A few years ago, I read one book by Sarah Gailey and then made it my mission to read every one of their books I could get my hands on. I think Sarah Pinsker might be the next author I do that with...

I really liked Haunt Sweet Home. I agree with some of the reviews that wouldn't put it necessarily in the horror genre, but I also think it's a nice development of what horror could be for those folks who don't love gore or murder. This is a nice little ghost story, featuring ghosts real and pretend, personal and professional. Mara is a character haunted by so much, especially her own choices and her role in her family.

I wanted so much more of this story and these characters! It wraps up nicely, but I wanted to hear the rest of it. Who was in the library??? Tell me more, Sarah Pinsker!

This book had such an intriguing concept, and I did like parts of Mara's artistic relationship with wood carving and her Oma's legacy. I wouldn't categorize this book as horror, more a weird fiction story, which is fine. It went into some unexpected places, but I think this felt like it would have been more successful as a longer short story than a novella. There were a lot of moments, especially in the beginning, where Mara's listlessness and lack of connection was reflected in the way the author wrote the book, as though she was bored with her own work.

I think I would read more of Pinsker's work because I love an author who isn't afraid to get weird, I just don't think this story was enough to sustain itself.

I've read a lot of Sarah Pinsker's fiction. This includes many short stories including "One Man's Treasure" from last year which was nominated for both the Hugo and Locus awards for best novelette. I also thoroughly enjoyed her two novels, A Song for a New Day and We Are Satellites. Naturally, when I learned that she was soon to publish a new novella, I went looking for it at NetGalley. Many thanks to them for the advance reader copy they provided me in exchange for this unbiased review.

Haunt Sweet Home is the story of a young woman named Mara trying to find her way in the world. Her many attempts to complete college keep flaming out, much to her family's disappointment. Her cousin is a very successful host of cable TV show that goes by the same name as the title of the book . It follows new home owners as they begin to renovate their homes and discover that they are haunted in some way. When this cousin offers Mara a job as a production assistant on the show she takes it not knowing how it will change her life.

This short book was a mixed bag for me. It is slow to start though entertaining throughout. The meat of the story doesn't get going until around the mid-point of the story. One result for me was simply wishing that there was more to the story. In some ways, it feels like it ends just as it is getting the most interesting. Also, the main twist in the story has been used many times and was quite easy for me to see coming. But that is redeemed after the reveal as the details are unique and what the entire story is built to explore. Ultimately, this book is about coming of age, growing up, and learning for yourself who you really are. These are some of my favorite books themes. I just wish this novella was as good for me as her novels.

My rating: 3.5/5

Haunt Sweet Home is a cute, quick little horror novella. Horror isn't even quite the right word to describe it - it's cozy horror at its very coziest. Think of your favorite squishy socks, a fuzzy blanket, a roaring fireplace and a cup of cocoa, while the most adorable haunting you've ever imagined is taking place around you...that type of cozy.

It's a brief interlude into finding your truest self after years of feeling like the outcast and the directionless black sheep of the family. This one could've gone in so many different directions, and while I for sure went in expecting some terror (expect absolutely zero of that), what I did find was a sweet tale of a girl learning to accept herself and grow and become exactly who she was meant to be, in a very unexpected way.

This is a feel good novella with a splash of ghostie goodness - if you're looking for something fast (I finished it within a day) that will warm the cockles of your heart right up, give Haunt Sweet Home a read! It's fun, fast paced and will definitely bring a smile to your face!

A truly interesting take on a haunting! I really enjoyed there book’s fast pace and a chance to look behind the scenes of a ghost reality tv show!

Haunt Sweet Home deftly encapsulates the emotions of a mid-twenty-something-year-old who has absolutely no idea who they are. They're watching the world around them and don't feel like they fit in....but then slowly, things change and they find themselves challenging and learning who they could be. This is a great read for anyone who loves the idea of trying to find your place in the world and establishing your own roots.
Beautifully intertwined with both fake haunting and real ones are creepy moments sprinkled here and there to build tension. The haunted renovation TV show was such a fun idea and it was cool to get a back-and-forth view as an insider and an onlooker!
The book makes for a quick, yet reflective, read that stays with you long after it is finished. You may find yourself going back and reading it once or twice more!

I picked this up because I was impressed and challenged by Pinsker's 'A Song for a New Day.' This was the second book I've read by her.
However, this one was less ... impressive. It was still good, but I found it to be more of a light read.

A slacker-type young woman, Mara, is given a job as a production assistant by a relative who produces a home-improvement reality TV show. The gimmick: all the houses turn out to be haunted. Mara soon learns that a good part of her job is to provide 'evidence' of the hauntings for the cameras. But soon enough (unsurprisingly) some of the spooky activity doesn't seem to be faked...

However, the main focus of the book is really Mara's self-discovery, introspection and growth as a person... (Which she really does need... the level of her ignorance as portrayed by the author sometimes feels more believable for a 16-year-old than a twenty-something)... but the spooky horror element really takes a backseat to those themes, which was a bit disappointing at times.

Haunt Sweet Home by Sarah Pinsker



Sarah Pinsker became one of my new favorite authors when I read her multiversal murder mystery And Then There Was N-1. It just blew me away. I loved her debut novel, A Song For A New Day, whose near future world of social distancing following a plague and terrorist attacks seemed far fetched when it first came out and now makes me afraid to reread it for how prescient it was. Her two short story collections entranced me - she is always a must buy author for me. I was overjoyed when I got an eARC of her new book, Haunt Sweet Home, from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so excellent! I couldn’t put it down! The protagonist is a young woman who has dropped out of multiple colleges and has been working crappy retail/service jobs for years when she gets an offer from her successful cousin to do grunt work on his reality show, which is half ghost hunting, half home makeover. The author captures the protagonist’s voice perfectly and seemingly effortlessly - within a few pages, you know her so well. This story surprised me several times - I thought I knew where it was going more than once and I was wrong each time, and happier for being so.

Are the ghosts on the show real or manufactured? I’m not going to spoil you, you’ll just have to read it yourself. Go out and get this book ASAP!

I read this one a couple weeks back - a super fun book to read at night in one sitting! If you love reality TV (or love to HATE reality TV,) you will really enjoy Haunt Sweet Home.

The writing was really good and the characters drew me in immediately. I will definitely be checking out more from this author, especially in this genre!

HSH is a mash-up of an HGTV show and Ghost Hunters. When Mara’s cousin lands her a job working on the set of the show - this is her opportunity to find out whether the scares are staged…. Or something more sinister.

At around 176 pages this was a super fun ghost story that I recommend for fans of horror, haunted houses, and reality TV!!

**Thank you to NetGalley and TorDotCom Pub for the eARC of this spooky title!**

Haunt Sweet Home is a fun, fast-paced Horror novella, perfect for a quick summer read. Mara’s cousin gets her a job on his popular fixer-upper home reality television show. The twist? The houses may be haunted! As someone who does not read a lot of horror, there were just enough scares and haunts and twists – with heart – in this story to enjoy it. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor for sending me this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good haunting story!

I am so thankful to Tordotcom, Netgalley, and Sarah Pinsker for granting me advanced digital access to this haunted house story before it hits shelves on September 3, 2024. Told through show scripting and our FMC Mara as she navigates through life as a Production Assistant on her cousin’s reality television show, Haunt Sweet Home, this one is one for the books, ghouls and ghosts included.

Mara is living the PA life, answering to “Hey You” and doing as she’s told no matter how ridiculous the request, even if that means mooing like a cow in the cornfield, or pretending to be an angry ghost and chucking library books at tenants.

After months on the job, she’s still not feeling the love from her nightshift team, that is until she meets a peculiar day-shift worker, Jo, who helps her with her extravagant tasks, but there’s something off about Jo and Mara can’t seem to place why. Stick around to learn more about the haunted locations that this crew settles into, and it’s just as likely that they’ll find a real ghost and not one that was orchestrated by the crew members.

Short and sweet and still just as scary, Sarah Pinsker nails the novella game right on the head.

I’m not quite sure what I expected coming into this book, and yet it still wasn’t really what I was expecting. I’m a sucker for media based around made-up reality tv shows and I love a good novella, so I thought I’d give this a shot. While distinctly paranormal in a slightly eerie but not-very-scary way, HAUNT SWEET HOME speaks more to figuring yourself out and the ghost of the self (although y'know, there are still actual ghosts). Basically, we have a main character without a real direction in life who takes a night PA job on the set of a ghost haunting houses reality TV show hosted by her more successful cousin. The hauntings are staged until…they aren’t exactly, but it really reads as a metaphor for the self and figuring out being an adult, carving your place out in the world. It was a pretty easy and quick read even if I didn’t always love it, and I think that if you want a metaphorical ghost story and exploration of identity and adulthood then this is a great book to pick up, but it’s not quite the horrifying, haunting ghost story that I think I convinced myself it might be. But I enjoyed the character arc and the utter lack of romance, plus the house descriptions were honestly fun!

I love Sarah Pinkser so, so, much and couldn't wait to read this take on reality tv.

Pinkser plots a thrilling story of a girl who is trying to find her way while working jobs that require very little effort. When Mara's cousin get hers a job on. his fairly popular reality show, she is ecstatic. She finds out at the onset that she works the worst shifts and is called on frequently to create the haunted situations that have made the Haunt Sweet Home show infamous.

Without giving anything away - let's say that Mara gets much more than what she bargained for and this is a unique take on the coming of age story. Join Mara as she learns the hard way how reality shows are filmed !
#tor #sarapinkser
#hauntsweethome

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Haunt Sweet Home was a really fun read. It was a short and quick read that was just scary enough. I really enjoyed this story and I would definitely recommend it to horror fans.

I adored this weird, tonally unexpected 'horror' novella. It's definitely in the cozy horror sub-genre, and it's more about familial expectations, being a fuckup generally, and finding confidence. I can't wait to buy a hard copy once it's released!

The premise of this short book is so much fun, a fast-paced read that is sure to entertain readers. The story is a bit predictable, but the fun characters and original idea make it worth reading.

For a short novel, there's too much treading water in it's text to really pack he biggest punch.

I can really relate to the feeling of being an integrated outsider. The awkward assimilation that most people go through whether it be in work or other group related activities. It reminded me a lot of my experiences with community theatre-
but I don't think Haunt Sweet Home truly lives up to that premise even if the quality improves in the last quarter of the book.

Even though Mara is a very well realized character that I related to and enjoyed, I think the initial half of the book takes too long devoting time to the titular show.

I almost wish that the fictional show Haunt Sweet Home wasn't central to the narrative at all. Mara's struggles with family could have been more centerstage instead of devoting chunks of text to the behind the scenes work on the show.

It just seems like the thematic and mundane issues of the protagonist are not as intrinsically linked to the paranormal aspects of the novel. There is some major disjointed gaps in the point of it all.

There's great ideas to play around with in Haunt Sweet Home but I don't think it's length serves it well. I did appreciate in the novel's acknowledgements a reference to a piece of art I've actually seen IRL! I've always enjoyed when author's share physical art pieces that inspired their work so that definitely helped me enjoy the climax of the novel and beyond.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for allowing me to receive an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I really
enjoyed this short story about a girl just trying to figure it out, however the last few pages lost me. Maybe it’s because it was so short but I just didn’t feel connected to the characters. Why was Mara such an outcast? Who the heck is Jo? She appeared and disappeared so fast. As soon as we were introduced to them…the story was over. I feel like it could have been better with a few extra pages or some more explanation as to how we got here with certain characters. It was an easy read. It was a fun idea. I just feel like it was missing that special something!

I feel like this one dropped so much info in it's short amount of pages, it would have worked better as a longer novel. It was an interesting concept for sure.

Thank you so much for the ARC! I love me a good haunted house story and I felt like this would be right up my alley. I loved the concept of a reality show spooky HGTV vibes but it feel superr flat for me. I actually would have just enjoyed it being told as like a transcript rather than a narrative. If that makes any sense. I also wanted way more spook. It didn’t match up to that.