Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker has a unique and compelling premise, but ultimately, it didn’t quite live up to its potential. The story centers around Mara, a disillusioned twenty-something working on a ghost-hunting reality TV show, where staged scares begin to blur into something much more sinister. There’s a lot to love in the concept, but the execution left me feeling conflicted.

First, let’s talk about the positives. The twist in the plot is intriguing and definitely caught me off guard. As the eerie events unfold on set, it becomes clear that something darker is happening, and the mystery surrounding the blurred lines between reality and performance kept me engaged. I also appreciated the script-like portions of the story. These sections, with their behind-the-scenes look at the TV show, added a fun and dynamic layer to the narrative, and they were a clever way to build tension while also providing a bit of comic relief.

However, Haunt Sweet Home is far from perfect. The tone felt inconsistent at times, and I struggled to stay fully immersed in the story. The mix of eerie supernatural elements with the more mundane, everyday struggles of Mara's life felt disjointed, which made the pacing uneven. Some parts of the book were engaging, while others lagged, and I found myself losing interest during the slower sections. Additionally, while the story touches on interesting themes of self-deception and personal growth, these ideas weren’t as fully developed as I would have liked.

Despite its flaws, the book is a quick read, and the creepy atmosphere surrounding the reality TV set did keep me turning pages. But overall, Haunt Sweet Home didn’t completely capture my attention or deliver the emotional impact I was hoping for. It’s an interesting take on the haunted house genre, but it ultimately fell short in execution.

I’m giving it 2 stars—there’s promise here, but the tonal inconsistencies and lack of deeper character development held it back for me.

3.75 stars

PropertyBros meets GhostBros in this cozy, supernatural novella from Sarah Pinsker.

Mara doesn't have a lot going on when her cousin Jeremy, the host of a ghost hunting home renovation tv show, gets her a job as night PA on set. It blows, but staging fake haunts for views isn't all that terrible. Mara realizes she's kinda good at it (and for someone who feels as if she's failed at most things up until this point in her young life, it feels really satisfying). But things start getting weird when the haunts aren't so scripted.

I liked this. It's definitely a cozy "horror", and I dug it for the vibe it brought. It's pretty wholesome and heartwarming, and I would recommend it for any of you who are having an actual fall season right now and not dying of 94 degree weather in November.

Mara, a twenty-something who has spent years trying to find her footing herself in life. She finally gets her chance at another fresh start when her cousin Jeremy offers her a job as a night-time production assistant on his ghost-hunting/house makeover mashup reality program. At first, she has no idea what to expect. Mara shows up at her first shift on set and is met by the others on the night crew, who give her the rundown of their responsibilities. Jo, a fellow production assistant whom she befriends, reveals that most of the show is about manufactured scares. The night folks help stage exaggerate and straight-up phony ghostly encounters to make the show more interesting. What does Mara think?

The author writes a fun premise featuring a crew of a haunted house reality TV show mixed up in some family drama.but truth be told, iThe story provided some intrigue and suspense which I enjoyed. It is eerie. “Haunt Sweet Home” is a multifaceted, supernatural investigation.

I really enjoyed this short novella. It was not what I expected and the cover is also amazing. I really liked the reality tv aspect as well.

This was a short novel that uses horror as a mechanism for coming of age/coming into yourself. I personally did not enjoy it and felt like the tone was all over the place. I could see the twist happening from the moment it began and felt like the ending epitomized the lack of cohesion illustrating the story's intent!

HAUNT SWEET HOME by @sarahpinsker is a cheeky little spook of a book that is more commentary on the reality tv industry as the book is about an HGTV type documentary crew that renovates supposed haunted houses. Mara is in need of a job so her cousin Jeremy invites her to become a night shift production assistant on his documentary renovation crew, Haunt Sweet Home.

Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publishers @torbooks and @macmillan.audio for the e-ARC and audio-ARC.

💀💀💀

This was a quick, easy read and I think I finished it in just a day. It is funny and just slightly spooky. I loved the concept and even though I certainly found the twist easy to predict, I still enjoyed the ride. I also absolutely LOVE this cover!

I have previously loved a novel by this author so I was hopeful this one would be another favourite. Haunted house stories are not my personal favourite subgenre but I was hopeful in the hands of this author. Ultimately I found this one fine but not overly special.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.

A cheesy reality home renovation tv show featuring “haunted” houses, staged hauntings of course, turns a bit on the spookier side when things start happening that our professional haunted didn’t do. I don’t think I ever would have thought I’d call a haunting heartwarming, but that is absolutely how Haunt Sweet Home left me feeling.

This is more than just a kitschy faux haunted home Reno story. It’s about accepting yourself and your truth, and being proud of it. I fell in love with our MC and her struggles. Her family seems quirky and amazing!

If you’re a bit on the scaredy cat side of horror then I absolutely recommend this cozy horror book for you! I absolutely adore this story and can see myself reaching for it again the next time I want a comfort read.

2.5 overall!

I definitely had high hopes for this one and was sadly let down. I loved the idea of a fixer upper ghost hunting show and thought it was a unique idea and I just think it wasn’t fully developed. I wanted more of the tv show and instead the focus was mostly on the main character and her problems. The big twist was interesting, though it wasn’t my favorite. It was definitely a quick read being a novella and I did like the tv script of the show mixed in. Overall, I just wanted more from this book and it just didn’t work for me.

I liked the beginning of this story but the direction it went was disappointing/boring for my personal tastes. I wish it would've taken a creepier or even deeper/more thoughtful/metaphorical route but it didn't amount to much and was disappointing.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions remain my own.

Haunt Sweet Home is a fun, fast-paced read. From its first page, the reader is drawn into the world of the behind the scene elements for producing a reality tv show based on haunted houses. These elements come in to play during some of the scarier parts in really amusing ways. It isn’t overtly scary from the onset, but eerier elements are slowly introduced. This made for a fun afternoon.

"Cozy horror" is a popular term coined for horror novels that center around the everyday lives of women with some supernatural. The term is somewhat demeaning in it's idea that horror that centers women is more cute or cozy, but it is a growing subgenre that I tend to gravitate towards until it acquires a better-suited name.

"Haunt Sweet Home" blends reality home-maker shows with the supernatural. It is a show that I think would do really well on HGTV and that I'm slightly mad doesn't actually exist. Mara is unfocused and has yet to find her passion. Her brother is a successful television star and offers her a PA job on the show. She is on the night crew, which ends up filming weird happenings throughout the night that help build a story about the house for the daytime crew. Sometimes, there aren't a lot of ghosts to actually create a story, so they create a few of their own. The night crew is a bit more wily and they never interact with the day crew much. Mara is asked to create mischief at night and she meets another cast member that seems to be trying to steal her newfound success.

I really enjoyed this quick read. The size of it was just right and I felt like I got to know just enough of the characters. The story was relatable and the premise was so fun and clever that I wished there were more "episodes" or books following this same crew solving mysteries or other disturbances in other towns. Overall, it was a perfect book for the fall season and would be really successful as a series.

Kind of adrift in life, Mara hopes a new job at her cousin’s popular ghost hunting TV show can inspire her. Placed on the night team she finds herself pulling magic tricks and trying to conjure up scares, but after meeting a new friend on set she realizes she may have to confront the scariest thing of all- reckoning with her own life. This is a really quick read, but I won’t lie for the short page count, I found a lot of it really repetitive. I really like coming of age stories that happen later in life, like a twenty-something trying to figure out what she really wants to do with her life (relatable). I think this is a solid three star read. It has good atmosphere, it has a relatable main character, and the writing itself is totally fine. But the “twist” if you can call it that is super obvious, the pacing gets a little sloggy, and the format of going back and forth between the show transcript and the actual story really breaks tension. Not great, not bad, just okay in my opinion.

This was a quick horror novella that I was able to sit down and read in one sitting. I was expecting a bit more “scary HGTV” vibes than what this book was, but still enjoyed.

I’ve enjoyed this author's sci-fi works in the past, so I was excited to dive into this quick novella about the production of a haunted house reality show. The characterization of Mara, a relatable character trying to find her way in life, is well done—especially as she navigates a job on her cousin’s reality show while being mocked by her family. Mara’s interactions with Jo, another production assistant, add some tension, though the plot becomes repetitive in the last third, turning into a Groundhog Day-like loop that dulls the initial intrigue. While the premise was promising, the mystery twist was predictable, and the middle dragged without enough exciting developments. It’s a decent, quick read, but it didn’t fully deliver for me, earning a neutral three stars. I appreciate NetGalley and Tor Publishing Group for the opportunity to review this digital copy.

Haunt Sweet Home was both, with the added bonus of being voiced by wonderful narrators. This little tale stars your local existential drifter, the ever-relatable Mara, who we accompany as she orchestrates practical effects behind the scenes for her cousin’s reality horror show. But when you traffic in fear and deception, something is bound to give. Especially when the very thing you’re terrified of is your little old self. Pretty clever, tbh. I also really liked how Mara’s POV chapters were interspliced with transcripts of the actual fictional show.

This was a fun and quick read. I love watching ghost hunting shows and the premise of a show that investigates haunts while the house is getting remodeled sounds so entertaining.

Mara is such an interesting and relatable character. Her being the narrator gives the story a more somber tone as Mara doesn't have the best outlook on life or really anything. She's struggling to find her way in life and feels like she's being judged by her family - something many people in their 20's can relate to. When her cousin offers her a job on his very successful reality show Haunt Sweet Home she decides to take it as she isn't doing anything else. I loved the family dynamic of Mara's family and how it propels Mara into her decision to join the show. She falls into the job well and even gets a little bit of help. But as they move from location to location we start to question if there's a supernatural element surrounding Mara.

The writing made this such an easy read and it's pretty short so I flew through it. The haunts are a bit more lighthearted than scary in my opinion but there is a very creepy factor to the whole story. Both in regard to the show itself and the story as a whole.

Haunt Sweet Home is what happens when you cross a home remodeling show like Property Brothers and cross it with a paranormal show like Ghost Adventures. Except all of it, including the hauntings, are staged. Or are they?

Mara's cousin Jeremy is the host of such a show; Haunt Sweet Home. At a family get together he offers her a job as a production assistant and she reluctantly takes the position. Little does she know, she may get more than she bargained for.

This short novella started off giving me Episode Thirteen (Craig DiLouie) vibes, but it didn't last long. That novel had some genuinely scary moments, whereas the haunt here is less intense. And, as often happens with me a short stories and novellas, I was left wishing there was more story! It was a fun, cozy, character-driven little story about the lethargy of that quarter-life crisis and what it takes to this particular existential drifter to find her way through life. ⭐⭐⭐ 💫

Many many thanks to @tordotcompub and @netgalley for the digital ARC. All opinions are my own.

Mara Billings is at a crossroads—try community college again (fourth time’s a charm) or accept a PA job on her cousin Jeremy’s successful ghost hunting reality show?

Determined to find a focus in her life, she accepts the job and joins the production team on Haunt Sweet Home.

***

I didn’t finish this book. I got halfway through and realized I had no idea where it was going. Mara was working on the show and whittling in her spare time, but there was no conflict. I had no reason to keep reading.

I found the characters to be one-dimensional and I realized that I didn’t care what happened to them.

This book has an interesting premise but disappointing execution. It just wasn’t for me.

Do you want HGTV? Would you watch HGTV if it had a show about renovating haunted houses?
Haunt Sweet Home follows Mara as she works on a HGTV-like show where house owners are renovating their haunted houses.
This was a quick and fun novella that I really enjoyed the concept of as someone who loves to watch HGTV. This is a show that I wish was real. My biggest complaint is that I wish there was more focus on the houses that are being featured on this show. Instead the plot is more centered around Mara. But overall, I did enjoy this story line and think it’s going to make a great addition to anyone’s spooky reading list this year.
Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review