt like my copy was missing pages. It seemed like the author didn't quite know how she wanted to end the story.

Overall an enjoyable read but not quite as memorable as I would have liked it to be.

The nitty-gritty: A haunted house full of secrets takes center stage in Christina Henry's latest, a fun but uneven thriller.

Christina Henry always comes up with interesting story ideas, and I look forward to reading all of her new books. The House That Horror Built is a haunted house story that revolves around a horror director and his house cleaner, and while it did have some very creepy moments, it wasn’t the tense page turner I was hoping for. Instead, Henry focuses more on her characters and tackles themes like homelessness and abuse, which added nice layers to the story but didn’t make up for the lack of excitement, unfortunately.

Harry and her fourteen-year-old son Gabe live in Chicago and are trying to stay afloat in the middle of the Covid pandemic. Harry lost her waitress job when all the restaurants closed down, but luckily she was able to get a house cleaning job working for a reclusive film director named Javier Castillo, making just enough money to hang onto their small apartment. Mr. Castillo lives in a huge mansion called Bright Horses, and Harry goes three days a week to clean and dust Mr. Castillo’s hundreds of horror movie props. Although Harry is a huge horror movie buff herself, being around Castillo’s creepy masks and costumes is a little unsettling. Still, she’ll do anything to keep their apartment, which is close to Gabe’s school.

One day while’s she’s cleaning one of the upstairs rooms, Harry hears—or think she hears—a voice in the next room crying “Help me!” She brushes it off as her imagination, because Mr. Castillo lives alone, and he doesn’t seem like the type of person to keep someone locked up in a bedroom. But later when she’s dusting a costume from Mr. Castillo’s most famous movie, A Messenger From Hell, Harry swears she sees the eyes of the mask follow her. And was that the monster’s claws reaching for her neck? Harry’s not sure what happened, but she senses an otherworldly presence in the house that may be trying to tell her something. 

This was a mixed bag for me, mostly because I wanted the plot to focus more on the haunting at Bright Horses. Most of the story is told through Harry’s point of view, and Harry is the only one who seems to notice that things aren’t quite right in the house. She spends most of her working time cleaning right alongside Mr. Castillo, but he never seems to hear or see anything. I did like these moments, and the spookiness of the incidents was subtle enough to make you wonder whether Harry is actually experiencing them or not. Unfortunately, these scenes are interspersed with chapter after chapter of Harry’s struggles to survive during the pandemic: her apartment building is being sold and they have to move out; her part time job with Mr. Castillo barely pays enough for rent and food, and moving would mean taking Gabe away from his school, not to mention she certainly doesn’t have money to pay a moving company or even produce first and last month’s rent at a new place. It was all very depressing, and as I’m not a big fan of pandemic stories, I was a little disappointed that Henry spent so much time on this.

Later in the story, there’s quite a bit of page time spent on a subplot involving the paparazzi, after a terrible incident at Bright Horses puts Javier Castillo in the spotlight. Harry is forced to dodge rude reporters and even alter her route home in order to keep them at bay, and I didn’t think it added much to the story.

What did work for me were Harry’s and Castillo’s flashback chapters, which added depth to both the story and the characters. Harry grew up with strict, religious parents who wouldn’t let her do anything. When she discovers a love of horror movies at a young age, Harry begins to sneak around and tries to hide her obsession from her parents, but eventually they find her hidden Fangoria magazines and Stephen King books, forcing Harry to run away from home before she can graduate from high school. Harry spends many years homeless, gets pregnant by accident, and finally pulls herself out of her misery in order to support her baby. But it’s a tough road and it’s still tough for her many years later. We also get to see Castillo’s rise to fame, from the first Godzilla movie he saw as a young boy that made him want to make his own movies, to the recent scandal involving his son Michael and his wife Lena. I almost liked these glimpses into the past more than the action taking place in the present.

To be honest, not a lot happens until the last chapter, when everything happens all at once. This is what I was waiting for, when Henry finally reveals what’s behind the voices Harry hears and the spooky costume. I can’t say I was that surprised, as I sort of figured out what was going on early in the story, but I did love the final reveal, I just wanted more suspense and build up to it.

This wasn’t my favorite Christina Henry book, but I’m still glad I read it. 

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

The House That Horror Built by Christina Henry offers a captivating exploration of the monsters we admire and the monsters we invent. This intriguing novel left me pondering the true nature of their favorite horror creators and the secrets they may be hiding.

A quick, easy read with an underlying, unsettling tension woven throughout. I love when a setting becomes as much a character as the people living in it, and this story succeeded in bringing that to life.

I love Christina Henry - this was a lighter horror novel and a little slower paced but still grabbed my attention! Full review coming shortly after blog tour!

Title: The House that Horror Built by Christina Henry
Publication Date- 05/14/24
Publisher- Berkley Publishing
Overall Rating- 5 out of 5 stars

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. My goal for this review is to help you understand what to expect and why I enjoyed it. This is the story of a single mom who is cleaning the home of a reclusive director. That’s a short sentence isn’t it? However this story is more of a family story than anything else. It’s the story of Harry Adams, a single mom trying to make ends meet while she raises her teenage son Gabe. It goes back and forth in time from the past to the present but the majority of the story takes place in the present. Harry is cleaning the home of Javier, a horror film director whose wife and child went missing years ago. Since then, he’s been in new reporting and has become somewhat notorious. As time goes on Harry starts to notice strange things happening with all of Javier's movie props.

This is not an extremely thrilling story, it’s more of a literary horror. I think if you go in thinking you will be on the edge of your seat, you will be disappointed. I really enjoy slower moving books, especially when I find them relatable to my own life and a lot of this was. Harry and Gabe remind me a lot of my Mom and I’s relationship. One of the fundamental things that shaped me as a human was being raised by a single Mom. When that’s done well in a book, I’m likely to love it.

This is eerie and spooky at times. The writing was entertaining, I never felt bored or like the story was becoming dull. I can see why some others may feel that way but I think because of the personal connection of the family elements and my newfound love of horror, I just all around really enjoyed this and I hope you will give it a try.

The premise of this book was phenomenal! Loved the idea of a single mom working for a horror director and she loves horror herself. The story had me on the edge of my seat and it was uniquely written. Go in with an open mind and have fun with it. I wish there was a little bit more to it but overall it was a solid story.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to review!

Harry is a single mother, struggling to pay her bills while trying not to ruin her son’s(Gabe) life with all of her worries. She finally has a good job, cleaning for Javier Castillo, a famous movie maker. Circumstances have made him almost a recluse, and his house is full of props from all of his successful horror movies. When he takes an interest in Gabe, Harry just might have gotten a bit lucky. That is until the house seems to be possessed or is Harry just losing her grip on reality. Besides numerous things that go bump in the night, what actually happened to Javier’s wife and son? I started to have an inkling about what might be going on, but to be perfectly honest, I just wasn’t sure. A book that made me think either the house was haunted or the people inside. Not to tread into spoiler territory, but this was another case of my shaking my head at the things people will do.

This one was fun and kept me biting my nails until the very end.

I am so thankful to Berkley Pub, Christina Henry, Netgalley, and PRHaudio for the #free audiobook and digital access to this haunted flick before it hits shelves on May 14, 2024.

Harry has loved horror movies and lore for her entire life, and after being ostracized by her family for her obsessions, she's cast to the streets, pining after cheap rent and a good job to care for her son. After accepting a house cleaning role for esteemed horror movie director Javier Castillo's foreboding Chicago mansion (Bright Horses), she's thrust back into her childhood dream come true. Foreboding is an understatement for Bright Horses, as this home quite literally has ghosts haunting its very presence.

Deadset on remaining professional and keeping her job, Harry turns a blind eye to the moving props and distant cries for help. Not long before her son also takes a liking to the home, and they are invited over for regular dinners at the Castillo household, which forms a friendship that eventually becomes a caretakership. Mr. Castillo has a dark past, and so does nearly every resident of this gothic mansion. Secrets can't stay hidden forever, and the truth of it all will shock you to your core.

Harry works cleaning the mansion of reclusive horror film director, Javier Castillo, moving through the house and cleaning his collection of horror movie memorabilia with very little personal connection to her boss. She figures he wants his privacy, given that he recently relocated to Chicago after his wife and son disappeared, and keeps her distance. But when Javier finds out that she has a son of a similar age to his missing son, he becomes more and more interested in Gabe, blurring the boundaries between employer and employee. And Harry starts to see and hear odd things in the house, which escalate as Javier and Gabe grow closer.

Henry does a good job developing Harry's character and point of view, providing solid foundations for her beliefs and behaviors through backstory and characterization. The other characters are less well developed, though that makes some sense given that the story is almost entirely told through Harry's experiences and thoughts. Unfortunately, the pacing and balance is uneven and the atmosphere not developed enough for me to have felt Harry's unease and fear. Though weird things start happening fairly early in the novel, there is too much downtime between those events and too much "normal life" intervening to build tension well. The story kept me reading, but I wanted more action and more tension than it ended up giving and the big action and reveal happens so late in the novel that it feels like a let down. Good potential but disappointing for me.

Thank you to Berkeley and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The House That Horror Built early in exchange for a review.

A single mother working in the house of her favorite reclusive horror director discovers dark secrets that might answer the suspicious murder accusations that have haunted the director years ago... but it might cost her. Harry Adams adores horror movies and it's no coincidence she ends up with a job cleaning the house for her favorite movie director Javier Castillo. Javier is famous because of the suspicious death of his son... who was also accused of murdering a girl. As Harry works in the house strange sounds and things begin to happen, she begins hearing a voice calling for help... but she knows Javier lives alone so who could it be or what? The longer she stays in the house the more she begins to question what happened to Javier's family. Told from present (Harrys pov) and past (Javier's pov), the story unravels the mystery of what is happening in the house. It was kind of like modern day Jane Eyre but there is no romance at all. It was an easy read but it felt a bit slow at certain points and there really was no horror or kind of fear, it definitely felt like a thriller mystery.... but slow. It's okay and I think it would make a good read for people who want a house mystery and not any horror.

*Thanks Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group | Berkley for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*