A southern gothic novel blended with historical fiction that is chilling and haunting.
This story grabbed me from the beginning and didn’t loosen its hold until the very end. There are heavy topics, curses, ghosts, ancestral secrets and many unlikeable characters in the Duchon Family.
A perfect book for spooky season.

I like a southern gothic read. This was a slow burn but I enjoyed the story development and the action of the main character was very believable. It was a good book to start off spooky season.

A Southern Gothic historical horror. Need I say more? It gave me all the Mexican Gothic Vibes in fact it starts very similarly. It takes place in the 1960’s and a young black woman from Chicago receives a mysterious letter that she is wanted down south where a family resides in this big mansion and they need help and they think she can fix a problem there having. Spooky ghosts galore, a curse that needs breaking, it was really fun!

2.5 stars. I love a good Gothic horror. This wasn't heavy on the horror but the gothic elements were enjoyable. Jemma's motivation was difficult to understand an follow for wanting to be with this family. Too much repetition and too much racial content--very alienating. Still, a good book for the spooky season. Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC

Huge thank you @prhaudio @berkleypub and @netgalley for an advanced audiobook copy in exchange for an honest review.

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This one definitely put me in the spooky mood! Jemma is desperate to leave Chicago and finds her an escape when she is offered a job in New Orleans but nothing is as it seems! What a great gothic drama especially as October is here!
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In This Cursed House, Del Sandeen creates a claustrophobic gothic family tale. Jemma is called from Chicago to Metairie, LA, to work for a family; she later learns the true reason for her employment. There are a lot of characters and plot points to keep organized, and at times the story is a bit frustrating. However, the themes (forgiveness, reckoning with our ancestors' decisions, colorism) are clear and Jemma is a great lead character. 3.5 stars rounded up.

This book is absolutely fantastic. The characters are great, the setting is excellent, and the story doesn't let up from start to finish. A wonderful addition to the horror genre, this book deserves to be read and enjoyed. Come for the ghost story, stay for the lessons in family and forgiveness. I absolutely loved this book.

4.25 stars rounded down.

Incredibly tense, atmospheric and sad all at the same time!

Jemma leaves Chicago to escape, yet runs to something so much worse. However, after uncovering the layers of the Duchon past, she begins to grow stronger and more capable.

The literal ghosts in the Duchon’s past propel Jemma and her story forward, while forcing her to grow and forgive. The story is eerie and haunting, but Jemma’s character is inspiring!

Advance reader copy provided by Berkeley and NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

I received a gifted galley of THIS CURSED HOUSE by Del Sandeen for an honest review. Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group, PRH Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review!

THIS CURSED HOUSE follows Jemma, a young Black woman in 1962. After a big shake up in her life, Jemma leaves her life in Chicago to take a new job in New Orleans. When she arrives, the locals act very strange about the family she’s going to work for, and it turns out both the family and the job aren’t exactly what she expected. The house is cursed and the family is counting on her to find a way to release them from its boundaries. There are a lot of heavy topics in this novel including racism and colorism. The family Jemma is with prides themselves on their light complexion and look down on her for her dark skin.

It took me a bit to get sucked into this story and I think that is because it starts off very much feeling like a historical fiction novel. Once we start getting into more of the horror elements with the curse and the spirits that Jemma can see, I was much more invested.

I liked Jemma as our main character and the way she tried to make the best of a tough situation. She’s quickly picking up on some very odd things about the people she is working for and I appreciated being able to read through her POV. I also really enjoyed the gothic atmosphere that the author delivered!

This was a great debut and I will look forward to finding out what this author brings us next!

This Cursed House
by Del Sandeen

Thank you so much partner @berkleypub for the gifted eARC.

Blurb👇🏽

In this Southern gothic horror debut, a young Black woman abandons her life in 1960s Chicago for a position with a mysterious family in New Orleans, only to discover the dark truth: They’re under a curse, and they think she can break it.


🍂🐊My thoughts:

Completely atmospheric, this book is a whole mood!! It’s dark, haunting, and the people are horrifyingly wicked. With so many secrets, you’ll be engaged with this one and will need to know what the heck is happening… because I sure did! But what really got me was that Sandeen delivers this sinister and sense of foreboding in the writing that crept into my skin and sat with me until I finished. This was a different kind of atmospheric read in a way that’s hard to describe but my goodness was it good. There’s a lot to enjoy and unpack in what I’d say is a slow burn that is perfect for autumn and I will definitely be getting myself a finished copy to keep on my forever shelves. Here you’ll find a layered story full of mystery, secrets, and history. This Cursed House is out 10/9/24!

Happy reading 📖🍂🕯️🐊

Thank you #partner Berkley Pub for my #gifted copies of one of my most anticipated fall reads! It did not disappoint!

This Cursed House is a Southern gothic blend of historical fiction and supernatural horror set in New Orleans in the 1960s. It follows a twenty-seven-year-old Black women named Jemma Barker, who relocates from Chicago to New Orleans upon receiving a job offer from the mysterious Duchon family. But upon arriving, Jemma soon realizes there's something up with the Duchon family, and their secrets may hit closer to home than she can ever imagine.

The Vanishing Half meets The Haunting of Hill House in this spectacular debut novel from Del Sandeen! This Cursed House is a haunting, atmospheric, richly layered novel that blends the supernatural with themes of family, colorism, and long-held secrets. It's beautifully paced, so engaging, and the perfect read to get readers in the mood for the upcoming scary season (especially me, since I'm headed to New Orleans in October)! I can't say too much without giving everything away, but if you're reading this review wondering if you should give this one a shot: DO IT!!!

This Cursed House by Del Sandeen is a gripping horror tale that intertwines family secrets with supernatural elements. The narrative follows a woman who inherits a mysterious old house, only to discover that it harbors dark forces and unsettling truths about her lineage. Sandeen’s atmospheric writing and well-crafted suspense draw readers into a chilling world where the past refuses to stay buried. With its compelling characters and eerie plot twists, this novel is a haunting exploration of how history can shape our present.

Rating: 2.5

I was interested in the story, but hardly anything happened in this book. The main character could see ghosts, but I feel like that wasn't utilized enough. The writing was slow and boring.

THIS CURSED HOUSE had all the right pieces to put together a story that would captivate and emotionally wreck me. Unfortunately, the story’s execution and the writing style didn’t quite work for me. We have a perfect setup for immersive gothic horror, but we never quite got there.

The writing is lots of telling, not much showing. And the telling is repetitive. I wanted to feel the emotions and be immersed in the atmosphere, rather than simply being told about them.

I didn’t understand Gemma’s motivations for wanting any sort of relationship with this family. Yes, we were told a reason, over and over, but given the circumstances, it made no sense whatsoever.

Some heavy themes are explored throughout, which I thought were handled well.

This book opens with Jemma, a young down on her luck Black woman ignoring a ghostly figure in the corner of her eye while on a train from Chicago to New Orleans in 1962 to accept a job in a mysterious family’s house. These strangers and their home hold ancestral secrets and ghosts that will change Jemma’s life forever. This story is dark, creepy, disturbing, and unsettling. The only thing holding me back from giving this one a five star rating is that the beginning was a little slow paced. However, I wouldn’t say it was dragging because I was excited to get back to reading it every night. It just took a while to fully set the southern gothic mood as well as Jenna’s wavering feelings toward the family.

I really liked the bones of this story - the complex interweavings of colorism in the south and the relative privilege afforded to those who were white passing, the messy (and very Gothic) family dynamics, and each of the major twists were fantastic - but the pacing and the “telling”-heavy writing really hampered the overall delivery.

The first half of the book especially felt so long, and we were given the answer to the curse sooo early but not in a clever way; instead our MC deliberately ignores it and we circle around the same failed ideas several more times.

I found Jemma’s relationships with Laurence and Fosette to be confusing (another instance where the “telling”-heavy writing style works against us) because a switch is flipped and loyalties change and we don’t really get an explanation (at least not one that I was particularly satisfied with). I also wanted much more of the imagery/descriptions that are typical of Gothic-style books. We get the briefest introduction to what the Duchon house looks like when Jemma first arrives, but beyond that, nothing. And that’s my favorite part of the Gothic genre too…

Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley Pub for my e-ARC of This Cursed House!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔
👻 can see ghosts
👶🏼 were adopted as a baby
🌪️ love books with several twists
🎺 have ever been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

In the fall of 1962, twenty-seven-year-old Jemma Barker is desperate to escape her life in Chicago—and the spirits she has always been able to see. When she receives an unexpected job offer from the Duchon family in New Orleans, she accepts, thinking it is her chance to start over.

But Jemma discovers that the Duchon family isn’t what it seems. Light enough to pass as white, the Black family members look down on brown-skinned Jemma. Their tenuous hold on reality extends to all the members of their eccentric clan, from haughty grandmother Honorine to beautiful yet inscrutable cousin Fosette. And soon the shocking truth comes out: The Duchons are under a curse. And they think Jemma has the power to break it.

As Jemma wrestles with the gift she’s run from all her life, she unravels deeper and more disturbing secrets about the mysterious Duchons. Secrets that stretch back over a century. Secrets that bind her to their fate if she fails.

• 𝐌𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒

This was such an incredible book, and the fact that it was a debut made it all the better! It’s a bit on the longer side, but totally necessary to really delve into this story. It’s got history, backstory, and so many twists and turns you’ll never see coming! The MC was likable where her family was not. She acted in ways that I could never to be honest. The ghosts and curses in the story felt realistic and the entire story just flowed well together. I was happy with the ending, and honestly, I think we could see more of her in future books! If that is what the author wants of course!

4.5 stars - This book was super creepy, and I loved all the historical details (it's set in the 60s but also has echoes of the pre-Civil War South). There were aspects of this book that felt a little predictable at first, but then several twists were included that I did not see coming. So many of the characters are just plain unlikable, so they make for the perfect villains. I especially loved the last third of the book that felt like a more thrilling ride than the beginning (although I get there needed to be some serious tension built before the payoff). I would definitely read other novels from Sandeen, especially if they're in the horror genre like this.

Three hundred dollars a week is a lot of money in 1962. So much so, in fact, that it tempts Jemma Barker from the relative safety of Chicago to New Orleans, where Jim Crow is violently enforced. She should have known that the money was too good to be true. In Del Sandeen’s original and chilling novel, This Cursed House, Jemma quickly learns that three hundred dollars a week is far too little to compensate her for dealing with the Duchon family.

Traveling south from Illinois to Louisiana in 1962 is like traveling to another country, another time. First, there’s the transfer to the segregated “colored” car. Then, there’s having to step out of the way of white pedestrians. There are cafes that won’t serve Jemma and buses that won’t take her where she wants to go. When Jemma reaches the Duchon house, in the countryside near New Orleans, she discovers that this place is no respite from segregation. Something much stranger—and much more dangerous—is haunting this house. Jemma is greeted by the matriarch, Honorine Duchon, a light-skinned woman of African descent who rules her family with a fierce, menacing will. The Duchons are a strange group. They never leave their house and grounds. They dress in old-fashioned clothes. Their maid does not speak, no matter how the family abuses her. And there does not appear to be a job. Jemma is being paid $300 a week to do little more than entertain Honorine’s granddaughter. The Duchons, frankly, made my skin crawl.

Jemma is not the kind of woman to be bossed around by anyone, no matter how much she’s being paid. She keeps her temper until a venomous comment from Honorine or an act of abuse towards the maid, Agnes, provokes Jemma into speaking her mind. In fits and starts, Jemma’s anger at the family and their strange ways makes the plot begin to move. Her anger prompts Honorine and her family to give up their secrets. And then, if you can believe it, things get even weirder.

This Cursed House is an incredible blend of Gothic ghost story, racism, and a vicious family so concerned with their image that they commit all kinds of crimes against their own relations that it takes the breath away. I loved how the plot would twist and turn, never going in the direction expected but always adding new layers to the story. There are some moments towards the end that get a bit mawkish (I skimmed these), but I’m willing to forgive these because the rest of the book is so original and so atmospheric. Readers who are looking for stories that blend family and American history will find a lot to enjoy here.

I have said it before and I will say it again-this is the year of the debut! I tell ya! Im so shocked that this is Sandeen’s first novel. Thank you @berkleypub @netgalley for my advanced copy!

This is very much a southern gothic novel. The time period, the setting of New Orleans and the overall vibes really set the mood. You can literally smell the coffee and beignets.

Right off the bat you feel the unease. The horrors in this novel aren’t your typically spooky ghosts, no the horrors here are the real living people. All of the Duchon family are atrocious. At times, I gasped at the horror they inflicted. There is so much here to unpack and the heart heavy topics really affected me. Jemma was so resilient and went through so much. Throughout the entire novel she continued to push through. Sandeen is definitely an author to watch!