This was a gripping read. The tenderness mixed with unease and even terror is wonderful. Will definitely be reading this authors other books.

✨Thank you to Netgalley and Poisoned Pen Press for the gifted digital copy of this book!✨

2.5⭐️ rounded up.

When the description of this book said “for fans of The Haunting of Hill House and The Babadook”, I didn’t think it was meant so literally.

First chapter in, I knew this book was an almost direct ripoff of The Haunting of Hill House(the television show, not the book). I’ve watched the show multiple times, and I just finished watching it again a couple of weeks ago. Everything from the very first death, to the name of the street “the house” was on(Hill St), to their last names(show: Crain, book: Finch…both birds) was ripped off from the show. Plain and simple. But I just held my breath, and jumped in.

Every character in this book is some combination of the characters from Hill House. Claire is a combination of Nell and Theo, Esther is a combination of Theo, Shirley and Luke, and Meg is a combination of Steve and Luke. It’s just so blatantly derivative that it’s almost offensive.

The story itself was okay, there were some original elements, however the explanation of the allegory for guilt and grief should never have needed an explanation. This is where the ripoff of The Babadook comes in. An allegory is meant to be implied, as it was in The Babadook. That’s what makes that movie so clever and honestly so scary.

Objectively, this book was written decently well and had a pretty good plot. However, it just wasn’t original enough for me to enjoy it.

I really enjoyed this! It's well written and the writing style sucked me into the story. I would highly recommend this! Special Thank You to Katrina Monroe,Poisoned Pen Press and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was fantastic! I really enjoyed Katrina Monroe's previous work, and this one absolutely did not disappoint. Featuring three sisters with tumultuous relationships with each other as well as everyone else, a dual timeline, and strange, creepy entity dogging their footsteps, this was definitely a phenomenal gothic, harrowing read, perfect for October! It feels very insular in terms of how the characters deal with their own issues around grief and trauma and mental health, which in itself feels very horrifying, before you see the external horror that seems to pin them in. I really like the blend that provided, how the external made them reflect upon the internal and vice versa, and I think Monroe has a particular skill for that, given what I've read before. I can't wait to see what comes from them next!

Through the Midnight Door is a little psychological and a little bit horror. Three sisters wind up in a haunted house that haunts them for the rest of their lives. When something happens to one of them, the other two are on a missing to figure it out… but just know this house holds all their answers.

If I’m being honest, i didn’t love this book. This book was slow, and honestly, I wasn’t excited to reach for it. The sisterly relationship did provide complexity that may be relatable for some. I felt the ending was predicable and wrapped up in a little bow very quickly.

There is a TW for mental illness, suicide, child loss.

I gave 3 stars overall. Thank you NetGalley and Poisoned Pen for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I so wanted to love this book but it just didn't fit with me. I love a creepy, scary thriller but I could never relate or empathize with any of the characters and I did not finish. I may try again at a later date to read but for now it just wasn't for me.

Thank you netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read and review this book.

A spooky house visited with a door for each of the Finch sisters holding secrets that color the rest of their lives leaving Meg unable to be reliable, Esther paranoid to the point of actually almost shooting her son, and Claire, driven to the edge and ending in suicide in that mysterious house. And there is the mysterious boy, Donny who showed them the house. With that kind of start, this book was full of slow creep with flashbacks to what happened when the girls were young and the present where Meg and Esther are trying to find out why Claire took her life and figure out all the truth before they end up dead themselves.

However, while I enjoyed the hauntings of Claire (or something that looks like her) with Meg and the unraveling of Esther, I did not much like some of the flashbacks. This family was broken before even their first visit to the house with lies and secrets and a buried tragedy. Claire's story was so tragic because she did not know at first what had happened when she was little and then she piles on the burden, thinking it is her fault for letting the darkness into her family. So much could have been avoided if only her sisters had really talked with her. And I hated what their mother did. It was inexcusable and so very wrong and everyone just lets it slide because their mother was grieving and had dark spells?! That kind of behavior made it harder to read this book as I went on. But I did finish even though I guessed who and why. I do feel the house was well done with creepiness and the shadow plus what it gave in return for the bits it took.

So, this had good points for a creepy horror but also stupid bits like age inconsistencies for certain actions that were not believable. It could have been great but only reached pretty good.

Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about this book it was kind of hard to read because it just felt like it didn't flow that well to me and the writing was un polished. But the story idea was fresh and interesting. The blend between supernatural and realistic was interesting but I'm not sure I liked it. The fact that it was Donny was a little too predictable to the point that I thought maybe it wasn't don't because it was too obvious or that the author thought the readers were dumb. But all that being said my main disappointment is that the house and the despair creature weren't main characters, that we don't know why that curse lingered there I think that was a big missed opportunity. Overall I have to give the book credit for being an original idea and fairly dark and twisted.

This is the third book I’ve read by this author who keeps getting better and better with each read. This one would be a great Halloween read and is full of chills and mystery. I love the authors style which I can only describe as horror wrapped in family drama and full of twists and turns. The story and setting is so atmospheric and the mystery will keep you hooked and wanting to read more. I look forward to seeing what else this author comes up with.

An excellent read for Fall, this has a heavy focus on sisterhood, family, trauma, mental health, and overcoming your own past. There were some seriously creepy, eerie moments in this that had me flipping the pages almost quicker than I could read so that I could know what was going to happen next. My only negative was that sometimes the characters were a little hard to distinguish from one another - they're sisters, so it makes sense that they would share some similarities, but there were bits of thought or dialogue from one sister that could've been interchangeably applied to another without any loss of understanding or plot holes.

A good book for the start of fall. A cross between horror, sisterhood and psychological suspense.

One sister dead while the other two search for answers.

The eerie atmosphere almost acts like another character. Told from all three sister’s POVs in the past and the present, it weaves their current struggles with their past traumas.

It’s the perfect disturbing and dark book for fall spooky season. The sister’s experiences are a haunting look at depression and mental health.

While I enjoyed the beginning, and parts were creepy, I found it difficult to get through over multiple attempts. It may have been due to the sisters being difficult to distinguish. I think it would have helped me to have separate descriptions of each sisters personality, background, likes/dislikes etc early on in the book. I found it difficult because everyone was thrown in together at the beginning. Nonetheless, it seemed like a decent plot. Thank you for this ARC., but unfortunately I had to DNF this one half way through.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. From the description I thought I would like this book. The first half was fine but the second half I just couldn’t get through it. I think it’s well written but just not for me.

CHARACTERS
These were the most frustrating characters I've read I just wanted to reach into the page and throttle them for some of the decisions they made and the thoughts they were having

I loved every single one of them

Apart from Donny. Scum.

PLOT
Oh my where do I start. Trigger Warning from the first page. The events that happened. The investigation into it.
BRANDON?! Poor kid.
I love the premise of a house being alive, the darkness creeping into people and influencing them. Amazing.
Only a star knocked off because I guessed the true intention of Donny quite early and I love my thrillers to take me by complete surprise. Still an amazing story though.

NARRRATIVE STYLE
Katrina Monroe is so skilful with their words. The way she described the sisters was so relatable, and how they interact as the book goes on was very realistic (in line with the context of the book obviously). I love the growing darkness evolving over the book, and Claire (my god ew) and her POV towards the later end of the books giving you the insight of how things went down.

All in all, bravo.

Ⓑⓞⓞⓚ Ⓡⓔⓥⓘⓔⓦ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

𝕋𝕙𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕄𝕚𝕕𝕟𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 𝔻𝕠𝕠𝕣
𝗞𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗮 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗿𝗼𝗲
Ghost Thriller
368 pages

Sʜᴏᴿᴛ Sʏɴᴏᴘsɪs
The three Finch sisters love exploring abandoned homes in their neighborhood. Then, they discover one with a strange row of doors. Each girl has a key to open a door specific to each of them. What happens from there follows them to their adult lives.

Mʸ Tᴴᴼᵁᴳᴴᵀs
Eerie and rather spellbinding, I couldn’t wait to find out what this haunted house was about. The story didn’t disappoint, giving me all the paranormal vibes while keeping me on the edge of my seat.

Along with the horror, there is a spotlight on the sisters’ relationship with each other. After the death of one of them, the other two struggle, not only with the death but with their strained relationship with each other.

Each sister shares their POV as we read about the present and flashback to the past to see where their problems began. Mental health, death, secrets, and the paranormal all play a part in the story.

The darkness in the house is a major part of this story, yet I am still unsure of what it is. Maybe that was the point; to leave it up to the reader’s imagination.

This book moved a bit slowly for me but was an excellent read all around. Even though this is a dark book, the relationships were realistic and the ending wrapped things up without solving everyone’s problems. It was well worth the read.

💕Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing this ebook for me to read and review.

One night clouded with darkness changed three sisters' lives forever. A decrepit home awaits them calling them home, to finish what they started years ago.
When Meg Finch receives a distraught call from her sister, Claire she knows she must stop her from returning to the house. But she is too late….
Reeling from the devastating death of Claire the remaining two sisters Meg and Esther can not shake the visions that follow them making the need to return to their childhood nightmare inevitable. Is the house alive? Who or what is responsible for Claire’s death and can they find out before they are next?
Overall rating 4/5
This book had many tropes that I love - a dilapidated house, things that go bump in the night, mysterious past and big reveal. I was hooked from the beginning and was hanging on the edge of my seat. I was however, a little let down by the twist at the ending, I was hoping that it would end with a spooky unhappy ending. But do appreciate the realistic outcome.

*Thank you to Katrina Monroe, Poisoned Pen Press and Netgalley for the ARC copy. I am freely leaving my honest review.

I loved Through The Midnight Door by @katrinamonroeauthor 🖤 The book explores how childhood trauma can affect relationships with your family and later in life. It is an emotional story that is full of grief and the horrors that can come along with dark emotions. I recommend adding this book to your spooky season list. It’s the perfect read for dreary, fall weather.

(This same review was shared on the Barnes & Noble website)

Atmospheric and creepy, it's well-written and immersive. I was engaged with the darker themes that the story explores. I loved the multiple timelines and POVs. The pacing is slow, but I found the suspense and tension kept my interest well enough. Overall a very enjoyable reading experience for me. Would definitely read from this author again in the future.

Thank you to Poisoned Pen Press, NetGalley, and Katrina Monroe for the opportunity to review this truly spooky book. The story is about the Finch sisters and their relationship especially how their relationship and lives changed over the years after they visited a mysterious house. This house was not only mysterious but had some rather unusual characteristics that managed to find the darkness within a person and feed off it. When the girls visited the house for the first time they each entered a room that was just for them and the house showed them something scary, scary enough that they never told their sisters about it. However, it began the slow process of destroying the relationship between them all. They don’t come back to the house until Claire commits suicide in the house or is it a murder?
The story is told from the point of view of each sister and back and forth in time. The author did this well and kept the story flowing in a smooth manner. This is an excellent story and I really enjoyed reading it.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC of this book. I was so intrigued by the description I had to read this book! The writing and characters were well done but I just couldn't get into it. I tried multiple times and ended up DNF.